READ Code of Ethics for Design (2022)
Amadalvarez, via Wikimedia Commons
Adopted by: Red Espanola de Asociaciones de Diseno (READ), twelve Spanish design associations; drafted by Antoni Manach-Moreno with 54 named collaborators · Kind: Professional code of ethics · Scope: Regional (Spain) · Adopted: 2022
Approved unanimously by the General Assembly of the Spanish network of design associations in Soria in March 2022, the Codigo Deontologico del Diseno READ is the first code of ethics for the design profession in Spain. Drafted by philosopher Antoni Manach-Moreno with 54 named collaborators, from an analysis of 24 codes of ethics worldwide, it moves in three levels from the general principles of applied ethics, through the principles common to all professional codes, to 39 concrete rules of practice covering sustainability, human rights, authorship, fees, competitions and refusal of work. Unlike almost every other document in this bank, it carries an internal sanction.
The Red Espanola de Asociaciones de Diseno is an association of twelve Spanish design associations and a member of the Bureau of European Design Associations. In March 2022, at its General Assembly in Soria, it unanimously approved a code of ethics for design. The code was drafted by the philosopher and lecturer Antoni Manach-Moreno through a collaborative process; its acknowledgements page names 54 collaborators from design, philosophy, law and academia, and the network's own account dates the process back to 2014. Its preamble states the method plainly: an analysis of 24 codes of ethics from design associations around the world, a study of codes from other professions, reading in applied ethics, and participatory work with people associated with the network.
Six values are named as inspiring the code, each with a one-line gloss printed alongside it. Sustainability is defined as the value that lets design be practised without generating irreversible danger to the dignity of people, of society and of the environment, and it explicitly displaces profit from its traditional position as the final motive of production into a secondary one. Critique is the value that makes it possible to analyse and argue about every way the world is constructed through design. Commitment is the value that demands coherence between what a designer thinks, says and produces, beyond external pressure or individual interest. Respect is grounded in the observation that without people design has no meaning, and is tied directly to co-design, universal design and pluriversal design. Creativity is both an attitude and a working method. Resilience is the capacity to persist in extreme situations.
The structure is the code's real innovation and it is worth understanding, because it is what makes the document usable rather than decorative. Articles 1 to 6 turn the general principles of applied ethics into rules: beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy, rigour, justice and transparency. Articles 7 to 13 state the principles common to all professional codes: legality, professionalism, confidentiality, fidelity to concrete responsibilities, good faith, avoidance of conflicts of interest and respect. Articles 14 to 52 are concrete rules of practice. The code states its purpose for this layering openly: a designer facing a dilemma the concrete rules do not cover can still decide by falling back to the general principles above them.
The concrete rules cover ground most design codes leave alone. Article 24 requires acting to prioritise conservation of the ecosystem in full respect of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Article 25 names the design philosophies members should promote, listing emotionally durable design, slow design, cradle to cradle, open design, universal design, pluriversal design, transition design and co-design among them. Article 27 forbids perpetuating religious, political, racial, class, national, gender-identity, sexual and physical stereotypes. Article 40 requires refusing a commission at any stage if the designer is forced to meet demands that are abusive, illegal, immoral, unpaid or unjust. Article 38 forbids unfair competition through price wars. Article 48 forbids entering any competition whose terms do not respect the code's values. And in the commentary on legality the code makes a point rarely stated so directly: an ethical code takes the law as its frame but may go beyond it, and its own example is that designing for companies selling legal drugs is not illegal, yet a designer may decline on ethical grounds.
Two things make this document different from the rest of this bank. It is enforceable in a limited sense: Article 51 provides that READ's associations will warn or sanction anyone who repeatedly breaches its rules, an association sanction rather than a legal one, but a real consequence nonetheless. And it has attracted published criticism, which belongs on the record. Writing in FOROALFA in 2023, the designer and editor Luciano Cassisi argued that many of the code's rules are so imprecise as to be unapplicable and that they encroach on the individual professional's freedom, taking Article 37 as his example and asking what a designer is actually supposed to do with a duty to observe the ethical values of design through production, sale, consumption and use, stages that in most commissions lie outside the designer's reach entirely. Manach-Moreno replied in the same thread and treated the objections as open debates rather than dismissing them. The code itself anticipates this: its final provisions state that it is a beginning rather than an end and must be revised as society and the profession change.
Key provisions · 23 provisions
Preamble
The code was built from an analysis of 24 codes of ethics from design associations worldwide, a study of codes from other professions, reading in applied ethics, and participatory processes with people associated with READ.
method · comparative · participation
Values
Sustainability is defined as the value that allows design to be practised without generating irreversible danger to the dignity of people, society and the environment, displacing profit from its traditional position as the final motive of production into a secondary one.
sustainability · dignity · profit
Values
Critique is defined as the value that makes it possible to analyse and argue about every way the world is constructed through design, across all project models, design philosophies and fields of design action.
critique · reflexivity
Values
Commitment is defined as an attitudinal value that activates people to change negative structures of the world through design, requiring coherence between what is thought, said and produced, beyond external pressure or individual interest.
commitment · coherence · integrity
Values
Respect is grounded in the recognition that without people design has no meaning, and is linked explicitly to co-design, universal design and pluriversal design, which recognise others as active values in the construction of the world.
respect · co-design · pluriversal
Values
Creativity is defined as the capacity to conceive new ways of seeing reality and to reformulate questions and problems so that new paths appear, and is both an attitude and a working method.
creativity · problem-framing
Values
Resilience is defined as the capacity to persist despite tensions and adversity, using ingenuity, tenacity, effort, creativity and understanding of the environment to find solutions in extreme situations.
resilience · persistence
Structure
The code is organised in three levels: Articles 1 to 6 turn the general principles of applied ethics into rules, Articles 7 to 13 state the principles common to all codes of ethics and act as a validation tool, and Articles 14 to 52 are concrete rules of professional practice.
structure · applied-ethics · rules
Articles 1 and 2
Members will seek to do good in the personal, professional, organisational and civic spheres, and where they cannot do good they will avoid doing harm.
beneficence · non-maleficence
Article 5
Members will be just throughout the entire project process, including the whole life cycle of their designs, attending to impartiality, equity, balance and proportionality between people and in the use of limited resources.
justice · life-cycle · resources
Article 7 and Level 2 commentary
Members will act lawfully while the code states that an ethical code takes legality as its frame but may always go beyond it, giving as its own example that a designer may decline work for companies selling legal drugs on ethical grounds even though such work is not illegal.
legality · conscience · refusal
Article 13
Members will act with respect, safeguarding the autonomy and integral value of all people and institutions and of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with particular emphasis on social and environmental protection.
respect · sdgs · environment
Article 14
Members will observe human rights and will not act in ways that promote discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic origin, religion, social condition, gender identity or any other ground named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
human-rights · non-discrimination · udhr
Article 23
Members share responsibility with the client for the messages a designed product, system or service transmits, and where a member no longer shares the client's values during a project they may leave it by mutual agreement or complete it while declining to be named as author.
shared-responsibility · authorship · conscience
Article 24
Members will act prioritising the optimal conservation of the ecosystem and the environment, in full respect of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
ecosystem · conservation · sdgs
Article 25
Members will promote design philosophies and methodologies that prioritise cooperation for the conservation of the ecosystem, naming sustainable design and its variants including emotionally durable design, slow design, sustainable aesthetics and cradle to cradle, alongside user-centred, open, universal, pluriversal, transition, social innovation, inclusive and co-design.
methodologies · sustainable-design · pluriversal · transition-design
Article 26
Members will observe the triple balance and promote positive social, environmental and economic impacts across the personal, professional, organisational and civic spheres.
triple-bottom-line · impact
Article 27
Members will not perpetuate religious, political, racial, class, national, gender-identity, sexual or physical stereotypes in any sphere.
stereotypes · representation
Article 40
Members will refuse a commission at any stage of the project if forced by anyone involved to meet additional demands that are abusive, illegal, immoral, unpaid or unjust.
refusal · abuse · unpaid-work
Article 38
Members will seek work honestly on the basis of professional merit and capability, without unfair competition against colleagues through price wars or other bad professional practice.
fair-competition · pricing
Article 48
Members will not take part in any competition whose terms do not respect the values of the code.
competitions · procurement · boycott
Article 51
READ's member associations will warn or sanction anyone who repeatedly breaches the rules of the code.
sanction · enforcement · accountability
Final provisions
The code is explicitly open to modification as society and the profession change, and READ's board or an ethics committee must keep it updated, disseminate it and carry out a pedagogical function, with READ responsible for its application, monitoring and enforcement.
revision · governance · pedagogy