The Living Principles for Design

Created by the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design (CFSD), the Living Principles for Design were born out of the design profession’s need for an aspirational and actionable framework for integrated sustainability—a common point of reference to which all designers can refer. Its ongoing development is dependent on the contributions of the design community at large. Conceived and developed over the summer of 2009, the Living Principles were officially unveiled at the AIGA Design Conference in Memphis on October 9, 2009.

The Living Principles for Design distill the collective wisdom found in decades of sustainability theories and bring them to life in the first quadruple bottom-line framework for design. They weave together environmental protection, social equity, and economic health—building upon commonly accepted, triple-bottom-line frameworks. But most significantly, they incorporate cultural vitality because culture is where all aspects of sustainability find their way into the blood stream of society, and culture is where designers have the deepest impact as their creations and choices shape habits and values.

The Living Principles framework is a lens that brings clarity to integrated sustainability and makes it accessible, relevant and ready to put into action. In October 2009, the Icograda General Assembly adopted a resolution on the responsibility of designers to promote sustainable practices and offered The Living Principles for Design as a model framework. Delegates of communication design associations and educators worldwide adopted the resolution unanimously, representing a global validation of the opportunities for the framework developed by AIGA members.

Get involved

Download the documents below, visit the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design website, and join the feedback loop on Facebook to help create and share tried-and-true best practices, guidelines, tools, case studies, and general support for a broad range of design disciplines.

• The Living Principles framework, a manifesto for sustainable design
• Genealogy of the Living Principles