Ethical Issues

When working on this project I was faced with the ethical issues of ethnicity, improper use of images, symbolism, religious convictions, and was aware that these types of problems can arise. I made every effort to be aware of any issue that could affect the project and the viewing audience.

Ethnicity

I have made a conscientious effort to use imagery that reflected all sections of society where possible. An example that shows this is within the “final design page 1” where I used three baby photos of a differing ethnicity’s, rather than one of a single ethnicity. I did this to avoid any chance of offending any of the viewing audience.

I am aware that if the image only depicted one ethnic group such as white caucasian, it could send out the wrong message about the ‘Dreamcase’ concept, that it was a product that was made with one kind of ethnic group in mind.

Imagery

I am aware that baby related imagery is a topic of concern for a large section of the viewing audience. This is because of a possible improper use of images by some individuals or groups such as pedophiles, people who view or create indecent images of under age children.

I am aware of this concern and made sure that none of the imagery within my project could in anyway relate or promote such an indecent act. This is a topic of real concern as a standard image such as baby in a diaper, could be seen by some as a sexual or an indecent image. There are many reasons why this is the case, but a lot of concern is from those who fear that someone who has sexually indecent urges towards children may use or distribute such a an images for improper use.

That the innocent image of a baby in a diaper could be interpreted as sexual is a sad reflection on our society today. There have always been those in society with perverse sexual attitudes towards small children, but with the arrival of computers and the Internet it has become far easier for those people to distribute or receive such imagery.

I have made every effort to avoid offending any section of society and I have tried to use images that in no way could be misunderstood or taken out of context for improper usage.

Symbolism

Whilst designing for this project I tried to avoid using symbols that could depict messages incorrectly.

An example of this would be if I had used “Stars” within the design. Stars link into both of the topics, “Dreams” and “Sleep” and both could be associated with the “Dreamcase” concept. I am aware that the incorrect use could lead to problems within certain sections of the viewing audience

An example of this would be if the stars used in the design were laid out in a manner that could be linked to a well-known symbol such as ‘The Star of David’. This symbol is an iconic symbol within Jewish culture and religion. They may find it offensive for the symbol to be used within the concept and this could have a detrimental effect for the product sales to that community for the manufacturing company Samsonite.

I took care to avoid upsetting any potential customers by only using the official Samsonite logo as a major symbol in the project and was careful with any other images to make sure they would not offend.

Religion

The ethical issues were similar to the problems faced with symbolism. The connection of symbols and ethics to religion are strong. I did not use any unrelated symbols and was aware of this problem when developing and designing the project.

However there were indirect ethical issues relating to religion that I needed to be aware of when developing my design. The major issue was the relation of babies to the issue of pro-life and abortion. Some religions strongly believe in pro-life no matter what the circumstances of the parent and would like to impose this view on are society as a whole. Others believe that abortion is appropriate and acceptable in specific cases such as a very young parent or if the unborn baby has a known disability or deformity.

Though this topic is not necessarily a big ethical issue within in my project, I am aware that if I used young or single parents in a teenage 13-19 age group within the imagery, rather than more traditional married parents of the age group of 25+, there could potentially appear to be a link to pro life, especially with a young parent such as a 15 year old.

Bearing this in mind, I decided to use images and graphics of older parents, I felt it would not affect the end result of visually interacting with the audience. My aim was to avoid causing any offence to people linked to pro life groups and abortion.

Advertisement