DAVID JOHNSTON

DD

Our theme for today is ‘Designing the Future” – exploring behaviour change, system revamp, and tomorrow’s opportunities. Looking to the future, what excites you most about the opportunities for designers to create positive impacts on society?

DJ

You've tapped right into my passion point there, immediately out of the gate. I think it's a kind of necessary dissolving of the illusionary boundaries within the creative sector and actually the world at large, that's starting to be addressed through conversations like this and connection points like this. So I really appreciate the invitation and I'm looking forward to discussing these themes with you.

When I think of the opportunities for designers, it's huge, and I think the stakes could not be higher in this moment: we currently have a situation where the eight billion people alive on this planet are using 500 billion people's worth of hydrocarbon energy.

Many of us are still obsessed with the idea of abundance, but we live on a planet with finite resource so it's not hard to see the flaws in the way that we've been operating, and if I track back through my life, I have been through periods – as we all probably have, alive this far into the 21st century – when you sort of wake up some mornings and you think about the political systems, or the energy systems, or the relationships systems or the food systems, like, take your pick – and there's so many things that seem to be falling apart around us.

But I think simultaneously to that, what's actually happening is the planet is becoming more conscious. We're actually experiencing this sort of shift. So, we have this kind of paradox happening, where if you were to take all of the companies currently listed on the NASDAQ; if the environmental cost was accounted for like other forms of capital, 78% of those companies would be considered completely unviable. That means that 78% of everything around us has to change: everything from the microphone I'm speaking into, to the computers and devices that we're using to connect with each other – It has to change in the way that it's produced, operates, and is marketed to the world.

So I feel that the revolution of brand which is the area that we kind of focus in – but everything's an application of brand when you think of it these day – I think the revolution of brand and media and communication is absolutely necessary in terms of the evolution of consciousness, and people who create media and brands and communications have got a responsibility to really think about what they're actually creating. They've got to get out of the mindset of thinking that they're passively reflecting culture, because what you choose to create is very, very important in this moment. I think that comes with this responsibility as a designer to think about what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you're doing it with, what you're doing it for.

Because ultimately, we're existing in this moment where It's kind of happening in a backdrop of fear and insecurity and negativity: we're distracted, essentially, from what's coming down the track. The media is basically programming our collective consciousness to not be aware of what's happening and facing us and how we need to change. Therefore, the brand systems, the communication systems, the conversation systems, all need to have integrity – and they all need to be created in a way that will have a positive effect on the future.

When you think about a brand system or the design work that you actually create you're actually bringing into the world language and symbols which fundamentally change the way we behave in the world around us. That's a superpower – it's a dark art, and it comes with a responsibility. So I really think the opportunity and the responsibility around the way that we operate couldn't be bigger, and it comes at a very high potential cost if we don't start thinking about the cause and effects of our work in this moment.

Accept & Proceed: team and culture

Collectively redesigning and reimagining the world, Accept & Proceed’s work encompasses strategy, brand identity, experiences and content.

DD

Our theme for today is ‘Designing the Future” – exploring behaviour change, system revamp, and tomorrow’s opportunities. Looking to the future, what excites you most about the opportunities for designers to create positive impacts on society?

DJ

You've tapped right into my passion point there, immediately out of the gate. I think it's a kind of necessary dissolving of the illusionary boundaries within the creative sector and actually the world at large, that's starting to be addressed through conversations like this and connection points like this. So I really appreciate the invitation and I'm looking forward to discussing these themes with you.

When I think of the opportunities for designers, it's huge, and I think the stakes could not be higher in this moment: we currently have a situation where the eight billion people alive on this planet are using 500 billion people's worth of hydrocarbon energy.

Many of us are still obsessed with the idea of abundance, but we live on a planet with finite resource so it's not hard to see the flaws in the way that we've been operating, and if I track back through my life, I have been through periods – as we all probably have, alive this far into the 21st century – when you sort of wake up some mornings and you think about the political systems, or the energy systems, or the relationships systems or the food systems, like, take your pick – and there's so many things that seem to be falling apart around us.

But I think simultaneously to that, what's actually happening is the planet is becoming more conscious. We're actually experiencing this sort of shift. So, we have this kind of paradox happening, where if you were to take all of the companies currently listed on the NASDAQ; if the environmental cost was accounted for like other forms of capital, 78% of those companies would be considered completely unviable. That means that 78% of everything around us has to change: everything from the microphone I'm speaking into, to the computers and devices that we're using to connect with each other – It has to change in the way that it's produced, operates, and is marketed to the world.

So I feel that the revolution of brand which is the area that we kind of focus in – but everything's an application of brand when you think of it these day – I think the revolution of brand and media and communication is absolutely necessary in terms of the evolution of consciousness, and people who create media and brands and communications have got a responsibility to really think about what they're actually creating. They've got to get out of the mindset of thinking that they're passively reflecting culture, because what you choose to create is very, very important in this moment. I think that comes with this responsibility as a designer to think about what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you're doing it with, what you're doing it for.

Because ultimately, we're existing in this moment where It's kind of happening in a backdrop of fear and insecurity and negativity: we're distracted, essentially, from what's coming down the track. The media is basically programming our collective consciousness to not be aware of what's happening and facing us and how we need to change. Therefore, the brand systems, the communication systems, the conversation systems, all need to have integrity – and they all need to be created in a way that will have a positive effect on the future.

When you think about a brand system or the design work that you actually create you're actually bringing into the world language and symbols which fundamentally change the way we behave in the world around us. That's a superpower – it's a dark art, and it comes with a responsibility. So I really think the opportunity and the responsibility around the way that we operate couldn't be bigger, and it comes at a very high potential cost if we don't start thinking about the cause and effects of our work in this moment.

Accept & Proceed: team and culture

Accept & Proceed: team and culture