[画像:manifesto.jpg]Since the days of radical printer-pamphleteers, design and designers have a long history of fighting for what’s right and working to transform society. The rise of the literary form of the manifesto also parallels the rise of modernity and the spread of letterpress printing.
This list of design manifestos was buried in a previous post but deserves its own permalink. The original list was largely drawn from Mario Piazza’s presentation at the 2009 conference Più Design Può in Florence, though I’ve edited and added to it. I’ve also incorporated links where I was able to find them.
- 1861 Graphic Tables and Figurative Maps, Charles Minard
- 1883 The Ideal Book, William Morris
- 1889 The Arts and Crafts of To-day, William Morris
- 1909 The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, F.T. Marinetti
- 1914 Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, Antonio Sant’Elia
- 1918 De Stijl Manifesto
- 1919 Bauhaus Manifesto, Walter Gropius
- 1919 Das grüne Manifest (“The Green Manifesto”), Leberecht Migge on the economic, political, and social importance of public gardens in urban environments
- 1920 Down with Seriousism!, Bruno Taut
- 1922 Manifesto of the Painters’ Union, Taller de Grafica Popular
- 1923 Topology of Typography, El Lissitzky
- 1923 The New Typography, László Moholy-Nagy
- 1933 Charter of Athens, Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne
- 1952 The Industrial Aesthetics Charter, l'Institut d'Esthétique industrielle
- 1959 The journal "New Graphic Design," though not explicitly a manifesto, called for a radical rethinking of design along more scientific lines.
- 1964 First Things First, Ken Garland
- 1967 The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord
- 1971 La coscienza del designer, Albe Steiner
- 1971 The Artist's Contract, a legal document, a manifesto, an institutional critique
- 1978 Atlante Secondo Lenin - not so much a design manifesto, as a designed manifesto. The innovative infographics visualize theories for gaining power.
- 1979 Ahmedabad Declaration on Industrial Design for Development
- 1983 The Free Software announcement, later clarified in 1985’s GNU Manifesto
- 1987 Design memorandum. Dall’etica del progetto al progetto dell’etica.
- 1987 Ten Rules of Good Design, Dieter Rams
- 1989 Carta del progetto grafico, Giovanni Anceschi, Giovanni Baule, Gelsomino D’Ambrosio, Pino Grimaldi, Giancarlo Iliprandi, Giovanni Lussu, Alberto Marangoni, Gianfranco Torri
- 1990 A Scandinavian Design Council Manifesto on Nature, Ecology and Human Needs for the Future
- 1991 The Social Role of the Graphic Designer, Pierre Bernard
- 1991 The Munich Design Charter
- 1991 The Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Kathleen Hanna
- 1992 The Hannover Principles, William McDonough
- 1996 Viewer's Declaration of Independence
- 1996 A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, John Perry Barlow
- 1998 Ne Pas Plier statement
- 1998 People's Communication Charter
- 2000 The Manifesto of January 3, 2000, Bruce Sterling
- 2000 First Things First update - not just about advertising this time, but setting new values.
- 2000 Icograda Design Education Manifesto
- 2000 Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, Bruce Mau (though I thought Dean Allen did a tidy job of demolishing this.)
- 2001 Diseno etica e comunicazione, AIAP
- 2001 Socialist Designer's Manifesto - a series of ideologically driven limitations along the lines of Dogme 95.
- 2001 Designers Against Monoculture, Noah Scalin
- 2001 Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- 2002 First Declaration of the St. Moritz Design Summit
- 2002 Triangular Design Manifesto, Conceptual Devices
- 2003 The Economy of Ideas, John Perry Barlow. A framework for patents and copyrights in the Digital Age.
- 2004 The Free Culture Manifesto
- 2005 Draft Craft Manifesto, Ulla Engeström
- 2006 The Public Role of the Graphic Designer
- 2006 Free Font Manifesto, Ellen Lupton
- 2006 Owner’s Manifesto, The Maker’s Bill of Rights
- 2006
Karimanifesto, Karim Rashid
- 2007 The Designer’s Dilemma and subsequent Designers Accord
- 2007 1000 Words: A Manifesto for Sustainability in Design, Allan Chochinov
- 2007 Um Manifesto Anti-Design
- 2008 White Night Before A Manifesto, Metahaven
- 2008 Kyoto Design Declaration, Members of Cumulus
- 2008 Parametricism as Style â€" Parametricist Manifesto, Patrik Schumacher
- 2008 Conditional Design Manifesto
- 2009 The Repair Manifesto from Platform21
- 2009 The Cult of Done Manifesto
- 2009 A Short Manifesto on the Future of Attention, Michael Erard
- 2009 Information Visualization Manifesto, Manuel Lima
- 2009 The Awesomeness Manifesto, Umair Haque
- 2009 Internet Manifesto: How journalism works today. Seventeen declarations.
- 2009 Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge, assembled at the Barcelona Culture Forum for citizens’ and artists’ Human Rights in the digital age
- 2009 Not In Our Name, Marke Hamburg! (English here)
- 2009 Information Visualization Manifesto, some principles towards transparent and responsible data visualization.
- 2010 The Role of Design in the 21st Century, Danish Designers Manifesto: A Vision for the Future of Danish Design
- 2010 The Obstructionist Manifesto, Mark Goldman against harmful, insider-driven city planning
- 2010 Anti-Design Festival Manifesto
- 2010 The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, Blair Enns
- 2010 The Glimmer Manifesto, Warren Berger
- 2010 Big Potatoes: The London Manifesto for Innovation
- 2010 A Design Education Manifesto, Mitch Goldstein
- 2010 LeNS Project Manifesto, on sustainable development and the role of design (and design thinking) in promoting system innovation
- 2011 Post Typographic Manifesto
- 2011 Icograda Design Education Manifesto, 2011 (an update of their 2000 manifesto)
- 2011 No Chair Design Challenge, pledge to not design a chair in 2012.
- 2011 Open Architecture Manifesto
- 2011 The Critical Engineering Manifesto
- 2012 Web Design Manifesto 2012, Jeffrey Zeldman
- 2012 Online Public Services Manifesto, Consumer Focus Labs, UK
- 2012 Draft Manifesto for an Open Internet of Things
- 2012 Certifying REsponsible Design Manifesto, towards certification for the communications design profession.
- 2012 Subcompact Publishing Manifesto, towards a minimal model of publishing and design for the moden tablet, mobile, and web.
- 2013 A manifesto for creative professionals by Paul Jarvis on professional ethics.
- 2013 #ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics
- 2014 First Things First 2014, an update to the 1964 and 2000 manifestos addressing design in the Digital Age.
- 2014 Generation M. by Dimitris Papadopoulos
- 2014 DesignX: A Future Path for Design / Why DesignX?
- 2015 The Oslo Manifesto, Architecture Design and Planning for the Sustainable Development Goals
- 2015 Poetica's manifesto for humane app design
- 2015 The Two Day Manifesto: Contribute back to the open source you build on
- 2015 The Arts Emergency Manifesto
- 2015 The Utrecht Manifesto, an outcome of 'Design the good society'/Utrecht Biennial Foundation meetings from 2005-2015
- 2017 The Montreal Design Declaration, on the potential of design to achieve global economic, social, environmental and cultural objectives, and a call to utilise the potential of design for the benefit of all.
- 2017 The Copenhagen Letter, on responsibility, design, and technology.
- 2017 Reconstrained Design: A Manifesto towards new imaginative spaces for discourse, inoculating ideas and subverting the status quo of design.
- 2017 The Lancaster Care Charter
- 2018 Spark Poster Collective Manifesto
- 2018 Design Justice Network Principles
- 2019 A Manifesto for Decolonising Design
- 2020 Society-Centered Design
- 2020 First Things First 2020
And a few un-/anti- manifestos:
Know of others I’m leaving out? Please
Bonus points if you’ve got a link.
Thanks Alberto, Ampat, Barbara,
Ben, Charles,
Gabe,
Gary,
Ianus,
Jane,
Kara,
Kelly,
Laura,
Lotte,
Nick,
Noah,
Ramsay, and
William
for the additions.
Last updated December 6, 2021.
