To play devil's advocate: For those who said they would refuse to do work if it conflicted with their personal morals, is this is any way different from, say, the Christian bakers who refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding? Why or why not?

Using that example, I'd still accept the job. I don't believe in religion myself, but accept that others do.

Very interesting question to the community Mike.

For me is a no.

Personal experience:

A few years ago, I was asked by the account guy to pitch for a military equipment company focused in North Africa and Middle East countries.

Personally I had a very clear position on this, to refuse to help that company to sell their products. I gathered my team and we all agreed into not work on this pitch despite the pressure from the account guy.

Probably not, and I only say that because I know that for me - I do my best work when I'm passionate about solving a problem. In a case where I'm conflicted like that, I know that whatever I'm delivering would suffer in quality.

A lot of the talk in this thread is awesome. But seems to only go as far as considering the OP's example of church.

Here's a position I was in once that most wouldn't probably consider a morality issue:

Worked with AMEX on a ton of campaigns. Most of which were pushing their rewards for their cards or promoting a new product for the "un-banked". This became problematic for me because most of their cards have high interest rate and AMEX (like every other bank) relies on two things: buyer beware and fine print. IMO - they were selling debt and happy to do so. Especially when they'd come out with reloadable cards for the un-banked (read usually broke) and still pushed the idea of self-image as why the card is good for them and mostly overlooking the fact that un-banked or folks with poor finances don't need credit cards, they need education on finances, something that is well within the reach of a "benefit" of a card they provide and something they could talk about as a perk.

Worked with Crown Royal on a campaign around prime-time sports (Super Bowl and then NBA Finals).

They used the same creative, sold crown royal as a red-neck drink during the Super Bowl and a sleek, luxury drink for young black men during the NBA playoffs. And the whole time they touted "heritage" as their scope of the work. In reality, they were, as PC police today would say, "appropriating" cultures to sell their product. And even more so, selling an opportunity to become an alcoholic. Especially if they show that drinking makes life happier (there isn't an add in the world that shows drinking makes life bad). And similar to AMEX, they relied on fine print to protect them and their motives.

Most people wouldn't consider these things as morally wrong. I do, and did. Would I take them as a client, honestly, depends on the check.

But I'd say, if we're going to give porn sites or church sites an examination we should also be talking about those in positions of power to really fuck up people's lives, even if its only a side effect.

I'm a believer.

I will not work for any church that would hatefully speak out against the LGBTQ community.

I would also not create designs for a pornography based organization for many reasons. Such as the treatment of the women and men, the images that I would be working with. The conversations surrounding the work and the effort I would have placed on research and the places that would take me.

Gay couple wants a blog or online store? No big deal.

Racist blogger? A huge pass.

When I've been faced with a potentially problematic client I normally say I'm booked out two months on other projects. If they still need my services at the end of the two months they can email. They never do and that's the last of it!

I haven't had an experience where the work challenged my morals, but I have been in situations where the company I worked for has done things that were unethical and when I objected, I was threatened with termination. For example: one agency I worked at was working on filing the paperwork to be considered a minority business in the state of Pennsylvania and that would allow them to bid on government RFPs. It was legally very dubious and the paperwork filing was dependant upon the government agency to not be very diligent as to the CEO's proof of being considered part of a minority group (he claimed he was Latinx due to his last name, but he admitted openly to the staff that he wasn't and he tried to leverage his "ethnic last name" to get an in with the state). That same company CEO decided to buy Adwords so that anyone looking up a particular agency in our region would get top ad of his agency....just an example of the many little underhanded, petty things he did. The last straw was when an employee's personal health issue was made public to the office during a meeting. I left soon afterwards.

I've been writing a lot about this for my book Tragic Design.

As designers, we have a responsibility to ask these questions and stand up for our moral code. You are right that it's not always black and white, but the more we consider our beliefs and what we might do, the better prepared we will be to make these choices.

Some of the clear cut stuff like working on a site publishing racist material is an easy no.

I've had the exact experience you talk about regarding a religious client though.

Couple of years back we took on a big job rebuilding the sites for a global church despite everyone in our company being non-religious and to be fair we had some issues morally as the project went on and we saw the sorts of content that we were ultimately helping to distribute.

It's not that it was "bad" but as someone who's very much in the non-believer category I feel that the whole message of god is basically a work of fiction but of course when it's a church publishing it, they present it as their version of truth so it's a bit of conflict there.

In terms of taking the job originally, yes, we had some reservations but ultimately took on the challenge (it was an interesting techincal rebuild too) and worked with them on an 18 month job.

Ultimately we parted ways after launch and handed everything over on reasonable terms but it did cement our decision to do no further work for religious clients.

Because of the job we did, we did get a lot of enquiries from other churches who'd seen it, all of which we've turned down (politely) and will continue to do so.

Absolutely not

I just signed up but I can relate to this question as it's something I've had to deal with recently.

I draw my line when the client or employer is projecting their views onto me with intention of "converting or convincing" me. This is my way of determining wether it is a professional relationship in which I offer my skills in producing for them or if they are trying to gain another follower. If it is a true professional relationship, and only that then I do not mind working for or with them, as I feel like it is not my responsibility to make sure the world is a safe place for the intended consumer but instead wether or not I can help make my partners message more successful.

Given this does not go for illegal activities what so ever and there's probably a few topics I outright refuse to work on that's not on moral grounds.

If it is completely opposite to my morals my answer will be always no.

From my point of view, as a designer i don't want to help anybody that want's to make this world a worst place.

When I lived in London I was approached to work for companies like the Daily Mail and various gambling sites. I said no to them.

Edit - Hypocritically, I did work for HSBC which at the time was taking money from Drug Cartels that were cutting people's heads off, so yeah, I'm not saying I'm perfect.

I think it does depend on the severity of the transgression against my morals. I'm Christian, but I'm willing to sit down and learn and design with the Hindu or Muslim religions in mind (especially for concept art). I almost wouldn't quite count that as against my morals, however.

Now, if it was for propaganda against alternate gender or alternate sexualities, I don't believe I would. I don't want my name on something like that, nor do I want to be a part of the hardships many of my friends face.

Religion differences: Yes. Social issues that are derogatory or inflammatory in nature: No.

As a Christian, I'd seek to redirect projects elsewhere that went against morals or conscience. That means allowing me freedom of conscience on social issues where I disagree as well as issues that I think would be harmful to the audience—a lot of traditional advertising can fall into that trap though, which makes it tricky. Personally, alcohol and tobacco advertising, gambling, anything that employed sexual objectification for sales, etc. Working with and for someone of differing persuasions on religion or sexuality yes, but I'd prefer not to do work encouraging viewpoints I disagree with.

Thankfully I've never been in this position, but it's really hard to make a blanket statement as to whether I would or wouldn't take it. That being said, I think my best work would come from something I believe in and morally support.

To use your example, I grew up Christian, and if I had to choose between a website for a Christian church or a mosque/synagogue, I'd choose the church. I'm confident I could empathize with the other job, but I'd be doing a disservice by taking an opportunity away from a designer that may have a more informed background. I think stronger work will come if your personal thoughts are inline with the client messaging/brand.

As for something as glaring as racist propoganda, if there was a demand for that kind of work, I'm sure people would be hiring for the other argument of it as well. :)

Quite surprised with the other answers, i don't have any issue to work for anything at all, and as a professional i think no one should. Design is not different than any other jobs, the only questions i ask myself are: does it pay well ? does it looks interesting professionally speaking ? Will i learn something out of this experience ?

No. I would decline such offer. If I don't believe in the product I'm making then that will be a lousy product in the end. Also, I can't put it in my portfolio and I could get a bad rep because of a lousy product... Naaah. But most of all, I don't want to give my knowledge and talent to people who do things that could hurt my lifestyle.

In the past, when I had less experience and a "tighter" financial situation, I considered almost every opportunity.

Right now I'm turning down most of the projects, mostly because of teams's and founder's skills and ability, but also those that interfere with my values. Last project like that was an app that tracked your sporting activities and built habits, all this based on the idea of selling herbalife-like pills via a selfhelp/life-coach.

What struck me most was their openness when they said they're just selling dreams to people. I waved a bye-bye and wished them luck.

I have very few moral lines. I don't mean I am an immoral person, I just mean ... gambling, pornography etc. The one thing I wont partake in, is if the product is not real. You know, the fake sites that screw people.

No.

For me it depends on the project. I generally don't do church websites anymore, (am christian) because they tend to take advantage of you (the ones I worked with anyway), and their websites are really big generally speaking.

As far as morals go, I would not develop a racist website, or sexist, etc. I would NOT turn down a homosexual client, or trans client, etc. unless I just have no interest in their project.

Really, no bigotry/hate, and no porn. and obviously no satanist websites.

Nope. I've been in that point before (a newspaper full of hate speech and lies). I told them to face and it was one of the best moments of my career.

No! Transparency, ethics & empathy primarily.

Three things that come to mind that I would refuse to work on: weapons, surveillance, or censorship technology. There might be more.

I've worked on a site for a cathedral before, I myself have no religious beliefs, but I don't find the concept offensive in any way.

At the same agency that project happened however, there was talk of pitching to do business for a chain of pay day loan / pawn shop type things. That was something I advised against and certainly wouldn't have been comfortable working on. In the end we decided not to go for it.

I wouldn't do anything that would harm anyone on a short or a long term. As designer I'm responsible for what I put out there. As for morals, it depends on the person, either they wanted to go a way they don't believe in or not, that's their personal decision to make.

I don't design for anything that I would be ashamed to tell my friends and family about. They matter more to me than a quick buck.

I have had to work on vaguely morally challenging projects (Ministry of Defence, Banks etc...) when I was freelance, as I had to family to feed. Well I didn't have to, I chose to. I'm not proud of it.

Nothing too evil though, I have tried to steer my career in the direction of good, and have had lots of charity clients, so I hope that balances things out a but.

Not all Morally Questionable jobs are equal. This is important.

Designing a website in support for a Church is not the same as designing a website for a homophobic company, or a neo-nazi organisation.

Deciding what you believe in and where you will compromise will allow you to live with integrity. If the company/client doesn't respect your personal beliefs then that's not a good place to be working.

When it comes to religious belief I'm not bothered, everyone is entitled to an opinion and their beliefs but when it comes to promoting bigotry that’s a big no-no for me or say the clients business is hurting the livelihoods of people in some way.

This is a good question. I've dealt with exactly this, and in hindsight, I wish I would have done it differently.

I once was assigned to a client who sold guns online. Personally, I'm a huge proponent of gun control, and don't really believe people should be allowed to buy guns so easily. MUCH less be able to buy them online.

But I took on the project and created their website despite my discomfort. They were very nice, and were in every way a good design client. It was even one of the coolest looking sites I've ever done. But I would never put it in my portfolio, and I feel uncomfortable every time I think about it. Looking back now, I wish I would have politley declined and maybe allowed another designer on my team with different feelings work on it instead.