"The Sustainable Studio" Helps Designers Create a Greener Workflow

San Francisco, CA—The Business of Design Online (BoDo, www.businessofdesignonline.com) has just launched “The Sustainable Studio,” an online column that explores the many environmental issues facing today’s graphic designers. As issues of sustainability work their way into the mainstream discourse, graphic designers find themselves lost in a labyrinth of uncomfortable implications, unanswered questions, and often misleading rhetoric. The new monthly column is written by designer Jessica Sand, a San Francisco-based graphic designer and author of the blog “Small Failures: Sustainability for the Rest of Us” (www.smallfailures.com), and provides design professionals, studio managers and anyone concerned about the issue of sustainability a way out of the maze by deconstructing common myths and providing practical advice.

Graphic designers play a vital role in print purchasing, the specifying of paper goods and other design practices that contribute to significant greenhouse gas emissions; the paper and pulp industry alone is the third largest industrial polluter in the U.S., according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development environmental report. As part of this purchasing cycle, graphic designers must ask themselves important questions that go beyond material use, waste and climate change.

“The Sustainable Studio” helps design professionals answer these questions, exploring both the underpinnings and the practicalities of sustainability as it pertains to their offices, their work, their clients and their communities. “As I began the process of getting my own writing and design studio certified as a Green Business, I discovered not only how little practical advice is out there for our profession, but also how much there is that we designers can actually do to affect change,” says the column’s author, Jessica Sand.

Sand is the founder of Roughstock Studios, an independent writing and graphic design studio. As author of “Small Failures,” she writes regularly on day-to-day sustainability and when she broached the subject with fellow designers, she quickly realized that she was not the only one for whom this was a concern. “We are the hubs that link industry, business and consumers,” says Eric Karjaluoto, Creative Director of design firm smashLAB and cofounder of Design Can Change, an online sustainability initiative aimed at designers, “It’s sure a good time to start educating ourselves and engaging in the discussion.”

In its first appearance, “The Sustainable Studio” invites graphic designers to join this discussion, offering an eloquent call to action. Future columns will tackle such topics as green design myths, print specifying, sustainable workflow practices, and even discussing green issues with clients. The column asks increasingly urgent questions of its readers in an industry known for its problem-solving skills and influence on popular culture, and explores the answers in an engaging, easy-to-implement manner. “The Sustainable Studio” can be found online at www.businessofdesignonline.com.

About Roughstock Studios
Roughstock Studios is a writing and graphic design studio that builds meaningful messages for a wide range of independent, nonprofit and corporate clients. Based in San Francisco, CA, Roughstock works to meet its clients’ needs while reducing the studio’s ecological footprint.

About Business of Design Online
BoDo is an online resource written by designers for designers. Offering practical business advice in a variety of subjects, BoDo has quickly become an invaluable resource for both veterans of the design profession and those new to the field.

Media Contact:
Jessica Sand, Roughstock Studios
(415) 515-9308
press@roughstockstudios.com
http://www.roughstockstudios.com

Relevant URLs:
Business of Design Online: http://www.businessofdesignonline.com

Small Failures: http://www.smallfailures.com

Roughstock Studios:
http://www.roughstockstudios.com

Design Can Change: http://www.designcanchange.com

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