“During the turbulent teens and cantankerous twenties artists’ manifestos were as common as weeds,” say I here, “and just as fast to sprout up from a groundswell of radical activity. Manifestos were statements of purpose, calls to action and weapons of mass obstruction. Words were the lethal ammunition. Sometimes they were aimed with pinpoint intelligence, other times they sprayed the battlefield with rampant stupidity. Manifestos came in all degrees of simplicity or complexity. They were long or short depending on the writer’s proclivities. Some survived, others are long forgotten—and the better for it. All tried to make a mark. Today manifestos are back. . . .”
And a handsome book chronicling the current crop, “Manifesto,” is out!
“Manifest0.” is the project collecting the personal manifestos of some of today’s smartest international designers, is growing and has recently become a book that design lovers can buy on-line. Curated by independent graphic studio Tankboys and writer Cosimo Bizzarri, “Manifesto.” was born in 2009 with an exhibition at XYZ gallery, Treviso, Italy. Its second edition was displayed in fall 2010 at Shandong University of Art and Design, China, with an expanded list of manifestos. Credos by Experimental Jetset, Milton Glaser, Anthony Burrill and many others have been included in a list that already featured names like Bruce Mau, Ken Garland, Mike Mills and Stefan Sagmeister.
The result of this work has now been collected in a 116 pages book. Excluding the visual part of each manifesto in order to highlight the content instead of the form, the book is intended to serve as a small design Bible for anybody who would like to be able to answer the question: “Why do you design?”.
Order here.
