“The First Things First 2000 manifesto, written and launched by Adbusters magazine in 1999, was an updated version of the earlier First Things First manifesto written and published in 1964 by Ken Garland, a British designer.
The 2000 manifesto was signed by a group of 33 figures from the international graphic design community, many of them well known, and simultaneously published in Adbusters (Canada),Emigre (Issue 51) [1] and AIGA Journal of Graphic Design (United States), Eye magazine no. 33 vol. 8, Autumn 1999 and Blueprint (Britain) and Items (Netherlands). The manifesto was subsequently published in many other magazines and books around the world, sometimes in translation. Its aim was to generate discussion about the graphic design profession’s priorities in the design press and at design schools. Some designers welcomed this attempt to reopen the debate, while others rejected the manifesto.
The question of value-free design has been continually contested in the graphic design community between those who are concerned about the need for values in design and those who believe it should be value-free.[citation needed] Those who believe that design can be free from values reject the idea that graphic designers should concern themselves with underlying political questions. Those who are concerned about values believe that designers should be critical and take a stand in their choice of work, for instance by not promoting industries and products perceived to be harmful. Examples of projects that might be classified as unacceptable include many forms of advertising and designs for cigarette manufacturers, arms companies and so on. Adbusters has been a significant outlet for these ideas, especially in its commitment to detournement and culture jamming. “
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Things_First_2000_manifesto
“Art is being co-opted by consumerism. From the hijacking of the Hip to sell things to a new audience, to the billboardization of graphics for commercials it’s all around us. This process of adopting yesterday’s avant-garde for today’s commercial tedium is nothing new.”
- http://www.verdant.net/arts.html
Introduction
I would have to totally agree with the above stated. Art is becoming commercialized and so are the artists and the designers. But personally, I completely disagree with the manifesto. Yes the design world is turning into a world in which designers have become what designers do but coming up with such a manifesto is not appropriate at all. We cannot generalize the whole society. If art is something to make yourself happy then leave it to the designer or the artist what choice to make – either do it for the sake of money or just art. Every individual does a specific thing that they feel is right. I personally do art or design for both the purposes. When required I have done work for the commercial need and for my own satisfaction I do what I like.
I would like to approach the topic with giving arguments of my personal opinion as a:
- A designer
- General public
This is for the reason that I personally don’t have a very strong view on either of the sides and it all depends for me on my mood and the situation.
My argument as a Designer would be:
“I am a designer, a creative personal, a hub made for constantly creating new ideas and change the world with what I feel inside.” This is something I would feel when I do my designs for myself for my own satisfaction. I have done a lot of works for my portfolio and most of them are done with the guideline specified by me, what I wanted to show in my work was al decided by me. I have a passion for photography. I really like to do photojournalistic style and capturing normal things. I am not an abstract kind of guy. So my photography generally is very conceptual and tells a story.
For example if you take the example of this picture above. This is one of the pictures I took when I just started our photography and I did for a project and called conflict in which I wanted to show how common man is being involved in conflict and how he is affected, yet there is peace and sanctity on his face. A slight wondering on why is this happening to him and just feeling sorry about himself. Now this thing could have been done in numerous ways and a lot of expressions but instead of that I told him to go in deep thought and give me the most natural pose with no expression. Because if you see something like that happens to you and if u are all alone you would be deep in
Now this picture above was done for a very specified project in which I had to show him like that. This picture is also nice but the thing with this is if you concentrate on the lip he is pulling it his eyes have an expression. Since I had an out line for it I had to make this picture in the convention pose. But I had the freedom of showing the expression. And I pulled off this shot by the post processing techniques.
What my main aim to show these pictures is that we can’t generalize everybody and all the situations by coming up with a manifesto. Now I don’t disagree or agree with the manifesto but I disagree with the whole concept of coming out with a manifesto in first place.
In my case it has happened a lot that I had to do a crappy design just for the sake that the client wanted me to do but then I try and make it as good as I cant within my limits.
So sometime you have to do what designers do and not think but that earns you the bread and butter. When I have enough money to support me I generally don’t take these kind of jobs, but when the necessity calls you have to do what is given to you and shut the brain and just do what the client wants.
But this is not always the case again even we cant generalize the clients. I have come up with some really nice works after being remaining in the guidelines and using my own creativity. One of the studio shoots is did and post processed it. So the image above came in picture which I think is really interesting and has got a very different yet interesting composition to it.
Again if you see the expression on my models he is again giving a very thinking expression in the deep thought mode which is my favorite.
Now again this is not a general thing it depends on me and I have my own choices just like everybody else. I believe coming out with a manifesto is not a solution because people have a god gifted virtue called Freewill and everybody uses that. Manifesto generalizes the public and designers in this case, which I think is a wrong thing to do.
This is one of the works that I did for my studio and I wanted to give a darker look to the image to show the playfulness and the joy in a child’s life well I was at first criticized that dark don’t go with children but as the final piece came out it really gelled with the concept. So I think having prejudice is not always helpful especially in our field where we are creating new thing each n every day.
Media is one of the biggest components of visual culture today. Everyday we are exposed to so many visuals that are done due to the media, from the boring, copy-laden radio commercial to the easily skimmed, forgettable newspaper ad. According to a study a child before even going to kinder garden is exposed to more than a thousand ads. If you take example of Singapore every where you go may it be a bus, mrt, sidewalk, schools, taxies, buildings everywhere you see ads, posters, prints.
Even in the restrooms like one in the Ministry of sound every urinal has a screen in front of them to show the events taking place in that. Those things overtake us. It’s like these things have invaded the earth and made men their slaves. One day I just thought of counting the number of visual messages that I come across in a day my count was 850 because I was not able to count more than that as I was really tired. So 850 is not at all a small amount that in a way means 850 people met me today and each and everybody said a line or two to me. And that seriously is a lot.
If something to write a manifesto I would say I believe in the fact that the media is affecting us in a way it shouldn’t and we as designer and creative people should take good note of the following and not support any such acts or work for these kind of things.
The media has a lot of affect these days on the viewer may it be the print media, advertising, movies or digital games. The message they convey can be a good one or a bad one.
Smoking and alcohol related media (Movies, images, commercials)
Now a days smoking and drinking (alcohol) can be seen on all kind of Medias. They are shown as a cool act and make the viewer want to consume them. They are shown as if the person is sexy and everybody does it. Ads pursue the teenager towards smoking and drinking. People who see a whole lot of liquor or alcohol and cigarette ads are influenced by them and make them to drink and smoke. Studies have shown that the most famous cigarettes amongst teenagers are the ones that are advertised the most. So surely In this case media is playing a bad role in shaping their lives. Some cigarette and alcohol companies leave out the message that says the ill effects of these products purposely due to which when people consume these products they don’t know what they are getting into. And this thing I am talking in context for the whole world not just in Singapore
Violence
From the very beginning at very young ages children learn about violence and this lasts long. Media has a very bad effect on the young age of today about violence. Children tend to be violent against other after their favorite celebrity doing a stunt or a fight in a movie. There are many examples of this. I once read in an Indian newspaper that after watching the superhero flick KRISSH starring Hrithik Roshan a very young boy jumped off the first floor to enact his favorite hero. And this was not only one case many such cases were reported in that period
The passion of Christ (2004)
This movie is directed by Mel Gibson and won couple of academy awards. Now this movie is about the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ. So the whole movie is full of the tortures on Jesus. And there is a lot of and detailed graphic violence. Like I saw this movie couple of years ago and I still cannot forget that scene in which Jesus is tortured and they show flakes of his skin flying away. Out the 120 minutes of the movie 100 minutes were just the various tortures done on Jesus. Now according to me there was no need for doing all this and showing these things on screen. I went to the movie with couple of my female friends and all of them were weeping by the time the movie ended.
Now violence shown in media also makes some people accept the violence of the real world and to some it can make the real world look a shady and violent place. According to me the media should take responsibility for it and come out with a solution.
Bodies and weight issue
Now this is one of the major issues in the western world. The disease I am talking about is anorexia and bulimia which are due to eating disorders. These are prominent in young girls. They see the models in TV and fashion shows and try to be like them. They diet to be skinny and hence become the victim of these diseases ultimately resulting in death. Even Donatella Versace’s daughter was diagnosed with this disease. One of the Calvin Klein’s ad even showed a girl vomiting into a sink and the product named obsession which clearly meant obsession to be skinny. This image you see here is just an example of how bad the body can be affected from this deadly disease
And media and fashion industry is the main cause of this thing.
The fashion show in Spain took a step forward for this problem and set a minimum weight for the models taking part in this event so that this discourages the young models to be skinny.
I strongly believe that rather than the whole issue of the manifesto I would concentrate more on this perspective of the creative world and help make the world a better place rather than just sitting around and wondering what is art.
Reference:
http://it.stlawu.edu/~x2tarel/page%203.html
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4GFRC_enSG209SG209&q=anorexia
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4GFRC_enSG209SG209&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=calvin+klein+ad&spell=1
http://donsmaps.com/images3/lascauxbulls.jpg
http://www.foothilltech.org/9th-grade-action-based-project/mass-media/mass-media.jpg
www.marymount.edu/…/fashion/nowandthen.html
http://yusuf.asgerally.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/image77b27e90-2a82-44d1-b924-3b5ad759e2da.jpg
