Make Me A Manifesto

(image source: Ken Garland)

The idea of the manifesto in design is not a new one and this isn't the first time I've written about it. If you didn't know this already, there's a growing list of them that you can reference.

Today, after talking about the Futurist Manifesto (1909) in Design Culture class, a group of second year design students got to contemplating what they might address if they were going to create a manifesto for this time. Here are a few they came up with:

1. Make it beautiful
2. Make it environmentally friendly
3. Make it sustainably functional
4. Make it easier
5. Make it evocative
6. Make it cross-cultural
7. Make it fix problems
8. Make it simple
9. Making something mediocre is okay. It doesn't always have to be the newest thing.
10. Make it human
11. Make it understandable
12. Be future-aware
13. Wear it in rather than wear it out
14. Get rid of the unnecessary

We also discussed how manifestos were typically made by the "periphery" as a reaction against something. From this point, we wondered, "What is this generation reacting against and how would that impact our manifesto?" For some, they figured that:

a) the manifesto is dead
b) they hadn't actually encountered a revolution that they needed to react against.

Two notable points as I consider the future of the next generation of designers. In light of this discussion, I wonder how you might respond? If you were to create one today, what would it include? Do we still need a manifesto?

If Danish designers can do it, why can't we? I appreciate this document for the way it:

1) advocates a collective voice
2) provides objectives and recommendations
3) postures what design can do, rather than what design is
4) determines that design is for people and the planet
5) encourages cross-disciplinary support

And then some.

While manifestos often have a way of making a declaration without encouraging action, I read this document and feel like it gives me language to dialogue about the role of design at this time in history (and makes it accessible by collecting it into one document). Also notable? When I got the email inviting me to read this , it included this phrase at the end (from Pernille Grønbech, President of Danish Designers): We appreciate any comments. Feedback on how these ideas actually translate? What a concept.

Manifest This.

In light of a few of my posts this week – where I questioned if people really understand sustainable consumption, asked if visualization could offer a more valuable evaluation of literacy and imagined what design education would look like in the future – I found this information interesting and even, hopeful. While there have been many manifestos over the years, there is something significant when a mission statement gets presented a) outside of your own discipline and b) on a global scale. For some reason, perhaps naïve, it makes me believe it might have some stick. Here is an excerpt originally posted on Brian Collins' site, (which has now seemingly disappeared and I'm not sure why?):

The Global Agenda Council on Design is committed to applying design thinking to analyzing systemic problems, and to inventing and delivering creative solutions. We have identified six design principles, which should help us – and our fellow Global Agenda Councils – to develop new ideas and strategies to address the problems facing us all.

• Clarity: Complex problems require simple, clear and honest solutions.
• Inspiration: Successful solutions will move people by satisfying their needs, giving meaning to their lives, and raising their hopes and expectations.
• Transformation: Exceptional problems demand exceptional solutions that may be radical and even disruptive.
• Participation: Effective solutions will be collaborative, inclusive and developed with the people who will use them.
• Context: No solution should be developed or delivered in isolation but should recognize its context in terms of time, place and culture.
• Sustainability: Every solution needs to be robust, responsible and designed with regard to its long-term impact on the environment and society.
Based on our discussions with fellow councils we have developed three proposals for projects intended to fulfill the World Economic Forum’s mission of improving the state of the world:

Universal symbols to encourage sustainable consumption – Many consumers wish to behave more responsibly but are unsure as to how to do so. We propose to develop an internationally-recognized set of symbols – one to indicate the water footprint of a product and its packaging; the other to indicate their combined carbon footprint. This simple system will also encourage more consumers to follow suit in future and companies to behave more responsibly.
Design thinking within education – As design thinking is an invaluable tool to help us to think and act creatively, we propose to introduce it as a core subject on the K-12 curriculum all over the world. By providing students with a methodology for understanding global challenges and giving them the means with which to conceive and develop solutions, this would be a simple but effective way of nurturing a new generation of instinctive lateral thinkers and problem solvers.
Lifecycle-adjusted value system – This looks at the cost of existence including utilization and decomissioning costs. By visualizing and revealing these costs to society, this offers a new way of measuring value. It strives to convert a debt-focused society into an asset-focused society by changing the valuation system. It is a paradigm shift so that one generation creates assets for the next generation instead of debts.

Action plan, anyone?
Having attended a few conferences while in Rwanda, which looked at ways to respond to all sorts of development: urban infrastructure, environmental management and science/technology (to name a few), I was introduced to a popular question: What is your action plan? (which always sounded so lovely when said with force by my colleagues there: "Ack-shun Plahn").

In light of this mission statement, I am curious to see how the design community can and will act on this ideas. I know there has been much in the works to get to this stage. But how will we individually and collectively respond to this blueprint? What forms will it take? Grassroots? Corporate? Others?

I love to be inspired by grand ideas. I'm fairly sure I procure such notions on a daily basis – Just ask my friends! I am realizing more and more that what keeps me inspired is not the declaration of the hopeful future; rather it is the witness of tangible actions, which often seem to be inconsequential or perhaps even, dare I say, failures, that allow me to live into the declarations. In saying this, I suppose I'm suggesting that while I look forward to a collective action plan from the design community, I am also required to filter this into my own paradigm and act on it accordingly.

Just another design manifesto?

Manifesto is a big word in my books. Especially since this isn't the first one ever crafted. The word has a weight of permanence that can often sound militant or exclusive. But that isn't to say that the content doesn't merit reading. I am grateful for the understanding this manifesto presents when it comes to the various areas that design can inhabit. I've italicized where I think I could situate my contributions below. And I guess until we resolve to living out these ideas, a little militance might be necessary?

“Throughout history, design has been an agent of change. It helps us to understand the changes in the world around us, and to turn them to our advantage by translating them into things that can make our lives better. Now, at a time of crisis and unprecedented change in every area of our lives – economic, political, environmental, societal and in science and technology – design is more valuable than ever.

The crisis comes at a time when design has evolved. Once a tool of consumption chiefly involved in the production of objects and images, design is now also engaged with developing and building systems and strategies, and in changing behaviour often in collaboration with different disciplines.

Design is being used to:
· Gain insight about people’s needs and desires
· Build strategic foresight to discover new opportunities
· Generate creative possibilities
· Invent, prototype and test novel solutions of value
· Deliver solutions into the world as innovations adopted at scale

In the current climate, the biggest challenges for design and also its greatest opportunities are:

Well-being
Design can make an important contribution to the redefinition and delivery of social services by addressing acute problems such as ageing, youth crime, housing and health. Many designers are striving to enable people all over the world to lead their lives with dignity, especially the deprived majority of the global population - “the other 90%” who have the greatest need of design innovation.

Sustainability
Designers can play a critical role in ensuring that products, systems and services are developed, produced, shipped, sold and will eventually be disposed of in an ethically and environmentally responsible manner. Thereby meeting - and surpassing - consumers’ expectations.

Learning
Design can help to rebuild the education system to ensure that it is fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Another challenge is to redefine or reorient the design education system at a time of unprecedented demand when thousands of new design schools are being built worldwide and design is increasingly being integrated into other curricula. Designers are also deploying their skill at communication and visualization to explain and interpret the overwhelming volume of extraordinary complex information.

Innovation
Designers are continuing to develop and deliver innovative new products at a turbulent time when consumer attitudes are changing dramatically thereby creating new and exciting entrepreneurial opportunities in the current crisis. They are increasingly using their expertise to innovate in new areas such as the creation of new business models and adoption of a strategic and systemic role in both the public and the private sector.”

by Bruce Nussbaum at the World Economic Forum in Dubai