Researching the sustainability of paper stock for our album packaging project lead us to consider two interesting questions: how do we find the balance between the needs of the project and the need to be sustainable; and to what extent can we justify using extra resources and creating more waste in pursuit of an aesthetic?

We’ve been looking into the environmental credentials of translucent paper and found that they are far from stellar (Australian paper suppliers stock only 0% recycled fibre, non FSC certified papers that come from either the UK or US). Given the extra cost and poor sustainability of the paper we decided not to use translucent. In our minds the value of the translucent paper was not worth the financial and ecological cost.

Whenever we work we are weighing up the balance between the cost and the value of what we do. The cost might be measured in time, money, trees, carbon or waste, and these can be quantified. The benefits and value are often less easily measured: persuading or informing someone, or deriving pleasure from the beauty or insightfulness of a work of design. We can measure the number of tickets bought for a play, but how can we know how many people were influenced by the poster we designed for it, and to what extent? Great design leaves viewers with lasting impressions and meaningful experiences and contributes to the designer’s vision of a better world. But how do you judge the value of a chance to change the world in tonnes of carbon or virgin forest?

Sustainable design is not as simple as choosing the most environmentally friendly materials. The argument that the most sustainable design is always the most basic denies the fundamental value of aesthetics in design. A distinction is often made between so-called functional and aesthetic design elements, but a well considered aesthetic element is as functional as any other design element. As sustainable designers we accept the imperative to minimise our use of resources and avoid waste, but equally importantly, we realise the need to use resources to effectively respond to the context for which we are designing. Why else design?