More and more we are seeing trends to lessen our impact on the environment. As advertisers and designers we have a unique opportunity to impact the environment through what we are producing and how we are producing it. We can work to create advertising and branding materials that reduce our clients’ environmental impact through simple design changes.
Sylvain Boyer, creative director at Interbrand Paris, had the idea to redesign corporate logos to reduce the amount of ink used by “hollowing them out”. Reducing their ink use by turning solid fill shapes into outlined shapes, or shapes with white space added. Less ink not only cuts costs, but it makes the printing more environmentally friendly.
His idea of “Ecobranding” could reduce ink cost from 10-40% on commercially produced branded products like mass produced McDonald’s cups. “Ecobranding” includes reducing ink coverage on logos, using typefaces with less overall surface area, using “eco-colors” that use less ink to create, and using imagery with more whitespace and less ink coverage overall.
If the integrity of the branding remains in tact when the white space is added, then it is certainly a worthwhile cause. Brands could still be recognizable and impactful through the eco-friendly designs. It might not work in all cases, however, and some brands would have to look elsewhere for their eco-friendly additions.
Recycling continues to trend as a solution to our environmental impact. Recycling our one time use printed advertising into other things for example. Turning large one use banner ads into recycled bags or using recycled paper stocks for printing needs. Boyer’s “Ecobranding” also suggests decreasing the size of printed goods like business cards, to save on paper use.
In any case, being environmentally friendly is something to keep in mind when printing ads or designing logos. Creating with eco-impact in mind.
