I annotated parts of the manifesto that I identified with, such as parts of the first paragraph " advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief." I identified with this because it matches my experience so far, that my teachers through school and college have always pushed/emphasized industry, and mass markets rather than something more niche. I also think that maybe some of the ways design is taught, or at least what is taught needs to be challenged and changed.
In the second paragraph I underlined sections that read "Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits[....] Commercial work has always paid the bills but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession's time and energy us ysed up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best".
I particularly relate to these passages as I feel the same, that all too often peoples talents are put to waste on projects or products that means they wont get the recognition they, their talents, or their practice deserve just because they need to pay the bills. People also always assume that graphic design is just advertising and branding, which is wrong because designers can work on much wider products such as road signs, or t-shirts, which are much more important and have a greater impact. For most designers it is hard to rise above this field of ordinary (advertising and branding etc) because this is where all the safe money is, not many designers unless they are well known will have safe money taking risks.
In the third paragraph I felt that I associated with the last lines "To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse." I think that this means that most designers are not really helping change this perception of design, and that the world is becoming overly commercialized.
This leads onto the first lines of the next paragraph which read "There are pursuits more worthy of our problem solving skills." I feel that this is the most relateable line in the manifesto, because I feel that some of the worlds wider problems could be helped if there was more designers bringing attention to the cause and more problem solvers thinking of a solution. There definitely are bigger and more worthy problems than what a dog food box looks like.
The last paragraph of the main body of the manifesto starts with "We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting, and democratic forms of communication - a mind shift away from product marketing [...] The scope of debate is shrinking; it must be expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design".
I feel that this means that we need to do things that are much more meaningful than advertising and branding, and this idea needs to challenge the traditional view of design being just marketing and branding so that it can alter how people perceive design.
The principle of redaction is to remove any information that is deemed important and must not be allowed to be seen by other people. This technique is most commonly seen in classified government papers, and is a way of censoring what information the public can gather about top secret files, personnel or military aspects, usually in the name of National Security.
I redacted, or took out, just over half of the manifesto and this is what was left...
A design manifesto
the undersigned, [me] are graphic designer and visual communicators
effective and desirable use of our talents
their skill and imagination to sell diamonds, detergents, hair gel, sneakers, light beer and heavy duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills.
What graphic designers do [...] best.
Designers who devote their efforts
...changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.
There are pursuits worthy [...] of problem-solving skills.
Design projects [...] require expertise and help.
Priorities in favour of more useful, lasting, democratic forms of communication - a mindshift
... the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. ...it must expand; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.
...call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use.
...taken to heart.
What I was trying to say was that whilst we can use our imagination and skill to sell some pretty ordinary products to pay the bills (and some people may be happy with that) that we have a greater influence on the lives of people than most people realize, and if we devote our time and effort and take the cause to heart, and put our skills to something more worthwhile we can achieve this widening of the debate and open up new possibilities for us and the public as designers. I think that it is important to consider projects that aren't always about getting a good pay check at the end of it and sometimes we need to be more ethical in the things we chose to persue.
