Studio alto:
Design for sustainability.

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Studioalto identifies two areas of impact it continually strives to address—‘cleaner communication design’—the ecological impact of communication design and production, and ‘social communication design’—the social impact of an imbalance in quality communication.

These objectives are achieved by implementing a rigorous design process to a solid base of design and production knowledge. Combined with an enthusiasm to make a broader positive difference, Studioalto challenges conventions and provides innovative possibilities through high quality creative and an embedded commitment to reducing the environmental impact of communication. This motivation is prevalent in every part of the design process from studio practice to product disposal, including reduction of energy and resource consumption, waste minimisation and partnerships with equally progressive businesses.

Of equal importance is the commitment to creating innovative, professional and sophisticated communication available to the public interest community.

The benefits of Studioalto’s processes are multiple and far reaching—economic, ecological and social—resulting in greater value and impact of your communication product. Better design for a better future.

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"The benefits of Studioalto’s processes are multiple and far reaching—economic, ecological and social—resulting in greater value and impact of your communication product. Better design for a better future."

Towards Sustainability

Currently in business and wider community there is a groundswell of interest in change, and the concept of sustainability has entered the mainstream. Today’s consumers recognise that they are citizens of an interconnected world, and increasingly, they aspire to a greater awareness and responsibility for improving themselves, their homes, workplaces and communities—in essence, our world.

We hear of sustainable living, sustainable energy, sustainable forests—but what is 'sustainability', and how is it applicable to communication?

The United Nations' 1987 Brundtland Commission Report defines it as follows:

Further, the Sustainable Living Foundation adds:

“Sustainability means that as a society:

Studioalto is aware of the ecological impact of communication design and production and continually strives to reduce this impact to a sustainable level by taking responsibility for its actions and continually educating itself and its clients. The studio believes that to acknowledge there is a problem is the first step to improving the situation—enlightenment leads to empowerment. With better understanding, ways to improve the situation can be investigated with the help of those committed to a better solution.

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Living Thing
www.livingthing.net.au
“By educating people about their impact on the environment, individuals are motivated to change their behaviours around the consumption of resources at home, work and play.” (AUS)

Sustainable Living Foundation
www.slf.org.au
“The Sustainable Living Foundation (SLF) is a community based not-for-profit organisation committed to promoting, celebrating and practicing the principles of sustainable living.” (AUS)

WWF
www.wwf.org.au
"With more than 40 years experience at an international level, and more than 25 years of operation in Australia, WWF is the world's largest and most influential conservation organisation." (AUS)

Cleaner Design

Generally, current communication design and production methods are environmentally unsustainable. At a design level, misguided and inappropriate communication ends up in landfill, the product far outliving the message. At a production level, commonly employed practices in paper milling and printing processes deplete our natural resources, waste energy and pollute our air, water and soil—all of this on our behalf. A lack of awareness, even for businesses working in a sustainable realm, means that often environmental considerations are not a part of the communication brief at all.

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CleanGreenPrint.com
www.cleangreenprint.com
“The cleangreenprint.com™ concept has been designed to provide consumers and specifiers of print, information on the environmental impact of printing." (AUS)

Design by Nature
www.designbynature.org
“Welcome to Design by Nature - the resource established to inspire, educate and empower Australian graphic designers to work towards more environmentally sustainable practices." (AUS)

The Design Process

The first criterion of the studioalto design process is a communication product which strives for environmental sustainability. This is embedded in the studio philosophy and influences every design decision made.

Key areas in the design and production process that are controlled by the studio range from minimising energy consumption in the studio by turning computers off overnight, to influencing the disposal of the communication product at the end of the process. The studio believes it is accountable for ensuring the best possible outcome while minimising environmental impact.

Throughout the process, the following is considered:

• What is the best way to communicate to the audience?
  Is print appropriate or would a website, email or pdf be equally or more effective? Electronic communication reduces environmental impact greatly.
  
  
• If print is most effective, what is required to produce the proposed design?
  Can recycled materials be used? Alternative or renewable paper sources? Vegetable based inks? How much energy? Pollution? Hazardous waste?
  
  
• How will the product be disposed of?
  Every communication product must expire at some stage—how will this happen? In a mass grave as landfill or could it be reincarnated as a reusable or recycled resource? Does the message justify the waste?

Instead of limiting the design process, these considerations become a model of challenging conventions and provide new possibilities resulting in greater value and impact of your communication product.

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Minnesota Environmental Initiative
www.mn-ei.org/policy
/printbuyer.html
“A step-by-step guide on how to minimize the environmental impacts of your printed materials while accounting for cost, quality and design." (USA)

Forest Stewardship Council
www.fsc.org/en
“FSC is an international not-for-profit membership-based organization that brings people together to find solutions to the problems created by bad forestry practices and to reward good forest management."

Socially Responsible Design
http://green.net.au/srd/
index.html#green
“Responsible Graphic Designers. The SRD combines the efforts of society and industry through environmentally and socially responsible design practices to make products and services significantly better." (AUS)

Social Design

How can sustainability be measured in a social sense?

Take a look in your letterbox or inbox—what is the ratio of commercial to public interest communication? We’re not necessarily more interested with new fridges than the state of healthcare in our community yet we receive more information about the former than the latter.

In the interests of a healthy, sustainable society we can address the imbalance in commercial and public interest communication by making the creative tools of innovative, professional and sophisticated communication equally available. The size of a budget need not reflect the quality of the communication product, but requires a specifically tailored design process.

Studioalto believes public interest organisations attaining a higher profile through improved communication design can help identify and reorganise community priorities in terms of social, cultural and environmental issues—issues that have a greater impact on our lives than our choice of white goods, for example.

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Metropolis Magazine
www.metropolismag.com/cda
/sustainable.php
“Welcome to the sustainable Metropolis. If you value clean air, clean water, and clean food, you're thinking about sustainability. If you've been wondering what green design is, you will discover it here.” (USA)

The Benefits

Not only is cleaner communication design better for our environment, it benefits our businesses, our communities and our future.

By actioning cleaner, better practices, a ripple effect of benefits is triggered:

Us

• As studioalto has a value driven motivation, the opportunity to work with positive and progressive clients results in an inspired and proud staff in a healthy, productive workplace.
• Commitment to cleaner, better practices in the studio improves energy and resource efficiency resulting in lower running costs.
  
  

You (The Client)

• By working with a studio that has a value driven motivation, the client benefits from a greater commitment and belief in the service provided.
• Commitment to cleaner, better practices by studioalto in improving energy and resource efficiency results in lower costs passed on to the client.
• Greater thought and research in the design process with a commitment to reduce energy consumption and waste reduces the financial cost of the communication product.
• By becoming a part of a community of environmentally and socially progressive service providers and suppliers, the client creates an opportunity for competitive advantage.
  

You & Us (The Community)

• Support of environmentally and socially progressive service providers creates a healthier, more competitive business community, increasing the demand for further positive change within industry.
• Studioalto’s commitment to making the creative tools of innovative, professional and sophisticated communication universally available results in public interest organisations attaining a higher profile through better communication design. In turn, this helps identify and reorganise community priorities in terms of social, cultural and environmental issues.
  

The Future

• By demonstrating quality and effectiveness of environmentally and socially progressive practice, a ‘critical mass’ shifts the balance towards cleaner, superior practice and technologies, resulting in a brighter, healthier future.

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