Book Review: Green Graphic Design

Green Graphic Design, by Brian Dougherty of Celery Design Collaborative, is the second new eco-graphics handbook I’Äôve read in the past year. This is a pretty big deal, considering I’Äôve spent the previous six years using out-of-date (and often out-of-print) books to introduce the subject to my socially conscious design students. It’Äôs a nice problem to actually have some resources to choose between and while I may have a bit of bias towards Aaris Sherin’Äôs SustainAble, since my own work appears in it, I like to believe that I came at Green Graphic Design with an open mind. However, it is impossible for me to read and review it without comparing the books.
Two of the major advantages of Dougherty’Äôs book are clear from the outset: it’Äôs a smaller-sized paperback, which makes it less of a coffee table book and more useful as a day-to-day manual and it costs nearly half as much.
After a strong introduction, which speaks to the broader idea of socially conscious design, even though it sticks with the term ’Äúgreen design’Äù, the book settles into a fairly solid overview of the issues and techniques of environmental graphic design. In terms of technical information covered, both Green Graphic Design and SustainAble are on fairly equal ground.
Where Green Graphic Design falters, however, is in the question of audience. The text more often than not seems geared towards people who have little or no professional experience. This would be ideal for a student audience, except that the practical examples, the majority of which involve projects for Celery’Äôs large corporate clients, will be most useful to people who are already able make choices about custom pocket folders and mass-produced consumer packaging. Package design seems like something that is better covered in a book on green industrial design (a topic which has many more books already associated with it) and most graphic design students I know won’Äôt be dealing with work at the scale that Celery handles for a long time (if ever).
In the end, Green Graphic Design reads more like an elaborate self-promotion for Celery that is supplemented with some useful information on working environmentally rather than the other way around. The diversity of the projects and voices in SustainAble still make it my primary recommendation, but Green Graphic Design is an acceptable choice for those who are new to the topic, especially if portability and cost are your primary concerns.

Green Graphic Design
by Brian Dougherty
Allworth Press
$24.95