Consumerism:
Focus on the key critical text.
Needs a question.
Critique of the 'First Thing's First' manifesto.
Update this for 2014.
Essay:
Focus on triangulation of 'First Thing's First 2000' manifesto.
Bring in theories criticising consumerism.
Find a focus (theme, commodity, market).
To what extent is the 'First Thing's First 2000' manifesto relevant to modern graphic design?
'How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul.' - Adrian Shaughnessy.
Practical:
Guide book for the modern designer?
First Things First manifesto improved 2014.
First Things First - 1964
We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.
By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.
In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.
We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.
First Things First - 2000
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 programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.
We propose a reversal of priorities in favour 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.
Appropriate books:
Sources:
These books were out of the library by the time I got there and so I ordered them off amazon. Over the Christmas holidays, these did not turn up and I struggled to get my money back. When I got back to university I went back to the library and took out the ones they had and then re-ordered the ones they didn't as well as picking up other relevant books.
'How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul.' - Adrian Shaughnessy.
Shaughnessy A (2005) How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul, Laurence King Publishing, page 27: "Peter Saville told the Times of London (15 September, 2004): 'The trouble with graphic design today is: when can you believe it? It's not the message of the designer anymore. Every applied artist ends up selling his or her soul at some point. I haven't done it and look at me. People call me one of the most famous designers in the world and I haven't got any money.'"
(Shaughnessy, A (2005) : p 27)
(Shaughnessy, A (2005) : p 27)
'The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy.' - Michael Foley.
Foley M (2011) The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy, Simon & Schuster, page 8: "So the absurdity of happiness is that it is embarrassing to discuss or even mention, impossible to define or measure, may not be achievable at all - or, at best, only intermittently and unconsciously - and may even turn into its opposite if directly pursued, but that it frequently turns up unexpectedly in the course of pursuing something else. There is no tease more infuriating."
(Foley, M (2011) : p 8)
Foley M (2011) The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy, Simon & Schuster, page 9: "One of capitalism's most successful confidence tricks is its promotion of the illusion that anyone can make millions. But there is room at the top for only a few and few have the aptitude to claim a place."
(Foley, M (2011) : p 9)
(Foley, M (2011) : p 8)
Foley M (2011) The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy, Simon & Schuster, page 9: "One of capitalism's most successful confidence tricks is its promotion of the illusion that anyone can make millions. But there is room at the top for only a few and few have the aptitude to claim a place."
(Foley, M (2011) : p 9)
'Do Good Design: How Design Can Change Our World: How Visual Communicators Can Save the World.' - David B. Berman.
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 49: "'Designers: Don't work for companies that want you to lie for them.' Tibor Kalman (1949-1999)"
(Berman D (2009) : p 49)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 51: "We know that 60 percent of consumers prefer the comfort and security of a national brand over a no-name product or service, and that preference extends to all products sold under that brand. Try on the example of Nike baseball caps. Nike made it's reputation by delivering quality shoes, and built a customer base who trusted its brand. So when Nike chooses to sell baseball caps, the same group of loyal customers is ready to consume such hats because they believe that Nike would only make great products. Then Nike adds a huge Nike logo on the front of the cap. Now consumers have another reason to buy the product: they can publicly proclaim their membership in the Nike club and align themselves with a reputation of quality and style. Thus a $4 hat becomes a $19.95 hat (plus a free walking billboard for Nike) even though Nike is not an innovator in the hat-making industry."
(Berman D (2009) : p 51)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "Adbusters magazine founder Kalle Lasn claims that most North Americans can only identify 10 plants, yet can recognise 1000 corporate brands. [...] The average American encounters over 3000 promotional visual messages each day (up from 560 in 1971)."
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "'What is wrong is a style of life which is presented to be better, when it is directed towards having rather than being.' Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)"
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "To paraphrase Steve Mann, the eye is the largest bandwidth pipe into the human brain, and graphic designers spend their days designing what goes in. When you leverage such power in order to deceive people, then those cleverly crafted messages and images become lies. We have a responsibility to not exploit this power."
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 64: "Marketers often seek ways of engaging their audiences on a deeply subconscious level, by linking invented images with trusted reference points in their audience's memories."
(Berman D (2009) : p 64)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 89: "'Contempt for the intelligence of the audience engenders graphics that lie... graphic excellence begins with telling the truth.' Edward R. Tufte"
(Berman D (2009) : p 89)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 92: "Advertisers take advantage of weaknesses in our psyche to convince us of false needs that can be satisfied by buying things. Good design should be about what's good about the product, not what is "bad" or vulnerable in the buyer."
(Berman D (2009) : p 92).
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 125: "Good Design is a strategic, sustainable, ethical response to a business problem."
(Berman D (2009) : p 125).
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 127: "'Design creates culture. Culture creates values. Values determine the future. Design is therefore responsible for the world are children will live in.' Robert L. Peters"
(Berman D (2009) : p 127).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 28: "First, investigators have found that the mass media can produce many subtle, or "indirect", effects - in other words, the mass media may not tell you what to think, but they do tell you what to think about and how to do it."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 28).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 30: "Clearly, then, the mass media do affect some of our most fundamental beliefs and opinions and can even lead us to purchase an advertised brand of product or to support the destruction of other human beings."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 30).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 31: "Sometimes a message can be persuasive even if its arguments are not fully understood or comprehended."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 31).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 31: "The successful persuasion tactic is one that directs and channels thoughts so that the target thinks in a manner agreeable to the communicator's point of view; the successful tactic disrupts any negative thoughts and promotes positive thoughts about the proposed course of action."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 31).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 330: "Perhaps the saddest demonstrations of the influence of advertising comes from an experiment which found that four and five year old children, after watching an ad for a toy, were twice as likely to say that they would rather play with a "not so nice boy" with the toy than a "nice boy" without the toy."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 330).
(Berman D (2009) : p 49)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 51: "We know that 60 percent of consumers prefer the comfort and security of a national brand over a no-name product or service, and that preference extends to all products sold under that brand. Try on the example of Nike baseball caps. Nike made it's reputation by delivering quality shoes, and built a customer base who trusted its brand. So when Nike chooses to sell baseball caps, the same group of loyal customers is ready to consume such hats because they believe that Nike would only make great products. Then Nike adds a huge Nike logo on the front of the cap. Now consumers have another reason to buy the product: they can publicly proclaim their membership in the Nike club and align themselves with a reputation of quality and style. Thus a $4 hat becomes a $19.95 hat (plus a free walking billboard for Nike) even though Nike is not an innovator in the hat-making industry."
(Berman D (2009) : p 51)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "Adbusters magazine founder Kalle Lasn claims that most North Americans can only identify 10 plants, yet can recognise 1000 corporate brands. [...] The average American encounters over 3000 promotional visual messages each day (up from 560 in 1971)."
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "'What is wrong is a style of life which is presented to be better, when it is directed towards having rather than being.' Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)"
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 61: "To paraphrase Steve Mann, the eye is the largest bandwidth pipe into the human brain, and graphic designers spend their days designing what goes in. When you leverage such power in order to deceive people, then those cleverly crafted messages and images become lies. We have a responsibility to not exploit this power."
(Berman D (2009) : p 61)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 64: "Marketers often seek ways of engaging their audiences on a deeply subconscious level, by linking invented images with trusted reference points in their audience's memories."
(Berman D (2009) : p 64)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 89: "'Contempt for the intelligence of the audience engenders graphics that lie... graphic excellence begins with telling the truth.' Edward R. Tufte"
(Berman D (2009) : p 89)
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 92: "Advertisers take advantage of weaknesses in our psyche to convince us of false needs that can be satisfied by buying things. Good design should be about what's good about the product, not what is "bad" or vulnerable in the buyer."
(Berman D (2009) : p 92).
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 125: "Good Design is a strategic, sustainable, ethical response to a business problem."
(Berman D (2009) : p 125).
Berman D (2009) Do Good Design, New Riders Publishing, page 127: "'Design creates culture. Culture creates values. Values determine the future. Design is therefore responsible for the world are children will live in.' Robert L. Peters"
(Berman D (2009) : p 127).
'Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion' - Anthony Pratkanis & Elliot Aronson.
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 28: "First, investigators have found that the mass media can produce many subtle, or "indirect", effects - in other words, the mass media may not tell you what to think, but they do tell you what to think about and how to do it."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 28).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 30: "Clearly, then, the mass media do affect some of our most fundamental beliefs and opinions and can even lead us to purchase an advertised brand of product or to support the destruction of other human beings."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 30).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 31: "Sometimes a message can be persuasive even if its arguments are not fully understood or comprehended."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 31).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 31: "The successful persuasion tactic is one that directs and channels thoughts so that the target thinks in a manner agreeable to the communicator's point of view; the successful tactic disrupts any negative thoughts and promotes positive thoughts about the proposed course of action."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 31).
Pratkanis A, Aronson E (2004) Age of propaganda: the everyday use and abuse of persuasion, Henry Holt Books, page 330: "Perhaps the saddest demonstrations of the influence of advertising comes from an experiment which found that four and five year old children, after watching an ad for a toy, were twice as likely to say that they would rather play with a "not so nice boy" with the toy than a "nice boy" without the toy."
(Pratkanis A & Aronson E (2004) : p 330).
I believe that the ethics behind the First Things First manifesto are both interesting and have made an impact on my view of graphic design but I see it as too extreme to take 100% literally. In this day and age, could someone live off of working in graphic design whilst abiding the manifesto? probably not, if so, certainly not comfortably unless they had a lot of money behind them in the first place.
I want to correct this, maybe there is a way of putting this information across in a less extreme context and would create more of an impact in the design community. I have ideas such as re-creating the First Things First manifesto for 2014 but taking the unavoidable consumerist lifestyle into account and rather than turning away any clientele associated in business, being sure that they understand that you will only design to sell the product, not the false values and lifestyles they convey.
This would increase popularity in the idea of honest advertising which people can make a personal decision on rather than being brainwashed into buying things to get to a place in life they will never have the opportunity to reach. This would lead to a more approachable form of advertising which people would listen to where they are simply saying "we have this product that does this, you should try it, it's good" rather than "if you have this product you will get a model girlfriend and everything in life will be perfect".
My plan is to analyse the First Things First Manifesto 2000 and research into consumerism to then back up my findings with several sources in the form of triangulation and work out the manifesto's strengths and weaknesses in the modern design world and from there correct the manifesto based on the knowledge I have gathered to improve it's relevance and effect now.
I want to correct this, maybe there is a way of putting this information across in a less extreme context and would create more of an impact in the design community. I have ideas such as re-creating the First Things First manifesto for 2014 but taking the unavoidable consumerist lifestyle into account and rather than turning away any clientele associated in business, being sure that they understand that you will only design to sell the product, not the false values and lifestyles they convey.
This would increase popularity in the idea of honest advertising which people can make a personal decision on rather than being brainwashed into buying things to get to a place in life they will never have the opportunity to reach. This would lead to a more approachable form of advertising which people would listen to where they are simply saying "we have this product that does this, you should try it, it's good" rather than "if you have this product you will get a model girlfriend and everything in life will be perfect".
My plan is to analyse the First Things First Manifesto 2000 and research into consumerism to then back up my findings with several sources in the form of triangulation and work out the manifesto's strengths and weaknesses in the modern design world and from there correct the manifesto based on the knowledge I have gathered to improve it's relevance and effect now.
Essay Plan:
Introduction:
The essay will begin with the 2000 manifesto to set the scene and gather the reader's understanding of the topic, the manifesto will then be explained.
Main body:
The manifesto will be analysed and it's positives and negatives will be shown and backed up with collected quotes from three or more sources. Question the relevance the manifesto has on our modern 2014 lifestyles and work ethics, and then come up with new ideas which would help our society more or be more realistic for our daily lives using the collected quotes.
Conclusion:
Create my own version of the first things first manifesto based on the findings studied in the main body of the essay.
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