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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.
Signed by: 1) Jonathan Barnbrook 2) Nick Bell 3) Andrew Blauvelt 4) Hans Bockting 5) Irma Boom 6) Sheila Levrant de Bretteville 7) Max Bruinsma 8) Siân Cook 9) Linda van Deursen 10) Chris Dixon 11) William Drenttel 12) Gert Dumbar 13) Simon Esterson 14) Vince Frost 15) Ken Garland 16) Milton Glaser 17) Jessica Helfand 18) Steven Heller 19) Andrew Howard 20) Tibor Kalman 21) Jeffery Keedy 22) Zuzana Licko 23) Ellen Lupton 24) Katherine McCoy 25) Armand Mevis 26) J. Abbott Miller 27) Rick Poynor 28) Lucienne Roberts 29) Erik Spiekermann 30) Jan van Toorn 31) Teal Triggs 32) Rudy VanderLans 33) Bob Wilkinson.
Beberapa tahun sebelumnya, majalah Kanada, Adbusters mencetak ulang manifesto ini. 'First Things First', yang telah ditulis pada tahun 1964 di London oleh Ken Garland, dan ditandatangani oleh 21 praktisi komunikasi visual. Katika cetak ulang ini keluar, Garland yang sama sekali tidak tahu menahu tentang ini menyatakan ketertarikannya dan menyatakan gerakan kembali pada prioritas utama praktisi komunikasi visual, yaitu untuk 'reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication.'
Ketika mulai bergulir, gagasan in imendapat dukungan dari berbagai majalah yang memiki perhatian yang sama. 'First Things First Manifesto 2000' akhirnya dipublikasikan, dengan 33 orang yang menandatanganinya. Manifesto ini kemudian diterbitkan di Adbusters (Canada), Emigre (Issue 51) [1], AIGA Journal of Graphic Design (United States), Eye magazine no. 33 vol. 8, Autumn 1999, Blueprint (Britain) dan Items (Netherlands).
Sebuah poster tentang manifesto ini dibuat oleh Adbusters, dan dikirimkan ke berbagai sekolah desain di berbagai penjuru dunia. Poster ini bertujuan mendorong terjadinya diskusi di lingkungan akademik, terutama di ranah komunikasi visual. Perubahan yang terjadi di dunia periklanan, desain grafis, perdagangan, dan kebudayaan memunculkan beberapa pertanyaan dan dilema yang perlu ditinjau terus menerus. Para mahasiswa desain, ditantang untuk terus menemukan nilai-nilai yang bisa digunakan sebagai etika bagi para praktisi komunikasi visual yang bertanggung jawab terhadap profesinya di masa depan.
