… a satisfied, validated individual who’s proud of his work and station in life makes for better, stronger society, moreso than any design project could.

Well said!

I think you’re right — we’re bound to affect others’ perception according to our own belief system, no matter how objective we try to be. But there’s no harm in that; like you said, we should only try to be true to ourselves. In a broad sense, a satisfied, validated individual who’s proud of his work and station in life makes for better, stronger society, moreso than any design project could.

… on the occasion that taking a certain job does reflect my personal moral compass, I feel that it’s my responsibility to make a decision based… on what the finished product says about me as a person

Agreed. I think that’s all we can really do, and I think it’s true for all professions. Ultimately, we can’t dictate what other people think, and it’s not something we should be doing anyways. The only thing we should be promoting is the freedom of thought and open communication.

It’s not my responsibility to tell people what to believe, regardless of my power as a designer to have people perceive things in a certain way.

I think this is where things start getting fuzzy. I agree that it’s not our responsibility to tell people what to believe, but, as you said yourself, we do have the power to make people perceive things in a certain way. I think Milton Glaser said it best when he said that we have access to people’s minds, hence his belief that we have the responsibility to communicate ideas that cause no harm to society.

As much as we might like to distance our personal beliefs from our professional work, it’s usually the case that we’ll accept projects that don’t conflict with our own morals and ethics. I think all of us have a bit of innate hubris—it’s what makes us human. By simply accepting a project, we make the first step towards imposing our beliefs (but perhaps not ideals) on other people.

Of course, maybe we’re waxing philosophical a bit much. My intent with my original post on social responsibility was to suggest that we should carefully consider our work and make sure that we stay true to ourselves. Doing otherwise would just be a disservice.

To me, being socially responsible means only taking the jobs whose premise, message, or motives I agree with. But the fact is, the vast majority of jobs I take are ethically neutral; they’re strictly there for me to make sure I pay my rent at the end of the month, and require no moral or ethical stance.

However, on the occasion that taking a certain job does reflect my personal moral compass, I feel that it’s my responsibility to make a decision based, not on how others will perceive my work or how it shapes their ideas of the product/service advertised, but on what the finished product says about me as a person.

It’s not my responsibility to tell people what to believe, regardless of my power as a designer to have people perceive things in a certain way. My job has nothing to do with right and wrong, and everything to do with answering a brief; my responsibility, though, to myself and to my own belief system, is to do work that I can look at and be proud of, both for its artistic merit and for its moral reflection on me. This has very little to do with what I think other people should believe.

The sort of attitude you’re talking about — acting as another’s moral compass based on personal beliefs — is hubris. Most people don’t care what we believe, and will have their moral perception shaped how they see fit, regardless of the design community. What matters is, not telling others what to think (in a moral sense), but making sure our work reflects what we believe in a socially responsible way.