First Things First. A Manifesto
First Things First urges designers to consider their part to play in consumer culture, suggesting that there are "things more worthy of our pursuit". The original Manifesto released in 1964, written and published by Ken Garland has since been updated in 2000 and again in 2014, aiming to reflect the influence of the internet on communications and designers.
This editorial piece focuses on the over-saturation of media and advertising, stressing the importance that we recognise the destructiveness it has the potential to cause.
I used plastic as a means to reflect the suffocation we often feel from the relentless advertising that is continuously promoted around us to a point of over-saturation. By using shocking imagery of faces and hands trapped in plastic it evokes a feeling of horror in the reader that shocks the reader into waking up to the reality of the manifesto.
Top left; bottom left: Screen printing was used to print the listed items in each manifesto which was later mounted as an interactive flap overlaid on the scanned images of faces trapped in plastic. The size of the mounted list remained the same whilst the shocking imagery grows bigger throughout each updated manifesto. This screen printed list was also used as a sleeve wrap around which doubles as a book mark for the reader.
Top middle: "Sheer noise" was also screen printed onto tracing paper creating a double sided visual.
Top right: Layers of tracing paper were used to give clarity to the printed body copy whilst revealing the blurred words "refocus priorities" on the page behind it.
Front Page
Pages 1-2
Pages 9-10 (shown photographed above)
Pages 15-16
Pages 19-20
The shocking imagery revealed beneath the flap of screen printed list of problems grows bigger with each updated manifesto, stressing the ever growing importance for us to listen.
Pages 21-22
By literally tearing up adverts, combining both old and new to reinforce the message of the manifesto explaining the destructiveness of advertising.
