Consumerism is running uncontested it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design. The scope of debate is shrinking it must expand. We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. #FIRST THINGS CODE#To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief the market rewards it a tide of books and publications reinforces it.Įncouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents.
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