rlord reports

My intern looked over my shoulder and said, "I thought you didn't like American Apparel, how come you're shopping on their site?" She'd caught me red handed. I, like many socially minded folks, loathe American Apparel's porn-inspired advertising, and the founder's seeming disrespect for women and worker's rights (http://clamormagazine.org/issues/38/aa/index.php). But their comfortable, well-cut, made in the US, organic cotton shirts are hard to turn down. Especially when the alternatives are slim.

My uneasy support of American Apparel came about when I decided to produce a short run of shirts for a project I was working on. As part of running a socially conscious firm, my goal is to use the most environmentally sensitive materials whenever possible. Of course, that's much easier said than done. Each project presents its own unique challenges when it comes to environmental choices.

When I began researching how to get my shirts printed, I quickly discovered there were some big choices to be made: Did I want to support workers' rights or buy organic? Did I want to support local businesses or be more environmentally sensitive? And so on. It's almost enough to make one reconsider making T-shirts at all.

However, I finally knuckled down and chose to order shirts from a US-based company that focuses on worker rights. Even though they didn't carry organic options or offer wholesale pricing to non-"brick and mortar" clients, they seemed the lesser of the evils. I tried to e-mail an order; I tried to call in an order; I never got an answer. And so I was left with a company that made organic shirts in Afghanistan and a US company run by a jerk. I chose the jerk.

Very often, the best solution isn't always the perfect one, at least when it comes to the environment. A large part of my job is finding the best possible solutions with the available options. It's often frustrating, but rewarding in the long term. When I started running my firm eight years ago, people thought I was crazy to try to make a living working from an ethical perspective. Now "green" is the buzzword and "sustainability" is a priority. The change came about as a result of all the slightly better (though still imperfect) choices we make every day, even when we're buying a T-shirt.

About the author: Noah Scalin is principal and founder of ALR, a socially conscious graphic design firm, located in Richmond, Va.

The former art director of independent movie studio Troma Entertainment and international clothing company Avirex, Noah used his experience with youth marketing and passion for grassroots activism to create his own ethically driven firm.

Noah's work at ALR has gained international exposure in over a dozen books and is frequently featured in design publications, including How Magazine's "Good Company" cover story Jan/Feb 2006. Noah also developed a course on socially conscious design for Virginia Commonwealth University and founded a long running community supported agriculture group in Richmond, Virginia.

A forthcoming book, based on his popular blog Skull-A-Day, will be published by Lark Books. He can be contacted at noahs@alrdesign.com. His website is http://www.alrdesign.com.