The range of AIGA Fellow Award recipient Michael Hodgson’s design influence extends from the Westside LA mini-mall to the global thinktank. Since establishing Ph.D in 1988, Hodgson has designed visual programs and publications noted for crisp thinking, clear expression and meticulous craft. He chats with Rachel Elnar about practicing design with the planet in mind.

Why did you become a graphic designer?

Oh that's a difficult one. Why did I become a graphic designer? When I was in college, although I was in the graphic design major, my work was just printmaking and photography. I had a great teacher, Gerald Woods, who was the only tutor who didn't dismiss me as the one who "came in late because he'd been out DJ'ing the night before". After college I was working at Uncle Sam’s Hamburger Express (all part of my deep interest in all things American), Gerald called me and told me about a job as Art Assistant at Harpers and Queen magazine. I got the job and it was like an apprenticeship. I worked under the legendary Willie Landels. I started off making coffee, ordering supplies, casting off copy, and doing paste up. Four years later I was Art Director!

Harpers & Queen Magazine

How did you get involved with AIGA? Why do you stay involved?

I think I originally joined AIGA (in 1989) to qualify for cheaper entry fees! I started going to events, and in 2000 Moira Cullen invited me to be on the advisory board. I think that was when I began to understand and appreciate what AIGA does not just for its members but also for the whole profession. This understanding and appreciation continues to grow the more time I spend working for AIGA. Plus as an added bonus, some of my best friends are people I have met through the association, Sam Shelton, Bill Grant, Doug Powell, Denise Wood, Andréa Pellegrino, Pam Williams as well as Justin, Rob, Agustin and of course Sean and Noreen.

In your opinion, how has design shaped Los Angeles?

Literally great design is all around us, all the time: Randy's Donuts, LA Dodgers, the Chemosphere House, Charles and Ray Eames, the Pan Pacific Auditorium, Disney Hall.

If you weren't practicing design, what would you be doing?

If I wasn't designing and I was 30 years younger I'd be riding for a UK cycling road team in the Milk Race. Or maybe I'd be an organic farmer.

As a member of the Advisory Board for the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, how important, do you feel, is it for graphic designers to be aware of environmentally responsible issues?

It's essential for designers to help combat global warming. As a country we are years behind, BUT finally thanks to An Inconvenient Truth and people like Laurie David, Paul Hawken, and Chris Hacker, people have finally woken up, and realised OH **** we're running out of time. So now clients are coming to us asking how we can help make their projects "green". My fear is that as a profession we are a long way behind, so we must work really hard to help ourselves and our clients understand what we need to do.

Last year I designed a poster for the Urban Forest Project. It was a photograph of empty plastic water bottles forming a tree and was titled “Plastic Water.� I was commenting on the obscenity of the multi-million-dollar bottled water business, where we have been brain washed into thinking we should only drink water that often has been shipped half way around the world rather than drinking what comes out of the tap. When I talked about this at the time, people weren’t really concerned. Now thanks mainly to Alice Waters, activist and food pioneer, many restaurants have stopped serving bottled waters.

Plastic Water Poster

What a difference. I hope consumers can influence the way the bottled water industry does business. Biota Spring Water from Colorado, delivered their water with a corn-based biodegradable bottle (they just went out of business). It helps to have suppliers who can advance the manufacture of sustainable materials. I find it’s difficult to design green with limited tools. How can designers find vendors such as those in the paper and printing industries who develop new sustainable technologies?

Before I answer this question, let me speak to Biota. I’m not that familiar with their story, but the real issue is not what the bottles are made from, but that they are made at all. We don’t need to buy water from Fiji or France or Italy, when in most places in America the stuff coming out of the tap is 100% OK, in some cases great. What Alice and other restaurants are now doing is filtering (and even adding bubbles to), their own tap water, if not eliminating, then drastically reducing the carbon footprint of the water you’re drinking. IT IS WATER AFTER ALL, it’s the Earth's drink. We shouldn’t have to buy it in any kind of bottle. I think the bottled water industry will take a hit in the next few years as people (and restaurants) start to filter tap more.

Ok now to the question! In the paper business there have been significant changes over the last 5 years, there are now much much better selections that there used to be. Most of the big paper companies are now offering some brilliant recycled stock, I just printed a 4-color job on Mohawk Options which is 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) and it looks great! With printing, it's more difficult, there’s obviously FSC certification, but I think we need look deeper than that and find printers that are trying to run their entire business in a sustainable manner.

Your 1996 shoebox design for Bloch integrated post-consumer fibers and soy-based ink. Why wasn't the use of recycled materials widely used back then? Why is the practice so late coming?

Wow, good research! It was much a much harder sell back then. The cost of recycled papers was higher, printers were afraid of running them through their presses, and most clients thought recycled meant paper with bits of dirt and junk in it. The popularity of French Paper and their Speckletone brand only reinforced that misunderstanding. This combined with the fact that recycling wasn't something that most people thought about then, meant that you had to have a enlightened client or a client who was open to hearing about the benefits of taking this route, before you could even start the conversation.

Shoebox design for Bloch

What is the challenge in transforming businesses mindsets to produce recyclable and environmentally friendly materials? How can designers help their clients?

We can help clients with this process. I think that businesses are going to figure it out with or without us, especially if they want to survive. But that's not the problem. The problem is that for years we have lived in a consumer society, especially in this country. If it's broken, throw it away and buy a new one, or even if it's not broken get rid of last months model because “hey! there's a new one out.� Built-in obsolescence. Get a new car, that one is 3 years old. People are finally beginning to ask about where it was made and how it was made, who made it and from what. Now the businesses that make "it" are being held accountable, so they will figure out the responsible way to produce their products. But I think people still want the new "it". As designers can we responsibly continue to feed this consumerism? So it’s not just helping our clients, but also being careful which clients to work with.

You have a great sense of humor in your work. Does it come naturally for you?

No, and now the writers are on strike, I'm in serious trouble.

What makes you laugh?

Funny people: my kids, my wife, Eddie Izzard, Mark Shepherd (even though he's a Man U supporter), my mate Charlie...

Finally, if there's something I missed, let me know of a question I should ask and your answer.

Q: What does Ph.D stand for?

A: Pure Hodgson Design!