The construction of a Manifesto

Manifesto

As a meaning

Examples

Dieter Rams
(Source)

I investigated Dieter Rams manifesto after it had been recommended as a 'typical design manifesto', it helped me to understand the straight talking concept of writing a manifesto. I found that opinions are written as facts, because in design who is to argue? your opinion is a fact which can't be argued similar to ones religious beliefs.

here are a few examples from Ram's Manifesto

Good design is innovative

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

Ram has taken a possibility and turned it into an opinion which can now be seen as a fact because there is no likely hood of the proposition being false.

A similar example would be to say that interaction design won't ever be classed as a certain format because there are always new technologies which will be used to create new formats.

Good design makes a product useful

A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

This quote makes the reader think outside the box when describing an object, the object isn't made entirely for its purpose it's also made to satisfy the person looking at it. It's made so the manufacturer can make the product in great quantity for a cheaper price. The manufacturer as made this item in a certain shape so the retailers can merchandise the object more efficiently.




"First things first" A design manifesto
(Source)

First things first is an article which uses a manifesto to state what in the writers opinion a manifesto is. It takes examples such as product design to show how the public have been somewhat fooled into consuming products from the message the product is giving, the article describes advertising / 'consumer selling' as 'sheer noise' meaning the subliminal messaging is unavoidable and has become a natural sound in a persons mind.

After reading this article I have found that a manifesto can effectively brainwash someone in the sense that what you're saying is a belief therefore your audience can view the opinion as fact provided they are able to relate to your manifesto. Product advertisements are full of manifestos because the ads are giving the audience the message "you want this, you need this" when realistically the audience probably don't, people just enjoy agreeing with opinions that make sense.


My Manifesto

When an an objects form is changed it automatically has a new meaning and shouldn't be refereed to by the previous name as it's a new design. Once the form has changed the item establishes new meaning, practicality's and ornamental value. It's important the name changes because it's not what the original designer created, for example Alexander Bell invented the telephone so could take credit for the mobile phone since it was inspired and developed from Bell's original design. However, it's technically not fair to say this because the mobile phone itself is a completely new design which doesn't contain the components Bell designed, it might have one of the same uses but the technology behind that doesn't belong to Bell. Therefor the mobile phone arguably shouldn't be referred to as a 'phone'

The definition backs up this concept because a phone is an abbreviation for telephone and a telephone and mobile phone are completely different as far as use, design and technical components are concerned.

A more technically correct name for a mobile phone would be a 'portable connection' because now people use phones to connect to other devices not necessarily phones, but computers using 'Bluetooth' and the internet using GPS, 3G etc.