Anti-Design Festival's Manifesto

Created in the response of the pretty, commercialised London Design Festival: The Anti-Design Festival  is all about indulging in the confusion and experiments and risks! The ADF's manifesto is one of the most influential pieces in design history.

This manifesto talks about the our lives are more dependant on technology and the views of those around us. How we as individuals, who have different lives which take us into a variety of place, live the same as everybody else. Having the same toys and glasses, the same hair styles and shoes. The manifesto highlights how nothing is seen to be unique od one of a kind any more.

I like this manifesto's depth in the text, it is different from other ones where it's all about design. This manifesto is about our lives that are being lived through others as well as ourselves. I also like the limited colour used - it really sets the piece off, giving it a fresh look. The change in size of the type is quite alluring as a viewer, and the illustration on the right of the second picture. It almost symbolises that nowadays, we all stem from the same things and trying to evolve out into our own can be quite the challenge. 

Adore this one!!!

Dieter Rams' Ten Principles of "Good Design"

After seeing an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noise in the 1970's, Dieter Rams started to question himself - "Is my design good design?"  Knowing he was a momentous contributor to that the world, Rams devised  a ten point principle of making good design. (The manifesto can also be known as the Ten Commandments of design)

This particular manifesto walks us through, as an audience, the steps of what IS good design and how to go about MAKING good design. A clean cut layout and, monochrome colour scheme makes this manifesto sharp and clear to viewers. 

I like some aspects of this manifesto; The placement of text and imagery is much different to other manifesto layouts I have seen, whilst researching. Even though the layout isn't symmetrical, there is still a sense of balance and sincerity within this guide. 

Always, always love the simplicity of art. 

However, the stagnant colour scheme doesn't posses the free flowing nature that I love about art and design. The boxed imagery, implies a stationary position - which is a contradiction of the manifestos content. 

Bruce Mau's An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer who published his first manifesto in the late 1990's, and named it, An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. 

This manifesto consists of only Bruce Mau's personal beliefs and thoughts about designing, and it's process. When this manifesto first came out, it spread like wildfire in the design community, and to this day is still quoted and recognised as one of the most influential manifesto's of design itself.  The layout is simply a list and even to some, a set of rules to abide by when designing. 

I quite like this manifesto because it is aloof. Revolving only around the theory of growth and change, the manifesto is to the point yet it is undefined. 

I say undefined because growth and change are very similar in the way they act, however they each take a different approach with us as individuals. Everybody goes through puberty, maturing, getting bigger, AND seeing things from new perspectives and living with a different frame of mind to those who surround us everyday. 

When we're young: We grow. When we are old: We are still growing. 

Time is a bitch, but it's our fate. 

Bruce Mau left this manifesto incomplete (hence the title). Which I think is perfect, as nothing is ever truly completed.  

Ken Garland's First Things First

In the year of 1964, Ken Garland and twenty other designers, photographers, and students published the manifesto - First Things First.

The manifesto was a reaction of the staunch society in 1960's Britain; where there was call of return to a humanist perspective in design. It is a manifesto that lashed out against fast-paced and trivial productions of mainstream advertising. Proclaiming that these productions were time-consuming and evanescent. 

First Things First was quite quick to reach a wide audience, as the writers of the manifesto wanted to focus efforts on education and public service tasks that would prosper for the good of the British society. 

This manifesto, promotes the way advertisement companies focus on the shallow and insecure elements of humans, amongst other things. Which subliminally makes us think about all the bad things about us and wanting that need for an irrelevant change in our lives. Also, it encourages us as individuals and as a whole to think about the greater good of life. To think of our futures, our children and their futures. No one wants to be left behind and with this influential manifesto, no one ever will be.  

I really like the concept of this manifesto and the way it has been devised. It's a simple and humble layout, with that burst which grabs the attention of all those around it. 

Manifesto IDEAS

Here, is a small list of manifesto points I have been working on over the last few weeks. From these twenty phrases/statements, I will adapt and whittle down ten points; to use in my personal manifesto. 

Looking around the internet, I found this website to be most helpful and encouraging towards my cause. 

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-awesome-inspirational-manifestos.html

So here goes nothin'...

1. Believe in silly things. 
2. Be unpredictable - Always keep them guessing, it's more fun that way.
3. "Out of the box". Nope, someone's already beaten you to it.                                                    In the box. It's magnificently simple.
4. Take the glasses off once in a while, you'll have two versions of everything. 
5. Let the rain take you swimming;                                                                                                   Let the sun inspire your mind;                                                                                                     Let the wind guide your path.
6. Observe, learn, play.
7. What I love most about rivers is, you can't step in the same river twice. The waters always changing, always flowing. 
8. Listen to the spirits of the wind, their wisdom and experiences hold no bounds.
9. Do the things you want, not everything has to have logic. (Do it for the shits and giggles)
10. Do not be disheartened by the things you can not control. (Shit happens)
11. Walk with those who both embrace and neglect you, you will understand so much more. 
12. Go with the flow, you never know what's going to happen next... 
13. Your life. Your story.
14. Everyday could truly be your last, so seize every single moment.
15. Be humble, honest and true.
16. Rebel! The smallest things, can lead to the biggest changes. 
17. Mistakes are the best errors in life. 
18. Hope to say, when all your days are done; "I had my fun". 
19. Open the window, let the breeze come in. Forget everything.
20. The most enticing mysteries, are the ones that can never be solved.  

That's it folks, enjoy your day!!! :) 

Origins of the Manifesto - Part Three

The third and final movement I will share with you is Futurism.
This particular Italian art movement took speed, technology, and modernity as their inspirations.
Glorifying the war and the machine-age; Favouring the growth of Fascism; Futurism is the portrayal of dynamic character in the 20th century.
Members of the Futurism movement, were committed to all the news things of the world, wished to destroy the older forms of our cultures. This was so they could "flaunt" the beauty of modern life, for example; Machines , violence, speed, and change!

Most Futurists, worked within traditional art media's - sculpting, painting, and in a range of electric styles, inspired by Post-Impressionism. Although they did adopt some architectural aspects.
Nonetheless, Futurists were all about publicizing their own ideas and embracing popular media with new technologies.
Fascinated by the problems represented by modern experience;
Futurists strived to create masterpieces, that evoked all sorts of sensations - that were not even visible to the eye itself. At it's best, Futurism excites the mind with noises, heat and even the smell of metropolis.

The best example of this is 'The City Rises' by Umberto Boccioni.

'The City Rises' is to be known as the first Futurist painting. 

Umberto portrays the construction of a modern city, with the use of many bright and vigorous colours. The painting also illustrates, chaos and movement - resembling a war.

These too, highlight movement, change, and velocity. 

Futurists Manifesto.

The Futurists created many manifesto's, such as:

• The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, by F.T. Marinetti
  (Paris) Le Figaro, February 20, 1909. (Here’s one alternative translation; and here’s another, this one translated as The Joy of Mechanical Force)
• The Manifesto of the Futurist Painters, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini
  (Milan) Poesia, February 11, 1910.
• Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini
  (Milan) Poesia, April 11, 1910.

These are just a few to speak of. There are many more to look into, if your interested. 

Website:  http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/ 

The manifesto, I would like to talk about is the 'Manifesto of Futurism'.
Written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the autumn of 1908. 

This particular manifesto, is said to be influenced by 20th century events. However this was published well before the 20th century and therefore cannot be inspired by the time or events during. For example, the Russian Revolutions of 1917 were the first of the sort "described" by article 11, yet the first of those occurred eight years after the Manifesto's publication.

Quick fact:

Futurists believed that war was the leader of progression and positive change. 

Origins of the Manifesto - Part Two

The second movement I want to share is, Dadaism.
Born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural values of the early 20th Century, in Zurich Switzerland. The art of Dada, was a reaction chain from the horror seen in the first world war; they believed it was the fault of society which led us to this war.
Therefore the movement did all that they could - through the power of art - to destroy traditional values in the art world and all across the seas. Deeming society as the cause of the monstrosity that WW1 was, Dadaists wanted there art to encourage a new way of thinking in the world.

Dadaism was seen as less of an art style, and more like a protest movement, with an anti-establishment manifesto - embracing poetry, theatre and dance...
As we know, art movements are usually named by the critiques of the world however, Dada was the only art-protest movement named by the artists themselves, (although there is no pin pointing the exact tongue the name came from).
'Da-Da' was taken from the Slavonic language of Tzara, meaning 'Yes, Yes'.
It also derives from France, meaning 'Wooden Horse': in German it's another way of saying, 'Fuck you, goodbye, to the next'. The word 'Da-Da' is international and can be interpreted in so many ways, in so many countries and by so many people. And that to me, is the epitomey of being poetic.

This movement has such an enthusiastic and positive frame of mind, that is inspiring to every one of us as individuals.

As you can see through these two examples, the art of Dada is vibrant, typographical and, quite busy in the way it tells a story of thousand words. 

 Dadaism's Manifesto:

During the year of 1916, Hugo Ball was working on Le Manifeste DaDa, one of the many manifesto's that the Dadaists created, along with magazines - with the purpose of attacking the compliant attitudes of social, political and cultured minds that did not fight had enough to oppose the first world war.

In this manifesto, Hugo Ball expresses his opinions on Dada becoming an art movement. Hugo stayed with Dadaism for six months after the publishing of this manifesto. After these months, Ball left due to a conflict of interests with other artists in the Dada world.