OTTAWA—According to designer David Berman, design matters like never before. His new book, Do Good Design, How Designers Can Change the World, addresses designers’ accountability for promoting conspicuous consumption and their responsibility to practice and endorse sustainable business practices. Designers shouldn’t just do good design, says Berman, they should do good.
 

“I am constantly seeing examples of ordinary people using design to do extraordinarily good things,” says Berman.

One example from the book is a campaign for the Salvation Army by Leo Burnett South Africa. Posters that encouraged people to “Support the homeless this winter” were actual blankets pasted to the wall that people could remove and use. 

Berman is currently building a Flickr-based resource on the book’s website where designers can share their public service advertising and design for social change stories. The book ships Dec. 18. Contact: www.peachpit.com; www.davidberman.com/dogood