Politics of Design

In this modern life there seems to be an amazing need to save the world. This has become a huge excitement to all large companies who can use this ideological message in their advertising. The way I have noticed and seems to be quite popular is reusable shopping bags. Many supermarkets have jumped on the bandwagon and have made it into a little war of who can have the coolest, user-friendlier bags. The designs have to show they are the cleaner, greener supermarkets and it is best to shop there and use their reusable shopping bags. At the same time the consumer is also trying to find the coolest reusable shopping bag because then it looks as if they are taking their part in keeping the world clean, but looking stylish at the same time. This fad has inspired many designers out there to join in and get their own names out there by creating these bags.

The above bag is the reusable shopping bag for those who shop at Target. This design has not taken the typical green colour to use in their bag but instead used their own logo. Target also has their own range of reusable shopping bags available for those who prefur not to have the shop logo on it.

This expresses ideological beliefs in the way that people believe this will make a change in the world although indeed it will not make much of a change. The commercial world over exaggerates things to the point that you believe you are doing the world a great favor until you realize that you still use the same amount of plastic bags because you always forget the reusable ones. In the end its not the amount of awards, how environmentally friendly it is or shop loyalty that makes a difference, it is the design that catches your eye and makes you buy it.