What Makes a Moral Practice?

There is no more fundamental task, for design professionals, than choosing clients. Because design work is so often identified with the client (it’s their headquarters, their letterhead, etc.), a job can define a practice, a career. So how do we choose who we work with, knowing that in this imperfect world there are no perfect clients? Is it acceptable to work with a government with a poor record on human rights? How about a corporation with a spotty environmental history? Is it reasonable to engage with these institutions? Is it okay to leave their work to others so we might carve out some ostensibly “moral” practice working for…whom I’m not sure? We all make personal choices as we build our practices. What are yours? I hope you’ll join the interesting dialogue on this subject ongoing as part of the series hosted by Glass House Conversations.