In the 2013 book Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability, John Ehrenfeld writes “The key to doing something about sustainability is that you first have to say what it is that you want to sustain.” To define sustainable graphic design we must first define what it is we are sustaining.

If sustainable graphic design is design in service of what we want to sustain, how do you decide what's worth sustaining? (because, if we pick the wrong thing, say we want to sustain the status quo, then that is what sustainable graphic design is — hmmm!?).

Ehrenfeld answers that for us too. He wants to sustain “that all humans and other life should flourish.”

Designer Bruce Mau had a similar goal for the Massive Change project: “Our project is the welfare of all life as a practical objective.” (design for the welfare of all life)

This is what we'll use as our definition of Sustainable Graphic Design for the remainder of the talk: Sustainable graphic design is “graphic design in support of all life flourishing,” or, “graphic design for the welfare of all life.”