Design. It's probably not what you think.
First, good design is not styling. Design is a high-performance methodology for solving problems. Not just aesthetic problems, but business problems: distribution, strategy, impact. There is thoughtfulness, talent, and genius and intuition, but at root there is no mystery. Best practice design is an ongoing, systematic process. Although beauty is critical, where good design and other design part company is at fitness for purpose: efficacy.
The role of design, then, has very little to do with 'designer' culture. It's about fitting a form to it's context. Ethical Media use design as a set of business tools to help us make any number of decisions, from the colours on our letterhead to the couriers we work with.Visual design is a part of it: a key requirement of any artefact is that it should appear sympathetic to the intended user. More important than that, this appearance should not be deceiving.
Good design is doing a twenty-second-feature-film-e-flyer rather than a directory, a paragraph for the audience who wouldn't read a book. It's using vegetable inks and solar-powered servers. Design is how we unite our practice and our (occasional) preaches, and how you can unite yours. Quod Erat Design.
Through considered and self-consistent design, we can help ensure that the resource you invest in your communications goes downstream to renewable energy producers, paper recyclers, social enterprises and co-operatives. That the design spend of a sustainable charity goes on to support those micro-businesses that are laying the groundwork for a sustainable global economy, that the work is delivered by a zero-emissions courier. And also, true, that your identity is beautiful and apposite. The role of design is organising ourselves and our partners such that the very doing of our work incubates the world it advocates.