That Gormandizer Man

360 degree ethicality

So, I've just visited Holland & Barrett to buy some healthy food with nutritional benefits.

I needed bag, and was charged 5p for this paper bag:

... which I needed to carry these goods:

... and this receipt in case anything isn't up to scratch:

This got me thinking about why it's acceptable for brands to 'punish' consumers in some ways as opposed to other ways. Why are they highlighting the issue of the bag, but choosing to ignore the packaging for the products and the enormous size of that receipt?

The carrier bag thing is something I've been banging on about for ages. My MA project was based around ethicality and packaging and how small brands could join together to form something much bigger and be more ethical in the process. I was quite happy that I managed to get some publicity to garner opinions:

 

 

 

When the 'I'm not a plastic bag' thing kicked off a few years ago, I was quite vocal to friends about my concerns for the way the project was actioned. Not against the principle, but the way in which it was actioned. I called We Are What We Do to discuss the project and that was interesting. (I was interested in whether they wanted to start a new fashion trend (which is what happened) and whether they were carrying out any post-purchase research to see if people's opinions/ lifestyle choices had changed due to the bag.)

So, here I am back at the desk looking at Holland & Barrett's "Plan-it Green" scheme (see what they've done there?). There's a few things here that I find interesting:

• By 2012, we aim to make all consumer packaging on our products recyclable
• We have introduced an electronic communication system with all of our stores. This will convert 90% of our internal communications from paper to electronic form, resulting in a massive saving in paper usage.
• All of the packaging we use for transportation purposes is re-used or recycled. In addition, we will continue to remove all unnecessary packaging from our products.

(Words made bold by me - not Holland & Barrett.)

You see, I admire Holland & Barrett for their stance - so far. They're obviously not taking the "Plan-it Green" scheme lightly. But I want more.

If you go into a Holland & Barrett store, you'll notice that the majority of the goods seem to be 3rd party products. (I've emailed H&B asking for clarification. On their contact page here you can ring people to buy stuff, but not to inquire about the Plan-it Green scheme.)

So, they're making quite an easy choice IMO to reduce their own packaging - it's something they have 100% control over, but I want them to impact the other brands they stock.

"Whoa there Mark!" I hear you say... "Why don't you contact the Maximuscles, the Body Fortresses and the Met-Rx's directly and have a go at them?" I'll tell you why in one sentence:

They make a profit out of those 3rd party brands. Making things better ethically is everyone's responsibility and we should put each other under pressure to make things a little bit better.

And that goes from individuals like me (I preach a good game, but I do lots of stuff that's unethical), to small brands, to nationwide retail stores, to governments. We all need to pressure each other.

If we don't continue to do that we'll revert to Ethi-fundamentalists and forget all about Ethi-realists.

Ethi-Realists were part of something Rory, Charlie and I presented to Nike Considered a few years back now. We were talking about how people were making small choices in everyday life to make things better. It was at the same time as the Anya Hindmarch love in, and it was right at the time. But now it needs to evolve.

Ethi-Realists now need to add another string to their bow. They need to pressure others. If we all pressure others then we'll be thinking ethically more, and we'll also be on the receiving end of some of that pressure.

So, what can Holland & Barrett do to be that little bit better?

Well, for starters, I'd think about that receipt. Does it really need to be that big? Does it need to be physical at all?

Secondly, I'd like to see them put their suppliers under a bit of pressure. They may already do this, but I can't see it on their site.

(Which poses an interesting question about the Marks & Spencer 'Plan A' scheme - do their pledges cover the 3rd party brands they have recently started stocking and making a profit from?)

Paying 5p for a bag is a highly visible way of a brand being more ethical.
Putting pressure on each other to be more ethical is not as visible.

Ethicality needs to be both visible and invisible and we need to pressure each other to achieve it.

Doodling about adults and children

I think it's a nice little one, this one:

What it's trying to say is:

Adult learn loads through the years, but thinking like a child could add something special when trying to solve a problem. But how can we make adults turn back the clock?

And I think it's sort of true. When people become educated they automatically bypass some original, naive, almost childlike questions. This saves time, but sometimes it's these basic questions that need to be asked. They can sometimes highlight issues, opportunities and insights and it's something I always try to do - to look at things like a child.

Two doodles for the price of one

I thought I'd give you double the pleasure, this morning. Tutorials yesterday were the first tutorial where the students are starting to think about their final MA project, so in a lot of cases it's about honing their subject and throwing away the detritus that's not needed. It's a difficult thing to find the right balance for, and it's very important. Now is the time to hit the ground running on the subject you're passionate about and want to look into. Onto the doodles...

This one says "So you look at something this way, and someone with a different background looks at it another way. What you're saying is you want to be able to change how you look at something."

And this one says "So you want to look at something, but you need to know why. At the moment it's a research project - but you need more of a hook. You can't post-rationalise a reason."

The first doodles of the second term

A bit contentious this one. It's not a chart that explains a process (as such), but more an example of something... An example of something that may look like not much thought has gone into it, yet when you learn about it and why it was created you realise the immense effort and skill that went into it. It just may not be explicitly represented.

This, dear readers, is modern art:

Even more doodles

A doodle from the last tutorial of term.

For their main MA project that starts next term the students have to arrive at some conclusions on a subject of their choice. In order to help them arrive at these conclusions an artifact is essential. There's always a bit of a misunderstanding as to exactly what the artifact is there to do.

Incorrectly, some people feel it's a piece of art that should result from the months of work and should be completed for their major exhibition in December (the end point of the course). In actual fact it should be a single thing that evolves and grows based on feedback reflected throughout the months in order to arrive at a point in December with the original artifact, and hopefully a few different iteration of it have shown improvement. This will help inform the student and should help them arrive at a more robust set of conclusions.

This doodle was used to help explain that:

More doodles

I was tutoring again yesterday and as usual, before I noticed what I was doing I found doodles that I'd scrawled whilst chatting away.

This one says "If you think about the project backwards and start with 'how do we want to present this?' then you're missing out on a big opportunity. It should be led from the front and the thinking time you have available."

This one says "All of the things we've been discussing are all linked. And they're all elements of society." The cubes in the bottom left show how small amounts of people make a big difference, and the George Bush is about how people perceived as not very intelligent can be very intelligent by surrounding themselves with intelligence.

It's strange - when I get in the zone I just scrawl away without really thinking about it. Drawing diagrams and charts is a really good teaching tool I'm finding.

Doodling away

When I work, and when I tutor I enter a type of trance. If I was on a ship in the Bering Sea I'd describe it as being 'on the crab' - or as I may have pointed out in a previous post - I'd literally be on fire.

I use doodles a lot to help explain what I'm talking about. I find them useful to me, but also as a cross-nationality visual aid.

This one is saying "At the moment you have all the different ideas and they're here and here, but which one do you choose?"

Whilst this one is saying "So you're being this risky sometimes, and this safe sometimes - but do you need to be constant with this or not?"

And lastly - this one is saying "So while all these small processes are going on, there's a bigger thing reaching a conclusion. You need to keep that in mind, but not let it rule your creativity."

I think I might continue documenting these.

Happiness

As the famous ad nearly said "happiness is a tutorial with Mark, the mild tutorial."

Yesterday I held a tutorial at St. Martins with a group of students and chatted to them about their project about alchemy. It was one of those tutorials that fill you full of hope and enthusiasm for the future, much more than I had on Friday.

The students were really enthusiastic, wanting to learn and really pushing themselves. At one point they looked at the obvious route for the project but then they realised that by pursuing this route they actually wouldn't learn too much and they quickly shifted their focus back to the idea that isn't fully formulated, that will push them, that's risky, that will give them sleepless nights but ultimately that they will learn something from.

This is the whole point of the course. Let's get intelligent people pushing themselves and working on things that put them at risk of failure. Let's get them in the mindset where failure is a good thing, because only by risking things, trying things and releasing ones self from your internal gatekeepers can you add something unique and special. (Yes I can get deep when I need to.)

Something I'm looking at for my PGCERT is how people can keep these beliefs in their professional life. This, however, is not as easy as it sounds seeing as though the majority of employers employ people to carry out tasks, and not for the inherent qualities they can bring to the team. Personally, I've been lucky in that respect but I know a lot of people haven't.

We need a sea-change in the creative industries. We need to have the balls to tell clients what they need - even if it isn't what they think they need. We need to employ people who have a genuine intelligence and who can disrupt the status quo. If we continue to employ people who do as we say, who fit into pigeon holes, who play the corporate game then we will progress at a much lower rate than if we take risks, if we fail, if we're happy to fail and ultimitaly if we have confidence that what we're doing is right and good. Right and good for us, for society and for the client... though not necessarily in that order.

Pasties and pies

Whilst at St. Martins yesterday I was discussing pies with a group of students. We've all got pies somewhere on our radar when it comes to food preferences. For me, they're about mid way up (or down) on that list. For others they're closer to the top, and for some they're very close to the bottom. As I'm from the North I sort of grew up with them. Not in a literal sense of course - I have no experience of sharing emotional memories of childhood with a crustcovered meat product.

Anyway - enough of that.

When I was discussing the humble pie with the students (who were all from foreign shores) it made me think how much we take for granted in normal day to day humdrum stuff.

The project I set them involved them visiting a pie house. This was for a few reasons but mostly because I thought they would learn something from it. You see, as far as I knew, the students had never tried a pie before. So for students from Taiwan, Korea, USA and France (to name a few), the experience of going into a pie room was completely new to them.

They embraced the experience. They bought a pint of bitter from the bar downstairs, had a pie, and ordered some Spotted Dick. They didn't even have a clue what Spotted Dick consisted of, but they ordered it and liked it... although they'd also never heard of the term 'pudding' instead of 'dessert.' (And were positvely confused when I told them I called it 'afters.')

So why do I write this? Well, for many reasons but firstly because pies and pasties are products that have been refined over years and really are a perfect type of product. The students were enthralled when I told them why pasties had a large crust, and that there are many different types of pies. Of course it goes both ways - now when people buy their branded pasty at the train station after a few pints - they don't want a crust. The experience has followed a new reality. Working down the mine has been replaced by eating on the train, so people want a product that they can eat quickly, quietly, that doesn't smell much and that won't drop too much on their workshirt.

Is that evolution? Is that progress? I don't know - but I'll tell you one thing - chatting to people who aren't used to your customs is so interesting. It's something I've never really thought of. I had to explain aspects of a foodstuff that I'd taken for granted all my life, and it made me analyse it in a way I'd never looked at it.

So maybe there should be a course called "Talk about normal stuff to people who don't know what your normal is." I'd sign up to it.