First Things First 1964/2000

wildsorrow · Jun 18, 2008 at 8:30 PM

So I am currently writing my own manifesto to keep me focused on life and becoming a better person.

Decided to do research through my design bookmarks,

stumbled across The First Things First Manifesto written in 1964 and updated in 2000.

Below is the 2000 version:

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.[/b]
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The 1964 version was intended to re-vitalise design in Britain in the 60s (which was crap compared America and Germany at the time) and generate whether design can be value-free.
The 2000 version is intended to generate discussion about the design profession's priorities and whether design can be value-free.

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Greasy Pete · Jun 18, 2008 at 8:37 PM

what the hell's a manifesto

wildsorrow · Jun 18, 2008 at 8:44 PM

what the hell's a manifesto[/b]
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...oh boy.

A manifesto is a declaration of principles or intentions. Manifestos are usually political but not all manifestos are political.

Famous manifestos include:

The United States Declaration of Independence
The Communist Manifesto
The Surrealist Manifesto
Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam

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enjoyshoes · Jun 21, 2008 at 11:24 AM

The 1964 version was intended to re-vitalise design in Britain in the 60s (which was crap compared America and Germany at the time)!!!
really!!!

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First Things First 1964/2000

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