The First Things First manifesto was written 29 November 1963 and published in 1964 by Graphic Designer Ken Garland. Backed by over 400 graphic designers and artists it also received the backing of Tony Benn, a radical left-wing MP and activist, who published it in its entirety in the Guardian newspaper.
Reacting against a rich and affluent Britain of the sixties, it tried to re-radicalise design which had become lazy and uncritical. Drawing on ideas shared by Critical Theory, the Frankfurt School and the counter-culture of the time it explicitly re-affirmed the belief that Design is not a neutral, value-free process.
It rallied against the consumerist culture that was purely concerned with buying and selling things and tried to highlight a Humanist dimension to graphic design theory. It was later updated and republished with a new group of signatories as the First Things First 2000 manifesto.
- [Wikipedia Description]
Also do read Andrew Howard's EYE Magazine essay "There is such a thing as Society" about FTF.
"Before we learn our ABCs, letters are abstract shapes with no meaning. As the letters become recognizable, the individual forms and structures become invisible to the eye. Familiarity breeds indifference, and the unique forms that define each letter are replaced with a name for identification, eventually revealing words, phrases, and sentences. This ritual, our earliest contact with graphic design, is the path to literacy, but it fails to develop and cultivate our eyes."
- William Longhauser (2005)
Link: William Longhauser (2005). Beyond Small, Medium and Large. AIGA.
Is there a relationship between the conceptual thinking behind Marcel Duchamp's 1917 urinal and contemporary design practice? Design writer and Design Observer contributer Nick Currie believe's there is. In an AIGA feature of 1995, Currie presented some interesting thoughts on the evolution of Conceptual Art and its impact on designing for social impact. Currie's feature, Conceptual Design: Building a Social Conscience begins by exploring if there has 'ever been “Conceptual Design?”' and moves on to discuss how the conceptual arts of the early 1900s has led young designers to think more about social issues than consumer goods.
"There’s a generation of young designers who, almost a century after Duchamp, seem to share something of his spirit... Rather than products, these people are designing situations, intervening in existing arrangements, framing everyday activities in ways that make us think of them, unexpectedly, as “design.” And although they’re often satirical in tone, these designers share a concern with ethics and responsibility; one of the reasons the design they make is so often immaterial is their sense that the last thing the world needs is more objects, more consumer goods. The widening ripples of Duchamp’s gesture blend, in their work, with the repercussions of a gathering concern around issues like sustainability, community and responsibility: to be conceptual is, after all, to be thoughtful. "
Although, I do see the connection between Conceptual Artists influencing the IDEO-esq thinking and design practice of today, I find it difficult to trust Conceptual Art has made [enough] significant impact to today's design industry. Few agencies and/or designers seem to pride themselves on conceptual- research- idea- centric design, that makes signifcant impact to social and behavioural change. Nevertheless, this article is a worthy read for any designers influenced [like myself] by Conceptual Art/thinking and Surrealism.
Image: ReDesignDeutschland
Link: Currie, N. (2005). Conceptual Design: Building a Social Conscience. AIGA
Design Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Kerry Polite (2004) published his thoughts on what are today’s [2004] ‘most important questions in design education’. He offers a personal observation to the nature of contemporary design education, in comparison to its historical origins:
‘In the past, students and educators dealt mainly with four or five principles: composition, typography, form, colour and drawing… Today, students are expected to be skilled technicians, be knowledgeable in a range of software programs and work with sound, motion, and interactivity’.Polite explains how design students need to ‘slow down and think’, to be working for ‘content-driven, not style-driven’ design solutions. The problem, he pitches is how today, ‘Students want to rush in and make finished projects…’ and ‘…because they have been bombarded with very slick visual stimuli their entire lives, the work tends to look derivative.’
This observational discussion offers an interesting [if, concerning] perspective on how important it remains to embed and praise design thinking, research, experimentation and relevance.
Thinking About Design Education was published by the AIGA in 2004.
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