Triangulation. TASK 5.

The First Things First 2000 Manifesto, was written and launched by Adbusters magazine in 1999 and is a follow up of the original text by Ken Garland, a British designer, which was published in 1964. It argues that designers should discard the work of the advertising community, through designing, but not through accommodating consumerism within society. It questions the idea of value-free design, which is contested between creatives, some who do believe that they should be concerned about the need for values throughout design and the opposing creatives who believe it should be value free.

Rick Poyner, who writes this re-vamped maifesto of 2000, explains that lulled by the economic boom, designers have shown little focus in showing work for themselves as well as the public and instead working for society, these creatives should be using their skills in a more 'creative' way and be used for a more. A quote I took from this text was: 'Design was in danger of forgetting it's responsibility to struggle for a better life for all.' (Poyner, 2000, p11). His concepts communicate the idea of design being too commercial and too much effort being put on triviality. His theories tie in with the idea of the design of today being for the ruling class.

Many people believe that designers use their artistic gifts to reach goals within client-set parameters. Art is everywhere and many times this art is a tool, it doesn't appear pure and existing for itself. Many designers talk of how they have no time to make art because of work. As Matt Soar states: 'It's very easy for a profession to take it's current concerns and obsessions and assumptions for granted; to assume these are natural, that this is the way things are.'

However some people believe that advertising can help society in many ways, providing information and using loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to information presented to an audience. The desired response is really to challenge peoples views towards a subject and make people feel a certain way towards certain things.

A lot had changed since the original publishing of the 1st Manifesto, through consumerism and capitalism within society and so it seems that the 2000 manifesto is in place to make designers in todays society question their ways of working and ask themselves whether they are working ethically and morally.