Manifestos has been around for centuries until today and they have served people well, but the question is what is a manifesto and what purpose do they serve? I will answer that later as we look at a couple of manifestos including the "First Things First" manifesto as well as the "Incomplete Manifesto of Growth".
As I revealed above the idea of manifestos has been around for centuries shows that these specific types of documents served some kind of an important purpose to the human history through years, these include the political ones, the technological, artistic, scientific and educational, but we will not discuss this deeper for in this case we are only focused on the artistic ones. The first artistic manifesto was launched in 1909 by Fillipo Tomasso Marinetti and was titled "The Futurist Manifesto" which explained and made more clear the ways of the Futurist artists and the value of their movement. The Oxford Leaner's dictionary defines the word 'manifest" as to show something clearly, especially a feeling, an attitude or quality, derived from that a manifesto is a written statement which explains the beliefs of the people who are for the movement that the manifesto explains. The Futurist Manifesto was explaining how the art resembled the fast living of the city life, the sleeplessness, and the energy in every way possible, they did this through paintings, poetry and sculptures.
THE FOLLOWING HEADINGS ARE LINKED TO THEIR MANIFESTOS:
First Things First (2000)
The First Things First manifesto was written during the year 1964 by Graphic Designers declaring the importance and value of design arguing that it should not be overlooked, therefore designers should not use their imagination to make designs for companies exploiting their creativity to promote their products in order to sell. This argument was revisited by the year 2000 as Graphic Designers of that year also believed in the views of the manifesto and rewrote it to accommodate the what was the contemporary times by then, these designers also believed that designers should do work that matters as in for charitable causes and other information designs which urgently require their expertise. I agree with these arguments, but then again I see design as I see Mathematics, the more one actually works in something the more experience and skillful they will get which will give them more skill to execute his or her creativity well with different mediums without reaching dead ends. Therefore although this manifesto argues facts by saying our worth as designers should not be used for what we do not believe in such as product marketing for it is merely promoting the company's name and products, but I see it as a challenge to a designer which at the end will show if a designer has the capability to do what is expected of him or her. Design is a career and as designers we should engage in as many project as possible, as long as we learn something from them and they help us to be more creative, I believe we should not limit our creativity according to a certain number of projects to work on, we should use every opportunity we come across and use it to grow.
Incomplete Manifesto for Growth (Bruce Mau)
The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth I see more as a desiderata(things wanted or needed) for it is how many designers would want to be, it is steps that reveals the secret of growing as a designer in the art world, now no matter where one is in life I do not think there are those who are at a point where they do not want to grow, maybe in years but in mind and spirit everyone yearns that. As a Graphic Designer there are times where I would feel frustrated about a project and not know what to do because I do not have an idea to work from, therefore I would spent time stressing and wondering when will a piece of creativity fall from the sky because in the design world time is literally money. This manifesto is about showing designers that they do not have to go through that, all they have to do is to enjoy what they do and test themselves with the projects they do while knowing that nothing is ever wrong, but something to learn from. One would decide to view this manifesto as something that is intending to build a perfect individual with the excuse of "no one is perfect" in mind, well the thing with this manifesto is that it is for growth and not for perfection, it does state that the things you would see as mistakes should not be seen as such for that type of perceiving will only block one from growing, this manifesto is about growth and there is no human which has reached a point where they can no longer grow.
De Stijl (1918)
The De Stijl group had a goal of an organic combination of architecture, sculpture and painting in a lucid, elemental, unsentimental construction. This group was interested in "pure reality", universal harmony, asymmetry, abstract reducing, geometry as well as vertical and horizontal lines. This pure reality which they mention means that their art was to be represented by the purest things as in primary colours(red, blue and yellow), and straight horizontal and vertical lines with representations of only geometrical shapes. With this kind of art if there was no manifesto to explain its values people would have had overlooked it and saw it as something directed towards children and that right there is the importance of manifestos. De Stijl is truly art in its purest form with nothing abstract.
Without manifestos it would have been hard to understand the meaning of art, because unlike mathematics and science there is no one thing which describes it totally. Therefore manifestos has helped in making the movement's pioneers message to be clear to the viewers and the listeners of art as they explain their visions and purpose of their art so that it would not be misinterpreted.
THE FOLLOWING HEADINGS ARE LINKED TO THEIR MANIFESTOS:
First Things First (2000)
The First Things First manifesto was written during the year 1964 by Graphic Designers declaring the importance and value of design arguing that it should not be overlooked, therefore designers should not use their imagination to make designs for companies exploiting their creativity to promote their products in order to sell. This argument was revisited by the year 2000 as Graphic Designers of that year also believed in the views of the manifesto and rewrote it to accommodate the what was the contemporary times by then, these designers also believed that designers should do work that matters as in for charitable causes and other information designs which urgently require their expertise. I agree with these arguments, but then again I see design as I see Mathematics, the more one actually works in something the more experience and skillful they will get which will give them more skill to execute his or her creativity well with different mediums without reaching dead ends. Therefore although this manifesto argues facts by saying our worth as designers should not be used for what we do not believe in such as product marketing for it is merely promoting the company's name and products, but I see it as a challenge to a designer which at the end will show if a designer has the capability to do what is expected of him or her. Design is a career and as designers we should engage in as many project as possible, as long as we learn something from them and they help us to be more creative, I believe we should not limit our creativity according to a certain number of projects to work on, we should use every opportunity we come across and use it to grow.
Incomplete Manifesto for Growth (Bruce Mau)
The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth I see more as a desiderata(things wanted or needed) for it is how many designers would want to be, it is steps that reveals the secret of growing as a designer in the art world, now no matter where one is in life I do not think there are those who are at a point where they do not want to grow, maybe in years but in mind and spirit everyone yearns that. As a Graphic Designer there are times where I would feel frustrated about a project and not know what to do because I do not have an idea to work from, therefore I would spent time stressing and wondering when will a piece of creativity fall from the sky because in the design world time is literally money. This manifesto is about showing designers that they do not have to go through that, all they have to do is to enjoy what they do and test themselves with the projects they do while knowing that nothing is ever wrong, but something to learn from. One would decide to view this manifesto as something that is intending to build a perfect individual with the excuse of "no one is perfect" in mind, well the thing with this manifesto is that it is for growth and not for perfection, it does state that the things you would see as mistakes should not be seen as such for that type of perceiving will only block one from growing, this manifesto is about growth and there is no human which has reached a point where they can no longer grow.
De Stijl (1918)
The De Stijl group had a goal of an organic combination of architecture, sculpture and painting in a lucid, elemental, unsentimental construction. This group was interested in "pure reality", universal harmony, asymmetry, abstract reducing, geometry as well as vertical and horizontal lines. This pure reality which they mention means that their art was to be represented by the purest things as in primary colours(red, blue and yellow), and straight horizontal and vertical lines with representations of only geometrical shapes. With this kind of art if there was no manifesto to explain its values people would have had overlooked it and saw it as something directed towards children and that right there is the importance of manifestos. De Stijl is truly art in its purest form with nothing abstract.
Without manifestos it would have been hard to understand the meaning of art, because unlike mathematics and science there is no one thing which describes it totally. Therefore manifestos has helped in making the movement's pioneers message to be clear to the viewers and the listeners of art as they explain their visions and purpose of their art so that it would not be misinterpreted.
