100+ Years of Design Manifestos

Marketing & Strategy Innovation

by Brian Ling (aka. The Design Translator) on 2 December, 2009 - 22:59

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 Più Design Può conference in Florence, though I’ve edited and added to it. I’ve also incorporated links where I was able to find them.

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
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
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
1996 Viewer's Declaration of Independence
1998 Ne Pas Plier statement
1998 People's Communication Charter
2000 First Things First update - not just about advertising this time, but setting new values.
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
2004 The Free Culture Manifesto
2006 The Public Role of the Graphic Designer
2006 Free Font Manifesto, Ellen Lupton
2006 Owner’s Manifesto, The Maker’s Bill of Rights
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. (Automatic English translation.)
2008 White Night Before A Manifesto, Metahaven
2008 Kyoto Design Declaration, Members of Cumulus
2009 The Repair Manifesto from Platform21
2009 A Short Manifesto on the Future of Attention, Michael Erard
2009 Information Visualization Manifesto, Manuel Lima
2009 The Awesomeness Manifesto, Umair Haque
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