Art and Design Commons^™

Sustainable Design: Can Eco-Friendly Be Beautiful?, Melanie T. Santiago

Honors Theses

Graphic design students and professionals experience an enormous amount of pressure in regards to their final printed pieces. In the effort to produce flawless work, they print several versions of a piece—often comparing dozens of copies for slight differences in ink variation, color saturation and paper quality. While this trial-and-error process undoubtedly accomplishes its intended effects, it also produces outrageous amounts of wasted paper, ink and cardboard among other products.

Graphic design has implemented computers to increase efficiency in the design process while ignoring the impact of obsolete hardware on the environment. In its perfectionism, it has sent countless pounds …