Defining Boundaries, 2017

Defining Boundaries

A compilation of guidelines to provoke dialogue on accountability in design

Curated by Nimi Einstein

Defining Boundaries

A compilation of guidelines to provoke dialogue on accountability in design

This book was curated & designed

by Nimi Einstein NimiEinstein.com printed, bound, and cut on Saturday, March 18th at REDe Print n Shop, www.REDePrintnShop.com, 1915 SW 6th Ave, Portland, OR 97201 on Solar White, Neenah, Classic Crest, 24lb Soft Blue, Strathmore Writing, 24lb 25% Cotton Wove by Mohawk Paper Potomac Blue, Neenah, Classic Crest, 24lb typeset with Realtime Text by Juri Zaech Open Sans by Steve Matteson, Monotype

Contents

Introduction

1

Boundaries

5

Ornament and Crime Adolf Loos

7

First Things First Ken Garland

73

First Things First 2000 Adbusters 75

The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism F.T. Marinetti

13

Disrepresentation Now! Experimental Jetset 76

Down with seriousism! Bruno Taut

19

Dada Manifesto Tristan Tzara

21

Towards a New Architecture: Guiding Principles Le Corbusier

79

Fascist Manifesto Benito Mussolini

27

Credo Bob Noorda

83

The Communist Manifesto (excerpt) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

29

Design Business + Ethics The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

85

The Laws of Sculptors Gilbert & George

45

Kesselskramer

46

Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct American Institute of Architects (AIA)

47

Code of Ethics Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) 115

51

Work Hard & Be Nice To People Anthony Burrill

119

Declaration of faith

120

Barcelona Manifesto Enzo Mari

121

Hippocratic Oath, Modern Version Louis Lasagna

123

1,000 Words Manifesto Allan Chochinov

125

Ten Things I Have Learned Milton Glaser

127

Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar Walter Gropius Principles of Bauhaus [Dessau] production (excerpt) Walter Gropius Manifesto for the first Bauhaus exhibition Oskar Schlemmer

55

107

De Stijl Manifesto V & Towards collective building; commentary on Manifesto V Cornelis van Eesteren, Theo van Doesburg, & G. Rietveld

57

Work Council for Art: Under the wing of great architecture Bruno Taut

59

Dynamics & Function (excerpt) Erich Mendelsohn

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young Mary Theresa Schmich

133

61

Obsessions Stefan Sagmeister

135

Working thesis Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

63

Ideological Superstructure El Lissitzky

65

The Cult of Done Manifesto Bre Pettis & Kio Stark

136

The Oath Against Modernism Pope Pius X

67

An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth Bruce Mau

137

Fuck Committees Tibor Kalman

71

Interviews

143

Conrad Crespin

143

Jason Halstead

163

Jessica Angelique Delph

147

Shira and Josh Einstein

171

Thoughts Nimi Einstein

185

Hello!

Thank you so much for picking up this book! It is meant to be a tool, a source of inspiration, and a conversation starter. Write in the margins!

Fold some corners, highlight these pages, and please share it with others when you are done!

This book is a product of time. It is a product of my senior year thesis of graphic design school, the critiques I gave and received, the conversations I had with my peers and my teachers. It is a product of a group discussion about the relationship between design and social change, a product of the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States of America, a product of my last year in school—and the existential crises that come with it, and a product of me, my passions, and everything I have learned up to this point.

On November 9th, 2016, my friend, Nicolas Meier, and I hosted a discussion about the relationship between design and social change. It wasn't a coincidence that this specific topic was being discussed at the end of the heated political climate, but the election of Donald Trump came as a massive, heart-breaking surprise to me and everyone in the group. The already poignant topic took a larger, more somber turn and our 1.5 hour discussion had passionate exchanges of ideas, an all around successful meeting.

I filled a small, 14-page publication with design and design related materials talking to ethics, morals, and responsibility to act as a conversation starter.

At the beginning of the zine, I wrote three questions: Does design have inherent moral obligation? What is our role in society as designers? How do we use our privilege as designers? I also included a string of keywords which were bouncing around my head; privilege, power, form, medium, model, aesthetics, guidelines, ethics, morals, oath, moral obligation.

The first text I included in the zine was a full copy of the physicians' Hippocratic Oath, modern version, written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna. After a brief introduction to the group I asked, if we as designers manipulate the world around us and actively manipulate people's interactions with the world, don't we have to hold each other accountable for this massive responsibility we hold? Why must architects, doctors, and many professionals swear to an oath, but not graphic designers?

1

Introduction

It quickly became evident to me that the relationship between graphic design and ethics was a topic that needed to be discussed again in a more informed manner. Opinions in the group ranged from needing to institutionalize an ethical pledge to a belief that it is not the role of an individual to dictate a moral or ethical standpoint for the graphic design profession.

While I got heated in the moment, I understood that I needed to do some deep personal research into how ethics interacts with design and question the way I want to practice design.

For the next couple of months I found myself asking everyone around me about their interaction with ethics in design and realized at its core, I was interested in the question of do we—and if so, how do we—hold ourselves accountable to make sure that the design we make first doesn’t harm and secondly helps improve the communities around us.

Then came thesis, winter of 2017, and I had no idea how to start this journey. After weeks and weeks of floundering in the massive information depths of ethics, I took some advice from a mentor, Professor Meredith James, who gave me two avenues down which I could pursue my intention of talking ethics with designers; on one hand I can take ethics as a mirror to hold up to people in order for them to think about their own interaction with ethics in design, or on the other hand, I can learn about ethics in design and take people along the journey with me, letting my own experience guide people's relationship with ethics in design. The second option was the most appropriate, most actionable, and the most interesting to me, giving me the opportunity to dive into research on the topic.

This is a product of the 10 weeks devoted to starting conversations with people about ethics in design. More specifically, a compilation of guidelines to provoke dialogue on accountability in design with hopes that ethics will be discussed.

In this book you will find manifestos, oaths, guidelines, laws, codes, advice, interviews, and my personal annotations, curated non-chronologically to form a series of conversations between writings in order to get you, the reader, to critically think about the way you practice design.

At times, these texts contradict each other, feed each other, compliment each other, and seemingly don't relate to each other at all. I ask you to consider while reading through this book the words and meanings as were intended by the writers and how they have changed over time; the style, direction, and objectives of the authors; the tone, audience, and contexts in which they where written; and ultimately what we can take away from them both literally and metaphorically These texts range through writings from the beginning of modernism to graduation advice, 7 word phrases to 15 page pamphlets and style that varies from serious, condemning, light, funny, ridiculous, simple, and complex.

I have gathered texts on a micro and macro lens, looking at graphic design, design-related fields, and fields not related to design in order to cover all of our bases: If graphic design doesn't know how to talk about ethics, lets look at fields that do. If designers know how to create accountability, lets read and learn from their writing and think about how to incorporate additional elements that we believe need to be part of our practice. What holds us accountable for our actions? What scope do we have to cover? How specific should we get and to what length must we go to make sure everyone understands our position? Is it our duty to educate non-designers? Is it 2

important for us to make sure non-designers act in a determined way? Do we hold each other accountable for our actions, and if so how?

We are designers, decision-makers, impellers and instigators. We designers form attitudes and shape decisions on a massive scale every single day. It is our duty to honor that power by discussing and realizing our responsibility.

Nimi Einstein, Saturday, March 18, 2017

Thank you to Tankboys for their book, Manifesto. and website, manifestoproject.it. Thank you to Ulrich Conrads, for Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture.

And thank you to Andy Pressman, my thesis class, Rosie Struve for letting me borrow your book, Meredith James, Caleb Yarian, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Nicolas Meier, Peter Le, Euri Oh, everyone who has attended TBD thus far, and you for reading this far! I am hopeful for the future.

3

Boundaries

5

Boundaries

6

Ornament and Crime Adolf Loos, 1908

The human embryo goes through all the phases of animal life while still inside the womb. When man is born, his instincts are those of a newborn dog. His childhood runs through all the changes corresponding to the history of mankind. At the age of two he looks like a Papuan, at four like one of an ancient Germanic tribe, at six like Socrates, at eight like Voltaire.

When he is eight years old, he becomes conscious of violet, the color discovered by the eighteenth century, for until then violets were blue and purple-fish were red. The physicist today points out colors in the spectrum of the sun that have already been named, but whose comprehension has been reserved for future generations.

The child is amoral. So is the Papuan, to us. The Papuan kills his enemies and eats them. He is no criminal but if a modern man kills someone and eats him, he is a criminal or a degenerate.

The Papuan tattoos his skin, his boat, his rudder, his oars; in short, everything he can get his hands on. He is no criminal. The modern man who tattoos himself is a criminal or a degenerate. There are prisons in which eighty per cent of the prisoners are tattooed. Tattooed men who are not behind bars are either latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats.

If someone who is tattooed dies in freedom, then he does so a few years before he would have committed murder.

The urge to decorate one’s face and everything in reach is the origin of the graphic arts. It is the babbling of painting. All art is erotic.

The first ornament invented, the cross, was of erotic origin. The first work of art, the first artistic act, which the first artist scrawled on the wall to give his exuberance vent. A horizontal line: the woman. A vertical line: the man penetrating her. The man who created this felt the same creative urge as Beethoven, he was in the same state of exultation in which Beethoven created the Ninth.

But the man of our own times who covers the walls with erotic images from an inner compul­sion is a criminal or a degenerate. Of course, this urge affects people with such symptoms of degeneracy most strongly in the lavatory. It is possible to estimate a country’s culture by the amount of scrawling on lavatory walls. In children this is a natural phenomenon: their first artistic expression is scribbling erotic symbols on walls. But what is natural for, a Papuan and a child, is degenerate for modern man. I have discovered the following truth and present it to the world: cultural evolution is

The beginning intro sets up the entire manifesto.

I see this happening often throughout the early manifestos. Here, Adolf Loos is building a lot of momentum and adrenaline, he is getting you on board and excited about what he has to say.

Papuan is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of New Guinea and neighboring islands, speakers of the Papuan languages.

This text is very racist, sexist, and a product of its time. Loos doesn't hold back from making strong remarks, often pivoting race to make a point.

Wow.

Think about when this was written and to what it rejects. While Loos is not an everyday man, his sentiments reflect entirely the world around him.

The manifesto.

7

Boundaries

equivalent to the removal of Ornament from articles in daily use. I thought I was giving the world a new source of pleasure with this; it did not thank me for it. People were sad and despondent. What oppressed them was the realization that no new ornament could be created. What every Negro can do, what all nations and ages have been able to do, why should that be denied to us, men of the nineteenth century? What humanity had achieved in earlier millennia without decoration has been carelessly tossed aside and consigned to destruction. We no longer possess carpenters’ benches from the Carolingian period, but any trash that exhibited the merest trace of decoration was collected and cleaned up, and splendid palaces built to house it. People walked sadly around the showcases, ashamed of their own impotence. Shall every age have a style of its own and our age alone be denied one? By style they meant decoration. But I said: Don’t weep! Don’t you see that the greatness of our age lies in its inability to produce a new form of decoration? We have conquered ornament, we have won through to lack of ornamentation. Look, the time is nigh, fulfillment awaits us. Soon the streets of the town will glisten like white walls. Like Zion, the holy city, the metropolis of heaven. Then we shall have fulfillment But there are some pessimists who will not permit this. Humanity must be kept down in the slavery of decoration. People progressed far enough for ornament to give them pleasure no longer, indeed so far that a tattooed face no longer heightened their aesthetic sensibility, as it did with the Papuans, but diminished it. They were sophisticated enough to feel pleasure at the sight of a smooth cigarette case while they passed over a decorated one, even at the same price. They were happy with their clothes and glad that they did not have to walk about in red velvet pants with gold’ braid like monkeys at a fair. And I said: look, Goethe’s death chamber is more magnificent than all the Renaissance grandeur and a smooth piece of furniture more beautiful than all the inlaid and carved museum pieces. Goethe’s language is finer than all the florid similes of the Pegnitz Shepherds.

The pessimist heard this with displeasure and the State, whose task it is to retard the cultural progress of the people, took up the fight for the development and revival of ornament. Woe to the State whose revolutions are made by Privy Councilors! A sideboard was soon on show in the Vienna Museum of Arts and Crafts called ‘The Rich Haul of Fish’, soon there were cupboards called ‘The Enchanted Princess’ or something similar, relating to the ornament that covered these unfortunate pieces. The Austrian government takes its task so seriously that it makes sure that puttees do not disappear from the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. It forces every civilized twenty-year-old man to wear puttees instead of knitted hose for three years. For every government still labors under the supposition that a nation on a low standard is easier to govern.

All right, then, the plague of ornament is recognized by the State and subsidized by State finds. But I look on this as retrogression. I do not allow the objection that ornament heightens a cultivated man’s joy in life; I do not allow the objection: ‘but what if the ornament is beautiful...’ As far as I am concerned, and this goes for all cultivated people, ornament does not give zest to life. If I want to eat some gingerbread, I choose a piece that is quite plain, and not in the shape of a heart or a baby or a horseman, and gilded all over. The man from the fifteenth century will not understand me. But all modern people will. The advocate of ornament believes that my urge for simplicity is equivalent to a mortification of the flesh. No, my dear art school 8

Destruction, trash, ruin.

No value placed in well built objects. Taking life and funneling it through a lens of design.

Taking what we have and making it better.

Zion, Jerusalem, the holy city.

Puttee; a long strip of cloth wound spirally around the leg from ankle to knee for protection and support.

"this goes for all cultivated people..." Loos knows what is best. He is militantly about his opinion.

Ornament and Crime, Adolf Loos, 1908

professor, I’m not mortifying myself. I prefer it that way. The specta­cular menus of past centuries, which all include decorations to make peacocks, pheasants and lobsters appear even tastier, produce the opposite effect on me. I walk though a culinary display with revulsion at the thought that I am supposed to eat these stuffed animal corpses. I eat roast beef.

The immense damage and devastation wrought on aesthetic development by the revival of decoration could easily be overcome, for no one, not even governments, can arrest the evolution of mankind. It can only be retarded We can wait. But it is a crime against the national economy that human labor, money and material should thereby be ruined. This kind of damage cannot be put right by time.

The tempo of cultural progress suffers through stragglers. I may be living in 1908, yet my neighbor still lives in 1900 and that one over there in 1880.

It is a misfortune for a country if the cultural development of its people is spread over such a long period. The peasant from Kals lives in the twelfth century. And in the jubilee procession there were contingents from national groups which would have been thought backward even in the period of the migrations of the tribes. Happy the country that has no such stragglers and marauders! Happy America! In our country there are old-fashioned people even in the cities, stragglers from the eighteenth century, who are shocked by a picture with violet shadows because they can’t yet see violet. They prefer the pheasant on which the chef has had to work for days, and cigarette cases with Renaissance decoration please them better than smooth ones. And how is it in the country? Clothes and furniture belong entirely to earlier centuries. The farmer is not a Christian, he is still a heathen.

Stragglers slow down the cultural progress of nations and humanity; for ornament is not only produced by criminals; it itself commits a crime, by damaging men’s health, the national economy and cultural development.

Where two people live side by side with the same needs, the same demands on life and the same income, and yet belong to different cultures, the following process may be observed from the economic point of view: the man from the twentieth century becomes ever richer, the one from the eighteenth ever poorer. I am supposing that each lives according to his inclinations.

The twentieth century man can pay for his needs with much less capital and can therefore save. The vegetables he likes are simply boiled in water and then served with a little melted butter. The other man doesn’t enjoy them until honey and nuts have been added and someone has been busy cooking them for hours. Decorated plates are very dear, while the plain white china that the modern man likes is cheap. One man accumulates savings, the other one debts. So it is with whole nations. Woe to the country that lags behind in cultural development! The English become richer and we poorer...

Even greater is the damage ornament inflicts on the workers. As ornament is no longer a natural product of our civilization, it accordingly represents backwardness or degeneration, and the labor of the man who makes it is not adequately remunerated.

Conditions in the woodcarving and turning trades, the criminally low prices paid to em­broiderers and lace-makers, are well known. The producers of ornament must work twenty hours to earn the wages a modern worker gets in eight. Decoration adds to the price of an object as a rule, and yet it can happen that a decorated object, with the same outlay in materials and demonstrably three times as much work, is offered for sale at half the price of a plain object. The lack of ornament means shorter working hours and

"I eat roast beef."

!! Ties back to opening points.

"for ornament is not only produced by criminals; it itself commits a crime."

Validation of his manifesto through applying it to every part of life. Throwing away ornamentation is a design goal, but transcends far beyond an object. It is a way of life.

9

Boundaries

consequently higher wages. Chinese carvers work sixteen hours, American workers eight. If I pay as much for a smooth box as for a decorated one, the difference in labor time belongs to the worker. And if there were no ornament at all—a circumstance that will perhaps come true in a few millennia—a man would have to work only four hours instead of eight, for half the work done at present is still for ornamentation.

Ornament is wasted labor and hence wasted health. That’s how it has always been. Today, however, it is also wasted material, and both together add up to wasted capital.

As ornament is no longer organically linked with our culture, it is also no longer an expression of our culture. Ornament as created today has no connection with us, has no human con­nections at all, no connection with the world as it is constituted. It cannot be developed. What has happened to the decorations of Otto Eckmann and those of Van de Velde?

The artist always used to stand at the forefront of humanity, full of health and vigor. But the modern ornamentalist is a straggler, or a pathological case. He rejects even his own products within three years. To cultivated people they are unbearable immediately, others are aware of their unbearableness only after some years. Where are the works of Otto Eckmann today? Where will Olbrich’s work be in ten years’ time? Modern ornament has no forbears and no descendants, no past and no future. It is joyfully welcomed by uncultivated people, to whom the true greatness of our time is a closed book, and after a short period is rejected.

Mankind today is healthier than ever, only a few people are sick. But these few tyrannize over the worker who is so healthy that he cannot invent ornament. They force him to make the ornaments they have invented in the greatest variety of materials.

Changes in decoration account for the quick devaluation of the product of labor. The worker’s time and the material used are capital items that are being wasted. I have coined an aphorism: The form of an object should last (i.e., should be bearable) as long as the object lasts physically. I shall try to clarify this: A suit will change in fashion more often than a valuable fur.

A ball gown for a lady, only meant for one night, will change its form more speedily than a desk. But woe to the desk that has to be changed as quickly as a ball gown because its shape has become unbearable, for then the money spent on the desk will have been wasted.

This is well-known to the ornamentalists, and Austrian ornamentalists try to make the most of it. They say: ‘A consumer who has his furniture for ten years and then can’t stand it any more and has to re-furnish from scratch every ten years, is more popular with us than someone who only buys an item when the old one is worn out. Industry thrives on this. Millions are employed due to rapid changes.’ This seems to be the secret of the Austrian national economy; how often when a fire breaks out one hears the words: ‘Thank God, now there will be something for people to do again.’ I know a good remedy: burn down a town, burn down the country and everything will be swimming in wealth and well-being. Make furniture that you can use as firewood after three years and metal fittings that must be melted down after four years because even in the auction room you can’t realize a tenth of the outlay in work and materials, and we shall become richer and richer.

The loss does not hit only the consumer, it hits the manufacturer above all. Today, ornament on items that need no ornament means wasted labor and spoiled materials. If all objects were aesthetically enduring for as long 10

Cornerstone Art Nouveau artists.

Style & fast fashion.

Ornament and Crime, Adolf Loos, 1908

as they lasted physically, the consumer could afford to pay a price that would enable the worker to earn more money and work shorter hours.

I don’t mind spending four times as much for an article which I am certain I can make use of and use up completely as I would for one inferior in shape and material. I don’t mind spending forty kronen for my boots although I could get boots for ten kronen in another shop. But in trades suffering under the tyranny of the ornamentalists, good or bad work­manship does not count. The work suffers because nobody wants to pay its true value.

And that is a good thing, because these decorated objects are only bearable in the cheapest form. I can get over a fire’s havoc more easily if I hear that only worthless rubbish has been destroyed. I can enjoy the tripe in the Künstlerhaus because I know that it has been put up in a few days and will be torn down in a day. But throwing gold coins around instead of pebbles, lighting cigarettes with a banknote and pulverizing a pearl and then drinking it is unaesthetic. The most unaesthetic decorated objects are those made of the best materials with the greatest care, those that have demanded hours of work.

I cannot deny having asked for high quality work above all, but not this kind.

Modern men who revere ornament as a sign of the artistic expression of earlier generations, will immediately recognize the painfully labored and sickly ornament of today. No, one can create ornament now who lives on our level of culture.

It is different for people and nations who have not yet attained this level.

I am preaching to the aristocrats; I mean, to the people in the forefront of humanity who still fully appreciate the needs and strivings of those beneath them. They understand the native weaving ornaments into textiles to a certain rhythm, which can be seen only when torn apart, the Persian knotting his carpet, the Slovak peasant woman embroidering her lace, the old lady crocheting wonderful objects in beads and silk. The aristocrat lets them be, for he knows they work in moments of revelation. The revolutionary would go there and say ‘This is all nonsense.’ Just as he would pull the old woman away from the roadside shrine with the words: ‘There is no God.’ But among the aristocrats the atheist raises his hat on passing a church.

My shoes are covered over and over with decoration, the kind made up of pinking and perforations. Work done by the shoemaker but not paid for.

I go to the shoemaker and say: ‘You want thirty kronen for a pair of shoes.

I’ll pay you forty.’ In this way I have raised the man to a level of happiness which he will repay me for by work and material of a quality absolutely out of proportion to the extra cost. He is happy. Good fortune rarely comes his way. Here is a man who understands him and appreciates his work and does not doubt his honesty. In his imagination he can already see the finished shoes before him. He knows where the best leather is to be had at present, he knows which of his workers he can entrust the shoes to. And the shoes will boast perforations and scallops, as many as can possibly be fitted on an elegant shoe. And than I add: ‘but there’s one condition. The shoe must be quite plain.’ With that I’ve toppled him from the heights of contentment into Tartarus. He has less work, but I have robbed him of all his pleasure I am preaching to the aristocrats. I tolerate ornaments on my own body if they afford my fellow-men pleasure. Then they are a pleasure to me, too.

I put up with the ornaments of the natives, the Persians, the Slovak peasant woman and my shoemaker’s ornaments, for these workers have no other means of reaching the heights of their existence. We have art, which has replaced ornament. We go to Beethoven or Tristan after the cares of the day.

Understanding the limitations of his ask, knowing that some will not understand his quest, and that is okay.

!!

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Boundaries

My shoemaker can’t. I must not take away his joy as I have nothing to replace it with. But whoever goes to the Ninth Symphony and than sits down to design a wallpaper pattern is either a rogue or a degenerate.

Lack of ornament has pushed the other arts to unimagined heights.

Beethoven’s symphonies would never have been written by a man who was obliged to go about in silk, velvet and lace. Those who run around in velvet nowadays are not artists but buffoons or house painters. We have become more refined, more subtle. The herd must distinguish themselves by the use of various colors, modern man uses his clothes like a mask. His individuality is so strong that he does not need to express it any longer by his clothing. Lack of ornament is a sign of spiritual strength. Modern man uses the ornaments of earlier and foreign cultures as he thinks fit.

He concentrates his own powers of invention on other things.

12

The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism F.T. Marinetti, 1908

We had stayed up all night, my friends and I, under hanging mosque lamps with domes of filigreed brass, domes starred like our spirits, shining like them with the prisoned radiance of electric hearts. For hours we had trampled our atavistic ennui into rich oriental rugs, arguing up to the last confines of logic and blackening many reams of paper with our frenzied scribbling.

An immense pride was buoying us up, because we felt ourselves alone at that hour, alone, awake, and on our feet, like proud beacons or forward sentries against an army of hostile stars glaring down at us from their celestial encampments. Alone with stokers feeding the hellish fires of great ships, alone with the black specters who grope in the red-hot bellies of locomotives launched on their crazy courses, alone with drunkards reeling like wounded birds along the city walls.

Suddenly we jumped, hearing the mighty noise of the huge double-decker trams that rumbled by outside, ablaze with colored lights, like villages on holiday suddenly struck and uprooted by the flooding Po and dragged over falls and through gourges to the sea.

Then the silence deepened. But, as we listened to the old canal muttering its feeble prayers and the creaking bones of sickly palaces above their damp green beards, under the windows we suddenly heard the famished roar of automobiles.

“Let’s go!” I said. “Friends, away! Let’s go! Mythology and the Mystic Ideal are defeated at last. We’re about to see the Centaur’s birth and, soon after, the first flight of Angels!... We must shake at the gates of life, test the bolts and hinges. Let’s go! Look there, on the earth, the very first dawn! There’s nothing to match the splendor of the sun’s red sword, slashing for the first time through our millennial gloom!”

We went up to the three snorting beasts, to lay amorous hands on their torrid breasts. I stretched out on my car like a corpse on its bier, but revived at once under the steering wheel, a guillotine blade that threatened my stomach.

The raging broom of madness swept us out of ourselves and drove us through streets as rough and deep as the beds of torrents. Here and there, sick lamplight through window glass taught us to distrust the deceitful mathematics of our perishing eyes.

I cried, “The scent, the scent alone is enough for our beasts.”

And like young lions we ran after Death, its dark pelt blotched with pale crosses as it escaped down the vast violet living and throbbing sky.

atavistic, adjective; relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral."atavistic fears and instincts" ennui, noun; a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement Compare with annoy.

Tone; characterized by us vs. them, enemies to be fought.

Going out of their way to create enemies to fight against.

The Po is a river that flows eastward across northern Italy.

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14

The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, F.T. Marinetti, 1908

But we had no ideal Mistress raising her divine form to the clouds, nor any cruel Queen to whom to offer our bodies, twisted like Byzantine rings!

There was nothing to make us wish for death, unless the wish to be free at last from the weight of our courage!

And on we raced, hurling watchdogs against doorsteps, curling them under our burning tires like collars under a flatiron. Death, domesticated, met me at every turn, gracefully holding out a paw, or once in a while hunkering down, making velvety caressing eyes at me from every puddle.

“Let’s break out of the horrible shell of wisdom and throw ourselves like pride-ripened fruit into the wide, contorted mouth of the wind! Let’s give ourselves utterly to the Unknown, not in desperation but only to replenish the deep wells of the Absurd!”

The words were scarcely out of my mouth when I spun my car around with the frenzy of a dog trying to bite its tail, and there, suddenly, were two cyclists coming towards me, shaking their fists, wobbling like two equally convincing but nevertheless contradictory arguments. Their stupid dilemma was blocking my way—Damn! Ouch!... I stopped short and to my disgust rolled over into a ditch with my wheels in the air...

O maternal ditch, almost full of muddy water! Fair factory drain! I gulped down your nourishing sludge; and I remembered the blessed black beast of my Sudanese nurse... When I came up—torn, filthy, and stinking—from under the capsized car, I felt the white-hot iron of joy deliciously pass through my heart!

A crowd of fishermen with handlines and gouty naturalists were already swarming around the prodigy. With patient, loving care those people rigged a tall derrick and iron grapnels to fish out my car, like a big beached shark.

Up it came from the ditch, slowly, leaving in the bottom, like scales, its heavy framework of good sense and its soft upholstery of comfort.

They thought it was dead, my beautiful shark, but a caress from me was enough to revive it; and there it was, alive again, running on its powerful fins!

And so, faces smeared with good factory muck—plastered with metallic waste, with senseless sweat, with celestial soot—we, bruised, our arms in slings, but unafraid, declared our high intentions to all the living of the earth:

Nothing to devote life to, nothing yet in place to fall into.

Manifesto of Futurism 1 We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.

Goals.

2 Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.

3 Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep.

We intend to exalt aggressive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.

Rejection.

4 We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

What is new? Technology.

5 We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.

6 The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.

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7 Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man.

The world isn't responding to the new speed! Catch up to the world around us.

8 We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.

promontory, noun; a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water; a headland.

9 We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.

This is the big one, to me.

The essence and boiled down manifesto. Why does it take so long for this to be mentioned? It's hinted at before, but here it's spelled out.

10 We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.

11 We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.

It is from Italy that we launch through the world this violently upsetting incendiary manifesto of ours. With it, today, we establish Futurism, because we want to free this land from its smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists, ciceroni and antiquarians. For too long has Italy been a dealer in second-hand clothes. We mean to free her from the numberless museums that cover her like so many graveyards.

Museums: cemeteries!... Identical, surely, in the sinister promiscuity of so many bodies unknown to one another. Museums: public dormitories where one lies forever beside hated or unknown beings. Museums: absurd abattoirs of painters and sculptors ferociously slaughtering each other with color-blows and line-blows, the length of the fought-over walls!

That one should make an annual pilgrimage, just as one goes to the graveyard on All Souls’ Day—that I grant. That once a year one should leave a floral tribute beneath the Gioconda, I grant you that... But I don’t admit that our sorrows, our fragile courage, our morbid restlessness should be given a daily conducted tour through the museums. Why poison ourselves? Why rot?

And what is there to see in an old picture except the laborious contortions of an artist throwing himself against the barriers that thwart his desire to express his dream completely?... Admiring an old picture is the same as pouring our sensibility into a funerary urn instead of hurtling it far off, in violent spasms of action and creation.

Do you, then, wish to waste all your best powers in this eternal and futile worship of the past, from which you emerge fatally exhausted, shrunken, beaten down?

In truth I tell you that daily visits to museums, libraries, and academies (cemeteries of empty exertion, Cavalries of crucified dreams, registries of aborted beginnings!) are, for artists, as damaging as the prolonged 16

Nationalism? Their home brought the world something new and are not getting recognized for it.

Why include their country if they are rebelling against most of their countrymen?

The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, F.T. Marinetti, 1908

supervision by parents of certain young people drunk with their talent and their ambitious wills. When the future is barred to them, the admirable past may be a solace for the ills of the moribund, the sickly, the prisoner... But we want no part of it, the past, we the young and strong Futurists!

So let them come, the gay incendiaries with charred fingers! Here they are! Here they are!... Come on! Set fire to the library shelves! Turn aside the canals to flood the museums!... Oh, the joy of seeing the glorious old canvases bobbing adrift on those waters, discolored and shredded!... Take up your pickaxes, your axes and hammers and wreck, wreck the venerable cities, pitilessly!

The oldest of us is thirty: so we have at least a decade for finishing our work. When we are forty, other younger and stronger men will probably throw us in the wastebasket like useless manuscripts—we want it to happen!

They will come against us, our successors, will come from far away, from every quarter, dancing to the winged cadence of their first songs, flexing the hooked claws of predators, sniffing dog-like at the academy doors the strong odor of our decaying minds, which will have already been promised to the literary catacombs.

But we won’t be there... At last they’ll find us—one winter’s night—in open country, beneath a sad roof drummed by a monotonous rain. They’ll see us crouched beside our trembling airplanes in the act of warming our hands at the poor little blaze that our books of today will give out when they take fire from the flight of our images.

They’ll storm around us, panting with scorn and anguish, and all of them, exasperated by our proud daring, will hurtle to kill us, driven by a hatred the more implacable the more their hearts will be drunk with love and admiration for us.

Injustice, strong and sane, will break out radiantly in their eyes.

Art, in fact, can be nothing but violence, cruelty, and injustice.

The oldest of us is thirty: even so we have already scattered treasures, a thousand treasures of force, love, courage, astuteness, and raw will-power; have thrown them impatiently away, with fury, carelessly, unhesitatingly, breathless, and unresting... Look at us! We are still untired! Our hearts know no weariness because they are fed with fire, hatred, and speed!... Does that amaze you? It should, because you can never remember having lived! Erect on the summit of the world, once again we hurl our defiance at the stars!

You have objections?—Enough! Enough! We know them... We’ve understood!... Our fine deceitful intelligence tells us that we are the revival and extension of our ancestors—Perhaps!... If only it were so!—But who cares?

We don’t want to understand!... Woe to anyone who says those infamous words to us again!

Lift up your heads!

Erect on the summit of the world, once again we hurl defiance to the stars!

Understanding that they are a product of time and that at a certain point, time will take them too.

Again, creating shared enemies to fight against, to keep focused on their goals.

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Down with seriousism!

Bruno Taut, 1920

Hopp! Hopp! Hopp! My sweet little horsey!

Hopp! Hopp! Hopp! Where do you want to go?

Over that high wall?

Well really I don’t know!

Hopp! Hopp! Hopp! My sweet little horsey!

Hopp! Hopp! Hopp! Where—do—you—want—to go?

(Scheerbart, Katerpoesie) Away with the sourpusses, the wailing Willies, the sobersides, the brow furrowers, the eternally serious, the sweet-sour ones, the forever important!

‘Important! Important!’ This damned habit of acting important! Tombstone and cemetery facades in front of junk shops and old clothes stores!

Smash the shell-lime Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns, demolish the pinheads! Down with the ‘respectability’ of sandstone and plate-glass, in fragments with the rubbish of marble and precious wood, to the garbage heap with all that junk!

‘Oh, our concepts: space, home, style!’ Ugh, how these concepts stink!

Destroy them, put an end to them! Let nothing remain! Chase away their schools, let the professorial wigs fly, we’ll play catch with them. Blast, blast!

Let the dusty, matted, gummed up world of concepts, ideologies and systems feel our cold north wind! Death to the concept-lice! Death to everything stuffy! Death to everything called title, dignity, authority! Down with everything serious!

Down with all camels that won’t go through the eye of a needle, with all worshipers of Mammon and Moloch! ‘The worshipers of force must knuckle under to force!’ We are sick of their bloodsucking—caterwauling in the early light.

In the distance shines our tomorrow. Hurray, three times hurray for our kingdom without force! Hurray for the transparent, the clear!

Hurray for purity! Hurray for crystal! Hurray and again hurray for the fluid, the graceful, the angular, the sparkling, the flashing, the light—hurray for everlasting architecture!

Light, funny, and significant.

How does tone affect content?

Rejection of the herd mentality.

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Dada Manifesto Tristan Tzara, 1918

The magic of a word – Dada – which has brought journalists to the gates of a world unforeseen, is of no importance to us.

To put out a manifesto you must want: ABC to fulminate against 1, 2, 3 to fly into a rage and sharpen your wings to conquer and disseminate little abcs and big ABCs, to sign, shout, swear, to organize prose into a form of absolute and irrefutable evidence, to prove your non plus ultra and maintain that novelty resembles life just as the latest-appearance of some whore proves the essence of God. His existence was previously proved by the accordion, the landscape, the wheedling word. To impose your ABC is a natural thing—hence deplorable. Everybody does it in the form of crystalbluff-madonna, monetary system, pharmaceutical product, or a bare leg advertising the ardent sterile spring. The love of novelty is the cross of sympathy, demonstrates a naive je m’enfoutisme, it is a transitory, positive sign without a cause.

But this need itself is obsolete. In documenting art on the basis of the supreme simplicity: novelty, we are human and true for the sake of amusement, impulsive, vibrant to crucify boredom. At the crossroads of the lights, alert, attentively awaiting the years, in the forest. I write a manifesto and I want nothing, yet I say certain things, and in principle I am against manifestos, as I am also against principles (half-pints to measure the moral value of every phrase too, too convenient; approximation was invented by the impressionists). I write this manifesto to show that people can perform contrary actions together while taking one fresh gulp of air; I am against action; for continuous contradiction, for affirmation too, I am neither for nor against and I do not explain because I hate common sense.

DADA—this is a word that throws up ideas so that they can be shot down; every bourgeois is a little playwright, who invents different subjects and who, instead of situating suitable characters on the level of his own intelligence, like chrysalises on chairs, tries to find causes or objects (according to whichever psychoanalytic method he practices) to give weight to his plot, a talking and self-defining story.

Every spectator is a plotter, if he tries to explain a word (to know!) From his padded refuge of serpentine complications, he allows his instincts to be manipulated. Whence the sorrows of conjugal life.

To be plain: The amusement of red-bellies in the mills of empty skulls.

What is a manifesto?

This is ridiculous and contradictory and also very serious. Its a rejection of everything before it, a rejection of the Futurists, and as a rejection, Dadaist at its core. An anti-manifesto as manifesto.

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DADA DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING If you find it futile and don’t want to waste your time on a word that means nothing ... The first thought that comes to these people is bacteriological in character: to find its etymological, or at least its historical or psychological origin. We see by the papers that the Kru Negroes call the tail of a holy cow Dada. The cube and the mother in a certain district of Italy are called: Dada. A hobby horse, a nurse both in Russian and Romanian: Dada.

Some learned journalists regard it as an art for babies, other holy Jesuscallingthelittlechildrenuntohims of our day, as a relapse into a dry and noisy, noisy and monotonous primitivism. Sensibility is not constructed on the basis of a word; all constructions converge on perfection which is boring, the stagnant idea of a gilded swamp, a relative human product. A work of art should not be beauty in itself, for beauty is dead; it should be neither gay nor sad, neither light nor dark to rejoice or torture the individual by serving him the cakes of sacred aureoles or the sweets of a vaulted race through the atmospheres. A work of art is never beautiful by decree, objectively and for all. Hence criticism is useless, it exists only subjectively, for each man separately, without the slightest character of universality. Does anyone think he has found a psychic base common to all mankind? The attempt of Jesus and the Bible covers with their broad benevolent wings: shit, animals, days. How can one expect to put order into the chaos that constitutes that infinite and shapeless variation: man? The principle: “love thy neighbor” is a hypocrisy. “Know thyself” is Utopian but more acceptable, for it embraces wickedness. No pity. After the carnage we still retain the hope of a purified mankind. I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way, if he knows the joy that rises like arrows to the astral layers, or that other joy that goes down into the mines of corpse-flowers and fertile spasms. Stalactites: seek them everywhere, in managers magnified by pain, eyes white as the hares of the angels.

And so Dada was born of a need for independence, of a distrust toward unity. Those who are with us preserve their freedom. We recognize no theory.

We have enough cubist and futurist academies: laboratories of formal ideas.

Is the aim of art to make money and cajole the nice nice bourgeois? Rhymes ring with the assonance of the currencies and the inflexion slips along the line of the belly in profile. All groups of artists have arrived at this trust company utter riding their steeds on various comets. While the door remains open to the possibility of wallowing in cushions and good things to eat.

Here we are dropping our anchor in fertile ground.

Here we really know what we are talking about, because we have experienced the trembling and the awakening. Drunk with energy, we are revenants thrusting the trident into heedless flesh. We are streams of curses in the tropical abundance of vertiginous vegetation, resin and rain is our sweat, we bleed and burn with thirst, our blood is strength.

Cubism was born out of the simple way of looking at an object: Cezanne painted a cup 20 centimeters below his eyes, the cubists look at it from above, others complicate appearance by making a perpendicular section and arranging it conscientiously on the side. (I do not forget the creative artists and the profound laws of matter which they established once and for all.) The futurist sees the same cup in movement, a succession of objects one beside the others and maliciously adds a few force lines. This does not prevent the canvas from being a good or bad painting suitable for the investment of intellectual capital.

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And the point is that it means nothing. A manifesto in itself.

Who is to say what is good for all people? This idea has lead to war and destruction.

Again, contradictions knowingly built into text.

Cognitive dissonance. (See Shira and Josh Einstein interview on page 175.)

"We have enough..." They have their place and we will not intrude.

Ironic manifesto language, bringing it back to the satire that is Dada and this writing.

Dada Manifesto, Tristan Tzara, 1918

The new painter creates a world, the elements of which are also its implements, a sober, definite work without argument. The new artist protests: he no longer paints (symbolic and illusionist reproduction) but creates directly in stone, wood, iron, tin, boulders—locomotive organisms capable of being turned in all directions by the limpid wind of momentary sensation. All pictorial or plastic work is useless: let it then be a monstrosity that frightens servile minds, and not sweetening to decorate the refectories of animals in human costume, illustrating the sad fable of mankind.

A painting is the art of making two lines, which have been geometrically observed to be parallel, meet on a canvas, before our eyes, in the reality of a world that has been transposed according to new conditions and possibilities.

This world is neither specified nor defined in the work, it belongs, in its innumerable variations, to the spectator. For its creator it has neither case nor theory. Order = disorder; ego = non-ego; affirmation—negation: the supreme radiations of an absolute art. Absolute in the purity of its cosmic and regulated chaos, eternal in that globule that is a second which has no duration, no breath, no light and no control. I appreciate an old work for its novelty. It is only contrast that links us to the past. Writers who like to moralise and discuss or ameliorate psychological bases have, apart from a secret wish to win, a ridiculous knowledge of life, which they may have classified, parceled out, canalized; they are determined to see its categories dance when they beat time. Their readers laugh derisively, but carry on: what’s the use?

There is one kind of literature which never reaches the voracious masses.

The work of creative writers, written out of the author’s real necessity, and for his own benefit. The awareness of a supreme egoism, wherein laws become significant. Every page should explode, either because of its profound gravity, or its vortex, vertigo, newness, eternity, or because of its staggering absurdity, the enthusiasm of its principles, or its typography. On the one hand there is a world tottering in its flight, linked to the resounding tinkle of the infernal gamut; on the other hand, there are: the new men. Uncouth, galloping, riding astride on hiccups. And there is a mutilated world and literary medicasters in desperate need of amelioration.

I assure you: there is no beginning, and we are not afraid; we aren’t sentimental. We are like a raging wind that rips up the clothes of clouds and prayers, we are preparing the great spectacle of disaster, conflagration and decomposition. Preparing to put an end to mourning, and to replace tears by sirens spreading from one continent to another. Clarions of intense joy, bereft of that poisonous sadness. DADA is the mark of abstraction; publicity and business are also poetic elements.

I destroy the drawers of the brain, and those of social organization: to sow demoralization everywhere, and throw heaven’s hand into hell, hell’s eyes into heaven, to reinstate the fertile wheel of a universal circus in the Powers of reality, and the fantasy of every individual.

Philosophy is the question: from which side shall we look at life, God, the idea or other phenomena. Everything one looks at is false. I do not consider the relative result more important than the choice between cake and cherries after dinner. The system of quickly looking at the other side of a thing in order to impose your opinion indirectly is called dialectics, in other words, haggling over the spirit of fried potatoes while dancing method around it.

Reproducing theories in beautiful language, appropriating them by juxtaposing them to create third meaning.

ameliorate, verb; to make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better.

Another truthful Dadaist manifesto.

If I shout: 23

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Ideal, Ideal, Ideal Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge Boomboom, Boomboom, Boomboom I have given a pretty faithful version of progress, law, morality and all other fine qualities that various highly intelligent men have discussed in so many books, only to conclude that after all everyone dances to his own personal boomboom, and that the writer is entitled to his boomboom: the satisfaction of pathological curiosity a private bell for inexplicable needs; a bath; pecuniary difficulties; a stomach with repercussions in tile; the authority of the mystic wand formulated as the bouquet of a phantom orchestra made up of silent fiddle bows greased with filters made of chicken manure. With the blue eye-glasses of an angel they have excavated the inner life for a dime’s worth of unanimous gratitude. If all of them are right and if all pills are Pink Pills, let us try for once not to be right. Some people think they can explain rationally, by thought, what they think. But that is extremely relative. Psychoanalysis is a dangerous disease, it puts to sleep the anti-objective impulses of man and systematizes the bourgeoisie. There is no ultimate Truth. The dialectic is an amusing mechanism which guides us / in a banal kind of way / to the opinions we had in the first place. Does anyone think that, by a minute refinement of logic, he had demonstrated the truth and established the correctness of these opinions? Logic imprisoned by the senses is an organic disease. To this element philosophers always like to add: the power of observation. But actually this magnificent quality of the mind is the proof of its impotence. We observe, we regard from one or more points of view, we choose them among the millions that exist. Experience is also a product of chance and individual faculties. Science disgusts me as soon as it becomes a speculative system, loses its character of utility that is so useless but is at least individual. I detest greasy objectivity, and harmony, the science that finds everything in order. Carry on, my children, humanity...

Science says we are the servants of nature: everything is in order, make love and bash your brains in. Carry on, my children, humanity, kind bourgeois and journalist virgins... I am against systems, the most acceptable system is on principle to have none. To complete oneself, to perfect oneself in one’s own littleness, to fill the vessel with one’s individuality, to have the courage to fight for and against thought, the mystery of bread, the sudden burst of an infernal propeller into economic lilies.

DADAIST SPONTANEITY What I call the I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude of life is when everyone minds his own business, at the same time as he knows how to respect other individualities, and even how to stand up for himself, the two-step becoming a national anthem, a junk shop, the wireless (the wire-less telephone) transmitting Bach fugues, illuminated advertisements for placards for brothels, the organ broadcasting carnations for God, all this at the same time, and in real terms, replacing photography and unilateral catechism.

Active simplicity.

Inability to distinguish between degrees of clarity: to lick the penumbra and float in the big mouth filled with honey and excrement. Measured by the scale of eternity, all activity is vain—(if we allow thought to engage in an adventure the result of which would be infinitely grotesque and add significantly to our knowledge of human impotence). But supposing life to be a poor farce, without aim or initial parturition, and because we think it our duty to 24

penumbra, noun: the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object.

Dada Manifesto, Tristan Tzara, 1918

extricate ourselves as fresh and clean as washed chrysanthemums, we have proclaimed as the sole basis for agreement: art. It is not as important as we, mercenaries of the spirit, have been proclaiming for centuries. Art afflicts no one and those who manage to take an interest in it will harvest caresses and a fine opportunity to populate the country with their conversation. Art is a private affair, the artist produces it for himself, an intelligible work is the product of a journalist, and because at this moment it strikes my fancy to combine this monstrosity with oil paints: a paper tube simulating the metal that is automatically pressed and poured hatred cowardice villainy. The artist, the poet rejoice at the venom of the masses condensed into a section chief of this industry, he is happy to be insulted: it is a proof of his immutability.

When a writer or artist is praised by the newspapers, it is a proof of the intelligibility of his work: wretched lining of a coat for public use; tatters covering brutality, piss contributing to the warmth of an animal brooding vile instincts.

Flabby, insipid flesh reproducing with the help of typographical microbes.

We have thrown out the cry-baby in us. Any infiltration of this kind is candied diarrhea. To encourage this act is to digest it. What we need is works that are strong straight precise and forever beyond understanding. Logic is a complication. Logic is always wrong. It draws the threads of notions, words, in their formal exterior, toward illusory ends and centers. Its chains kill, it is an enormous centipede stifling independence. Married to logic, art would live in incest, swallowing, engulfing its own tail, still part of its own body, fornicating within itself, and passion would become a nightmare tarred with protestantism, a monument, a heap of ponderous gray entrails.

But the suppleness, enthusiasm, even the joy of injustice, this little truth which we practice innocently and which makes its beautiful: we are subtle and our fingers are malleable and slippery as the branches of that sinuous, almost liquid plant; it defines our soul, say the cynics. That too is a point of view; but all flowers are not sacred, fortunately, and the divine thing in us is to call to anti-human action. I am speaking of a paper flower for the buttonholes of the gentlemen who frequent the ball of masked life, the kitchen of grace, white cousins lithe or fat. They traffic with whatever we have selected.

The contradiction and unity of poles in a single toss can be the truth. If one absolutely insists on uttering this platitude, the appendix of a libidinous, malodorous morality. Morality creates atrophy like every plague produced by intelligence. The control of morality and logic has inflicted us with impassivity in the presence of policemen who are the cause of slavery, putrid rats infecting the bowels of the bourgeoisie which have infected the only luminous clean corridors of glass that remained open to artists.

But suppleness, enthusiasm and even the joy of injustice, that little truth that we practice as innocents and that makes us beautiful: we are cunning, and our fingers are malleable and glide like the branches of that insidious and almost liquid plant; this injustice is the indication of our soul, say the cynics. This is also a point of view; but all flowers aren’t saints, luckily, and what is divine in us is the awakening of anti-human action. What we are talking about here is a paper flower for the buttonhole of gentlemen who frequent the ball of masked life, the kitchen of grace, our white, lithe or fleshy girl cousins. They make a profit out of what we have selected. The contradiction and unity of opposing poles at the same time may be true.

IF we are absolutely determined to utter this platitude, the appendix of a libidinous, evil-smelling morality. Morals have an atrophying effect, like every other pestilential product of the intelligence. Being governed by 25

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morals and logic has made it impossible for us to be anything other than impassive towards policemen—the cause of slavery—putrid rats with whom the bourgeois are fed up to the teeth, and who have infected the only corridors of clear and clean glass that remained open to artists.

Let each man proclaim: there is a great negative work of destruction to be accomplished. We must sweep and clean. Affirm the cleanliness of the individual after the state of madness, aggressive complete madness of a world abandoned to the hands of bandits, who rend one another and destroy the centuries. Without aim or design, without organization: indomitable madness, decomposition. Those who are strong in words or force will survive, for they are quick in defense, the agility of limbs and sentiments flames on their faceted flanks.

Morality has determined charity and pity, two balls of fat that have grown like elephants, like planets, and are called good. There is nothing good about them. Goodness is lucid, clear and decided, pitiless toward compromise and politics. Morality is an injection of chocolate into the veins of all men. This task is not ordered by a supernatural force but by the trust of idea brokers and grasping academicians. Sentimentality: at the sight of a group of men quarreling and bored, they invented the calendar and the medicament wisdom. With a sticking of labels the battle of the philosophers was set off (mercantilism, scales, meticulous and petty measures) and for the second time it was understood that pity is a sentiment like diarrhea in relation to the disgust that destroys health, a foul attempt by carrion corpses to compromise the sun. I proclaim the opposition of all cosmic faculties to this gonorrhea of a putrid sun issued from the factories of philosophical thought, I proclaim bitter struggle with all the weapons of – DADAIST DISGUST Every product of disgust capable of becoming a negation of the family is Dada; a protest with the fists of its whole being engaged in destructive action: Dada; knowledge of all the means rejected up until now by the shamefaced sex of comfortable compromise and good manners: DADA; abolition of logic, which is the dance of those impotent to create: DADA; of every social hierarchy and equation set up for the sake of values by our valets: DADA: every object, all objects, sentiments, obscurities, apparitions and the precise clash of parallel lines are weapons for the fight: DADA; abolition of memory: Dada; abolition of archaeology: DADA; abolition of prophets: DADA; abolition of the future: DADA; absolute and unquestionable faith in every god that is the immediate product of spontaneity: DADA; elegant and unprejudiced leap from a harmony to the other sphere; trajectory of a word tossed like a screeching phonograph record; to respect all individuals in their folly of the moment: whether it be serious, fearful, timid, ardent, vigorous, determined, enthusiastic; to divest one’s church of every useless cumbersome accessory; to spit out disagreeable or amorous ideas like a luminous waterfall, or coddle them—with the extreme satisfaction that it doesn’t matter in the least—with the same intensity in the thicket of core’s soul pure of insects for blood well-born, and gilded with bodies of archangels. Freedom: DADA DADA DADA, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE.

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Fascist Manifesto Benito Mussolini, 1919

Italians! Here is the program of a genuinely Italian movement.

It is revolutionary because it is anti-dogmatic, strongly innovative and against prejudice.

What went wrong?

Manifesto ≠action.

For the political problem: We demand: a Universal suffrage polled on a regional basis, with proportional representation and voting and electoral office eligibility for women. b A minimum age for the voting electorate of 18 years; that for the office holders at 25 years. c The abolition of the Senate. d The convocation of a National Assembly for a three-years duration, for which its primary responsibility will be to form a constitution of the State. e The formation of a National Council of experts for labor, for industry, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc.

Selections to be made from the collective professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a General Commission with ministerial powers.

For the social problems: We demand: a The quick enactment of a law of the State that sanctions an eight-hour workday for all workers. b A minimum wage. c The participation of workers’ representatives in the functions of industry commissions. d To show the same confidence in the labor unions (that prove to be technically and morally worthy) as is given to industry executives or public servants. e The rapid and complete systemization of the railways and of all the transport industries. f A necessary modification of the insurance laws to invalidate the minimum retirement age; we propose to lower it from 65 to 55 years of age.

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For the military problem: We demand: a The institution of a national militia with a short period of service for training and exclusively defensive responsibilities. b The nationalization of all the arms and explosives factories. c A national policy intended to peacefully further the Italian national culture in the world.

For the financial problem: We demand: a A strong progressive tax on capital that will truly expropriate a portion of all wealth. b The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor. c The revision of all military contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of the profits therein.

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The Communist Manifesto (excerpt) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

From the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

Two things result from this fact.

I

specter, noun; something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence.

Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers to be itself a Power.

II It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Specter of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself.

To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London, and sketched the following Manifesto, to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages.

I. Bourgeois and Proletarians

The big setting of scene.

The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.

The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established 29

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The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed.

The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development.

The feudal system of industry, under which industrial production was monopolized by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place.

The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division of labor between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labor in each single workshop.

Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionized industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.

Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in its time, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.

We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.

Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self-governing association in the medieval commune; here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy (as in France), afterwards, in the period of manufacture proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world-market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous

Simple, understandable phrase, both describing the basic human tribe mentality while propelling it forward, communists vs non.

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"cash payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless and indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.

The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.

The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigor in the Middle Ages, which Reactionists so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man's activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses of nations and crusades.

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.

The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world-market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature.

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ossify, verb; 1. turn into bone or bony tissue.

2. cease developing; be stagnant or rigid.

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns.

It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West.

The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated production, and has concentrated property in a few hands.

The necessary consequence of this was political centralization. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class-interest, one frontier and one customs-tariff. The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground—what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labor?

We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in feudal society.

At a certain stage in the development of these means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organization of agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters.

They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder.

Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the economical and political sway of the bourgeois class.

A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put on its trial, each time more threateningly, 33

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the existence of the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great part not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity—the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.

The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself.

But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class—the proletarians.

In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed—a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell themselves piece-meal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.

Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labor, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labor, is equal to its cost of production.

In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labor increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of the machinery, etc.

Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, 34

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

by the over-looker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.

The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labor, in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labor of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class.

All are instruments of labor, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.

No sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.

The lower strata of the middle class—the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants—all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialized skill is rendered worthless by the new methods of production.

Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.

The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the contest is carried on by individual laborers, then by the work-people of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that compete with their labor, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages.

At this stage the laborers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie.

But with the development of industry the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalized, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level. The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating. The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon the workers begin to form combinations (Trades Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the

Disorganized action! Set the stage for what communism can do for the people!

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rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there the contest breaks out into riots.

Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the everexpanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another.

It was just this contact that was needed to centralize the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes. But every class struggle is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, the modern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years.

This organization of the proletarians into a class, and consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself.

Thus the ten-hours' bill in England was carried.

Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society further, in many ways, the course of development of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all times, with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for its help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own instruments of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie.

Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling classes are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and progress.

Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole.

Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance they are revolutionary, they are so only in view of their impending transfer into the 36

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

proletariat, they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat.

The "dangerous class," the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.

In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois familyrelations; modern industrial labor, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.

All the preceding classes that got the upper hand, sought to fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation.

They have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property.

All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air.

Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie.

In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.

Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois.

The modern laborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society.

The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labor. Wage-labor rests exclusively on competition between the

Uh, 2016 elections?????

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laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

II. Proletarians and Communists In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole?

The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working-class parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mold the proletarian movement.

The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: (1) In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. (2) In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.

The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.

The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.

The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that would-be universal reformer. They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes. The abolition of existing property relations is not at all a distinctive feature of Communism.

All property relations in the past have continually been subject to historical change consequent upon the change in historical conditions. The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favor of bourgeois property.

The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few.

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labor, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence.

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The goal!

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the property of the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of property that preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to abolish that; the development of industry has to a great extent already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily.

Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property?

But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labor, and which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation. Property, in its present form, is based on the antagonism of capital and wage-labor. Let us examine both sides of this antagonism.

To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status in production. Capital is a collective product, and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of all members of society, can it be set in motion.

Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power.

When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby transformed into social property. It is only the social character of the property that is changed. It loses its class-character.

Let us now take wage-labor.

The average price of wage-labor is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely requisite in bare existence as a laborer. What, therefore, the wage-laborer appropriates by means of his labor, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the products of labor, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labor of others. All that we want to do away with, is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the laborer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it.

In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to increase accumulated labor. In Communist society, accumulated labor is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the laborer.

In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.

And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at.

By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of production, free trade, free selling and buying.

But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying disappears also. This talk about free selling and buying, and all the other "brave words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted selling and buying, with the fettered traders of the Middle Ages, but have no meaning when opposed to the Communistic abolition of buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, and of the bourgeoisie itself.

You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property.

But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for 39

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nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.

In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property.

Precisely so; that is just what we intend.

From the moment when labor can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolized, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say individuality vanishes.

You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible.

Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.

It has been objected that upon the abolition of private property all work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us.

According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work, acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not work. The whole of this objection is but another expression of the tautology: that there can no longer be any wage-labor when there is no longer any capital.

All objections urged against the Communistic mode of producing and appropriating material products, have, in the same way, been urged against the Communistic modes of producing and appropriating intellectual products. Just as, to the bourgeois, the disappearance of class property is the disappearance of production itself, so the disappearance of class culture is to him identical with the disappearance of all culture.

That culture, the loss of which he laments, is, for the enormous majority, a mere training to act as a machine.

But don't wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois notions of freedom, culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential character and direction are determined by the economical conditions of existence of your class.

The selfish misconception that induces you to transform into eternal laws of nature and of reason, the social forms springing from your present mode of production and form of property—historical relations that rise and disappear in the progress of production—this misconception you share with every ruling class that has preceded you. What you see clearly in the case of ancient property, what you admit in the case of feudal property, you are of course forbidden to admit in the case of your own bourgeois form of property.

Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists.

On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based?

On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement 40

This entire section is debunking statements against the movement.

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.

The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.

But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we replace home education by social.

And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention, direct or indirect, of society, by means of schools, etc.? The Communists have not invented the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class.

The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor.

But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the whole bourgeoisie in chorus.

The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women.

He has not even a suspicion that the real point is to do away with the status of women as mere instruments of production.

For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.

Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives.

Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalized community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution both public and private.

The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality.

The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.

National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world-market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto.

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The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster.

United action, of the leading civilized countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.

In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to.

In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.

The charges against Communism made from a religious, a philosophical, and, generally, from an ideological standpoint, are not deserving of serious examination.

Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, views and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life?

What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material production is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

When people speak of ideas that revolutionize society, they do but express the fact, that within the old society, the elements of a new one have been created, and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old conditions of existence.

When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge.

"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, moral, philosophical and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development.

But religion, morality philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change."

"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience."

What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.

But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past ages, viz., the exploitation of one part of society by the other. No wonder, then, that the social consciousness of past ages, despite all the multiplicity and variety it displays, moves within certain common forms, or general ideas, which cannot completely vanish except with the total disappearance of class antagonisms.

The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas.

But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism.

We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling as to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production 42

viz., adverb; namely; in other words (used especially to introduce a gloss or explanation).

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888

in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.

Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production.

These measures will of course be different in different countries.

Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

1 Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2 A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3 Abolition of all right of inheritance.

4 Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

5 Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6 Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

7 Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8 Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9 Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

10 Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc.

When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class.

In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

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IV. Position of the Communists in relation to the various existing opposition parties Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the existing working-class parties, such as the Chartists in England and the Agrarian Reformers in America.

The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement. In France the Communists ally themselves with the Social-Democrats, against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the right to take up a critical position in regard to phrases and illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution.

In Switzerland they support the Radicals, without losing sight of the fact that this party consists of antagonistic elements, partly of Democratic Socialists, in the French sense, partly of radical bourgeois.

In Poland they support the party that insists on an agrarian revolution as the prime condition for national emancipation, that party which fomented the insurrection of Cracow in 1846.

In Germany they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a revolutionary way, against the absolute monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, and the petty bourgeoisie.

But they never cease, for a single instant, to instill into the working class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat, in order that the German workers may straightaway use, as so many weapons against the bourgeoisie, the social and political conditions that the bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its supremacy, and in order that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in Germany, the fight against the bourgeoisie itself may immediately begin.

The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because that country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that is bound to be carried out under more advanced conditions of European civilization, and with a much more developed proletariat, than that of England was in the seventeenth, and of France in the eighteenth century, and because the bourgeois revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately following proletarian revolution.

In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! 44

The Laws of Sculptors Gilbert & George, 1967

1 Always be smartly dressed, well groomed, relaxed, friendly, polite and in complete control.

2 Make the world believe in you and to pay heavily for this privilege.

Vague and ambiguous while concrete and specific.

Both metaphor and literal advice.

3 Never worry, assess, discuss or criticize but remain quiet respectful and calm.

4 The Lord chisels still, so don’t leave your bench for long.

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Kesselskramer

Life is too short to spend it with assholes.

46

Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar Walter Gropius, 1919

The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! To embellish buildings was once the noblest function of the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture. Today the arts exist in isolation from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, co-operative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts. Only then will their work be imbued with the architectonic spirit which it has lost as ‘salon art’.

The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot be taught. They must be merged once more with the workshop. The mere drawing and painting world of the pattern designer and the applied artist must become a world that builds again. When young people who take a joy in artistic creation once more begin their life’s work by learning a trade, then the unproductive ‘artist’ will no longer be condemned to deficient artistry, for their skill will now be preserved for the crafts, in which they will be able to achieve excellence.

Architects, sculptors, painters we all must return to the crafts. For art is not a ‘profession’. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination. Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith.

—Walter Gropius

Opens with intent and the broad manifesto.

Compare to Ornament and Crime page on 13.

Same idea, different tone, different placement of energy.

The Bauhaus was a school and a movement in design.

Second paragraph in and Gropius transitions into his more specific manifesto and intent.

This is a direct response to the fall of Germany after the first world war.

Tone is really hopeful, welcoming, positive. It doesn't condemn, but invites people to participate in the new future.

Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar The Staatliches Bauhaus resulted from the merger of the former Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of Art with the former Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in conjunction with a newly affiliated department of architecture.

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Aims of the Bauhaus The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art—sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and the crafts—as inseparable components of a new architecture. The ultimate, if distant, aim of the Bauhaus is the unified work of art—the great structure— in which there is no distinction between monumental and decorative art.

The Bauhaus wants to educate architects, painters, and sculptors of all levels, according to their capabilities, to become competent craftsmen or independent creative artists and to form a working community of leading and future artist-craftsmen. These men, of kindred spirit, will know how to design buildings harmoniously in their entirety—structure, finishing, ornamentation, and furnishing.

Principles of the Bauhaus Art rises above all methods; in itself it cannot be taught, but the crafts certainly can be. Architects, painters, and sculptors are craftsmen in the

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Manifesto and intent is said over and over again, in the introduction, the Aims, and shown throughout the lesson plans. We have intent and an actionable plan.

Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, Walter Gropius, 1919

true sense of the word: hence, a thorough training in the crafts, acquired in workshops and on experimental and practical sites, is required of all students as the indispensable basis for all artistic production. Our own workshops are to be gradually built up, and apprenticeship agreements with outside workshops will be concluded.

The school is the servant of the workshop and will one day be absorbed in it. Therefore there will be no teachers or pupils in the Bauhaus but masters, journeymen, and apprentices.

Restructuring of society, starting with what is available.

The manner of teaching arises from the character of the workshop: •

Organic forms developed from manual skills.

•

Avoidance of all rigidity; priority of creativity; freedom of individuality, but strict study discipline.

•

Master and journeyman examinations, according to the Guild Statutes, held before the Council of Masters of the Bauhaus or before outside masters.

•

Collaboration by the students in the work of the masters.

•

Securing of commissions, also for students.

•

Mutual planning of extensive, Utopian structural designs—public buildings and buildings for worship—aimed at the future. Collaboration of all masters and students—architects, painters, sculptors—on these designs with the object of gradually achieving a harmony of all the component elements and parts that make up architecture.

•

Constant contact with the leaders of the crafts and industries of the country.

•

Contact with public life, with the people, through exhibitions and other activities.

•

New research into the nature of the exhibitions, to solve the problem of displaying visual work and sculpture within the framework of architecture.

•

Encouragement of friendly relations between masters and students outside of work; therefore plays, lectures, poetry, music, fancy-dress parties. Establishment of a cheerful ceremonial at these gatherings.

Range of Instruction Instruction at the Bauhaus includes all practical and scientific areas of creative work.

A Architecture, B Painting,

C Sculpture including all branches of the crafts.

Students are trained in a craft (1) as well as in drawing and painting (2) and science and theory (3).

1 Craft training—either in our own, gradually enlarging workshops or in outside workshops to which the student is bound by apprenticeship agreement—includes: a sculptors, stonemasons, stucco workers, woodcarvers, ceramic workers, plaster casters;

d scene-painters, glass painters, mosaic workers, enamelers;

b blacksmiths, locksmiths, founders, metal turners;

e etchers, wood engravers, lithographers, art printers, enchasers;

c cabinetmakers;

f

weavers.

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Craft training forms the basis of all teaching at the Bauhaus.

Every student must learn a craft.

2 Training in drawing and painting includes: a free-hand sketching from memory and imagination;

g lettering;

b drawing and painting of heads, live models, and animals;

h construction and projection drawing;

c drawing and painting of landscapes, figures, plants, and still-lifes;

i

design of exteriors, gardens, and interiors;

j

design of furniture and practical articles.

d composition;

f

design of ornaments;

e execution of murals, panel pictures, and religious shrines; 3 Training in science and theory includes: a art history—not presented in the sense of a history of styles, but rather to further active understanding of historical working methods and techniques; b science of materials; c anatomy—from the living model;

d physical and chemical theory of color; e rational painting methods; f

basic concepts of bookkeeping, contract negotiations, personnel;

g individual lectures on subjects of general interest in all areas of art and science.

Divisions of Instruction The training is divided into three courses of instruction: I. course for apprentices; II. course for journeymen; III. course for junior masters.

The instruction of the individual is left to the discretion of each master within the framework of the general program and the work schedule, which is revised every semester. In order to give the students as versatile and comprehensive a technical and artistic training as possible the work schedule will be so arranged that every architect-, painter-, and sculptor-tobe is able to participate in part of the other courses.

Admission Any person of good repute, without regard to age or sex, whose previous education is deemed adequate by the Council of Masters will be admitted, as far as space permits. The tuition fee is 180 marks per year (it will gradually disappear entirely with increasing earnings of the Bauhaus). A non-recurring admission fee of 20 marks is also to be paid. Foreign students pay double fees.

Address inquiries to the Secretariat of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar.

April 1919.

The Administration of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar: Walter Gropius

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Accessibility, all hands on deck.

Nationalism, again, rebuilding of Germany.

Principles of Bauhaus [Dessau] production (excerpt) Walter Gropius, 1926

The Bauhaus wants to serve in the development of present-day housing, from the simplest household appliances to the finished dwelling.

In the conviction that household appliances and furnishings must be rationally related to each other, the Bauhaus is seeking—by systematic practical and theoretical research in the formal, technical and economic fields— to derive the design of an object from its natural functions and relationships.

Modern man, who no longer dresses in historical garments but wears modern clothes, also needs a modern home appropriate to him and his time, equipped with all the modern devices of daily use.

An object is defined by its nature. In order, then, to design it to function correctly—a container, a chair, or a house—one must first of all study its nature; for it must serve its purpose perfectly, that is, it must fulfill its function usefully, be durable, economical and 'beautiful'. This research into the nature of objects leads to the conclusion that by resolute consideration of modern production methods, constructions, and materials, forms will evolve that are often unusual and surprising, since they deviate from the conventional (consider, for example, the changes in the design of heating and lighting fixtures).

It is only through constant contact with newly evolving techniques, with the discovery of new materials and with new ways of putting things together, that the creative individual can learn to bring the design of objects into a living relationship with tradition and from that point to develop a new attitude toward design, which is:

Refinement of message.

Compare to Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, 1919, 7 years earlier.

Compare to Ornament and Crime page 13.

Who is the audience for this text? Does dating this change its pertinence?

Production changing culture.

• a resolute affirmation of the living environment of machines and vehicles; the organic design of things based on their own present-day laws, without romantic gloss and wasteful frivolity; •

the limitation to characteristic, primary forms and colors, readily accessible to everyone;

•

simplicity in multiplicity, economical utilization of space, material, time, and money.

The creation of standard types for all practical commodities of everyday use is a social necessity.

On the whole, the necessities of life are the same for the majority of people. The home and its furnishings are mass consumer goods, and their design is more a matter of reason than a matter of passion. The machine—

Passionate rejection of passion, 51

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52

capable of producing standardized products—is an effective device, which, by means of mechanical aids—steam and electricity—can free the individual from working manually for the satisfaction of his daily needs and can provide him with mass-produced products that are cheaper and better than those manufactured by hand. There is no danger that standardization will force a choice upon the individual, since, due to natural competition, the number of available types of each object will always be ample to provide the individual with a choice of design that suits him best.

The Bauhaus workshops are essentially laboratories in which prototypes of products suitable for mass production and typical of our time are carefully developed and constantly improved.

In these laboratories the Bauhaus wants to train a new kind of collaborator for industry and the crafts, who has an equal command of both technology and form.

To reach the objective of creating a set of standard prototypes which meet all the demands of economy, technology and form, requires the selection of the best, most versatile, and most thoroughly educated men who are well grounded in workshop experience and who are imbued with an exact knowledge of the design elements of form and mechanics and their underlying laws.

The Bauhaus represents the opinion that the contrast between industry and the crafts is much less marked by the difference in the tools they use than by the division of labor in industry and the unity of the work in the crafts. But the two are constantly getting closer to each other. The crafts of the past have changed, and future crafts will be merged in a new productive unity in which they will carry out the experimental work for industrial production. Speculative experiments in laboratory workshops will yield models and prototypes for productive implementation in factories.

The prototypes that have been completed in the Bauhaus workshops are being reproduced by outside firms with whom the workshops are closely related.

The production of the Bauhaus thus does not represent any kind of competition for either industry or crafts but rather provides them with impetus for their development. The Bauhaus does this by bringing creatively talented people with ample practical experience into the actual course of production, to take over the preparatory work for production, from industry and the crafts.

The products reproduced from prototypes that have been developed by the Bauhaus can be offered at a reasonable price only by utilization of all the modern, economical methods of standardization (mass production by industry) and by large-scale sales. The dangers of a decline in the quality of the product by comparison to the prototype, in regard to quality of material and workmanship, as a result of mechanical reproduction will be countered by all available means. The Bauhaus fights against the cheap substitute, inferior workmanship and the dilettantism of the handicrafts, for a new standard of quality work.

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Manifesto for the first Bauhaus exhibition Oskar Schlemmer, 1923

The Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar is the first and so far the only government school in the Reich—if not in the world—which calls upon the creative forces of the fine arts to become influential while they are vital. At the same time it endeavors, through the establishment of workshops founded upon the crafts, to unite and productively stimulate the arts with the aim of combining them in architecture. The concept of building will restore the unity that perished in debased academicism and in finicky handicraft. It must reinstate the broad relationship with the 'whole' and, in the deepest sense, make possible the total work of art. The ideal is old, but its rendering always new: the fulfillment is the style, and never was the 'will-to-style' more powerful than today. But confusion about concepts and attitudes caused the conflict and dispute over the nature of this style which will emerge as the 'new beauty' from the clash of ideas. Such a school, animating and inwardly animated, unintentionally becomes the gauge for the convulsions of the political and intellectual life of the time, and the history of the Bauhaus becomes the history of contemporary art.

The Staatliches Bauhaus, founded after the catastrophe of the war in the chaos of the revolution and in the era of the flowering of an emotion-laden, explosive art, becomes the rallying-point of all those who, with belief in the future and with sky-storming enthusiasm, wish to build the 'cathedral of Socialism'. The triumphs of industry and technology before the war and the orgies in the name of destruction during it called to life that impassioned romanticism which was a flaming protest against materialism and the mechanization of art and life. The misery of the time was also a spiritual anguish. A cult of the unconscious and of the unexplainable, a propensity for mysticism and sectarianism, originated in the quest for those highest things which are in danger of being deprived of their meaning in a world full of doubt and disruption. Breaking the limitations of classical aesthetics reinforced boundlessness of feeling, which found nourishment and verification in the discovery of the East and the art of the Negro, peasants, children, and the insane. The origin of artistic creation was as much sought after as its limits were courageously extended. Passionate use of the means of expression developed in altar paintings. But it is in pictures, and always in pictures, where the decisive values take refuge. As the highest achievement of individual exaggeration, free from bonds and unredeemed, they must all, apart from the unity of the picture itself, remain in debt to the proclaimed synthesis.

Using the power of your privilege for good.

Refinement of message.

Compare to Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, 1919, 7 years earlier.

Remembering roots and updating them to current times.

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The honest crafts wallowed in the exotic joy of materials, and architecture piled Utopian schemes on paper.

Reversal of values, changes in point of view, name and concept, result in the other view, the next faith. Dada, court jester in this kingdom, plays ball with paradoxes and makes the atmosphere free and easy. Americanisms transferred to Europe, the new wedged into the old world, death to the past, to moonlight, and to the soul, thus the present time strides along with the gestures of a conqueror. Reason and science, 'man's greatest powers', are the regents, and the engineer is the sedate executor of unlimited possibilities.

Mathematics, structure, and mechanization are the elements, and power and money are the dictators of these modern phenomena of steel, concrete, glass, and electricity. Velocity of rigid matter, dematerialization of matter, organization of inorganic matter, all these produce the miracle of abstraction.

Based on the laws of nature, these are the achievements of mind in the conquest of nature, based on the power of capital, the work of man against man. The speed and supertension of commercialism make expediency and utility the measure of all effectiveness, and calculation seizes the transcendent world: art becomes a logarithm. Art, long bereft of its name, lives a life after death, in the monument of the cube and in the colored square. Religion is the precise process of thinking, and God is dead. Man, self-conscious and perfect being, surpassed in accuracy by every puppet, awaits results from the chemist's retort until the formula for 'spirit' is found as well ...

Goethe: 'If the hopes materialize that men, with all their strength, with heart and mind, with understanding and love, will join together and become conscious of each other, then what no man can yet imagine will occur -Allah will no longer need to create, we will create his world.' This is the synthesis, the concentration, intensification, and compression of all that is positive to form the powerful mean. The idea of the mean, far from mediocrity and weakness, taken as scale and balance, becomes the idea of German art.

Germany, country of the middle, and Weimar, the heart of it, is not for the first time the adopted place of intellectual decision. What matters is the recognition of what is pertinent to us, so that we will not aimlessly wander astray. In balancing the polar contrasts—loving the remotest past as well as the remotest future; averting reaction as much as anarchism; advancing from the end-in-itself and from self-directedness to the typical, from the problematical to the valid and secure—we become the bearers of responsibility and the conscience of the world. An idealism of activity that embraces, penetrates, and unites art, science, and technology and that influences research, study, and work will construct the 'art-edifice' of Man, which is but an allegory of the cosmic system. Today we can do no more than ponder the total plan, lay the foundations, and prepare the building stones.

But We exist! We have the will! We are producing!

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Understanding rejection based design and utilizing it to its fullest potential.

Understanding your predicament and using it to leverage your practice.

Focus! Writing as focusing agent to align participants.

De Stijl Manifesto V Cornelis van Eesteren, Theo van Doesburg, & G. Rietveld, 1923

1 In close co-operation, we have examined architecture as a plastic unit made up of industry and technology and have established that a new style has emerged as a result.

What is design right now?

Plastic: capable of being molded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

2 We have examined the laws of space and their endless variations (i.e. spatial contrasts, spatial dissonances, spatial supplementations) and have established that all these variations can be welded together into a balanced unity.

Findings

3 We have examined the laws of color in space and time and have established that the mutual harmonization of these elements produces a new and positive unity.

Findings

4 We have examined the relationships between space and time and found that the process of rendering these two elements visible through the use of color produces a new dimension.

Findings

5 We have examined the mutual interrelationships between dimension, proportion, space, time and material and have discovered a final method of constructing a unity from them.

Findings

6 By breaking up enclosing elements (walls, etc.) we have eliminated the duality of interior and exterior.

Findings

7 We have given color its rightful place in architecture and we assert that painting separated from the architectonic construction (i.e. the picture) has no right to exist.

8 The time of destruction is at an end. A new age is dawning: the age of construction.

While not technical this sums up

Towards collective building; commentary on Manifesto V We have to realize that art and life are no longer separate domains. Therefore the idea of 'art' as illusion unconnected with real life has to disappear.

The word 'art' no longer means anything to us. Leaving this concept behind us, we demand the construction of our environment according to creative

Living as a way to create deeper and more meaningful art. Always honing craft and practicing means constantly pushing towards refinement of idea.

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laws derived from a fixed principle. These laws, linked with those of economics, mathematics, technology, hygiene, etc., leads to a new plastic unity. In order that the interrelationships of these reciprocal laws may be defined, the laws themselves must first be established and understood.

Up to now the field of human creativity and the laws governing its constructions have never been examined scientifically.

These laws cannot be imagined. They exist as facts and can be elucidated only by collective work and by experience.

Our era is inimical to all subjective speculation in art, science, technology, and so on. The new spirit which already governs almost all modern life is opposed to animal spontaneity (lyricism), to the dominion of nature, to complicated hair-styles and elaborate cooking.

In order to create something new we need a method, that is to say, an objective system. If we discover the same qualities in different things, we have found an objective scale. For example, one of the basic laws is that the modern constructor, by the means proper to his particular field of activity, brings to light not the relationship between things themselves, but the relationship between their qualities.

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A promise to one's self as guidelines for living. Living in an artistic way, using ideals of art to impress onto life. Utopian goals.

Creating order from madness, creating a scale to measure against to know success and failure.

inimical, adjective: tending to obstruct or harm.

Work Council for Art: Under the wing of great architecture Bruno Taut, 1919

In the conviction that the political revolution must be used to liberate art from decades of regimentation, a group of artists and art-lovers united by a common outlook has been formed in Berlin. It strives for the gathering together of all scattered and divided energies which, over and above the protection of one-sided professional interests, wish to work resolutely together for the rebuilding of our whole artistic life. In close contact with associations with similar objectives in other parts of Germany, the Arbeitsrat fur Kunst hopes in the not too distant future to be able to push through its aims, which are outlined in the following programme.

In the forefront stands the guiding principle: Art and people must form a unity.

Art shall no longer be the enjoyment of the few but the life and happiness of the masses.

The aim is alliance of the arts under the wing of a great architecture.

On this basis six preliminary demands are made: 1. Recognition of the public character of all building activity, both State and private. Removal of all privileges accorded to Civil Servants. Unitary supervision of whole urban districts, streets, and residential estates, without curtailment of freedom over detail. New tasks: people’s housing as a means of bringing all the arts to the people. Permanent experimental sites for testing and perfecting new architectural effects.

Art as politics, politics shaping art.

Bring enjoyment, happiness, merriness to the people through the creation of buildings for them to enjoy.

Can we make design that benefits the people rather than/along with imposing upon them?

Six points, six demands.

There is power to specificity and a ruler to measure success against. Six is also an attainable number.

Everything we put out in the world is public and therefore affects the public.

2. Dissolution of the Academy of Arts, the Academy of Building and the Prussian Provincial Art Commission in their existing form. Replacement of these bodies, accompanied by a redefining of their territories, by others drawn from the ranks of productive artists themselves and free from State interference. The changing of privileged art exhibitions into exhibitions to which entry is free.

3. Freeing of all training in architecture, sculpture, painting, and handicrafts from State supervision. Transformation of all instruction in the arts and handicrafts from top to bottom. State funds to be made available for this purpose and for the training of master craftsmen in training workshops.

Power to the people. Take power from people who abuse it/ don't use it to its best potential and give opportunity for change.

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4. Enlivenment of the museums as educational establishments for the people. Mounting of constantly changing exhibitions made to serve the interests of the people by means of lectures and conducted tours. Separation of scientific material in specially constructed buildings. Establishment of specially arranged collections for study by workers in the arts and crafts. Just distribution of State funds for the acquisition of old and new works.

5. Destruction of artistically valueless monuments as well as of all buildings whose artistic value is out of proportion to the value of their material which could be put to other uses. Prevention of prematurely planned war memorials and immediate cessation of work on the war museums proposed for Berlin and the Reich.

6. Establishment of a national centre to ensure the fostering of the arts within the framework of future lawmaking.

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Dynamics & Function (excerpt) Erich Mendelsohn, 1923

Ever since science has come to realize that the two concepts matter and energy, formerly kept rigidly apart, are merely different states of the same primary element, that in the order of the world nothing takes place without relativity to the cosmos, without relationship to the whole, the engineer has abandoned the mechanical theory of dead matter and has reaffirmed his allegiance to nature. From primal states he deduces the laws determining interactions. His former arrogance has given way to the happy sense of being a creator. The intellectually one-sided inventor has become the intuitive manysided originator. The machine, till now the pliable tool of lifeless exploitation, has become the constructive element of a new, living organism. We owe its existence neither to the whim of an unknown donor nor to the joy in invention of a constructive genius; it comes into being as a necessary concomitant of evolution at the same moment as need demands it. Its real task lies in satisfying the multiple mutual interrelationships between population figures and increased production, between industrialization and human consumption; it has to bring order into these interrelationships and master their effects.

Thus it becomes both a symbol of intensified decay and an element in a life that is ordering itself anew.

Now that we have discovered its forces we apparently dominate nature.

In reality we merely serve it with new means .

We have apparently freed ourselves from the law of gravity.

In truth we merely comprehend its logic with new senses. The precision of its revolutions, the harsh sound of its course, impel us to fresh clarity, the metallic gleam of its material thrusts us into a fresh light.

A new rhythm is taking possession of the world, a new movement.

Medieval man, amidst the horizontal tranquility of his contemplative working day, needed the verticals of the cathedrals in order to find his God high above. Modern man, amidst the excited flurry of his fast-moving life, can find equilibrium only in the tension-free horizontal. Only by means of his will to reality can he become master of his unrest, only by moving at maximum speed will he overcome his haste. For the rotating earth stands still! It is unthinkable that mastery of the air, dominion over the natural elements should be given up.

The task is to reduce them to commonplaces of knowledge.

The child learns to telephone; numbers have lost their magnitude; distances have been reduced to short walks.

Time and place. Design, architecture, engineering, solely as a direct product of its context and surrounding world.

concomitant, noun: a phenomenon that naturally accompanies or follows something.

The problems the world faces as a director to what design needs to focus on.

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Technology is handicraft. The laboratory is a workplace. The inventor is master.

Rarely, it seems to me, has the order of the world so unequivocally revealed itself; rarely has the Logos of existence opened wider than in this time of supposed chaos. For we have all been shaken awake by elemental events; we have had time to shake off prejudices and sated complacency. As creators ourselves we know how very variously the forces of motion, the play of tensions, work out in individual instances. All the more, then, is it our task to oppose excited flurry with contemplation, exaggeration with simplicity, uncertainty with a clear law; to rediscover the elements of

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energy in the midst of the fragmentation of energy, from the elements of energy to form a new whole.

To work, construct, re-calculate the Earth! But form the world that is waiting for you. Form with the dynamics of your blood the functions of its reality, elevate its functions to dynamic supra-sensuality. Simple and certain as the machine, clear and bold as construction. From real presuppositions form art, from mass and light form intangible space. But do not forget that the individual creation can be understood only within the context of the totality of the phenomena of the age. It is just as bound to the relativity of its facts as present and future are to the relativity of history.

Working thesis Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1923

We reject

Rejection!

• all aesthetic speculation, • all doctrine, • and all formalism.

Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms.

Living. Changing. New. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form.

Only this architecture creates.

Create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time.

This is our work.

Office Building The office building is a house of work of organization of clarity of economy.

Bright, wide workrooms, easy to oversee, undivided except as the organism of the undertaking is divided. The maximum effect with the minimum expenditure of means.

The materials are concrete iron glass.

Reinforced concrete buildings are by nature skeletal buildings. No noodles nor armored turrets. A construction of girders that carry the weight, and walls that carry no weight. That is to say, buildings consisting of skin and bones.

We have to focus on this moment. Make the best design that the problem suggests.

Focus back down.

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Ideological Superstructure El Lissitzky, 1929

We shall present here a few sections of a life process which, having been first brought into existence by the Revolution, is a bare 5 years old. During this time the high demands made by the cultural revolution have taken root in the feelings and consciousness of our new generation of architects. It has become clear to our architect that through his work he is playing an active part in building the new world. To use an artist's work has no value per se, no purpose of its own, no beauty of its own; it receives all this solely from its relation to the community. In the creation of every great work the architect's part is visible and the community's part latent. The artist, the creator, invents nothing that falls into his lap from the sky. Therefore we understand by 'reconstruction' the overcoming of the unclear, the 'mysterious' and chaotic.

In our architecture, as in our whole life, we are striving to create a social order, that is to say, to raise the instinctual into consciousness.

The ideological superstructure protects and guarantees the work.

As the substructure for the renewal that we must carry out in architecture, we named at the beginning the social economic reconstruction. It is the unequivocal starting point, but it would be a mistake to explain the interconnections so simply. Life, organic growth, is a dialectical process that simultaneously asserts yes (plus) and no (minus). Everything that comes into being is a part of the process of social life, the result of particular facts, and itself exercises an influence on the aims that come into being in their turn.

On the basis of what has come into being there is formed an ideology, a way of looking at things, there are formed interpretation and interrelationships, which exercise a further influence on what is coming into being. We may trace this dialectical process in the development of our architects.

1 Destruction of the traditional. Material production is paralyzed throughout the country. The longing for a super-production. The first studio dreams.

An ideology is formed containing two demands that are fundamental to further development: element and invention. A work that is to be in keeping with our age must contain within it an invention. Our age demands creations arising out of elemental forms (geometry). War has been declared on the aesthetic of chaos. An order that has entered fully into consciousness is called for.

Architecting buildings for public consumption means community validation and assessment as value.

First destroy, then rebuild the new world. Architecture literally has the power to build new communities and environments and this was a time after buildings were destroyed. It was a necessity to rebuild, and if already building, why not try something new?

2 The start of rebuilding. First in industry and production. Concrete problems demand solution. But the new generation has grown up in a period 65

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without architecture, has inadequate practical experience, little authority, and has not yet become an academy. In the struggle for building contracts its ideology has turned to the primary utilitarian, the nakedly functional. The slogan is: 'Constructivism', 'Functionalism'. An equals sign has been placed between engineer and architect ...

3 The first reconstruction period demands a concentration of forces from the sphere of the socio-economic revolution to bring about a deepening of the cultural revolution. In the total complex of a culture, physical, psychological and emotional factors are inseparable.

Art is acknowledged in its capacity to order, organize, and activate consciousness by charging it with emotional energy. Architecture is considered the leading art and the attention of the public is directed towards it. Architectural questions become mass questions. The studio dreams of the beginning lose their individual character and receive a solid social foundation. Once again the 'Utilitarians' are opposed by the 'Formalists'. The latter assert that architecture is not covered by the concept of 'engineering'. To solve the utilitarian task, to construct a volume that functions correctly for the purpose, is only one part of the problem. The second part is to organize the materials correctly, to solve the constructive problem. A work of architecture comes into being only when the whole thing springs to life as a spatial idea, as a form that exercises a definite effect on our psyche. To do this it is not enough to be a modern man; it is necessary for the architect to possess a complete mastery of the expressive means of architecture.

Thus we can summarize these three periods even more briefly: a Denial of art as merely an emotional, individual affair carried on in romantic isolation. b 'Objective' creation in the silent hope that the resulting product will eventually be looked upon as a work of art. c Conscious and purposeful creation of an architecture that will exercise a closed artistic effect on an objective, scientific basis that has been worked out in advance.

This architecture will actively raise the general standard of living.

This is the dialectic of our development, which reaches affirmation through denial; it has melted down the old iron and annealed the new steel.

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Architecture cannot live without life, and life cannot survive without shelter.

The work we make directly affects the well-beings of the community that interacts with it.

Remember the potential power you have and utilize it for it is a waste of time if you don't and you will not be successful until you do.

Summarized and simplified points. A different structure from ramblings + 20-point lists and manifesto-point + rambling.

The Oath Against Modernism Pope Pius X, 1910

Given by His Holiness St. Pius X September 1, 1910.

To be sworn to by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries.

I firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth and declared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church, especially those principal truths which are directly opposed to the errors of this day.

And first of all, I profess that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world (see Rom. 1:90), that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause from its effects, and that, therefore, his existence can also be demonstrated: Secondly, I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion and I hold that these same proofs are well adapted to the understanding of all eras and all men, even of this time.

Thirdly, I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when he lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors for the duration of time.

Fourthly, I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously. I also condemn every error according to which, in place of the divine deposit which has been given to the spouse of Christ to be carefully guarded by her, there is put a philosophical figment or product of a human conscience that has gradually been developed by human effort and will continue to develop indefinitely.

Fifthly, I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth received by hearing from an external source. By this assent, because of the authority of the supremely

To be sworn to by all!

You must read, understand, and take on everything in this document if you are to be allowed to participate.

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The Oath Against Modernism, Pope Pius X, 1910

truthful God, we believe to be true that which has been revealed and attested to by a personal God, our Creator and Lord.

Furthermore, with due reverence, I submit and adhere with my whole heart to the condemnations, declarations, and all the prescripts contained in the encyclical Pascendi and in the decree Lamentabili, especially those concerning what is known as the history of dogmas. I also reject the error of those who say that the faith held by the Church can contradict history, and that Catholic dogmas, in the sense in which they are now understood, are irreconcilable with a more realistic view of the origins of the Christian religion.

I also condemn and reject the opinion of those who say that a well-educated Christian assumes a dual personality—that of a believer and at the same time of a historian, as if it were permissible for a historian to hold things that contradict the faith of the believer, or to establish premises which, provided there be no direct denial of dogmas, would lead to the conclusion that dogmas are either false or doubtful. Likewise, I reject that method of judging and interpreting Sacred Scripture which, departing from the tradition of the Church, the analogy of faith, and the norms of the Apostolic See, embraces the misrepresentations of the rationalists and with no prudence or restraint adopts textual criticism as the one and supreme norm.

Furthermore, I reject the opinion of those who hold that a professor lecturing or writing on a historico-theological subject should first put aside any preconceived opinion about the supernatural origin of Catholic tradition or about the divine promise of help to preserve all revealed truth forever; and that they should then interpret the writings of each of the Fathers solely by scientific principles, excluding all sacred authority, and with the same liberty of judgment that is common in the investigation of all ordinary historical documents.

Finally, I declare that I am completely opposed to the error of the modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred tradition; or what is far worse, say that there is, but in a pantheistic sense, with the result that there would remain nothing but this plain simple fact—one to be put on a par with the ordinary facts of history—the fact, namely, that a group of men by their own labor, skill, and talent have continued through subsequent ages a school begun by Christ and his apostles. I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.

I promise that I shall keep all these articles faithfully, entirely, and sincerely, and guard them inviolate, in no way deviating from them in teaching or in any way in word or in writing. Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God.

Remember, remember, remember! This is a statement that had to be said because apparently no one was saying it and people were falling off the boat. God is X, not Y, and definitely not Z! Remember: we believe in X, not Y, and definitely not Z! Do not be like the people who believe in Z and Y and not X! Look to the past since the past has been good to us, reject the modern, because with it comes the rejection of the past.

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Fuck Committees Tibor Kalman, 1998

(I believe in lunatics) It’s about the struggle between individuals with jagged passion in their work and today’s faceless corporate committees, which claim to understand the needs of the mass audience, and are removing the idiosyncrasies, polishing the jags, creating a thought-free, passion-free, cultural mush that will not be hated nor loved by anyone. By now, virtually all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude, carrying out corporate strategies and increasing stock prices. Creative people are now working for the bottom line.

Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publishers (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the ‘lowest common denominator’.

Film studios out films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid. Theater is dead.

Corporations have become the sole arbiters of cultural ideas and taste in America. Our culture is corporate culture. Culture used to be the opposite of commerce, not a fast track to ‘content’-derived riches. Not so long ago captains of industry (no angels in the way they acquired wealth) thought that part of their responsibility was to use their millions to support culture.

Carnegie built libraries, Rockefeller built art museums, Ford created his global foundation. What do we now get from our billionaires? Gates? Or Eisner? Or Redstone? Sales pitches. Junk mail. Meanwhile, creative people have their work reduced to ‘content’ or ‘intellectual property’. Magazines and films become ‘delivery systems’ for product messages.

But to be fair, the above is only 99 percent true.

I offer a modest solution: Find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they’re there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world.

Personal declaration.

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First Things First Ken Garland, 1964

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll–ons, pull–ons and slip–ons.

By far the greatest time and effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.

In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation opine at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the owls.

We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favor of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind, we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.

Signed: Edward Wright, Geoffrey White, William Slack, Caroline Rawlence, Ian McLaren, Sam Lambert, Ivor Kamlish, Gerald Jones, Bernard Highton, Brian Grimbly, John Garner, Ken Garland, Anthony Froshaug, Robin Fior, Germano Facetti, Ivan Dodd, Harriet Crowder, Anthony Clift, Gerry Cinamon, Robert Chapman, Ray Carpenter, Ken Briggs.

& Nimi Einstein 73

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First Things First 2000 Adbusters We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design.

The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mind-shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

Signed: Jonathan Barnbrook, Nick Bell, Andrew Blauvelt, Hans Bockting, Irma Boom, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Max Bruinsma, Sian Cook, Linda van Deursen, Chris Dixon, William Drenttel, Gert Dumbar, Simon Esterson, Vince Frost, Ken Garland, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Andrew Howard, Tibor Kalman, Jeffery Keedy, Zuzana Licko, Ellen Lupton, Katherine McCoy, Armand Mevis, J. Abbott Miller, Rick Poynor, Lucienne Roberts, Erik Spiekermann, Jan van Toorn, Teal Triggs, Rudy VanderLans, Bob Wilkinson, and many more.

& Nimi Einstein 75

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Disrepresentation Now! Experimental Jetset, 2001

On the social, political, and revolutionary role of graphic design.

More an attempt than a manifesto.

1 In his vicious 1923 manifesto ‘Anti-Tendenzkunst’, architect, artist and De Stijl founder Theo van Doesburg stated that “as obvious as it may sound, there is no structural difference between a painting that depicts Trotsky heading a red army, and a painting that depicts Napoleon heading an imperial army. It is irrelevant whether a piece of art promotes either proletarian or patriotic values”.

This quote can be easily misunderstood as blatantly apolitical, but in our humble opinion, it is far from that. In Van Doesburg’s view, it doesn’t really matter what a painting depicts; it is the act of depiction itself, the process of representation, that he regards as highly anti-revolutionary.

Van Doesburg and many other modernists saw representative art as inherently bourgeois; suggestive, tendentious and false. Regardless of the subject.

2 Although formulated almost a century ago, we, as Experimental Jetset, have to admit we feel a certain affinity for Van Doesburg’s ‘anti-tendentious’ ideas.

Although at first sight it might seem impossible to differentiate between ‘presentative’ and ‘representative’ graphic design, we do think it is possible to make a distinction of some sort.

For example, it’s hard to deny that most graphic design produced within the context of advertising is inherently representative. No surprise, since the very concept of advertising is one of the purest forms of representation. As per definition, advertising never “is” in itself, it always “is about” something else.

Advertising is a phenomenon that constantly dissolves its own physical appearance, in order to describe and represent appearances other than itself. Whereas presentative graphic design seems to underline its own physical appearance, even when it is referring to subjects other than itself.

3 Having said all this, we like to point out that our criticism of advertising is fundamentally different than the criticism expressed in the 2000 First Things First manifesto. Other than the signatories to that manifesto, we see no structural difference between social, cultural and commercial graphic design. Every cause that is formulated outside of a design context, and superficially imposed on a piece of design, is tendentious, representative, and thus reactionary, whether it deals with corporate interests or social causes.

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4 Likewise, we see no structural difference between advertising and ‘anti-advertising’.

The former tries to sell you product X, the latter tells you not to buy product X, but on a fundamental level they are completely alike.

They both contribute to what Guy Debord was so fond of referring to as “the society of the spectacle”: a world of representation and alienation. Other representative tendencies in graphic design include the fact that nowadays more and more designers refer to their profession in (immaterial) terms such as ‘visual communication’, ‘information architecture’, etc. These particular notions painfully show the shift in graphic design towards the denial and neglect of its own physical dimensions.

5 In ‘The Republic’, Plato has Socrates tell the allegory of the cave. 2500 years later, we’re still imprisoned in this cave, watching shadows. The only way out of this representative illusion is through presentative culture. The immorality of advertising and the morality of anti-advertising are two sides of the same coin. What we need is a form of graphic design that is neither immoral nor moral, but amoral; that is productive, not reproductive; that is constructive, not parasitic.

We believe that abstraction, a movement away from realism but towards reality, is the ultimate form of engagement. We believe that to focus on the physical dimensions of design, to create a piece of design as a functional entity, as an object in itself, is the most social and political act a designer can perform.

That’s why we believe in color and form, type and spacing, paper and ink, space and time, object and function and, most of all, context and concept.

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Towards a New Architecture: Guiding Principles Le Corbusier, 1920

The engineer’s aesthetic and architecture The Engineer’s Aesthetic and Architecture are two things that march together and follow one from the other: the one being now at its full height, the other in an unhappy state of retrogression.

The Engineer, inspired by the law of Economy and governed by mathematical calculation, puts us in accord with universal law. He achieves harmony.

The Architect, by his arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to an acute degree and provokes plastic emotions; by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that of our world, he determines the various movements of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty.

Three reminders to architects Mass •

Our eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms in light.

•

Primary forms are beautiful forms because they can be clearly appreciated. Architects today no longer achieve these simple forms.

•

Working by calculation, engineers employ geometrical forms, satisfying our eyes by their geometry and our understanding by their mathematics; their work is on the direct line of good art.

What have we forgotten? Are there pieces to the equation that are lacking attention?

Short, poetic, beautiful opening that aligns the reader, priming him to understand and accept what is next to come. Compare to the opening of Ornament and Crime and the Futurist Manifesto.

Plastic: Capable of being molded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

Reminders; not giving specific answers, just areas of focus. Each person could come to this with their own consideration.

Objective and subjective views given simultaneously.

Surface • A mass is enveloped in its surface, a surface which is divided up according to the directing and generating lines of the mass; and this gives the mass its individuality.

•

Architects today are afraid of the geometrical constituents of surfaces.

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solution. Forced to work in accordance with the strict needs of exactly determined conditions, engineers make use of form-generating and form-defining elements. They create limpid and moving plastic facts.

Plan •

The Plan is the generator.

•

Without a plan, you have lack of order and willfulness.

•

The Plan holds in itself the essence of sensation.

•

The great problems of tomorrow, dictated by collective necessities, put the question of ‘plan’ in a new form.

•

Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and for the city.

Regulating lines •

Plan with capitol P, metaphor and analogy in one.

Example of regulating lines: Using the shape of the building to determine places and proportions of supporting elements.

An inevitable element of Architecture.

• The necessity for order. The regulating line is a guarantee against willfulness.

•

It brings satisfaction to the understanding.

•

The regulating line is a means to an end; it is not a recipe. Its choice and the modalities of expression given to it are an integral part of architectural creation.

Eyes which do not see ...

Liners •

A great epoch has begun.

•

There exists a new spirit.

•

There exists a mass of work conceived in the new spirit; it is to be met with particularly in industrial production.

•

Architecture is stifled by custom.

•

The ‘styles’ are a lie.

•

Style is a unity of principle animating all the work of an epoch, the result of a state of mind which has its own special character.

•

Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style.

•

Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it.

Airplanes •

The airplane is the product of close selection.

•

The lesson of the airplane lies in the logic which governed the statement of the problem and its realization.

•

The problem of the house has not yet been stated.

•

Nevertheless there do exist standards for the dwelling house.

• Machinery contains in itself the factor of economy, which makes for selection.

•

The house is a machine for living in.

Automobiles •

We must aim at the fixing of standards in order to face the problem of perfection.

•

The Parthenon is a product of selection applied to a standard.

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To what standards do we hold ourselves?

Le Corbusier, Towards a new architecture: guiding principles, 1920

•

Architecture operates in accordance with standards.

•

Standards are a matter of logic, analysis, and minute study; they are based on a problem which has been well ‘stated’. A standard is definitely established by experiment.

Architecture The lesson of Rome •

The business of Architecture is to establish emotional relationships by means of raw materials.

•

Architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs.

•

Architecture is a plastic thing.

•

The spirit of order, a unity of intention.

•

The sense of relationships; architecture deals with quantities.

•

Passion can create drama out of inert stone.

Architecture vs. construction

The illusion of plans •

The Plan proceeds from within to without; the exterior is the result of an interior.

•

The elements of architecture are light and shade, walls and space.

•

Arrangement is the gradation of aims, the classification of intentions.

•

Man looks at the creation of architecture with his eyes, which are 5 feet 6 inches from the ground. One can only deal with aims which the eye can appreciate, and intentions which take into account architectural elements. If there come into play intentions which do not speak the language of architecture, you arrive at the illusion of plans, you transgress the rules of the Plan through an error in conception, or through a leaning towards empty show.

Pure creation of the mind •

Contour and profile are the touchstone of the architect.

•

Here he reveals himself as artist or mere engineer.

•

Contour is free of all constraint.

•

There is here no longer any question of custom, nor of tradition, nor of construction nor of adaptation to utilitarian needs.

•

Contour and profile are a pure creation of the mind; they call for the plastic artist.

Mass-production houses •

A great epoch has begun.

•

There exists a new spirit.

•

Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which rolls on towards its destined ends, has furnished us with new tools adapted to this new epoch, animated by the new spirit.

•

Economic law inevitably governs our acts and our thoughts.

•

The problem of the house is a problem of the epoch. The equilibrium of society today depends upon it. Architecture has for its first duty, in this period of renewal, that of bringing about a revision of values, a revision of the constituent elements of the house.

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•

Mass-production is based on analysis and experiment.

•

Industry on the grand scale must occupy itself with building and establish the elements of the house on a mass-production basis.

•

We must create the mass-production spirit.

•

The spirit of constructing mass-production houses.

•

The spirit of living in mass-production houses.

•

The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses.

•

If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead concepts in regard to the house, and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view, we shall arrive at the ‘House-Machine’, the mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way that the working tools and instruments which accompany our existence are beautiful.

•

Beautiful also with all the animation that the artist’s sensibility can add to severe and pure functioning elements.

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Credo Bob Noorda, 2009

I believe that, whatever design problem you need to solve, you should face it with rationality, logic and careful analysis if you want to get to the right idea.

Graphic design is always a synthetic work: you need to reduce and remove until you reach the core of the message. When you work with typography and lettering, the essential goal is to obtain the best possible legibility.

To achieve this result, it is fundamental to know typography and its history.

The computer has become an essential tool but its undisputed utility and versatility cannot replace knowledge. As extraordinary as this instrument can be, you need deep roots and the ability to express yourself even with the simplest tools—such as a pencil—in order to use it correctly.

A good software does not necessarily create good graphics.

Graphics is not an independent art, but a service. To obtain a correct result, you need to put yourself on the side of the observer, on the side of the public.

A good designer is the one who offers a good service through communication, not the one who wants to surprise at any cost, neither the one who wants to show how good he is.

A designer is good if he can solve a problem, if he puts forward a useful solution.

I believe that these rules could be a good start for a career in design.

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Use of Fonts Fonts are creative, intellectual property, similar to designers’ creative work or to proprietary business products. Since type is so ubiquitous and fonts are so easy to share among computer users, the legal and moral issues of the simple process of using a font are often overlooked.

There are four good rules that guide ethical practice in font licensing: •

If you are using a font, whether it’s on your computer or that of someone else, make sure you have a license to use the font.

•

If you want to use a font that is not installed on your computer, you must either ensure that you or your employer has a license to install the font on your computer or else acquire a license to use it.

•

If you have any questions about your font license, contact the foundry or supplier of the font. (If you do not know the foundry or supplier, almost any foundry or supplier can help you identify the source.)

•

Don’t lend or give fonts to others to use. Your friends, clients and colleagues need to acquire the rights to use them. When it comes to licensing fonts, ethical practice makes sense legally and financially. Violating the terms of a license agreement puts the designer, the client and future business relationships at risk. An ethical approach to font use and font licenses is therefore both good business practice and good business.

Fonts are creative, intellectual property.

Typefaces are collections of letter forms. They endow written communications with a style that ultimately reflects the character and style of the originator of the communication, whether a corporation or an individual. Typefaces are the result of extensive research, study and experimentation, and for some designers, the creation of typefaces is a full-time occupation. The training and expertise required to develop a typeface qualifies the product as intellectual property and merits its protection under copyright law in many countries.

A font is the software that describes the characters in a typeface.

Digital fonts, like any software, are intellectual property and may be subject to federal copyright and trademark laws.

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For additional guidance on software use and management, you can refer to the “Use of Software” chapter in this book, on page 96.

You do not own a font. You license it for limited uses.

Fonts are not bought. The right to reproduce them is licensed, and the license to use them states specific terms.

The right to use a font designed by someone else is acquired from the foundry that created the font and is granted in the form of an end-user license agreement, or EULA. Some foundries will allow a supplier to administer the license agreements for a font, but the agreement itself is always between the licensee and the foundry that created the font.

The terms of use described by an end-user license agreement vary from foundry to foundry and may vary depending on the scope of the desired use.

Licenses usually grant permission for the licensee to install a given font on a certain number of computers. However, licenses can also specify use on printers, periods of exclusivity for custom typefaces and distribution rights.

If you have questions about what you may or may not do with the font you are using, the best thing to do is to contact the foundry or supplier of the font.

You need permission to alter a font for use in your design.

Because the software that describes a typeface is automatically subject to copyright protection upon its creation, any version of the original font is considered a “derivative work” under copyright law. The revision should not be considered an authorized derivative work because the adaptation is derived from copyrighted software. It cannot be used for commercial purposes without violating the copyright.

Some font licenses allow the licensee to alter the characters in a font or to convert the font to other formats. Other foundries do not allow derivative works at all without permission. Therefore, many designers, when asked to create a derivative work, have made it standard ethical practice to get permission from the font designer before altering any font data.

If you need to find out who designed the font you want to alter, you should contact the foundry or font supplier.

You cannot share a font with someone who does not have his or her own license to use it.

Font software may not be given or loaned to anyone who does not also have a license to use it. Therefore, misuse or unauthorized copying of a font that belongs to a client or your employer is an infringement of the designer’s rights and could subject you to legal action.

When the client is the “end user” of the license agreement, the designer may not take the font with him or her when the project is over, even though it may mean another license must be purchased for the next job.

You can embed a font in a file to have it viewed or printed by others.

A font may only be sent with a job to a service bureau, consultant or freelancer if the contractor has a license for the font or if the license agreement makes provision for it. When necessary, it can be acceptable for font data to be embedded in file formats such as EPS and PDF only for printing and previewing purposes, but not for editing. However, embedding is not allowed by all foundries, so an additional license may need to be purchased.

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This is an issue of ethics, respect and law.

There are tangible and intangible consequences of using a font without a license. If caught using a font without the proper license, the user will have to purchase the correct license for the font and in some cases pay damages to the originating foundry. More importantly, using a font without the proper license could prevent a professional designer from being fully compensated.

It is the value of the intellectual property of a colleague that is ultimately at stake in the licensing of fonts. To purchase the proper license for a font, especially as a practicing design professional, is to recognize the value of a colleague’s work, to respect the practice of another designer and to uphold the integrity of the design profession.

Use of Illustration AIGA supports the use of original illustration in design solutions. Illustration can provide a unique sensibility to certain projects. This chapter offers insight into professional practices and ethical considerations within the illustration community.

Illustration offers visual solutions to design challenges.

Illustration can transcend the limits of the written word. It is an art of opposites, an intricate dance between art and commerce that is created by people who find freedom in solving visual riddles and in filling dictated space with inventiveness, creativity and added value.

Each illustrator brings a different perspective, vision and idea to play that, when married with great design, becomes an original art form. Illustration brings spontaneity, freshness and a unique point of view to the design of content. It helps to communicate both simple and complex messages while enhancing a design through the unique vision and skill of the selected illustrator.

When a designer selects an illustrator to use, he or she is not only receiving the rights to reproduce the finished piece, but is also receiving the fruits of years of exploration and the development of an individual style. This individual style becomes the core of the product, the individual service offered and the asset that embodies the completed creative work. This intellectual and creative property is no different from other proprietary business products and services.

It is developed—and protected—to enhance the value of the finished user.

Would there be a reason for them not to? Seems like a weird intro...

Super poetic! Amidst rules and regulations.

Select an illustrator based on previous work.

There are countless ways to locate the perfect illustrator for a particular project. Many buyers turn to annuals, sourcebooks and the Internet, along with local illustration clubs, organizations and personal recommendations.

Typically, a buyer will either request a portfolio or review the work online.

It is not appropriate to ask for original sketches for an assignment without compensating the illustrator (asking for “spec” or speculative work). The selection should be based on seeing previous work and discussing the assignment with the illustrator.

There are also archives available of pre-existing illustration commonly referred to as “stock” and “royalty-free” illustration. In many instances, it may not be possible to commission a unique illustration, so a designer may decide to license this existing art to illustrate a project.

It’s a safe assumption to state that a client is best protected—in terms of the quality of the work and assurances on the limited availability of the 87

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work—when illustrations are licensed directly from the illustrator or his or her authorized representative. The alternative is to license the work through a stock agency.

Within the illustration community, the most reputable stock agencies are considered those whose pricing and usage are handled by the creator, whose fees are fair and reasonable to creators and who recognize the creator with credit lines for the illustration. There is some concern over agencies that fail to protect the client from acquiring an illustration without a clear measure of how broadly the image is already being used, from acquiring an image for which the rights are not available and from acquiring illustrations that misappropriate an original artist’s style. In other words, it is important for the client to work with intermediaries who demonstrate the same respect for the integrity of illustration as intellectual property as the client would expect in the treatment of its own assets. This protects the value of both the illustrator’s and the client’s finished property.

Although convenient, stock does not always serve the creative process.

Many believe it is an alternative best utilized when there are no other options.

Illustration sources Annuals: • 365: AIGA Year in Design • The Society of Illustrators • American Illustration • Communication Arts • Illustration Annual • Print Magazine

Sourcebooks: • The Workbook • The Alternative Pick • The Blackbook • The Directory of Illustration Websites: • theispot.com • workbook.com • directoryofillustration.com

Price is directly related to use.

There are many considerations for pricing a piece of illustration. One common misperception is that fees are based on whether it is original or stock art. The fee for the use of illustration should be based on the use of an illustration and the exclusivity of its use, not on whether it is original or stock. The fee will vary based on how exclusive the use of the image is in the use that is contemplated for it, and whether the client wants rights for all uses for a set period of time (which is a licensing equivalent to purchasing the illustration).

Specification of the anticipated use must be clearly stated in a written agreement. A troubling ambiguity often exists, however, about whether an image licensed for use in a print medium is then included in the Internet version of the print piece. Unless the usage was specified, the rights are not automatically granted. As in any agreement, it is important to clearly state all usage for purchase in detail; otherwise the rights not specifically purchased remain the property of the illustrator.

Every agreement should exist in writing.

Once the appropriate talent has been selected, negotiations begin taking into account the following criteria: rights, usage, schedule, exclusivity, complexity, extended rights and, in some cases, the reputation of the talent selected.

Written and signed documentation should be completed before work is begun (even on a rush project) to ensure that everyone has the same understanding. This document should outline in detail the usage, deadlines, level of corrections allowed before incurring additional charges, potential kill fees, payment details, form of delivery for final art, expenses, etc.

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Typically there is one sketch submitted unless otherwise negotiated.

If the project requires more than this standard, then this must be communicated and negotiated beforehand. Often “corrections” or small adjustments are made, but only to the original agreed-upon concept. These guidelines stand for computer-generated illustrations as well. Although the work is created in a different manner, the same considerations are adhered to.

“Changes” reflect new ideas that are brought into the sketch or finish stages. These are negotiated before the changes begin and are added as an addendum to the contract.

Original artwork belongs to the illustrator.

There are concerns that the buyer and illustrator must keep in mind to protect the value of the work, both within and outside the context of the contracted usage. These issues are understood within the industry and are adhered to by professionals on both ends of the creative exchange.

An artist’s copyright is owned by the artist and is protected from the moment it is created by the 1976 Copyright Act. This protection covers the work for the artist’s lifetime plus 70 years. If agreed to in writing, the copyright may be assigned elsewhere.

Original artwork belongs to the illustrator, regardless of the use rights that are licensed. Original artwork is provided temporarily to licensees for reproduction. Even the purchase of “exclusive rights” represents rights to reproduce the artwork only. The original illustration remains the property of the illustrator unless it is purchased explicitly and separately from the rights.

Original artwork cannot be changed without the creator’s approval.

Changes to an illustrator’s work must be made by the illustrator, unless permission is secured from the illustrator first. It constitutes creating a derivative work from copyrighted material, which, intentionally or not, violates federal law and places the buyer at risk. Many are simply not aware of this law and unintentionally violate it, so please be aware.

For additional up-to-date information about the copyright law, please visit www.copyright.gov/title17.

It is important to work with professional integrity.

Dealing respectfully with another member of the design profession goes far in ensuring a more stable business environment for practitioners and clients alike. It also supports one of the oldest and most basic tenets of our profession: the autonomy and freedom necessary to create our own professional independence.

Respect for the rights of illustrators is a matter of practice, ethics and law. It is the value of the intellectual property of a colleague— and within the body of the intended user—that is ultimately at stake in many of these concerns. To deal honorably with illustrators is to recognize the value of a colleague’s work, to respect the practice of another creative professional and to uphold the integrity of the design profession.

Illustrators invest substantially in the research and development of their technique and style. This, in turn, is the basis of their business and reputation. To ask an illustrator to mimic the style of another illustrator is not considered ethical or, in some instances, even legal. There is a difference between finding illustrators who are influenced or inspired by other artists versus talent who directly infringe on copyrighted material. (In recent years, a number of illustrators have won copyright infringement lawsuits based on theft of an illustrator’s intellectual property.)

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Illustrations should not be used without gaining permission from the creator. Accessing and using illustrations from print, portfolios, the web or other materials— whether for mock-ups, comps or final designs—without first securing permission and establishing a basis for use rights is illegal and the most common law broken by clients, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

(Refer to the 1976 Copyright Act for more details.)

Make sure you are acquiring illustration from an accountable and respectable source. For many within the illustration community, royalty-free illustration is considered a questionable practice. Royalty-free distributors do not generally license work from creators and do not always compensate creators adequately (or at all) for giving up rights to their work. Many collections have been gathered through unwilling and/or unknowing sources over the years and simply do not compensate the talent that created them.

In other instances, royalty-free work is often produced by artists who have inadequate concern for the integrity of how the work is used, or who have no bargaining power to defend their rights in a competitive marketplace.

In addition, much of this work is imitative, since the creative professional is being asked to create and sell images without sustained accountability, and some of the work may cross the line of plagiarism. Although there are appropriate sources and uses of royalty-free work, it is the exception and otherwise may have some risk associated with its use. When there is no accountability for the history of usage, you are lowering the value of the design.

Illustration is a value-added commodity, while royalty-free and stock serve a more decorative function. If you take an illustration out of its intended use and use it to simply fill space, you have lessened the value of the final product.

An illustrator can serve as a creative consultant.

The possibility of unbound creativity in the digital age is endless. It is commonly known that imagery is the newest commodity in the current economy. Who better to recognize quality and develop the potential of this commodity than the creators of the imagery? Illustrators are being retained as creative consultants for virtually every stage of conceptual work. At one time, art directors developed sketches of their ideas and hired artists to execute their ideas. Today, illustrators often assume the role as consultants to art directors and clients in developing the concepts for communicating content, as well as executing the ideas.

This involvement of an illustrator from concept to execution on a project takes full advantage of an artist’s creativity and experience in integrating illustration into the intended outcomes. Additional roles include, but are not limited to: animator, storyboard artist, production designer, logo designer, character developer, illustrative journalist, Internet artist and mock-up/ comp artist, among many others.

Use of Software Just as design is a designer’s creative property, computer software is intellectual property that is owned by the people who created it. Without the expressed permission of the manufacturer or publisher, it is illegal to use software no matter how you got it. That permission almost always takes the form of a license from the publisher, which accompanies authorized copies of software.

When you buy software, what you’re really doing in almost every case is purchasing a license to use it. Rather than owning the software, you acquire 90

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limited rights to use, reproduce and distribute the program according to the terms spelled out in the license.

Using software for which you have not acquired a license is wrong.

A program can be installed and used on only one computer at a time, although there are usually provisions allowing you to make a “backup” copy for archival or disaster-recovery purposes. If you don’t comply with the terms of the license—for example, by installing the same copy of a single-user program on several computers— that’s software piracy. The publisher can take legal action against you or your business.

The license isn’t the only way in which software is protected. Copyright and sometimes patent law protect software from unauthorized copying, distribution and sale. The law also recognizes the Internet and prohibits users from uploading, downloading or transmitting unauthorized copies of software on-line. An individual who breaks these laws—or a company that looks the other way when an employee does—is liable to civil and criminal action. The consequences range from public embarrassment through adverse publicity to significant civil damages, criminal fines and even the possibility of imprisonment.

Illegal software carries hidden risks.

Software publishers offer their legitimate customers a wide array of products and services in addition to the actual program: user manuals and other documentation, notification of problems, training, support services, repairs and upgrades. A legitimate copy also ensures you that you’re getting the quality product produced by the rightful owner of the program.

An illegal copy enjoys none of these benefits. Further, it could well be an outdated version of the software, a test copy with bugs, an improperly made copy that can damage data or hide a damaging virus. Any one of these problems could quickly escalate into costly damage recovery far more expensive than the money you “saved” by purchasing illegal software.

Illegal software cheats its creators out of their fair reward for the innovation they have created and cheats your company out of the full value of the software. And it could well damage your data, tarnish your business reputation, subject you to fines or even land you in prison. In many respects, the most important issue is your integrity. You cannot fairly advocate the protection of what you create without respecting the comparable rights of others.

Software is an asset: Learn to manage it.

Before anything else, your company culture must be one in which all your employees understand the value of software, learn the difference between legal and illegal use and pledge their commitment to the proper use of software. To do this, you must have a clear statement of policy.

The statement should express the company’s goals to manage software for maximum benefit, deal only in legally licensed software from an authorized dealer and spell out the company’s procedure for acquiring legal software.

An effective software purchase procedure consists of the following: •

Centralize all your purchases through a single professional on your staff

• Ensure the software being requested is on the company’s list of supported software

•

Buy only from reputable, authorized sellers

•

Work only with reputable application service providers (ASPs) and ensure you maintain all relevant licenses and documentation with that ASP

Advice + regulations in one place. Can gaining trust through good advice mean taking regulations more seriously?

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•

Get original user materials (manuals, • registration cards, etc.), licenses and receipts with each purchase

•

Don’t permit employees to buy software directly or charge it to their expense accounts

Ensure that software cannot be downloaded from the Internet by employees without special approval.

Whatever your policy, make sure that it is included in any information given to new employees, distributed to all current employees, posted on company bulletin boards and available on company computer networks. Every employee needs to acknowledge the statement of policy and the consequences of violating it. In turn, employers must take steps to educate employees on what constitutes illegal use of software.

Sample Software Management Policy 1 (Organization) licenses the use of computer software from a variety of outside companies. (Organization) does not own this software or its related documentation and, unless authorized by the software developer, does not have the right to reproduce it except for backup purposes.

2 With regard to Client/Server and network applications, (Organization) employees shall use the software only in accordance with the license agreements.

3 (Organization) employees shall not download or upload unauthorized software over the Internet.

4 (Organization) employees learning of any misuse of software or related documentation with the Company shall notify their manager.

5 According to applicable copyright law, persons involved in the illegal reproduction of software can be subject to civil damages and criminal penalties. (Organization) does not condone the illegal duplication of software. (Organization) employees who make, acquire or use unauthorized copies of computer software shall be disciplined as appropriate under the circumstances. Such discipline may include termination.

6 Any doubts concerning whether any employee may copy or use a given software program should be raised with a responsible manager before proceeding.

I am fully aware of the software use policies of (Organization) and agree to uphold those policies. ____________________________________ (Employee signature and date) Take inventory of your software.

Once you have a policy, your next step is to take inventory of your software assets. Only by knowing what programs are installed on all the computers in your organization—desktops, laptops and any copies of programs from work installed by employees on their home computers—can you determine how to proceed. An accurate inventory can answer the following questions: •

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Are we using the most recent or most suitable version of programs we need?

• Are we using outdated or unnecessary programs that can be deleted?

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•

Are there other programs we should obtain to become more productive or efficient?

•

Does each employee have the correct set of programs available to him or her?

•

Are employees properly trained to use the software we have?

•

Do we have illegal, unauthorized or unlicensed programs or copies in our business?

No matter what tools you use, make sure to collect product name, version number and serial number for each copy of software installed on each computer.

You should also take an inventory of material related to software on your computers, including: •

All original CDs or other storage media used to install the programs on your computers

•

All original manuals and reference documentation

•

All license documentation

• All invoices, proofs of purchase and other documents proving the legitimacy of your software. This includes invoices for computer systems that were sold to you with software already installed.

Once the inventory is completed, you should carefully store the documentation, original copies of your software and other material in a secure place. That way, you can take advantage of services, upgrade offers and the like from publishers and be more easily able to reinstall software in case of a disaster.

With your inventory in hand, you can compare the software that’s installed on your company’s computers to what’s allowed under the terms of your licenses. (Remember that some licenses allow you to make a certain number of copies of a program from a single source, or to have a limited number of employees use the software at the same time from a network.

The original license will tell you how many.) Also remember that simply having an original CD or DVD for the software doesn’t necessarily mean you have authorized copies. Only the original license spells out the terms and gives you the right to use the software.

Once you have identified any illegal software copies in your business, you should delete them from your computers. This is also an ideal time to remind employees about the company’s software policy and the dangers associated with using illegal software.

Next, compare the legitimate copies of software that remain on your computers with the needs of your company that you identified when taking the inventory. You can make informed decisions about which software you legally have that you want to keep, upgrade or discard. Programs can be moved from computers where they are not needed to computers where they are. Programs can be upgraded, if necessary, so that everyone is using the version of the program that’s most appropriate for your company.

And you can purchase only the new, legitimate software you need.

Based on the inventory, upgrades, new purchases and input from employees, you can now create a formal list of the software that your company will allow its employees to use. It should include program names, serial numbers, version numbers, number of copies or users permitted by the license, the computers on which the copies are installed and plans to add, upgrade or discard the software in the future.

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Follow through on software management.

Effective software management is a continual process. You need to monitor employee adherence, guard against the introduction of illegal software, keep your list of supported software up to date and plan ahead for the next three years. It makes sense to have someone within your studio responsible for the process in order to centralize the job.

Periodically, it’s a good idea to perform spot checks on individual computers to make sure illegal software has not been inadvertently or deliberately installed. It also makes sense to conduct an inventory every year, as you might for other valuable assets. When employees leave the company, make sure the software they worked with remains with your company and that they do not take or keep copies. Prevent piracy from damaging the operations or integrity of your studio.

After you’ve put your software assets in good order, you’ll still need to monitor your workplace for illegal software. There are five common types of end-user piracy, and understanding each will help you and your employees avoid the problems of illegal software.

1 End-user piracy End-user piracy occurs when an employee of your company reproduces copies of software without authorization. End-user piracy can take the following forms: • • •

Using one licensed copy to install • Acquiring academic or a program on multiple computers other restricted or non-retail software without a license Copying disks for installation and for commercial use distribution • Swapping disks in or outside Taking advantage of upgrade the workplace offers without having a legal copy of the version to be upgraded

2 Client-server overuse Client-server overuse occurs when too many employees on a network are using a central copy of a program at the same time. If you have a local-area network (LAN) and install programs on the server for several people to use, you have to be sure your license entitles you to do so. If you have more users than allowed by the license, that’s “overuse.” You can correct this problem by making sure employees understand the restrictions, by installing “metering” software that ensures only the licensed number of users have access or by purchasing another license that covers the number of users you need.

3 Internet piracy The software industry plays a leading role in ensuring that the Internet reaches its full potential. To date, software publishers have contributed in countless ways to the internet’s success, providing the means by which content can be created, displayed and exchanged, and providing some of the most desired content itself. However, intellectual property theft on the Internet constrains the software industry and significantly reduces its positive impact on economies throughout the world. There are thousands of fraudulent websites selling a variety of illegitimate software products.

Internet piracy represents a serious threat to electronic commerce.

While there are many publishers that offer authorized versions of their software for sale on-line, there are also numerous pirate operations to be aware of on the Internet as well: 94

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•

•

Websites that make software available for free downloading or in exchange for uploaded programs • Internet auction sites that offer counterfeit, out-of-channel or

nontransferable software that infringes on copyrights Peer-to-peer networks that enable unauthorized transfer of copyrighted programs

The same purchasing rules should apply to on-line software purchases as for those bought in traditional ways. Organizations should have a clear policy as to when, whether or with whose authorization employees may download or acquire software from websites.

Below are some tips to help ensure that the public and businesses are purchasing legal software on auction sites: •

If a price for a software product seems too good to be true, it probably is.

•

Be wary of software products that come without any documentation or manuals.

•

Beware of products that do not look genuine, such as those with hand-written labels.

•

Beware of sellers offering to make “backup”copies.

•

Watch out for products labeled as academic, OEM, NFR or CDR.

•

Be wary of compilations of software titles from different publishers on a single disk.

•

Do not give out your credit card details unless you know it’s a secure transaction.

•

Check with organizations such as the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) should you become a victim of software fraud.

4 Hard-disk loading Hard-disk loading occurs when the business that sells you a new computer loads illegal copies of software onto its hard disk to make the purchase of the machine more attractive. The same concerns and issues apply when you engage a value-added reseller (VAR) to sell or install new software onto computers in your office. You can avoid purchasing such software by ensuring that all hardware and software purchases are centrally coordinated through your organization and all purchases are made through reputable suppliers. Most importantly, require receipt of all original software licenses, disks and documentation with every hardware purchase.

5 Software counterfeiting Software counterfeiting is the illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted material with the intent of directly imitating the copyrighted product.

In the case of packaged software, it is common to find counterfeit copies of the CDs incorporating the software program, as well as related packaging, manuals, license agreements, labels, registration cards and security features. Sometimes it is clear the product is not legitimate, but often it is not. Look for the following warning signs: •

You’re offered software whose price appears “too good to be true.”

•

The software comes in a CD jewel case without the packaging and materials that typically accompany a legitimate product.

•

The software lacks the manufacturer’s standard security features.

•

The software lacks an original license or other materials that typically accompany legitimate products (original registration card, manual, etc.).

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The packaging or materials that accompany the software have been copied or are of inferior print quality.

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The CD contains software from more than one manufacturer or programs that are not typically sold as a “suite.”

•

The software is offered on an auction site.

•

•

The CD has a gold, blue or bluegreen appearance, as opposed to the silver appearance that characterizes legitimate product.

The software is distributed via mail order or on-line by sellers who fail to provide appropriate guarantees of legitimate product.

The guiding principle: Respect intellectual and creative property rights—they could be yours.

Designers know from their own experience the importance of respecting intellectual and creative property rights. Designers also know the difference between ownership and use rights. The design profession should respect the rights of other professionals because it is right, because it is the law and because any failure to do so undermines the moral standing of the profession in arguing for its own rights.

Guide to Copyright Copyright defines the ownership of work created by a designer. Copyright is what allows a designer to control whether or not a work may be copied. If the designer permits a work to be copied, it is the copyright that gives the designer the right to negotiate for fees or royalties. If the client of a designer is to be protected from the theft of designs by competitors, it is because the copyright law gives such protection. Furthermore, an understanding of copyright is necessary if the designer is to obtain for the client appropriate licenses of copyright from suppliers such as photographers, illustrators and authors.

What is copyrightable?

Work must be original and creative to be copyrightable. Here, “originality” simply means that the designer created the work and did not copy it from someone else. If, by some incredible chance, two designers independently created an identical work, each work would be original and copyrightable.

“Creative,” in the Copyright Office’s definition, means that the work has some minimal aesthetic qualities. A child’s painting, for example, could meet this standard. Although the Copyright Office has sometimes shown a limited understanding of the artistry of graphic design, especially when uncopyrightable elements are arranged to create a new design, most graphic design should be copyrightable.

Ideas, titles, names and short phrases are usually not copyrightable because they lack a sufficient amount of expression. Ideas can sometimes be protected by an idea disclosure agreement, which expressly provides compensation if the idea is used by the party to which it is submitted. Style is not copyrightable, but specific designs created as the expression of a style are copyrightable. Utilitarian objects are not copyrightable, but a utilitarian object incorporating an artistic motif, such as a lamp base in the form of a statue, can be copyrighted to protect the artistic material. Basic geometric shapes, such as squares and circles, are not copyrightable, but artistic combinations of these shapes can be copyrighted. Typeface designs are also excluded from being copyrightable (see the chapter “Use of Fonts,” page 91). Calligraphy 96

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would appear to be copyrightable if expressed in artwork, especially insofar as the characters are embellished, but oddly, may not be copyrightable alone, if merely expressed in the form of a guide such as an alphabet.

Computer programs and the images created through the use of computers are both copyrightable.

Exclusive rights The designer, as the copyright owner, has the exclusive rights to reproduce work; license work; prepare derivative works, such as a poster copied from a design; perform work; and display work. However, the owner of a copy of the work can also display it. Anyone who violates these rights is an infringer whom the designer can sue for damages and prevent from continuing the infringement. If the designer were to have trouble proving actual damages, which include the designer’s losses and the infringer’s profits, the law provides for statutory damages that are awarded in the court’s discretion in the amount of $750 to $30,000 for each infringement. If the designer can prove that the infringement was willful, the court, under the copyright law, can award up to $150,000 in statutory damages. Infringers can also be required to pay attorney’s fees. However, to be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees, designs or other works must be registered with the Copyright Office prior to the commencement of the infringement.

For newly published works, registration within three months of publication will be treated as having taken place on the publication date for purposes of eligibility for statutory damages and attorney’s fees. It should be noted that the copyright law defines publication as the distribution of a work to the public by sale, other transfer of ownership, rental, lease or lending. Offering to distribute copies to a group of persons for further distribution or public display also constitutes publication. Exhibiting a work on the Internet would also be a publication.

Fair use Fair use is a limited exception to the exclusive power of the designer (or client, if the designer has transferred rights to the client) to control the uses of designs.

Fair use permits someone to use work without permission for a purpose that is basically not going to compete with or injure the market for the work, such as using a design in an article about the designer’s career. The court’s tests for whether a use is fair or infringing turns on the following factors: •

The purpose and character of the use, including whether or not it is for profit

•

The nature and character of the copyrighted work

•

whole, but also, in some cases, in relation to the defendant’s work (and this can be a qualitative as well as quantitative test)

• The effect the use will have on the market for the copyrighted The amount and substantiality of work or the actual value of the the portion used, not only in relacopyrighted work tion to the copyrighted work as a

Transfers and terminations The copyright law explicitly states that copyrights are separate from the physical design, such as a mechanical or, more recently, digital storage media.

Selling the physical design would not transfer the copyright, because any copyright or any exclusive right of use of a copyright must always be transferred in a written instrument signed by the designer. Only a nonexclusive right can be transferred verbally, such as when the designer licenses a design to one client, 97

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such as a wallpaper company, but doesn’t make the transfer exclusive so that it can also be licensed to another client, such as a placemat company. Both exclusive transfers of copyrights or parts of copyrights and nonexclusive licenses of copyrights can be terminated by the designer during a five-year period starting 35 years after the date of publication or 40 years after the date of execution of the transfer, whichever period ends earlier. This right of termination is an important right, but it does not apply to works for hire or transfers made by will.

Copyright notice The copyright notice is Copyright, Copr. or ©; the designer’s name, an abbreviation for the name or an alternate designation by which the designer is known to the public; and the year of publication. For example, notice could take the form of © Jane Designer 2009. Copyright notice is now optional, but it should not be considered unimportant. The designer has a copyright as soon as a work is created and is no longer required to place copyright notice on the design at the time of publication. However, placing the copyright notice on the work, or requiring that it appear with the work when published, has certain advantages. If notice is omitted when a design is published, an infringer may convince the court to lower the amount of damages on the grounds that the infringement was innocent; that is, the infringer wasn’t warned off by a copyright notice. In addition, copyright notice informs the public as to the designer’s creative authorship of the work.

The best course is simply to place the copyright notice on the design before it leaves the studio and make certain that copyright notice accompanies the design when published, even if, in some cases, the copyright notice on publication may be the client’s rather than the designer’s.

Copyright duration Designers now have federal copyright as soon as a design is created— without putting a copyright notice on it or registering it with the Copyright Office. Copyrights created after January 1, 1978, as well as those already existing in works not published or registered, will last for the designer’s life plus70 years. If the designer is an employee, the copyright term will be 95 years from the date of first publication or 120 years from the year of creation, whichever expires first. In this case, however, the design will belong to the employer, since it was created as a work-for-hire.

Registering creative work Almost all designs can be registered, whether published or unpublished. One might ask why one should pay the application fee (currently $35) if copyright protection already exists simply by creating the design. There are several reasons: almost all designs must be registered in order to sue, except if the design is not of United States origin; registration is proof that the statements in the Certificate of Registration are true, such as that the designer is the creator of the design; and registration is necessary for the designer to be entitled to the statutory damages and attorney’s fees discussed earlier with respect to infringement. Registration allows the artist to make a record of the design and have that record held by a neutral party—the Copyright Office. Since registration is so significant if a lawsuit is necessary, the deposit materials that accompany the application are especially important. It is these deposit materials that will show what the designer, in fact, created. Groups of unpublished designs can be registered for a single fee using an alternative form of deposit, such as slides or copies of the designs. This greatly reduces the expense of registration, since the designs will not have to be registered again when published.

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The Copyright Office maintains a website at www.loc.gov/copyright. Included on the site are downloadable application forms and a great deal of information about copyright, including the latest fee schedules.

The copyright forms Most designs would be registered on Form VA (which stands for “visual arts”). If a designer wants to register a work with both text and design, Form VA should be used if the design predominates and Form TX if the text predominates. Since these classifications are only for administrative purposes, rights will not be lost if an error is made in choosing the correct classification.

Form VA is a simple two-page form with step-by-step directions explaining how to fill it out. The filing fee and copies of the work being registered should be sent with the application form to the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559. There is also a Short Form VA that is even simpler than the Form VA and can be used when the designer is the only author, the design is not work-for-hire and the work is completely new.

Registration is effective as of the date when an acceptable application, deposit and fee have all arrived at the Copyright Office. Although the certificate of registration will be mailed later, this will not change the effective date. If there is an error in a completed registration or if information should be amplified, Form CA for supplementary registration should be used.

Group registration Unpublished works may be registered as a group under a single title for a single registration fee. This will dramatically reduce the expense of registration, and no copyright notice need be placed on unpublished work.

The following conditions must be met to allow for group deposit: •

The deposit materials must be assembled in an orderly form.

• All the works in the collection must be by the same person or, if by different people, at • The collection must have a single least one of them must have title identifying the work as a contributed copyrightable whole, such as “Collected Designs material to each work in the of Jane Designer, 2009.” collection. No limit is placed • The person claiming copyright in on the number of works that each work forming part of the colcan be included in such lection must be the person claiming a collection. copyright in the entire collection.

It is important that a work registered when unpublished need not be registered again when published. But, if new material is added to the work or it is changed into a new medium—creating a substantially different work from that registered—it would be wise to register the work again to protect the changed version.

Work-for-hire Work-for-hire is a highly problematic provision of the copyright law. If a designer provides services as a work-for-hire, or if a designer hires a supplier as a work-for-hire, the party executing the work under the work-for-hire status loses all rights, including the right to terminate the rights transferred after the 35-year period provided under copyright law. The work-for-hire status can come into existence in two ways: 1) an employee creating a copyright in the course of the employment; or 2) a freelancer creating a specially ordered or commissioned work, if the work falls into one of several categories defined 99

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under copyright law and both parties sign a written contract agreeing to consider the artwork as a work-for-hire.

For a design firm this can create some problems. For example, since most design firms are businesses, this means that the partners in design firms do not own the copyrights for the work they create. Since most partners are employees of the firm, the firm owns those copyrights, just as it owns the copyrights created by any other employee.

If a partner wants rights to what he or she has created, a special contract will be necessary. Also, a salaried employee may request or negotiate a written contractual agreement that allows the employee to retain some copyright ownership.

For freelancers, the categories of specially ordered or commissioned works that can be work-for-hire include: a contribution to a collective work, such as a magazine, newspaper, encyclopedia or anthology; a contribution used as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and a supplementary work, which includes pictorial illustrations done to supplement a work by another author, a compilation, an instructional text, test or answer material for a test or work for use in an atlas.

Commissioned design rarely falls into a category that can be work-forhire, as defined under the copyright law. Corporate attorneys often rely on work-for-hire because they lack complete understanding of the tradition of creative rights or experience in defining the limited rights that their employers actually need. On the other hand, some firms may use work-forhire with the intent of reselling the design in some form.

Contractual safeguards Often the term “work-for-hire” is loosely used to mean a buyout or the transfer of all rights. It is important to understand that work-for-hire is defined in the copyright law, but neither “buyout” nor “all rights” has a universally agreed upon definition. To avoid ambiguity, designers should spell out the rights transferred by type of use, media of use, duration of use, geography of use and any other description that makes clear what the parties intend. Ownership of any physical objects contained in the work should also be clarified, and may have a bearing on whether sales tax has to be charged.

Unless generous compensation is given to cover all conceivable future uses, the designer should seek to transfer only limited rights to the client.

The client’s desire for work-for-hire or all rights is often for the purpose of preventing the client’s competitors from using the design or images in the design. The client can be protected against such competitive use by a simple clause in the contract stating: “The designer agrees not to license the design or any images contained therein to competitors of the client.” This might be accompanied by the client’s right of approval over some or any licensing of the design and incorporated images. The designer would then have to include similar restrictions in contracts with suppliers.

Sources of copyright information Legal Guide for the Visual Artist (Tad Crawford) contains an extensive discussion of copyright. Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers (Eva Doman Bruck, Tad Crawford) has forms for copyright applications, copyright transfers, licensing and specifying rights either with a client or a supplier.

The Copyright Office makes available free information and application forms such as Form VA for a work in the visual arts. To obtain this information, the designer should request the Copyright Information Kit for the visual 100

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arts. The application forms and Copyright Information Kit are available from the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559. Forms from the Copyright Office can also be requested by calling a telephone hotline: 202 707 9100. The public information number for the Copyright Office is 202 707 3000. Also, as mentioned earlier, the Copyright Office has a website at www.loc.gov/copyright that offers information about copyright and the functioning of the Copyright Office as well as downloadable forms.

Use of Photography Use of photography in design work involves choice and responsibilities. With the growth of digital libraries of images, stock photography has become far more accessible to every designer, although there are also strong reasons to commission photography specifically for a project. This chapter reviews the options available to designers, considerations in contracting for the rights for use of photographic images and the means of using photography while fully respecting the intellectual property rights of the photographer.

Contracting with a photographer It is important to decide whether the designer or the client will contract with the photographer, since the contracting party will be liable for any money owed to the photographer. If the client contracts directly, many of the points made in this chapter would be relevant to the client instead of the designer. The designer’s willingness to be the contracting party will depend on such factors as whether the photography budget is relatively small compared to the total design budget and whether the client has proven to be reliable with respect to paying the designer in the past. Certainly the designer should not take the risk of paying for photography if there is any risk the client won’t reimburse the designer.

Specifications and deadlines To begin with, specifications for the images should be as clear and detailed as possible. What is the subject to be photographed? Will the art director or designer give a sketch to the photographer or be present during the shoot for approvals? Should the images be in black-and-white or in color? How many images are to be delivered? In what format will the images delivered— positive, negative, digital file?

The photographer must work on schedule. Failure to do this should be a reason for the designer to terminate the contract. If the designer’s schedule allows some flexibility with respect to the photographer’s deadline, then illness or other unavoidable delays might extend the photographer’s deadline. However, there must be a deadline for when the work should be delivered or else the designer may use another photographer. If even a short delay would be damaging, the designer might consider making “time of the essence” in the contract, in which case the deadline will have no leeway. The designer will want the contract to require that the assignment satisfy the designer, while the photographer will want to include that the satisfaction be “reasonable” to avoid having to do endless work to accommodate an unreasonable designer.

At the same time, the designer needs protection against the situation in which the designer is satisfied with the photography but the client is not.

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be fairly treated and benefit from the project. One way to do this is to involve the client in the decision-making process with respect to the photography.

Any changes in the assignment should be documented in writing.

Even in the rush of meeting deadlines and finishing work, the careful practice is always to have a written confirmation of any changes. This helps avoid disagreements as to whether the assignment as delivered meets the specifications. If the changes aren’t written down, it is easier to forget exactly what was discussed or misinterpret what was intended.

Fees and rights A professional photographer sells a license to use a photograph in particular circumstances; he or she does not sell the photograph itself or the copyright to it. The photographer owns the opportunity to use or sell the image in all other uses, unless he or she sells the copyright in writing prior to the photoshoot.

There must be agreement as to the fee and what is purchased for the fee.

Most photographers seek to sell only limited rights. If greater rights are desired, they will ask for a higher fee. If the designer is sensitive to this, the best approach may be to ask for limited rights. This should avoid paying for usage rights that will not be exploited.

On the other hand, the designer must obtain all of the rights that his or her client needs. In the first instance, the designer must consider what rights will be transferred to the client. Rights can be limited in many ways, including the duration of use, geographic area of use, type of product or publication, title of the product or publication, and whether the use is exclusive or nonexclusive. An important aspect of the grant of rights is whether the work may be used in electronic media (such as on a website or a DVD) as well as in traditional media. In electronic media, each category of use (such as a banner ad, email blast or website) is considered discrete use.

A photographer working on assignment will expect reimbursement for direct expenses incurred in producing the images. The designer should carefully review the expenses to be reimbursed to avoid the possibility of a dispute arising. Whether a cap can be placed on expenses, such as stating that expenses shall not exceed the estimate by 10 percent, will have to be negotiated along with whether a markup is to be charged by the photographer on some or all of the expenses. (The designer will face the same issues of cap and markups when billing the client.) If the designer requires changes and this causes reshoots, expenses may increase dramatically. The designer has to be careful to not get caught in a squeeze between a client with a limited budget and an image cost which exceeds that budget because of changes.

When expenses will be very substantial, an advance against expenses may become part of the contract (in which case the designer would want an advance from the client sufficient to cover what is being paid on account to the photographer). Whether or not sales tax will have to be paid, and who will be expected to pay it, should also be resolved in the contract.

All rights and work-for-hire A client may want an all rights contract. Having all rights would mean the client could use the work in any conceivable way. However, on questioning the client, it often develops that the client does not need all rights. Rather, the client wants to prevent competitors from using the photography (and, of course, the design). One approach would be for the designer to promise by contract that no use will be made of the design in certain markets without first obtaining 102

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the written consent of the client. Another might be to agree that the client has exclusive rights in those markets where the client faces competitors, but that the client will not unreasonably withhold from the designer (or photographer) the right to resell the image or design in a noncompetitive way.

The designer may sometimes act as an intermediary—and, perhaps, as a mediator of sorts—between the demands of the client and the desire of the photographer to retain rights and earn more money for greater usage. Designers must be careful to make certain that their contracts for rights with photographers and illustrators conform to the rights that the designers have contractually agreed to give their clients. Ideally, therefore, designers will resist clients that demand all rights or work-for-hire—both for themselves and for the allied creative professionals who will be asked to work on the design project. Work-for-hire vests the copyright in the client who is treated as the creator of the work and gains all the copyright benefits that would normally belong to the creator. This type of contract lowers standards protective of artists’ rights, has a negative impact on the ability of creators to earn a livelihood and can have a demoralizing effect with respect to creativity.

In all cases, the designer would be wise to use a written limited rights contract so that both parties know exactly what deal is being agreed to.

Payments and cancellations Standard practices should be documented in a written agreement and should call for payment to the photographer within a certain number of days after delivery of the assignment (not publication or printing of the images in the designer’s final work). This time period is often set at 30 days.

Any advances are subtracted from the total bill, which should then be paid in a timely manner to the photographer.

Provision should also be made for what will happen if the assignment is canceled. The designer should be able to terminate the assignment without liability unless the photographer will be damaged in some way.

This would be the case if work has commenced or if, due to the short notice of the cancellation, the photographer will be unable to find other assignments for the days that had been set aside for the designer.

A different cancellation issue arises if work is unsatisfactory. Should the photographer be given the first opportunity to do a reshoot? Will there be any additional fee in that case? If the designer uses another photographer, should the first photographer be paid anything for the unsatisfactory work?

These can be difficult situations to resolve, even when both parties make their best efforts to be fair.

Authorship credit and copyright notice There should be agreement as to whether the photographer will receive authorship credit for the photography that appears in the final design.

This would be expected in editorial or nonprofit work, but is less likely for advertising or corporate assignments. The same holds true for copyright notice, which would be much more likely for editorial or nonprofit usages than for advertising or corporate assignments. Again, the designer will have to ensure that the client and the photographer share the understanding as to what will be done with respect to authorship credit and copyright notice.

A typical photo credit would appear as: “Photograph by Sarah Photographer.”

If the photographer is to receive a copyright notice, this could take the form of “© Sarah Photographer 2009.” Other forms of copyright notice are also 103

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possible, such as “copyright” or “copr.” The photo credit and copyright notice would ideally be placed adjacent to the image, whether horizontal or vertical, but can also be placed elsewhere as long as the reader will be able to relate them to the image. If copyright notice is not adjacent to the image, it might be wise to add the word “photograph” in front of the copyright notice.

Releases, warranties and stock photography Assignments often require photographing people. If these images are used for advertising or trade purposes (such as on a product or for product packaging), a release must be obtained from the person. This is true whether or not the person is a professional model. The release should be in writing. Although the photographer will obtain the release, the release should protect the client and the designer as well as the photographer. If either the designer or client is uncomfortable with the language in the photographer’s release, it would be wise to ask for a second release to be signed for the designer or client (or both).

The client or the designer may also want the photographer to give a warranty that the work is original and not an infringement of copyright, an invasion of privacy, libelous or otherwise unlawful. If the photographer gives such a warranty, the photographer will be subject to damages if any of the warranties are found to not be true.

The use of pre-existing images is another possibility for the designer.

Use of stock images avoids the many contractual issues that may arise when photography is done on assignment. In using stock images the designer has to be careful not to exceed the license from the stock agency.

If additional usage is needed, the designer has to go back to the agency and clear the rights by paying an additional fee. In some cases the stock agency may limit use of photographs because releases have not been obtained from models. Ignoring the agency’s restrictions as to use for advertising or trade in such a case is inviting an invasion of privacy lawsuit against the designer and the client.

Ownership Unless there is a special reason to obtain ownership of preliminary materials used to create the photograph, these would remain the property of the photographer. The photographer would also keep ownership of any physical materials submitted to the designer and expect these to be returned, including not only valuable original transparencies but also storage media that contained digital versions of the work. If any physical object is to be transferred in addition to the transfer of rights, the contract should specify the ownership transfer.

Assignment of money and duties The designer will need to be able to assign rights to the client. Since the photographer has been used based on his or her unique style, it won’t be acceptable for the photographer to assign the work under the contract to another photographer.

A creative relationship The relationship between designer and photographer can be highly creative.

It can lead to visual solutions that are stunning and exceed the client’s expectations. For creative relationships to thrive, however, there must be a basic business understanding. A careful discussion of the creative goals and the business issues should be followed by the signing of a written contract.

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expectations. It is an important step in the shaping of a harmonious partnership that leads to the creation of work of the highest excellence.

Resources Legal Guide for the Visual Artist (Tad Crawford) and Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers (Eva Doman Bruck, Tad Crawford) both offer sample contracts accompanied by extensive discussion. Pricing Photography (Michal Heron) gives instruction with respect to negotiation and includes pricing charts for different stock usages. The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating and Budgeting (Theo Stephan Williams) discusses how to create a successful relationship with suppliers such as photographers.

AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design (AIGA, Tad Crawford) gives information on fees, negotiating and dealing with suppliers. For more information and resources, please go to AIGA’s website at www.aiga.org.

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Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct American Institute of Architects, 2012

Preamble Members of The American Institute of Architects are dedicated to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and competence. This Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct states guidelines for the conduct of Members in fulfilling those obligations. The Code is arranged in three tiers of statements: Canons, Ethical Standards, and Rules of Conduct: •

Canons are broad principles of conduct.

•

Ethical Standards (E.S.) are more specific goals toward which Members should aspire in professional performance and behavior.

•

Rules of Conduct (Rule) are mandatory; violation of a Rule is grounds for disciplinary action by the Institute. Rules of Conduct, in some instances, implement more than one Canon or Ethical Standard.

Come on graphic design!

This is so much more efficient than the AIGA Design Business + Ethics.

Maybe we have to separate business from ethics. That way we can really talk about ethics without having to consider business. That's like talking about being vegan at the butcher's house. See end of discussion of interview with Jessica on page 153.

The Code applies to the professional activities of all classes of Members, wherever they occur. It addresses responsibilities to the public, which the profession serves and enriches; to the clients and users of architecture and in the building industries, who help to shape the built environment; and to the art and science of architecture, that continuum of knowledge and creation which is the heritage and legacy of the profession. Commentary is provided for some of the Rules of Conduct. That commentary is meant to clarify or elaborate the intent of the rule. The commentary is not part of the Code. Enforcement will be determined by application of the Rules of Conduct alone; the commentary will assist those seeking to conform their conduct to the Code and those charged with its enforcement.

Statement in Compliance With Antitrust Law The following practices are not, in themselves, unethical, unprofessional, or contrary to any policy of The American Institute of Architects or any of its components: 1 submitting, at any time, competitive bids or price quotations, including in circumstances where price is the sole or principal consideration in the selection of an architect; 2 providing discounts; or 3 providing free services.

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Individual architects or architecture firms, acting alone and not on behalf of the Institute or any of its components, are free to decide for themselves whether or not to engage in any of these practices. Antitrust law permits the Institute, its components, or Members to advocate legislative or other government policies or actions relating to these practices. Finally, architects should continue to consult with state laws or regulations governing the practice of architecture.

CANON 1 General Obligations Members should maintain and advance their knowledge of the art and science of architecture, respect the body of architectural accomplishment, contribute to its growth, thoughtfully consider the social and environmental impact of their professional activities, and exercise learned and uncompromised professional judgment.

E.S. 1.1 Knowledge and Skill: Members should strive to improve their professional knowledge and skill.

Rule 1.101 In practicing architecture, Members shall demonstrate a consistent pattern of reasonable care and competence, and shall apply the technical knowledge and skill which is ordinarily applied by architects of good standing practicing in the same locality. •

Pretty non committal...

Commentary: By requiring a “consistent pattern� of adherence to the common law standard of competence, this rule allows for discipline of a Member who more than infrequently does not achieve that standard. Isolated instances of minor lapses would not provide the basis for discipline.

E.S. 1.2 Standards of Excellence: Members should continually seek to raise the standards of aesthetic excellence, architectural education, research, training, and practice.

E.S. 1.3 Natural and Cultural Heritage: Members should respect and help conserve their natural and cultural heritage while striving to improve the environment and the quality of life within it.

E.S. 1.4 Human Rights: Members should uphold human rights in all their professional endeavors.

Rule 1.401 Members shall not discriminate in their professional activities on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

E.S. 1.5 Allied Arts & Industries: Members should promote allied arts and contribute to the knowledge and capability of the building industries as a whole.

CANON 2 Obligations to the Public Members should embrace the spirit and letter of the law governing their professional affairs and should promote and serve the public interest in their personal and professional activities.

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Where is this in AIGA???

Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct, American Institute of Architects, 2012

E.S. 2.1 Conduct: Members should uphold the law in the conduct of their professional activities.

Rule 2.101 Members shall not, in the conduct of their professional practice, knowingly violate the law.

•

Commentary: The violation of any law, local, state or federal, occurring in the conduct of a Member’s professional practice, is made the basis for discipline by this rule. This includes the federal Copyright Act, which prohibits copying architectural works without the permission of the copyright owner. Allegations of violations of this rule must be based on an independent finding of a violation of the law by a court of competent jurisdiction or an administrative or regulatory body.

Rule 2.102 Members shall neither offer nor make any payment or gift to a public official with the intent of influencing the official’s judgment in connection with an existing or prospective project in which the Members are interested.

•

Commentary: This rule does not prohibit campaign contributions made in conformity with applicable campaign financing laws.

Rule 2.103 Members serving in a public capacity shall not accept payments or gifts which are intended to influence their judgment.

Rule 2.104 Members shall not engage in conduct involving fraud or wanton disregard of the rights of others.

•

Commentary: This rule addresses serious misconduct whether or not related to a Member’s professional practice. When an alleged violation of this rule is based on a violation of a law, or of fraud, then its proof must be based on an independent finding of a violation of the law or a finding of fraud by a court of competent jurisdiction or an administrative or regulatory body.

Rule 2.105 If, in the course of their work on a project, the Members become aware of a decision taken by their employer or client which violates any law or regulation and which will, in the Members’ judgment, materially affect adversely the safety to the public of the finished project, the Members shall: (a) advise their employer or client against the decision, (b) refuse to consent to the decision, and (c) report the decision to the local building inspector or other public official charged with the enforcement of the applicable laws and regulations, unless the Members are able to cause the matter to be satisfactorily resolved by other means.

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Commentary: This rule extends only to violations of the building laws that threaten the public safety. The obligation under this rule applies only to the safety of the finished project, an obligation coextensive with the usual undertaking of an architect.

Rule 2.106 Members shall not counsel or assist a client in conduct that the architect knows, or reasonably should know, is fraudulent or illegal.

E.S. 2.2 Public Interest Services: Members should render public interest professional services, including pro bono services, and encourage their employees to render such services. Pro bono services are those rendered 109

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without expecting compensation, including those rendered for indigent persons, after disasters, or in other emergencies.

E.S. 2.3 Civic Responsibility: Members should be involved in civic activities as citizens and professionals, and should strive to improve public appreciation and understanding of architecture and the functions and responsibilities of architects.

Rule 2.301 Members making public statements on architectural issues shall disclose when they are being compensated for making such statements or when they have an economic interest in the issue.

CANON 3 Obligations to the Client Members should serve their clients competently and in a professional manner, and should exercise unprejudiced and unbiased judgment when performing all professional services.

E.S. 3.1 Competence: Members should serve their clients in a timely and competent manner.

Rule 3.101 In performing professional services, Members shall take into account applicable laws and regulations. Members may rely on the advice of other qualified persons as to the intent and meaning of such regulations.

Rule 3.102 Members shall undertake to perform professional services only when they, together with those whom they may engage as consultants, are qualified by education, training, or experience in the specific technical areas involved.

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Commentary: This rule is meant to ensure that Members not undertake projects that are beyond their professional capacity. Members venturing into areas that require expertise they do not possess may obtain that expertise by additional education, training, or through the retention of consultants with the necessary expertise.

Rule 3.103 Members shall not materially alter the scope or objectives of a project without the client’s consent.

E.S. 3.2 Conflict of Interest: Members should avoid conflicts of interest in their professional practices and fully disclose all unavoidable conflicts as they arise.

Rule 3.201 A Member shall not render professional services if the Member’s professional judgment could be affected by responsibilities to another project or person, or by the Member’s own interests, unless all those who rely on the Member’s judgment consent after full disclosure.

• Commentary: This rule is intended to embrace the full range of situations that may present a Member with a conflict between his interests or responsibilities and the interest of others. Those who are entitled to disclosure may include a client, owner, employer, contractor, or others who rely on or are affected by the Member’s professional decisions.

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A Member who cannot appropriately communicate about a conflict directly with an affected person must take steps to ensure that disclosure is made by other means.

Rule 3.202 When acting by agreement of the parties as the independent interpreter of building contract documents and the judge of contract performance, Members shall render decisions impartially.

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Commentary: This rule applies when the Member, though paid by the owner and owing the owner loyalty, is nonetheless required to act with impartiality in fulfilling the architect’s professional responsibilities.

E.S. 3.3 Candor and Truthfulness: Members should be candid and truthful in their professional communications and keep their clients reasonably informed about the clients’ projects.

Rule 3.301 Members shall not intentionally or recklessly mislead existing or prospective clients about the results that can be achieved through the use of the Members’ services, nor shall the Members state that they can achieve results by means that violate applicable law or this Code.

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Commentary: This rule is meant to preclude dishonest, reckless, or illegal representations by a Member either in the course of soliciting a client or during performance.

E.S. 3.4 Confidentiality: Members should safeguard the trust placed in them by their clients.

Hippocratic oath.

Rule 3.401 Members shall not knowingly disclose information that would adversely affect their client or that they have been asked to maintain in confidence, except as otherwise allowed or required by this Code or applicable law.

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Commentary: To encourage the full and open exchange of information necessary for a successful professional relationship, Members must recognize and respect the sensitive nature of confidential client communications.

Because the law does not recognize an architect-client privilege, however, the rule permits a Member to reveal a confidence when a failure to do so would be unlawful or contrary to another ethical duty imposed by this Code.

CANON 4 Obligations to the Profession Members should uphold the integrity and dignity of the profession.

E.S. 4.1 Honesty and Fairness: Members should pursue their professional activities with honesty and fairness.

Rule 4.101 Members having substantial information which leads to a reasonable belief that another Member has committed a violation of this Code which raises a serious question as to that Member’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a Member, shall file a complaint with the National Ethics Council.

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integrity. In those circumstances, the duty to the professional’s calling requires that a complaint be filed. In most jurisdictions, a complaint that invokes professional standards is protected from a libel or slander action if the complaint was made in good faith. If in doubt, a Member should seek counsel before reporting on another under this rule.

Rule 4.102 Members shall not sign or seal drawings, specifications, reports, or other professional work for which they do not have responsible control.

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Commentary: Responsible control means the degree of knowledge and supervision ordinarily required by the professional standard of care.

With respect to the work of licensed consultants, Members may sign or seal such work if they have reviewed it, coordinated its preparation, or intend to be responsible for its adequacy.

Rule 4.103 Members speaking in their professional capacity shall not knowingly make false statements of material fact.

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Commentary: This rule applies to statements in all professional contexts, including applications for licensure and AIA membership.

E.S. 4.2 Dignity and Integrity: Members should strive, through their actions, to promote the dignity and integrity of the profession, and to ensure that their representatives and employees conform their conduct to this Code.

Rule 4.201 Members shall not make misleading, deceptive, or false statements or claims about their professional qualifications, experience, or performance and shall accurately state the scope and nature of their responsibilities in connection with work for which they are claiming credit.

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Commentary: This rule is meant to prevent Members from claiming or implying credit for work which they did not do, misleading others, and denying other participants in a project their proper share of credit.

Rule 4.202 Members shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that those over whom they have supervisory authority conform their conduct to this Code.

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Commentary: What constitutes “reasonable efforts” under this rule is a common sense matter. As it makes sense to ensure that those over whom the architect exercises supervision be made generally aware of the Code, it can also make sense to bring a particular provision to the attention of a particular employee when a situation is present which might give rise to violation.

CANON 5 Obligations to the Colleagues Members should respect the rights and acknowledge the professional aspirations and contributions of their colleagues.

E.S. 5.1 Professional Environment: Members should provide their associates and employees with a suitable working environment, compensate them fairly, and facilitate their professional development.

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E.S. 5.2 Intern and Professional Development: Members should recognize and fulfill their obligation to nurture fellow professionals as they progress through all stages of their career, beginning with professional education in the academy, progressing through internship and continuing throughout their career.

Rule 5.201 Members who have agreed to work with individuals engaged in an architectural internship program or an experience requirement for licensure shall reasonably assist in proper and timely documentation in accordance with that program.

E.S. 5.3 Professional Recognition: Members should build their professional reputation on the merits of their own service and performance and should recognize and give credit to others for the professional work they have performed.

Rule 5.301 Members shall recognize and respect the professional contributions of their employees, employers, professional colleagues, and business associates.

Rule 5.302 Members leaving a firm shall not, without the permission of their employer or partner, take designs, drawings, data, reports, notes, or other materials relating to the firm’s work, whether or not performed by the Member.

Rule 5.303 A Member shall not unreasonably withhold permission from a departing employee or partner to take copies of designs, drawings, data, reports, notes, or other materials relating to work performed by the employee or partner that are not confidential. •

Commentary: A Member may impose reasonable conditions, such as the payment of copying costs, on the right of departing persons to take copies of their work

CANON 6 Obligations to the Environment Members should promote sustainable design and development principles in their professional activities.

Amazing that there is a section about the environment, but no actual rules or regulations.

E.S. 6.1 Sustainable Design: In performing design work, Members should be environmentally responsible and advocate sustainable building and site design.

E.S. 6.2 Sustainable Development: In performing professional services, Members should advocate the design, construction, and operation of sustainable buildings and communities.

E.S. 6.3 Sustainable Practices: Members should use sustainable practices within their firms and professional organizations, and they should encourage their clients to do the same.

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Rules of Application, Enforcement, and Amendment Application The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct applies to the professional activities of all members of the AIA. Enforcement The Bylaws of the Institute state procedures for the enforcement of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Such procedures provide that: 1 Enforcement of the Code is administered through a National Ethics Council, appointed by the AIA Board of Directors.

2 Formal charges are filed directly with the National Ethics Council

by Members, components, or anyone directly aggrieved by the conduct of the Members.

3 Penalties that may be imposed by the National Ethics Council are: a Admonition b Censure c Suspension of membership for a period of time d Termination of membership.

5 Appeal procedures are available.

6 All proceedings are confidential, as is the imposition of an admonishment; however, all other penalties shall be made public.

Enforcement of Rules 4.101 and 4.202 refer to and support enforcement of other Rules. A violation of Rules 4.101 or 4.202 cannot be established without proof of a pertinent violation of at least one other Rule.

Amendment The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct may be amended by the convention of the Institute under the same procedures as are necessary to amend the Institute’s Bylaws. The Code may also be amended by the AIA Board of Directors upon a two-thirds vote of the entire Board. *2012 Edition. This copy of the Code of Ethics is current as of September 2012. Contact the General Counsel’s Office for further information at (202) 626-7348

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Code of Ethics Society of Professional Journalists, Revised 2014

Preamble Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.

Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

Seek Truth and Report It Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

There is absolutely no reason that a graphic designer can't and shall not sign on to this code.

Journalists should: •

Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.

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Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.

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Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.

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Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

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Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.

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Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.

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Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.

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Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.

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Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

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Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.

Give voice to the voiceless.

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Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists, Revised 2014

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Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

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Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to all.

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Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.

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Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience. Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.

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Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.

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Label advocacy and commentary.

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Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.

Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.

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Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

Minimize Harm Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Journalists should: • Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.

• Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage.

Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent.

Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.

• Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast.

• Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.

• Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.

• Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know.

Consider the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.

• Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

Act Independently The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

Journalists should: •

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

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Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.

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• Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not.

• Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

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Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

Be Accountable and Transparent Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Journalists should: •

Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news content.

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Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.

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Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently.

Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.

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Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.

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Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

The SPJ Code of Ethics is a statement of abiding principles supported by additional explanations and position papers that address changing journalistic practices.

It is not a set of rules, rather a guide that encourages all who engage in journalism to take responsibility for the information they provide, regardless of medium.

The code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. It is not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.

Sigma Delta Chi's first Code of Ethics was borrowed from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1926. In 1973, Sigma Delta Chi wrote its own code, which was revised in 1984, 1987, 1996 and 2014.

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Work Hard & Be Nice To People Anthony Burrill

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Declaration of faith

Judaism: Shema Yisrael .‫שׂרָ אֵל ה’ אֱלֹהֵינּו ה’ אֶחָד‬ ְ ִ ‫שמַע י‬ ְ ׁ Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ehad Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

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Reaffirming a personal relationship with God’s rule.

What is the power of a simple oath taken again and again, multiple times a day, compared to an oath signed and forgotten?

Barcelona Manifesto Enzo Mari, 1999

The utopizing tension of the origins of design must be recovered. If this is the allegory of a possible transformation, then it should reach as many people as possible. Those people who build our environment in a state of alienation and thus remain partially responsible of its transformation.

The mechanisms lead by the IT revolution are presently devouring all ideas to vomit sellable goods.

To begin with, in the next decades we must find the right ways to isolate from this redundancy the transformation ideas. In order to achieve that we must separate them from all those ideas that are generated by irresponsible anarchies that deny and trivialize the drive towards the utopia, thus making it impossible to get people involved.

In the meanwhile, it might be worth to generalize the idea that: every project works towards ethics (which can be compared to the Hippocratic Oath.)

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Hippocratic Oath Modern Version, Louis Lasagna, 1964

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

There is absolutely no reason that a graphic designer can't and shall not sign on to this oath.

Therapeutic nihilism is a contention that curing people, or societies, of their ills by treatment is impossible.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God. I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

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1,000 Words Manifesto Allan Chochinov 1 Hippocratic Before Socratic. “First do no harm” is a good starting point for everyone, but it’s an especially good starting point for designers.

For a group of people who pride themselves on “problem solving” and improving people’s lives, we sure have done our fair share of the converse.

We have to remember that industrial design equals mass production, and that every move, every decision, every curve we specify is multiplied— sometimes by the thousands and often by the millions. And that every one of those everys has a price.

We think that we’re in the artifact business, but we’re not; we’re in the consequence business.

2 Stop Making Crap. And that means that we have to stop making crap.

It’s really as simple as that. We are suffocating, drowning, and poisoning ourselves with the stuff we produce, abrading, out–gassing, and seeping into our air, our water, our land, our food—and basically those are the only things we have to look after before there’s no we in that sentence.

It gets into our bodies, of course, and it certainly gets into our minds.

And designers are feeding and feeding this cycle, helping to turn everyone and everything into either a consumer or a consumable. And when you think about it, this is kind of grotesque. “Consumer” isn’t a dirty word exactly, but it probably oughta be.

3 Systems Before Artifacts. Before we design anything new, we should examine how we can use what already exists to better ends.

We need to think systems before artifacts, services before products, adopting Thackara’s use/not own principles at every step. And when new products are needed, they’ll be obvious and appropriate, and then can we conscientiously pump up fossil fuels and start polymerizing them.

Product design should be part of a set of tools we have for solving problems and celebrating life. It is a means, not an end.

4 Teach Sustainability Early. Design education is at a crossroads, with many schools understanding the potentials, opportunities, and obligations of design, while others continue to teach students how to churn out pretty pieces of garbage. Institutions that stress sustainability, social responsibility, cultural adaptation, ethnography, and systems thinking are leading the way. But soon they will come to define what industrial design means. (A relief to those constantly trying to define the discipline today!) This doesn’t mean no aesthetics. It just means a keener eye on costs and benefits.

5 Screws Better Than Glues. This is lifted directly from the Owner’s Manifesto, which addresses how the people who own things and the people who make them are in a kind of partnership. But it’s a partnership that’s broken down, since almost all of the products we produce cannot be 125

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opened or repaired, are designed as sub assemblies to be discarded upon failure or obsolescence, and conceal their workings in a kind of solid–state prison. This results in a population less and less confident in their abilities to use their hands for anything other than pushing buttons and mice, of course. But it also results in people fundamentally not understanding the workings of their built artifacts and environments, and, more importantly, not understanding the role and impact that those built artifacts and environments have on the world. In the same way that we can’t expect people to understand the benefits of a water filter when they can’t see the gunk inside it, we can’t expect people to sympathize with greener products if they can’t appreciate the consequences of any products at all.

6 Design for Impermanence. In his Masters Thesis, “The Paradox of Weakness: Embracing Vulnerability in Product Design,” my student Robert Blinn argues that we are the only species who designs for permanence—for longevity—rather than for an ecosystem in which everything is recycled into everything else.

Designers are complicit in this over–engineering of everything we produce (we are terrified of, and often legally risk–averse to, failure), but it is patently obvious that our ways and means are completely antithetical to how planet earth manufactures, tools, and recycles things.

We choose inorganic materials precisely because biological organisms cannot consume them, while the natural world uses the same building blocks over and over again. It is indeed Cradle–to–Cradle or cradle–to–grave, I’m afraid.

7 Balance Before Talents. The proportion of a solution needs to balance with its problem: we don’t need a battery–powered pooper scooper to pick up dog poop, and we don’t need a car that gets 17 mpg to, well, we don’t need that car, period. We have to start balancing our ability to be clever with our ability to be smart. They’re two different things.

8 Metrics Before Magic. Metrics do not get in the way of being creative.

Almost everything is quantifiable, and just the exercise of trying to frame up ecological and labor impacts can be surprisingly instructive.

So on your next project, if you’ve determined that it may be impossible to quantify the consequences of a material or process or assembly in a design you’re considering, maybe it’s not such a good material or process or assembly to begin with. There are more and more people out there in the business of helping you to find these things out, by the way; you just have to call them.

9 Climates Before Primates. This is the a priori, self–evident truth.

If we have any hope of staying here, we need to look after our home.

And our anthropocentric world view is literally killing us.

“Design serves people”? Well, I think we’ve got bigger problems right now.

10 Context Before Absolutely Everything. Understanding that all design happens within a context is the first (and arguably the only) stop to make on your way to becoming a good designer.

You can be a bad designer after that, of course, but you don’t stand a chance of being a good one if you don’t first consider context. It’s everything: in graphics, communication, interaction, architecture, product, service, you name it—if it doesn’t take context into account, it’s crap. And you already promised not to make any more of that.

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The efficiency we create has vast consequences. Things we think benefit society might not.

Ten Things I Have Learned Milton Glaser, 2001

1 You can only work for people that you like. This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realized that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

2 If you have a choice never have a job. One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask “Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?” An irritated voice said “Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?” I recognized the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was—the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. “You know, I do know how to prepare for old age” he said. “Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age” he said.

3 Some people are toxic, avoid them. This is a subtext of number one.

There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic 127

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Ten Things I Have Learned, Milton Glaser, 2001

or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: you have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energized or less energized. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4 Professionalism is not enough or the good is the enemy of the great.

Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything —not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.

Unfortunately in our field, in the so–called creative—I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

5 Less is not necessarily more. Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realized that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realize that every part of that rug, every change of color, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate.

“Just enough is more.”

6 Style is not to be trusted. I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvelous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called “The Hidden Masterpiece”. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line 129

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abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different.

Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit.

If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old–fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.

But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

7 How you live changes your brain. The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered—I don’t know how—that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally 130

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believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, “Don’t hang out with those bad kids.” Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behavior. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist.

Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8 Doubt is better than certainty. Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation.

I think that is also true in a practical sense.

Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being skeptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between skepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right.

There is a significant sense of self–righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.

Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad—the client, the audience and you.

Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self–righteousness is often the enemy. Self–righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co–existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read “Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.” Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

9 On aging. Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called “Ageing Gracefully” I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for aging gracefully.

The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that “it doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you 131

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were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do—it doesn’t matter.” Wisdom at last.

Then I heard a marvelous joke that seemed related to rule number 10.

A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired “Got any cabbage?” The butcher said “This is a meat market—we sell meat, not vegetables.” The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says “You got any cabbage?” The butcher now irritated says “Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.” The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said “Got any nails?”

The butcher said “No.” The rabbit said “Ok. Got any cabbage?”

10 Tell the truth. The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either.

It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behavior towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public.

We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labeled veal was actually chicken.

I can’t imagine what everything labeled chicken was.

We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher?

Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.

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Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young Mary Theresa Schmich, 1997

Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who’d rather be Roller-blading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there’s no reason we can’t entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97: Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded.

But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.

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The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance.

So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander.

You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund.

Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.

Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

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Obsessions Stefan Sagmeister

Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.

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The Cult of Done Manifesto Bre Pettis & Kio Stark

1 There are three states of being.

Not knowing, action and completion.

I hate this.

2 Accept that everything is a draft.

It helps to get done.

3 There is no editing stage.

I hate this

4 Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.

This I hate,

5 Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.

6 The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.

7 Once you’re done you can throw it away.

I hate this

8 Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.

I hate this

9 People without dirty hands are wrong.

Doing something makes you right.

10 Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.

No!

11 Destruction is a variant of done.

12 If you have an idea and publish it on the Internet, that counts as a ghost of done.

13 Done is the engine of more.

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Okay, true.

An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth Bruce Mau, 1998

1 Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2 Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on.

Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.

3 Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

This speaks to every part of my life. If I don't live design or include my life fully into design, I cannot begin to realize to its full potential the best person or designer I could be.

Have your business hours limit your obligations, and schedule in lapses of distraction, but grow, learn, and explore. It will make your life and therefore your design better.

4 Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5 Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6 Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process.

Ask different questions.

7 Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8 Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies.

Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

9 Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

10 Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

11 Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.

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An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth, Bruce Mau, 1998

12 Keep moving. The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13 Slow down. Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14 Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

15 Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence.

Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16 Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17 ____________________. Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.

18 Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.

19 Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20 Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21 Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

22 Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things.

Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23 Stand on someone’s shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

24 Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25 Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26 Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27 Read only left–hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our ‘noodle’.

28 Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression.

The expression generates new conditions.

29 Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device–dependent.

30 Organization = Liberty. Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between ‘creatives’ and ‘suits’ is what Leonard Cohen calls a “charming artifact of the past.”

31 Don’t borrow money. Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket 139

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science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

32 Listen carefully. Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33 Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object–oriented, real–time, computer graphic– simulated environment.

34 Make mistakes faster. This isn’t my idea—I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35 Imitate. Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable.

We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

36 Scat. When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else… but not words.

37 Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

38 Explore the other edge. Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old–tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39 Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces—what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place.” Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference—the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals—but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40 Avoid fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

41 Laugh. People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh.

Since I’ve become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

42 Remember. Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction.

But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

43 Power to the people. Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.

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And maybe our other job is to create fences to jump over.

Interviews with 1. a graphic designer 2. a soldier and government employee 3. a brand specialist and business owner 4. a medical student and an architect February & March 2017

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Conrad Crespin Graphic designer and adjunct professor of graphic design at Portland State University

Nimi I just feel like we do have so much power and we manipulate everyone's interactions with the world. We are physically changing the world around us through advertising and producing all of these visual stimuli and content, and that's a lot of responsibility. That's what is big to me about these architects, is that in their time, this was like 20's, 30's where graphic design as a profession was not really a thing yet, and they are the people that are creating spaces for communities, so they really have a lot of power and are like now, changing people's interactions with the physical world. But a lot of the work we make now is not physical, but we don't necessarily live in a completely physical world anymore. It's like the wild west out there.

Conrad Yeah it is the wild west.

Nimi These manifestos came from architects because they were the powerful people. It's totally like preaching to the choir, but I feel like nowadays, those lines have been blurred. And now, everyones a designer.

Everyones an architect in a certain way.

Especially with the Internet, its equaled out the

playing field where you can comment on the same you-tube video, the same Imgur post as Adam Savage. So maybe, accessibility, should be another consideration too. I guess it depends on what impact you're actually trying to make, or who the manifesto is for. Your employer who wrote a manifesto, was that for him, for other companies, or is that for you?

Conrad Probably all of the above. Probably in his mind, its a better kind of vetting that works for his company. And also defining his own values, and those of his studio. So people have an idea of where he stands.

There's this dude named Aaron Swartz.

Who is on of my favorite political activists. He committed suicide a couple of years ago, but he was one of the co-founders of Reddit and helped co-found the creative commons when he was like, 13. He wrote this thing called the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto.

So all of those scientific journals—like JSTOR [short for Journal Storage] and what have you— you could only access those if you could pay money. Like, the entire history of science, like the most recent history, is locked away unless you 145

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have a lot of money. So he did this thing when he was at MIT, he wrote this program that downloaded all of it, and his idea in the guerrilla access manifesto talked a little bit about that, about actively releasing that to everyone.

Nimi

Did he go to jail?

Conrad Yeah he got caught, and they sentenced him for like 35 years and they basically bankrupted him, and he was the co-founder of reddit. He had political aspirations, and he suffered with depression, and you know, you cant be the president if you have a felony record, so, he was distraught, and ended up committing suicide. But like, you know, he inspired and galvanized a lot of people. I think the guerrilla access manifesto, again, unapologetic in his approach and style and so I think a lot of these manifestos too are taking a revolutionary stance. Some of the stuff I looked at [when working on my own thesis] was at revolutionary eras, specifically 1968 in America and in Paris where they were people organized themselves very quickly. In Paris, there was a huge student uprising but it wasn't really organized, kind of like a leaderless movement. They didn't really have a concrete plan. There were a lot of mixed slogans, that were put up all around the city that had no easily defined message and that where open to interpretation. One of them was, "under the paving stones, the beach." And the way I interpret that, is like, you get rid of bureaucracy and you'll find nature, you'll find truth. But again, to another it might be a completely different interpretation. But I think that idea too, of being vague, intentionally vague, so that you can reach a larger audience is interesting.

Nimi

Being ambiguous.

Conrad Yeah, and then the viewer, has more of an opportunity to reach that too, because its open ended. They can see it in their world.

Nimi They can project themselves into it.

There is a lot of power in writing. And in putting your voice out there. And the thing about these manifestos is that they're not legally binding, but as soon as you put [your values] into writing and put it out in the world, you're somewhat accountable for it. Gropius from the Bauhaus, had a pretty strict manifesto, and over 146

time evolved it. In some areas he got a little more strict, and in some areas a little more loose, but I feel like the first step is to put yourself out there.

Now it's weird with companies because they can't be so militaristic about it, they have to be vague enough that a customer won't look at their manifesto and say "oh, I'm never going to work with this company," and so now they act as more of a reminder to one's self. Putting something out there and being able to judge against it.

Did you write a manifesto after looking at so many? Has it changed?

Conrad Um, I'll have to look at it again. Most of them where kind of based on motto's and spiritual beliefs I already had. Like "It could always be worse." Which my boss calls a cop-out, like, "you're just making everything palatable in your world" and I'm like "yeah, thats totally what that is," but, I've been looking at Syria for years saying it's going to get worse, and it gets worse, you know? It's one of those things too like, being thankful for what you have. It's a little bit open ended, you know what I mean? Depending on how you approach it.

Nimi Yeah. It's like Anthony Burrill's, "Work hard and be nice to people," which I love. I've always loved it. But its interesting and fun to see this [Conrad's manifesto] compared to the 10 page lists.

Conrad Its kind of like your idea in terms of a manifesto that adapts to whoever engages it.

Maybe thats something that could be played with.

Nimi I think its more powerful that way, because some of these, like you said, "I can believe in this [part] 100%, I can believe in this [part] 75%." But with "it can always be worse," everyone can come to it in a different way and you can come to it in different ways throughout time.

Every time you come to a different problem, its meaning changes.

Yeah, I think adaptability is important.

Or maybe not. Maybe you build, what is it called, when Apple designs their products to break down after a certain amount of years?

Obsolescence? Designed obsolescence? Maybe you build that into a manifesto so that you have to re-evaluate it every few years.

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Jessica Angelique Delph Executive Officer for a forward support company in the Army National Guard and Conservation Planner for the Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

Nimi Okay, so my name is Nimi and I am working on my thesis right now, so what I’m really interested in. Okay, let me back this up. The elections kind of got me crazy. I did not see that coming.

Jessica Right, right.

Nimi And I was a little freaking out, everyone was really freaking out, and as someone that’s about to graduate from school, I’m just trying to figure out are there guidelines for me to practice design in? A lot of what I think great design comes out of is when you have a lot of situations that are pretty strict, so you either have a client that is very specific and has a niche and then all of your research can be placed in one specific area and because you’re doing such specific research, you can find a very specific solution to a problem.

I’m thinking how that can transcend one problem and how I can maybe focus my whole design practice in a more ordered, guideline-oriented way. When I was thinking about that, I was thinking how do people kind of do that. So the law, there are certain rules and regulations, but then there’s also things that people take on for themselves. So that’s where I kind of stumbled

on a couple of different oaths and manifestos in design which were really, really interesting to me.

The practice of that started after the First and Second World Wars in Europe. People were freaking out, there was all this death around them, a lot of uncertainty, and so they were like, “okay, we’re going to practice design in this very, very specific way. We’re going to have all these rules and if you don’t follow the rules, then you can’t practice our design.”

So that was a really interesting place to start, but as I started thinking about it more and more, I was thinking why just look at graphic design or why just look at architecture or creative fields to regulate ourselves with? Why not look to other industries or other professions that have been doing this for a long time?

So then I was also on Facebook, just asking if anyone knew anyone that works in the government or kind of worked in a way where oaths or regulations or manifestos affect their lives. And then I was sent over to you!

Jessica Okay, yeah. I work a lot within those parameters on both of my jobs actually.

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Nimi Cool, so yeah, tell me a little bit about your background, about what you do, and how you got there.

Jessica Okay. I’ll just start from what I’m doing and then work backwards.

Nimi

Perfect.

Jessica I work for the Utah Department of Agricultural and Food as a conservation planner.

Before that, I worked for the army as a botanist.

What I do for the Department of Ag and Food is I partner with the federal agencies, or actually it’s kind of a cooperative program between the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the NRCS, which is a USDA program, and the state. I worked with ranchers and farmers to help them conserve resources, and at the same time, find those happy win-win situations; conserve resources in the environment, but at the same time, since they depend on those resources, actually help them make their production more sustainable, which makes it more economically feasible and efficient for them. So that’s kind of why I actually really like my job. I’ve been doing that for a year now.

And then I work with the Army National Guard as an executive officer for a forward support company. We support a field artillery battalion.

I’m a first lieutenant and I’ve been in for six years now altogether.

I guess, with my academic career, right now I’m still in grad school. I’m getting my master’s in natural resource management on-line with a focus in fire ecology, but I had actually gone to graduate school at NAU [Northern Arizona University] in environmental science with as focus on plant ecology, but I didn’t finish because my thesis was a monster and I was broke.

Nimi

Yeah, I get that.

Jessica Before that, I got a degree in environmental science and journalism. I have two bachelor’s in environmental Science and journalism and I just kind of worked up from there. I’ve done lots of internships and worked for the Game & Fish in Arizona and arboretum down there and worked for research groups and contracting firms. So I guess that’s just kind of a summary of it.

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Nimi Yes. Why’d you decide to join the National Guard?

Jessica (Laughs.) So I moved here 2010, which is right after the recession and as soon as I got here they were starting to cut our department and I was a contractor for the army. So there were actually multiple things that motivated me to go.

I was 32 at that point, so I was a little old to join the army, but when my recruiter approached me, he said, “you don’t have to be enlisted. With a degree, you can be an officer.” Which, first of all, I like because I like the planning and the executing aspect of it. I didn’t really want to be the grunt, so to speak, you know?

And then he said, "we’ll help you pay back college" and through grad school, because I had run through my grant so quickly, I ended up owing $80,000 and I had no real way to pay it back because my first job right out of the gate did not pay a lot. So she said, “I’ll help you pay $50,000 of that back through the army.”

I’m like, oh, great and not only that, I was a contractor with the army. So I thought that maybe being in the service would help me secure my job. So it was kind of a multifaceted thing. It wasn’t like I ever had aspirations of being in the army. I never actually thought I would be because I didn’t think it would jive with my ideals, but at that time, logistically, I felt like it was the best way to dig myself out of the hole that I had gotten myself into with all the school.

Nimi So now you’re many years into that and you’re still with the National Guard. Why did you stick around for so long? What about that environment made you decide to stay on?

Jessica I really fell in love with it. My husband wants me to leave, but I would love to stay until I retire. There are so many aspects about the service that I never thought about and that I really enjoy. First of all I’ve always been athletic but I’ve never had a reason to be motivated to use it. Now as an officer I train younger kids and I do physical training with them all the time and I get rewarded for all of my hard work. I get awards and promotions because of it and I’ve never been in a job that will actually reward you for your efforts.

I mean, it’s kind of disillusioning in college because they say, “oh, you take these classes, you do the hard work, you’ll get the jobs.” Absolutely not.

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

I have fought and fought and scraped and I am still in school. I have been in school since I was 17 and I am still one of the lowest paid persons in my office and it’s been that way my whole career, but the army is not that way. You put in some effort, you show that you care, and people notice you and they treat you the same.

I mean, people talk about inequality in the army. Yes, there’s inequality in the army, but you know what? I’ve found more gender inequality in my civilian careers than I ever did in the army.

And I love that.

Nimi Yeah, it seems like it’s an environment where there’s so much scrutiny that there has to be accountability for it.

Jessica Yeah, yeah, and you put in the hard work, you put in the efforts and everybody sees it because of that scrutiny and because of the teamwork. I think the culture is different that way, at least where I’m at. We are all there to support each other because we can’t get anywhere if we don’t help each other out. It’s very integral to have your teammates’ help. In a civilian job, it’s the opposite. People back stab each other all the time to get ahead and you know what? It works.

Nimi

Yeah.

what it did in my civilian career which is really helpful is that, with the job that I have now, I’m responsible for holding meetings, I’ve created my own group. I’m able to be much more decisive.

And as far as leadership goes, before, I didn’t really feel comfortable with leading groups or taking on huge projects that were collaborative because as a biologist I never really worked with people and the whole point of being a biologist was to not work with people.

But again, in college, your idea of what the real world is, is completely different. So when I got out to the real world, I realized that even as a biologist, I have to work collaboratively with people and sometimes that means taking the reigns and doing it myself with my cooperators.

Then not only that, I find that people respect me a lot more. I live in a very conservative state and I’m not conservative and it’s really obvious. I kind of stick out like a sore thumb, but the reason why I go the job I did with the state, I was against one other guy, they say, “our final decision making point was that you were in the army and we know that you have the discipline and the hard work ethic to do what you need to do.” And that gives me a lot of credibility in a very conservative society.

Nimi Totally. What was that transition like in moving to an environment like that?

Jessica So I even like the work culture better in the army.

Jessica Oh, going from a liberal community to a conservative one?

Nimi How do you find that your army life is going into your civilian work life?

Nimi Yeah, and what is it like being liberal in the army? I just don’t know about that at all!

Jessica One thing, at least as an officer, is that I had to take some very intensive leadership training.

I did boot camp, which is not necessary leadership training, but that basically toughened me up. Then I went to, Officer Candidate School was very, very, very physically, mentally demanding and if you could not be decisive and get things done, you were going to fail and I was never ever pushed in that way. I had some field crew leadership, but I never had the huge responsibilities that they pushed on me within the difficult environment that I had.

Then I went to Basic Officer Leadership course [BOLC], which was four months in Virginia, and that was not as stressful as an environment, but we still had a lot of responsibilities. So I think

Jessica The army is kind of funny that way.

If you look at the statistics, it shows that the majority of the people are very conservative, which they are, but on the other hand, it’s exceedingly diverse. It’s more diverse than the community I live in. For example, some of my best friends, when I went to BOLC were Muslim and I can say that with all of the conservative rhetoric, the anti-Muslim rhetoric, I can say I’ve served with some of the best people and they’re Muslim.

So in the Army, even if they seem to be a little more conservative, I think they’re more open-minded and tolerant, just because the guy to your left and the guy to your right is [diverse].

We have a lot of LGBTQ people [in the army]. At boot-camp I had a trans-gender person and again 151

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you have to humanize them and get to know them because they are a part of your team and like I said, you cannot get through the army without being a team member.

Even here in white pride Utah, where the diversity is a little lower, what’s great is that we get sent all over the country to experience other groups. Here in Utah, people kind of stay. They don’t go anywhere, but the army forces you to see those other people.

What’s also great about being a leader is that I can push for change when I have my own unit and there are gender discrimination issues, I could stomp that shit out right quick.

Nimi Totally. Tell me about some regulations that you either see as beneficial or kind of detrimental to your everyday work.

Jessica Well I have both of those for either side of my job, so I’ll kind of just talk about one at a time?

Nimi

Cool.

Jessica So the army, well, the army is really interesting because it’s got a lot of different regulations. They’re generally called ARs or FMs. So ARs are army regulations and FMs are field manuals.

So field manuals are actually devised from the ARs and everything that we do in the army, I mean literally everything has regulations. I mean everything.

How you train, how you step, how you salute, how you do paperwork. Everything has a regulation. So it’s nice that way because a lot of times you’re just kind of thrown into something and if you need any guidance you can look it up and find it. It’s there.

The other point to that is that there’s so much information that changes constantly. First of all, it’s hard to keep up. Second of all, some of it’s kind of ridiculous. Where, for example, they changed AR 670-1, which is for personal appearance. There’s a standard for how you’re supposed to look in your uniform and they had changed it where people who had tattoos below the elbows could not be enlisted anymore because it was regulated out. Which, to me, was ridiculous, and we complained to our supervisors about it because I have a lot of people in my unit who have lots of tattoos, and let me tell you, they are good soldiers. They are good soldiers.

So personal appearance, yeah, it’s kind of important because we’re so scrutinized by the 152

public, but to kick people out because of something arbitrary like that that’s seriously just skin deep is ridiculous. So actually they changed that back because there was so much backlash.

Another one of course is Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and when I started that was still implemented. The thing is, is that, yeah, it was a thing, but we have so many trans-gender and openly gay people that I knew in the army, I just think that it was a ridiculous piece of legislation that was more political than anything, because they were already in the army and you know who is and who isn’t because we're so close. And the only time it was ever an issue is when someARMY REGULATION 670–1 body complained Uniform and Insignia Wear and Appearance of about it. So that was Army Uniforms and Insignia another piece of Summary of change regulation that was Wear and Appearance of detrimental to the Army Uniforms and Insignia This major revision, dated 31 uniformity of our unit, March 2014: and I’m so, so glad they • Notifies Soldiers of which finally got rid of that portions of the regulation are punitive and violations because ostracizing a of these provisions may group of people who subject offenders adverse administrative action you’re supposed to be and/or charges under the depending on is very provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice detrimental to the (paras 1-5a, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, morale of the group 3-5, 3-7, and 3-10). entirely, let alone that • Removes Army Ideas for Excellence Program (para person.

1-6a).

So it wasn’t that we • Updates Responsibilities didn’t have gay, lesbian, for The Institute of Heraldry (para 2-3), Program or trans-gender people Executive Officer, Program in our ranks. We did Executive Office Soldier, and U.S. Army Natick and they fought and Soldier Research, Develdied with us. And to opment and Engineering Center (para 2-4). discriminate against • Updates the hair and them like that was a fingernail standards and horrible injustice. So I grooming policies for males and females (para am so glad they got rid 3-2). of that.

• Updates tattoo and brand Then, opening up policy (para 3-3). combat to women is • Updates jewelry policy to limit gauging size t1.6mm incredibly helpful. I (para 3-4(d)) and adding think that was an prohibited dental ornamentation (para 3-4f). amazing step. I don’t • Updates policy of the believe in changing wear of Army uniforms standards.

Absolutely at national, regional, and local events (para 3-5). not. Women physically • Updates policy on use of have a heart to body electronic devices while in size ratio that’s smaller, uniform (para 3-6). so it takes more work • Updates policy on wear of combat uniform on commercial flights (para 3-7c).

• Updates policy on hand carried and shoulder bags

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

for us to be able to provide the oxygen we need for physical activity, but that doesn’t mean we can’t perform the job. It just means we have to work harder to get there. I think that was a step in the right direction and women are proving themselves and we have them in combat arms positions.

For me personally in my everyday life, even though I’m not combat arms, I think that women in leadership in general, even in the army, are becoming much more accepted and are being perceived as having much more authority. It’s really hard being a woman in the army sometimes because you have to have that authority and there’s even research that shows that generally, just because of my small stature, my high pitched voice, I am already perceived as not having that authority. But I think that all these pushes and changes that we’re having with women and making them equal in the job, and then actually being able to accomplish them have helped me in general, just as a cultural shift.

Nimi Did you feel a shift like that after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed? Did you feel like there was a change in the mood?

Jessica You know, I didn’t with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and I think because that one was more political than social. That was really part of our culture at the army, just because we had so many LGBTQ people in our ranks already and we all knew that.

So there was a little bit just because now we could all breathe a sigh of relief together. We didn’t always have to be on edge about worrying about if this person is going to get in trouble. So there was more like a communal sigh of relief, going "ugh, God. Thank God that we don’t have to worry about that anymore." But as far as a transition, no, because they were already there and we were already together and people just seemed to be okay with it because, like I said, we’re a team.

The other ones was the change in regulation with the uniforms and the tattoos, that was a huge transition. Just because like I said, it affected so many different people and there was so much anger and they felt disillusioned because they were being singled out for really no reason. They did nothing to prove that they weren’t good enough to wear the uniform.

It kind of demoralized a huge group of people, because it wasn’t just that. The change of

regulations always often said things like how women did their hair and, I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it made it harder for women who had black hair to keep in regulation, because they’re very specific on what you can and cannot have. So there was a huge backlash about that. People just felt like certain groups were getting discriminated against for no reason.

So once we got rid of that and rolled back most of those, it was kind of business as usual and everybody felt right again. But when we have regulations that single out certain groups for really no relevant reason, it’s demoralizing and there’s kick-off within the uniformity of our group and we have to have uniformity.

Now, the regulation that allows women in combat arms was a huge transition. A huge transition because a lot of people still felt and feel that women don’t belong in those combat positions and they were scared that we were going to degrade the quality of our army because we would be lowering standards. That’s a fair assessment, I mean, if you really think that you’re going to lower standards to let these people in, that would degrade the quality of our forces. So I think that’s a fair consideration, but some people literally do not think that women are capable of meeting those standards.

So we’re still kind of in transition. There is a lot of discussion going back and forth. There’s a lot of rhetoric, but I think in general the culture is kind of changing into accepting women to those positions and women as being in leadership positions in the group.

Nimi It’s really interesting to me to think about that kind of environment where, like you said, every single step has a certain regulation and you know exactly how to interact with every single person.

I know that rank is really important in that.

And if you don’t fit into it from the beginning or if you can’t transition into that environment, you’re not going to do well, but for the people who that works well for, really amazing things can come out of it.

Jessica Right, right, and I’ve had some people who have a hard time with authority in general. They do not like being told what to do and they’ve had a hard time, especially these young kids coming in, have a hard time transitioning to constantly being 153

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evaluated, constantly being watched, constantly having to consider other people and do what you’re told. I’ve got a couple of people who are like that, but you know what, for the most part I think that, the people who do join, because I have people from all over backgrounds, women, men, old, young, parents, Latino, Black, white, all different religions, they seem to thrive off of it and I think it’s because we are social creatures.

A lot of the times it’s overwhelming at first, but all of these regulations, as long as they’re not, like I said, detrimental to our team unity, they kind of support this culture. Like you were talking about oaths? This culture is of respect and honor and of getting things done. The reason why we have all these regulations is to make sure everybody is on the same page so we can execute things efficiently and quickly. And then we maintain that structure of respect and honesty.

So that’s one reason why we have the ranking system, because if you do not respect the person above you, then it’s very difficult to execute some of these things that we have to do. We work really hard. It’s not an easy job.

Nimi No, definitely not and there’s also that weight of responsibility with it and I’m sure in your civilian job, there isn’t that weight to it.

Jessica No, no, absolutely not. I have, as an executive officer, I’m second in command to the commander and I’ve taken over command a couple times, because he’s always so busy. So for example, last month I was acting commander and that meant I had 200 people that I was responsible for, and I mean really responsible for, because the commander is ultimately responsible for everything. If there’s an accident, if there’s somebody that leaves, if there’s something that gets stolen, everything.

There’ll be millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of property. Every single person’s welfare is your responsibility. It’s a tremendous amount compared to my civilian job.

And there’s a lot to get done. So having to execute all of these things to a quality standard is on top of keeping everybody safe and all the property safe and accounted for, it’s a big responsibility.

Nimi Do you feel like that’s sobering? Do you feel like you come into it with kind of a clarity or are there other times when it’s so extremely overwhelming? Or maybe just the beginning was like that.

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Jessica Yeah, the beginning is absolutely like that, absolutely like that, just because the training they give you is leadership training. It’s more of being able to take information and execute it and have people lead, but this doesn’t teach you about how the real army works. It doesn’t teach you about all the regulations that you have to adhere to and you don’t get that sense of responsibility.

As soon as you get done from your leadership training, you get thrown into responsibility.

I think as a platoon leader, I had 40 soldiers under my care and I had no idea what I was doing.

I mean, I literally was flailing every single time, but the way that the structure is, is that all the officers have an enlisted counterpart. The enlisted counterpart has been in for years and has lots of experience. So, for example, my enlisted counterpart as a platoon leader was a platoon sergeant. He was a sergeant first class, which means he’s been in for 15 years.

So he was my guiding hand. Even though I felt like I was drowning and overwhelmed a good majority of the time, you don’t ever project that, first of all, which sometimes you do just because you can’t handle it all, but he’s the one that saves you.

He’s the one that supports you and it’s designed that way, where senior enlisted help the junior officers to find their footing so they’re not feeling so overwhelmed. Without them I would have completely drowned.

Now that I’ve been in for five years, I’ve been commissioned for three, I feel a lot more secure.

I am able to handle it a little bit better, because I know better. But on the other hand, there are definitely aspects every single time I go to my military job where I just feel overwhelmed because I don’t get any guidance. It might be different in the active army because they have 40 hours every week to deal with things, but since I’m doing it once a month on a weekend and then two weeks out of the year, they don’t have time to provide guidance. We barely have time to get done what we need to get done. So I’m just kind of thrown in.

Like, I’m an executive officer. I really have no idea what that means. I don’t really understand what my responsibilities are except for taking command when the commander isn’t there.

Other than that, I’ve had to create my own responsibilities and positions, because the commander hasn’t given me any guidance on what he wants from me, because we’re too busy.

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

Nimi Right, because he has so many things to worry about, that one day out of the month, he doesn’t have enough time in the day to even just sit down and debrief.

Jessica Right, right. We’re so busy preparing for our mission and getting everything together. The other thing is that the regulations for the army apply to the National Guard, so we have to check all these boxes every single weekend. We have to have resiliency training, we have to have special assault training, we have to have suicide prevention training, we have to have all this administrative stuff taken care of, and then on top of that, we have to meet all of these training objectives. It’s a whirlwind from start to finish, because like I said, the National Guard time logistics do not fit the way the army works, but we still have to maintain army standards.

I actually have to do drill this weekend, so I start tomorrow morning at 6:30 and it’s going to be a whirlwind of getting everything done until the weekend ends, and then I have to go back to work. So it’s crazy.

Nimi Yeah, wow. Yeah.

Can you tell me a little about oaths that you took when joining the army or during basic training?

Jessica Yeah, so I took the oath of enlistment when I first enlisted. So the way it works with my program at least, it’s different for other officers, like ROTC officers don’t have to become enlisted first, but I did. So I was E-4 specialist. I had to put my hand on the book and raise my right hand and say that, I don’t remember exactly what it was I said, but it was something more like, "I will defend the Constitution. I will defend America.

The President is my commander-in-chief." That type of thing.

Then when I became an officer, it’s a different oath you have to take and it’s more of, I will be ethical, provide for my soldiers. It was more leadership focused and it was so long ago, I don’t honestly remember exactly what it was.

You can look those up. They’re standardized.

You say them every time you get, it doesn’t matter, you say the same thing because, and I’m sorry that’s not very helpful, on what those contents were.

During boot-camp though, we would say the Soldier’s Creed over and over and over and over again.

There’s the Warrior Ethos and the Soldier’s Creed and then the Army Values. So we had to basically memorize and know all of them and what they were and again, that was a long time ago, but the soldiers, they would yell at us, “The Soldier’s Creed!” And we would all say in unison, “The Soldier’s Creed. I am an American soldier. I am a warrior and part of a team. I will,” it’s like, again, boot-camp was so long ago. “I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am a professional, trained, and proficient at my warrior task and drills.” All those things we had to memorize and I actually knew it word for word just a couple years ago.

OATH OF ENLISTMENT I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. OATH OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS I, _____, having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God. WARRIOR ETHOS I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

SOLDIER’S CREED I am an American Soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.

I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

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We had to say all those things over and over again and that was our ethos. Then we had to memorize the Soldier Values, which are honesty, integrity, personal courage, selfless service. Let’s see, there’s six of them. That’s what happens when you’re an officer though. (Laughs.) You start THE ARMY VALUES LOYALTY

Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other Soldiers. Bearing true faith and allegiance is a matter of believing in and devoting yourself to something or someone. A loyal Soldier is one who supports the leadership and stands up for fellow Soldiers. By wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army you are expressing your loyalty. And by doing your share, you show your loyalty to your unit.

DUTY

Fulfill your obligations. Doing your duty means more than carrying out your assigned tasks. Duty means being able to accomplish tasks as part of a team. The work of the U.S. Army is a complex combination of missions, tasks and responsibilities — all in constant motion. Our work entails building one assignment onto another. You fulfill your obligations as a part of your unit every time you resist the temptation to take “shortcuts” that might undermine the integrity of the final product.

RESPECT

Treat people as they should be treated. In the Soldier’s Code, we pledge to “treat others with dignity and respect while expecting others to do the same.” Respect is what allows us to appreciate the best in other people. Respect is trusting that all people have done their jobs and fulfilled their duty. And self-respect is a vital ingredient with the Army value of respect, which results from knowing you have put forth your best effort.

The Army is one team and each of us has something to contribute.

SELFLESS SERVICE

Put the welfare of the nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own. Selfless service is larger than just one person. In serving your country, you are doing your duty loyally without thought of recognition or gain. The basic building block of selfless service is the commitment of each team member to go a little further, endure a little longer, and look a little closer to see how he or she can add to the effort.

HONOR

Live up to Army values. The nation’s highest military award is The Medal of Honor. This award goes to Soldiers who make honor a matter of daily living — Soldiers who develop the habit of being honorable, and solidify that habit with every value choice they make.

Honor is a matter of carrying out, acting, and living the values of respect, duty, loyalty, selfless service, integrity and personal courage in everything you do.

INTEGRITY

Do what’s right, legally and morally. Integrity is a quality you develop by adhering to moral principles.

It requires that you do and say nothing that deceives others. As your integrity grows, so does the trust others place in you. The more choices you make based on integrity, the more this highly prized value will affect your relationships with family and friends, and, finally, the fundamental acceptance of yourself.

PERSONAL COURAGE

Face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral).

Personal courage has long been associated with our Army. With physical courage, it is a matter of enduring physical duress and at times risking personal safety.

Facing moral fear or adversity may be a long, slow process of continuing forward on the right path, especially if taking those actions is not popular with others. You can build your personal courage by daily standing up for and acting upon the things that you know are honorable.

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learning all of this other stuff because that’s kind of an enlisted thing.

As an officer, all those ethos are still important, but we’re so much more focused on executing and planning that I did a lot of that. They don’t emphasize that anymore in those higher leadership courses. As an enlisted, you go over those over and over and over and over again, but as an officer, you don’t really do that as so much, but we’re still supposed to live by them.

Nimi Right. When you were not an officer, did you find yourself referring back to those oaths a lot.

Jessica I do with the Soldier Values, and that’s why I’m kind of ashamed I don’t remember what they are. I know that I know them, but I can’t remember them. So honesty, integrity, duty, honor, personal courage, and selfless service.

I think those are the six actually.

I refer to them a lot. Actually, with my child, we go through them all the time because he has ethical issues. He’s 14, so we talk about them all the time. Okay, well these are the things that you need to be to be a good person. All of these things. And we’ll go through the Soldier Values.

You want to be a good person? You need to have integrity. You need to have honor. You need to have personal courage. Personal courage means doing the right thing whether somebody’s there or not, speaking up for the right thing to do, even if it’s the hard thing to do. We go through all those things, and with my soldiers, I use that as a guiding value all the time. All the time, because I expect them, as officers, we are supposed to be the example and we cannot expect anything from our soldiers that we do not do ourselves.

So for me, it is absolutely integral that I meet all of these criteria, because that’s what I expect out of them. I expect them to be respectful, expect them to be good people, because if they’re not, then we cannot work as a team.

If you’re not honest, if you don’t have integrity, if you don’t fulfill your duties, if you don’t have the personal courage to do what you need to do when you need to do it, and selfless service, if you cannot sacrifice what you need for your teammates, it will not work. So I constantly emphasize those.

Nimi In your civilian job, what is that juxtaposition like with working with people that

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

haven’t taken these oaths or don’t necessarily think about them?

Jessica It’s night and day, really. It really is night and day, because like I said, the culture at my civilian job is, they don’t do anything. It sounds terrible, but okay, not the guys I work immediately with, but particularly in the federal service, there is this thing where people just don’t do anything and they back stab each other to get higher up.

It’s basically, it seems to me violating all of those ethical codes actually gets them higher within the system than it does keeping them where they should be every time, and this is not just the NRCF. I saw it in the civilian army side too.

The civilian army side, because I used to be a contractor, they literally get paid a lot of money and their jobs are totally secured. So when there were people who were not doing their job and we needed them to do their jobs and it was a problem, we tried to get them removed and we couldn’t. I mean, it was huge, horrible, extreme examples were they would fall asleep in the desks all day, everyday, and then when you go to them and say, “I need this,” they wouldn’t have it and they would dismiss you. And their job wasn’t getting done! But it didn’t matter, you couldn’t get rid of them.

So, it was all the higher paid guys that would take an hour for lunch and then they would go to the gym for two hours and they’d come back and bullshit. And you’re sitting there busting your ass out in the field for 10 hours a day. So the work ethic is completely different. People throw you under the bus and you can always tell, even in a civilian world, who is military, because they don’t do that.

When I worked at General Dynamics Information Technology, the guy who was head of a different, he was in our department, but he had just come back, was Major Lewis, but he was a reservist. So when we would get hammered by the higher ups, the guy who was replacing him just threw us under the bus all the time, but when Major Lewis came back, he fought for us.

I honestly think it’s because of that teamwork ethic that they’ve developed because you can always tell a military guy in a civilian service. It’s night and day. It’s like a dog-eat-dog world in the civilian job and it’s very cliquey. You can’t get a promotion or a job unless you know that person, especially out here in the West Desert of Utah that’s still trying to catch up with the times. It’s very good-old-boy.

But guys with military experience, they don’t deal with that shit and I think it’s because they’ve been indoctrinated into this culture where it’s not tolerated.

Nimi Yeah, I mean, and they understand that you guys are going to be able to get some much more done and to such a higher potential when you work together.

Jessica Right. I think so too, and they don’t tolerate a low work ethic. I have people in the NRCS [Natural Resources Conservation Service], we constantly have this new software coming out that we have to learn and there are some of these old timers who literally will not learn it. They’re like, “nope, I’m not going to learn it,” and so, they can’t do their job. So the newbies coming in have to pick up their slack and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t get rid of them. You can’t fire them. It doesn’t matter. They’ve gone as high as their promotion as they can go and so they’re just sitting there collecting a paycheck and that shit doesn’t fly in the army. It just doesn’t.

Nimi Yeah, it sounds like you have a lot of drive and a lot of want to get better and to do better. Do you think that’s from that army experience or do you think that’s from before that?

Jessica I think that’s from before that. I think that I am just initially that way. Again, I think anything that’s good about a person has, it’s like the other side of the coin where it has its bad parts. My mom always told me, I burn the candle at both ends. Like, I have A’s in my classes. I got a B last semester. I got an 89 and I was so mad and I was like, I got an 89 and it screwed up my record.

But, you know, it’s honestly not that big of a deal.

I think I’m just naturally that way, but the army allows me to be rewarded for it, so that’s what I like about it, yeah.

Nimi Yeah, so I have an older sister who’s in medical school now, and she’s been like that her whole life too. I get faced with that every once in a while. Yeah, I think that medical school and that hospital doctor experience is also very much in the same way. Everyone is there for a very specific reason, people know their roles, and there is, there’s always the politics and I think it’s less regulated than the army. So there are those 157

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politics, but you go into a very specific mindset and you know that when you work your ass off, you’re going to get rewarded for it.

Jessica Right, and I never made that connection, but now that you say something like that, it makes a lot of sense.

Nimi Yeah, tomorrow I’m interviewing her.

We’re going to talk about the Hippocratic Oath, which is something I’ve been really interested in for a while, and my dad’s an architect. I’m going to be talking to both of them at the same time, because in architecture and in graphic design too, we have these ethical standards.

The architects have an organization called AIA which is a national governing body for architects, but the standards are so loose and they’re so vague because it’s kind of a way to get everyone on the same page, but loose enough that people don’t feel like they’re being encroached on.

And with the Hippocratic Oath, the first step is “do no harm,” and she says that is something she refers to every single day and my dad on the other hand is like, “oh, yeah. We have these ethical standards, but they don’t even mean anything because they’re so loose, and so it’s a nice thing to refer to when we have a problem, but it’s not really a driving ethos.”

I really find it fascinating, especially for her because every single doctor take that oath when they start medical school and I think when they finish medical school, and so there’s a lot of power. I was going to as you about this, when you to the oath, when you put your hand on the book, do you feel like that gave it more importance or the fact that it was a thing that every single person did, do you feel like that elevated the significance of that? Or do you feel like it was just a thing that everyone did?

Jessica No, I really felt it made it more significant, because it wasn’t just the giving of the oath. So both times I take the oath, as enlisted and as an officer especially, there’s a lot of pomp and circuitry.

Yeah, there’s a lot to it. So when I got enlisted, I went in a room that had a flag. I had higher ups, like an officer come an watch. They took a picture of it. They put it up on the board and they recorded and announced to everybody on the web-page that I’m part of the group.

So yes, everybody does it, and it’s the same thing over and over again, but it’s this ritual that is 158

accepting this person into the group and now you are a part of us and it’s very evident and you feel it. You feel that now that you have done this step, you are a part of this culture. You are a part of this group. It’s kind of ritualized that way and I felt like it had a lot more meaning to it because of that.

Now, when I became an officer, it was even a bigger deal. It was huge. So when I got commissioned, the general came, and he gave a talk and I had all of these captains and lieutenant colonels and commanders come. We had to sing the army song and the general gave a talk and I had to have a host and I had to have refreshments. It’s called a commissioning ceremony and I had to have a pamphlet saying what the ceremony was and everybody on it and then it had the bio of the general.

And the general coming down for two people is a huge deal. Generals are busy. So the fact that we had all of this ritual and all of this work that went into it and it was such a big deal that the general of the state came and talked, gave it a huge meaning. I’ve been to other commissioning ceremonies that were even bigger when there were more people getting commissioned at the State Capitol, underneath the marble dome and the whole hall is full. So it’s a very big event and it’s a really big deal, especially when somebody becomes and officer in the army. It really helps to ground you into how supportive they are and how everybody sees what a special event it is.

Nimi Do you feel like if you tried to integrate that into the civilian job it would have any effect or any weight to it?

Jessica (Laughs, laughs, laughs.) No, no. Not at all.

People don’t care. People are like, “oh, yeah, great.”

But the thing is, is that like I said, to get from enlisted to officer is a lot harder than to go from what we would have in a GS-11 to GS-12. Again, a lot of it is the good old boy system, so we already know that they person was going to get that job just because they’ve been friends for years.

I wouldn’t go to that ceremony because I don’t respect them anyway. There’s no respect. I mean, the guy who’s running our department doesn’t even have a college degree and it’s an environmental department! Hell no, I’m not going to his ceremony, because you don’t respect him.

But the thing about the army is that I went through boot-camp, and then I went through OCS and at OCS there’s an attrition rate of 40%.

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

Two months of three hours of sleep every night. I got my ass kicked from dawn 'til dusk, from four to midnight and I mean, tests with two hours of sleep and I didn’t get one day off. I didn’t have my phone. I was getting constantly yelled at. Pull ups and push ups all day long, going until you drop.

Going out in the snow, freezing, doing low crawls, going back in, screaming, and changing. Going out and doing again, and then having to clean the halls until one o’clock in the morning because you got mud everywhere. You earn that shit. You earn it!

And so when you do get the transition, you have the respect of everybody else because they know that you earned it. That doesn’t translate to the civilian job, because people half the time don’t earn their position and there’s no respect.

Now, if they made them go to airborne school, sure, because that was hard. Okay, so you worked a few years in your jobs at your desk not doing anything and they don’t want to deal with you anymore, so they’re going to promote you out of the office. I’m not going to that. Does that make sense?

Nimi It totally, totally makes sense. I’m sitting here thinking to myself, how?

So doctors and with the army, there’s a lot of responsibility because it’s life and death, right?

Like physical life and death. You guys have weapons and you’re going out and protecting people and you’re fighting for these values. It’s life and death. With doctors, they’re cutting people open and they’re making decisions for other people that influence their lives.

For design, it’s not like that, right? A lot of the things we do are pretty superficial, but on the other hand, and especially now with fake news and with all these things, media is taking such an important role in our lives that if CNN or FOX or these massive news organizations decided that they wanted to tell one specific story that was biased, it would directly influence millions of people’s perceptions of a story.

Another example, anorexia and eating disorders. By fashion deciding the aesthetics and looks of a new trend, you can physically affect the way that young girls eat and abuse their bodies.

Jessica Oh, there is absolutely a lot to the power of perception in media. It doesn’t seem as evident as it does in the army, but I had a friend that worked in marketing and she would say how

much they would manipulate their design to get the response they wanted.

There’s this group-herd mentality and we’re sheep that way. We want to be included and people don’t realize. I don’t have television.

I don’t watch cable and there’s a reason why I don’t, because I’ve noticed a difference, when I go to my mom’s house and watch TV, in myself.

I don’t read magazines, because we’re told these certain things about the way we’re supposed to be and then it affects our behavior and the that way we perceive not only ourselves, but society and other people. It’s huge, huge.

Nimi It’s huge, but it’s not immediate, and so that’s what I’m thinking about. Is there a way that you can make it evident that the things we do can harm people? In the army, in med school, the Hippocratic Oath was written 2000 years ago, or more than that, and so there’s this tradition.

The American Army is not a new thing, and even before that, I’m sure these oaths and doctrines were adopted from other armies that had been around for thousands and thousands of years, but with design, there’s nothing. There’s no oath that we take, we don’t come out of school saying, “listen, you can harm people,” and there isn’t even a course that we take on ethics in design, because it’s "graphic design."

Jessica Right, I think that’s a really good point because a lot of the time, the whole point of a lot of graphic design is to manipulate people.

Nimi

Oh, totally.

Jessica But it seems to me America is okay being unethical under certain situations. Businesses are based on the design of our economic system.

Businesses are rewarded for being unethical. So I think graphic design is the same way and I think it’s much harder for you, in that industry, to get a set of ethical regulations because you’re rewarded for being unethical. Manipulating people based on their natural innate code, to get you to feel a certain way, to respond a certain way emotionally and behave a certain way, that is a manipulation.

But that is how a lot of marketing and graphic design revolves around.

So is that truly unethical? I don’t know. I think that is a philosophical question, and I think that’s probably part of the issue that your field has.

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They haven’t even answered that question. What is unethical based on the what the objectives of the work field is?

Nimi (Sighs.) Ugh. Right, yeah. It’s important. I think people are really reluctant to speak about ethics in general.

Jessica Absolutely.

Nimi But I’m sure that in an environment that has guidelines and standards, it’s easier because you’re not starting from scratch and you have something to refer to.

The SPJ Code of Ethics is a statement of abiding principles supported by explanations and position papers that address changing journalistic practices. It is not a set of rules, rather a guide that encourages all who engage in journalism to take responsibility for the information they provide, regardless of medium. The code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. It is not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.

Jessica That is a really See page 121 for full text. interesting question. I have never thought of that before, but you’re absolutely right. I think a lot of those problems we have in society, and this sounds really weird, but as journalists—I got a degree in journalism—we have a code of ethics, but you can see over the last few years how those codes of ethics have been just pushed aside for business, for profit. And people have been okay with it. There’s this backlash now. So journalism’s still having an issue with it, but if you have nothing to go from...

Nimi Right, and there is, like I said, that governing body, AIGA, has what they call ethical standards or whatever, but it’s more like, “respect the laws in your state where they apply” and “don’t lie to your employee about the services you can provide if you can’t provide them.”

Jessica Okay, yeah. I mean, that’s pretty standard.

Nimi It’s pretty standard, but it’s not like, "don’t advertise for a company that you know will harm children," which is kind of a universal, but then you have to define at what level... Yeah, I don’t know. It’s a whole...

Jessica Yeah, that’s a philosophical question that I think that they need to really work on because where does that become unethical?

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Nimi Yeah, and especially in America, our design field was born out of advertising like you said, and marketing, and in other countries, it wasn’t like that at all. You have design in the government and all of these different agencies. Even in transportation and signs, that’s design and that’s design that’s being used for good, but in a capitalist society I guess, the reward is money and so...

Jessica Right, and one thing that our capitalist society doesn’t really do is actually take into any cost other than monetary. So everything that we do has some kind of societal cost. In economics, there’s a word for it, it’s an economic term where there’s a secondary cost that’s generated that’s indirect. There are all these other costs that nobody wants to accept, that we develop through our actions. Like you said, somebody’s got to pay for it, whether it’s the victims or a group or taxpayers, but it’s there and we just ignore those secondary costs in the system. Now, if those secondary costs were incorporated into our economic system, because that’s the same thing with the environmental regulations.

Yeah, if those secondary costs were incorporated into our capitalist system, then we’d be able to have a lot more guidance for that, and value because people don’t value things, at least in a capitalist society, that don’t have some kind of monetary label to it.

Nimi Totally. I mean, you can’t put a monetary value on a park in the city and people being able to relax and even breath from the trees.

Jessica That’s what we’re trying to do as environmentalists! I took a natural resource economics class and that’s what they’re doing.

They’re putting a monetary cost associated with those secondary benefits and then that way, you can actually incorporate it into a capitalist economic system which will specify those type of things. It’s when you don’t put an economic cost on it, it’s when they get left to the sideways and then all the secondary costs associated with those benefits or with your action, just kind of are out there and bad things happen.

So that’s actually a push in the environmental side, the natural resource management side that we’re doing to try to deal with those issues and it sounds to me like that can be dealt with any type

Jessica Angelique Delph, Army National Guard & Utah Department of Agricultural and Food

of societal or field issues. You don’t have an economic cost for, well, like you say, “a product harming children.” Well, give a value to that.

Incorporate it into the economic system and it will. It will stop.

It all depends on what people value. So right now, that’s happening anyway and it’s happening because they can’t defend it economically and there is no financial incentive to hold those values. It’s not valued at all, and all of that’s happening at an incredible rate without being able to defend it.

Now, if you’re talking the same terms that they’re talking at, you can actually defend something and say this has a value, exactly what it’s providing, and these are the benefits that we have. It’s a lot easier to talk and defend something when you’re on the same kind of playing field.

Nimi That’s true. If you can’t quantify it then you can't argue with the people and regulations that deal with numbers. You can’t even come to the table. You can’t defend it.

Jessica Oops, I have to run out! Sorry. If you have any further questions, we can talk again or you can text me.

Nimi

This was great! Thank you so much!

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Jason Halstead Owner of Gist Brands, Brand Strategist

Nimi So, you decided to craft this manifesto after you kind of did a re-brand while reevaluating your company?

Jason Yeah so really, this piece here is really more of a personal manifesto, as apposed to the agency's manifesto. What it happened was I had run my own graphic design and marketing firm down in Eugene for about, a little over twenty years.

Nimi

Wow.

Jason It was more the full service agency, we do everything for everybody kind of thing. We weren't big, I think we were seven people at the largest.

And that was right about when the economy tanked. We had been growing, we'd been adding staff and had been planning to actually open a Portland office, because I really wanted to be in Portland. So when all that came tumbling down in terms of the economy, I really had to look at the work that I was doing. And for the last, probably five to seven years, I had really felt like my work was decided and my future was decided by keeping my clients happy and keeping my employees happy.

I had people that had school fees and house

payments and that kind of stuff. So even though we were doing really good work and I was still very much aligned with the ethics of the way that I did design and the process I did design. It really was a lot more about feeding the beast, it was doing work to keep everybody in shoes and school fees.

So I looked at the economic downturn as an opportunity to really change things up. Because, things were going to change up, no matter what.

We were already seeing people were way, way backing off, not just on grabbing projects, but marketing in general, they weren't spending, because of fear. For me, when I really sat down and did some self discovery, I realized that I really didn't want to do what I was doing anymore. And I didn't quite know what I wanted to do. So rather than just wait that out, I actually wound down the Eugene office. Six out of seven employees all had jobs before I left. We figured out, even though the economy was down, they ended up with placements. And I came up to Portland, and just retained a couple of clients that I had worked with for a really long time. Left all the other clients behind, and I said, "okay this is just sustaining work, that can at least keep the rent paid for the next couple years."

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And I spent, truly almost two years, really doing a lot of digging internally trying to figure out, what it is that I actually wanted to do. This manifesto was actually written before the business. And it was me just trying to figure out, when I really look at my personality, my talents, my drives, what are those?

Which are all about balance, and just an innate curiosity and all that kind of stuff. So I actually wrote this manifesto working with a life coach.

Who was just saying, this isn't about work, it's

about you. So that's why it's not leveraged more on the website, it's underneath the bio as another link. It's a little more personal, and yet, when I work with people on branding engagements, that's a very personal experience. So to a lot of people, this means a lot when they read it.

As you'll notice, it really doesn't talk about branding, but it does talk about design in terms of hierarchy and pattern. I think if I had to think about one thing that really drove my design as a manifesto is this mathematically elegant piece. I've always been a reductionist, edit, edit, edit, and then when it feels like it's there, figure out one more thing that you can take out. Which, especially since I do branding work is a big deal. So that manifesto really was just one tool of many brainstorms and things that I did, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And then I took all of this information and laid it out and said, "okay now, if these are all true, and I want more of this, as apposed to specific types of work in my life, how I do get that?"

And so I actually went out and interviewed, I guess you'd call them tangent businesses. I went to ZGF—one of the cooler architecture firms here in town—and I met with their marketing director, and I said, here is my background and in the work that I've done in the past, I've loved how brands intersects with interiors and architecture. Maybe there is a place for me in an architecture firm. And I did

Jason's personal manifesto: "I live in a world of betweenness; of two-mindedness; the place where form and function, logic and intuition, right-brain and left-brain collide. I instinctively see things from multiple sides and through a changing lens. I am unusually observant and insightful. I am innately curious. I am alive when I am talking about ideas; when I travel and all my senses are slightly displaced and awake with new stimuli and the “otherness” of things. I was born to find the balance; just the right nuance.

To look at the complexity and grasp the essence; to discover the hierarchy and patterns and create cohesiveness from disparate elements. I was born to improve, remodel, enhance, evolve.

I admire things that are mathematically elegant; as simple as they can be but rich in beauty, meaning, and function. I am addicted to texture, to light, to color, to typography, to detail, to craftsmanship. I am at my best when I trust a leap of intuition; filling in the logic that inherently supports it. I am a verbal and visual processor.

Important ideas must be worked out with a pen, not a keyboard. Saying things and writing things make them become real."

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Jason Halstead, Owner of Gist Brands, Brand Strategist

the same across probably six or seven different industries. Where I saw the same kinds of creativity, strategy, structure, and aesthetics being a part of their business. And the interesting thing is every time I did that, it was more like the grass was always greener. So I would go in thinking, wow these people have cool offices, and they're working on cool projects and I'm going to go talk—like in the case of architect—I'd go talk to the marketing director. And she'd say, oh yeah, it's so cool, when we did the athletic building for the U of O we were able to laser cut all these things, they had flat touch screens and flat screens. And she was going on an on about all these exciting projects that I was also excited about. And then she said, yeah we all really fight for those projects. And I said, what do you mean fight? Then she said, well I have a staff of like twenty people and we probably get two or three of those a year out of the entire office. Which means 90% of our time is spent putting together proposals to win work. Which was one of those things, I had made a list when I was doing work with the life coach of all the things I absolutely hated and never wanted to do, all the things I loved and could do all the things I could do all day, and then the stuff in the middle. And on the hated stuff was proposals. In fact, my agencies didn't respond to RFPs [request for proposals] because it was like a beauty contest to compete to maybe do work, and not get paid for it. So that was a really good education to see all these things that I thought were brighter and prettier and better than what I was doing, were actually worse.

So then I went back and said, okay, so in my industry, where graphics, marketing applied stuff combine, if I look at all these things that I hate or dislike and all the things that I love and want more of, is there a way for me to specifically design a business to get more of what I wanted to do, and either eliminate or really minimize the other side?

And that's actually where Gist Brands came from, was even though it's some of the hardest work to try to sell to people, because people want to buy stuff, not a strategy. People want a website or a campaign, they don't want strategy. But it was always the thing that I found, working with my past clients, was missing and that they really needed.

And the other opportunity that I saw, was when I looked around Portland, even as strong as Portland is on the creative side—and I looked at web agencies, PR firms, marketing firms, graphic designers, whatever they were, anybody who said

they did branding. And when I looked, in reality, over 90% of those people did corporate identity. You could say they did brand identity, they did design logos and naming, things like that. But they really didn't give brand strategy. They really didn't build a foundation of understanding and articulation for a client.

So I thought there was a huge opportunity.

And that's really poor now, because with all the focus on SEO [search engine optimization] and social media content development, those are things that a color scheme and a logo and all those things do that, look and graphic feel, they really don't help you. They could be a little profile photo, but beyond than that, they really don't help. And so people right now are really struggling with, how do I talk about what I do? How am I different from my competitors? My company, we all think we're a different thing, we say 15 different things. So it's just perfectly aligned to what I'm doing as a result.

Nimi You come up with strategy, and in that offer to find them content producers to bring their brand to life?

Jason Yeah, it really depends on the client. So I've been doing this for 25 years, so when I started Gist, I developed a visual model as a way to explain, you know your brand is not your logo, but most clients don't. ( Jason pulls out a printed out graphic explaining his branding process.) And then when you start talking about brand, all of a sudden, everybody's like, well brand's everything then.

In a way it kind of is, but what I did was just map for people, everything from the business side of branding, how do you gather data and information about your company, through to the kinds of things where you put a pin in the map, core values and things that are more self defined. And then these are the things (Jason points to the graphic element part of his graphic: logo, look and feel, etc.) that most people think about branding work, which actually are the outcomes. They're products of branding, they're not branding.

So I was just trying to map to people, okay so if you're actually going to think about this in a logical progression, if you need to re-brand, here is where you start. You've got to understand your customers and yourself and all those kinds of things. And then you got to figure out how to say those things, and express them in a way that people can actually understand. Then you have to create some uniqueness, that's the only thing that is brand. And then if you 165

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do that, and that's why I call it brand spectrum, it's like all of this information, context, data focuses down to some kind of uniqueness. And if you nail that, that gets totally built out in everything that you do.

So for me this is just a way to help people. I mean this is a process. This is actually how I take people through the process. But realistically, there are infinite number of people in Portland that can do this. (Again he points to the end of the brand spectrum.) And that's what I used to be competing with, if I had just gone out to just recreate the company I had before. But when I looked, I would say much less than 10% actually do this. (The research, development, and strategy.)

And hardly anybody does it to the deep-dive level I bring to clients. And so that to me is the value.

So some of the clients I work with already work with good agencies, work with web developers, in house designer, and they've really struggled, because they know they're working with talented creatives, but for some reason, the stuff never just clicks. It never, it's always close, but not quite there. Or it never seems like it all ties together, it never seems like it's cohesive plan.

So in some cases, I'll take people through. What I do is take people through, this whole re-branding process, and then frequently, because this then needs to be distilled, I'll frequently do primary creative assets. So I'll do a name, a logo and a tag line. And maybe even do a quick mood board for look and feel. And then I don't want to get into all of the project management and the design of all the individual things. Occasionally, the client will twist my arm, because it's a sexy client and I know I could do a really cool stationary package or whatever for them. But in most cases, I'm handing them off a strategic document, that just really clearly says; what is your purpose? Why are you here? Where do you want to go with that? What are the core values and principles about you? Who are your most direct competitors? How do you differ from them? Really spelling it all out. Some people when they say they do branding, and they do a logo, they at least try to get into brand personality.

If you choose a few adjectives or whatever, but to me, that's not enough.

So when I complete this document with all these different component parts of brand, then I take that and essentially, I write a manifesto. I should say, it's not necessarily a brand manifesto, I write a brand narrative. And it's a two page large 166

print, I can show you a copy of one. Two page large print thing that says, here's who we are as an organization. And it's written in very active, human language. And the idea is to give them a feel for, when they're out in public, how should they talk.

What level of excitement, what level of detail, what detail should they be talking about?

Nimi And how often do you think they come back to that document?

Jason All the time. Yeah. So usually there is either a marketing director or somebody like that that's tasked with it. And so those people would actually probably use that. Ideally, like with me, I made myself do the same process to create this.

So like with me, the first six months that I had my own brand document, I would have to go back and read, refresh myself. Now what did I say the target audience was? How big was your target market?

How big are these companies? What level of billings or whatever. And I would use it sometimes when I was trying to really look at my opportunities, like advertising. Well if this is my audience, then is this advertising opportunity really a fit for them.

But after you've done that for about six months, you've internalized, and that's the goal. Maybe you can't quote every aspect of it, word for word, but you've internalized it all. So then you're only referring to it as really a measuring stick, to say, am I doing this right? The other thing that I've actually started doing is when those brand briefs are done, in most cases, we then take back the document and we distill that to what I call a brand one-sheet.

So it's a really simple resource. Not tersely written, but really pithy and brief.

And that started because I worked with, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Habitat for Humanity's ReStore? They are used building materials resale stores. But I did some strategy for them a couple years ago. And we realized that a lot of the store managers and administrators were going to be able to overtime, not just read, but absorb this document. But they also work with a lot of volunteers. Volunteers are not going one, they may not be as literate [as the full time staff.] If they're just there to help out, they may not understand what all the words in there mean.

But also they're just not as motivated, they want to support the organization, but they don't want to memorize a 25 page document. So we started distilling those down to a one-sheet, that can just lay on somebody's desk or be part of a training packet.

Jason Halstead, Owner of Gist Brands, Brand Strategist

And now I do that every time, because I realized that whether it's, say just a receptionist, or somebody at a different level of the company, they're not going to be able to absorb it nor do they really need to have the full level of detail.

But yeah, they're kind of being seen as the brand Bible. A lot of my clients are asking for them to be built rather than as physical documents and PDF, which is what I used to use. And I develop them in Google Docs or other sharable docs. One so that they're much more easily accessible, but also so that they're almost kind of living, breathing things, they get tuned over time. So a lot of them want them to be Google Docs so that they can access them easily, and update them as needed...

Add sections to them. But yeah, I was really surprised, because it's not a report, it's an overall temperature taking, analysis of the whole firm, but I didn't think it would be that easy to sell the idea to people. But if they see an example. When they think, oh I'm going to get a document, it's just going to sit in a binder on the shelf. When they see an example of the document, and what it gets them, what questions it answers for them, people get really excited.

What I hear—and it doesn't matter, large companies, small companies—is, I think we have a really great business here, and I never know how to talk about it. I never know what to say. Or if I talk about it, I just drone on and on and probably bore people to tears on all this. I don't know how to make it relevant to them. And that's really what brand is. Brand is narrowing the focus, so people have a bucket to put you in. It's being as specific as possible. It's knowing who you're going after. Why what you have to offer is relevant to them. And why they should care, why it's important to them.

And if you can give all that, the rest of it. The rest of the part is easy. That is the hard part.

So, I don't really have a business manifesto, this is more of a personal one. But this was a blog post I wrote, that probably would be the closest to a manifesto. It's pretty wordy, because it really was more just to tell people how is this brand's different than a graphic design company down the hall. But the other thing that I found interesting is, while I do these more in depth explanations for people, when I take people through a branding process, the narrative kind of ends up being a bit of a manifesto.

The story word version of the brand. But the most powerful thing in my mind is to come up with a Nimi I feel also in our field, we understand the phrase or even a single word that embodies what value behind design strategy. But sometimes, a the organization is about. So when you think of a company might not understand it that well. If you magnetic virtue, or magnetic value life, Volvo and can give them some kind of, something measurable safety. So I try to get clients to think a little bit in that they can say, "oh this is either going to work those lines, but not or not going to work compared to this." So every have it just be a word action you make, it's not shooting in the dark, it's that is just a category not an intuitive thing, it's rather, does this actually like safety. Right? work for our company the way that we defined it.

So for Gist Brands, if you look at my website, Jason And it gets things really out of the aesthetics. you'll see right on Sometimes there is aesthetic overall at the end. the homepage, there And I'll just say, hey your name has nothing to do is phrase that just with it. You started over here in electronics, and says, "Gist Brands is a now you're in plumbing so you're name is like a re-branding specialist total miss guide. So sometimes, the name, aesthetworking with legacy ics, and logos do come into play, but I basically say, companies who let's ignore that until the strategy is complete. Then out-pace their brands you've got something to measure against. You look to get unstuck." at the strategy and say, not just does this logo say all Re-envision, move that, because it can't, but is this logo in line with the forward, blah blah blah. strategy. Does the story from the brand strategy So for me, that kind of feel like it fits the quote. Was there something about manifesto word, for the logo that doesn't support what we're doing here. lack of a better word is, So then it becomes a lot less about aesthetics, and "unstuck." Organizations again, a lot more about design strategy. have tried this, they've

"Helping businesses and organizations that have outpaced their brands get “unstuck,” take stock, find their niche, express themselves, and reinvigorate both their image and their passion."

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tried hiring their niece to design their logo, then that wasn't good enough. So they tried a branding agency, and then they thought it wasn't good. So they've moved on and on and on and they just felt like they were spending money and not going anywhere. And they're just kind of spinning their wheels. So unstuck for me, helps me... Like if I'm designing a tool, like a worksheet, or if I'm trying to figure out whether I should work with a client, unstuck is kind of my, for lack of a better word, single word manifesto.

Because if I look at a client, I know they can spent a lot of money with me, but if don't believe that they have the power internally to make the changes, then I'm looking at that saying, I can't get them unstuck. I can give them the road map to get there, but they're not going to do it. And so that's an indicator that I shouldn't do it, even though I can make money off of them in the process, I shouldn't engage. Or if I'm training them up with a lower budget, my re-branding engagements are pretty expensive, long term projects, and sometimes my clients can't afford that. So I've also created a process that I call, Brand Lab, which is like a half day intensive thing. And again, the purpose of Brand Lab isn't anything other than, how can I help them get unstuck. So how can I take these tools that I usually work for six to nine months with and give them a simplified, boiled down version and hopefully... It's not going to solve all the problems, like maybe the brand brief process, but can I get them unstuck on some level, where they can move forward or improve things.

So the manifesto thing is interesting. I've always been a little bit leery of them for businesses. Which is why I more of a brand narrative as apposed to a manifesto. When I first started reading manifestos, I got really excited, I'm like this is all I want to do is write manifestos for people. But the more that I read a lot of them, the more, I think ... how do I say?

I think sometimes they're really raising expectations, without giving the people the tools to deliver them.

So I look at it as ... So I grew up in a really conservative, Christian, religious household, so I kind of look at it as almost a tent revival meeting.

You get everybody out there ... And it's the same with corporate events. You kick up all this frenzy, you get everyone excited you use all these great pithy, creative phrases. Everybody's blood pressure goes up, everybody's galvanic response happens. There is really cool, inspirational music.

And then everybody leave the tent, and they're 168

excited, and they're excited, and that kind of just ebbs off because they've been given this expectation of how their life is going to improve. How they can be this better person, and all that kind of stuff, but no practical tools as to how to achieve that and maintain it. And they can't maintain the energy.

So if you're going to give people all this energy, you've got to give them a way to keep looking at how to integrate it into their work and how it relates to them. And see their job in it, and all that.

So that's why for me, I work on all the foundational aspects of all these brand statements and key aspects of brands. Roll it up into an exciting story, and start with the story, but once they read through the story, they're like great. Then they turn the next page and it says, here is your target client, here is why you're important to them, here is the values that you're running your company by, and all that kind of stuff. So that's the one thing ... I look at some manifestos, and some are really, really good.

Especially from retailers that have a social bent to them. But I think a lot of them have creative and inspiring language, but then don't have quite enough of a foundation underneath them to really be useful tools in anything other than getting somebody excited to work there, or starting to work there, or the training or whatever, but after that, there needs to be something more. And I think for a lot of these companies, they're taking these manifestos and telling them how to do it.

What to do.

Nimi It also seems like a lot of these are very contextual to time, and twenty years later, don't relate at all, or don't have as much significance.

Do you find that you are building in ambiguous language so that these narratives and manifestos can live for a long time, or do you kind of find that ... I've been thinking about this idea of building designed obsolescence to make sure that you reevaluate every certain amount of time.

Jason I don't try to look for ambiguous language, because I find ambiguous language is ambiguous, and it doesn't help us any. There is not specificity to it. But I do look for words that I feel really speak to the bigger picture. So if I had a client that had a cloud based tool that they were developing, and it was really about how to efficiently take big batches of data and organize them into folders and categories in the cloud. Talking cloud based is probably okay, because that's what it was for a really long time

Jason Halstead, Owner of Gist Brands, Brand Strategist

and everything is going in that direction. But I might not talk about folders or structures that are what our assumptions are now.

What I would talk about is, the proliferation of data. How that's gotten ten times faster in the past two years, and estimated at 30 times bigger in the next two years. And the overwhelming aspect of data, and our feelings of security. Those are all universal, they're very true, but they're universal.

And even if the client's technology changes, those probably don't get thrown out. And that is hard, it's hard to find. I spend a lot of time with a Thesaurus.

Because, I'm really trying to find words that will stand out. If I can say a word that is more powerful, even if it's a word that people don't normally use or think of, or archaic, I'd rather do that than use a term everybody and every competitor has been saying.

Nimi I think the idea of aligning core values to the company has been a trend, I think, as soon as people understood that selling lifestyle brands to core companies and that's a way to retain a super comfortable audience. So then style can change, clothing can change. But you're growing big businesses with big people, no matter what.

If someone believes really what you believe in, that would win every time over the style or a function.

Jason You know, I think the values discussion, it's one of the hardest discussions I have with clients, and a lot of times, when you look at peoples value statements, to me they're interchangeable.

Not even just between retails, but between retailers and law firms. Professionalism, trustworthiness, all these things are not values, in my mind those are table stakes. Everybody has to have those to have an effective business. So those aren't things that differentiate. Good core values always kind of differentiate you, so it's hard sometimes for people to have those conversations, because they don't know from the inside ... They know why they like the company, and that they like its values, but they don't necessarily know what those values are.

So the way I always put it to people, if I really want to do an in depth exploration of values is, start with what you're passionate about first, and then secondly, what do you feel is non-negotiable in your view. So if you were to start another company, that value would have to be part of that company, because it's so much of who you are and how you do your work. Or if you worked for a company you love now, and you were going to change jobs or

move to a new community, what would the new company you go to work for have to have? Not as a perk, but as a base value, for you to feel good about working there. That kind of helps people to see beyond the surface. Most people say their values are, service, professionalism ...

And the other thing is, there is a whole bunch of those, honesty, trustworthiness, whatever, that you can't talk about. Because honesty and trustworthiness aren't something you can define for me.

So if you say you're trustworthy, that automatically make me suspect that you're not trustworthy. It's almost like the used cars salesman kind of thing.

There is this whole category of values and descriptors that businesses just shouldn't state as values, and shouldn't talk about that. A good company is trustworthy, we don't talk about it, we show it.

We display it. We figure out how it's built into our company. But to talk about our trustworthiness is making people question how trustworthy we are.

Why do we have to say that, if we are?

Nimi Yeah, I'm trying to figure out, at the end of this. Do I write my own manifesto, or does that even ... What is the purpose of it? But I really like the idea of creating ... Even going through the exercise of figuring out who you are as a person, and what values do you have. Even if it's less of, oh I'm not gonna get along with this client, but more of what can I find in this client that would excite me? Or when you get to a spot where you personally stop and would say, right these are the things I believe in. This client might not give me x, y, z but they are extremely passionate about what they do, and I know that passion will help me in this project.

Jason It's very rare that a client is a perfect match, but I look at it a little more like, almost a Venn diagram, how much crossover ... If there's this much crossover, we're neither one of us going to have a great experience, so I'm just looking for maximizing the crossover. So the manifesto can be one step towards that.

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Shira and Josh Einstein 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

Nimi I wanted to talk to you, Shira, about the Hippocratic Oath and what it means for you to be a med student and how has maybe transitioned over into your life outside of med school. Even though there isn't really life outside of med school....

Shira (Laughs) I think in medicine oaths, and ethics, and moral principles are huge, and are a mandatory component of practicing. It think in any field where you have a responsibility to the health and the safety, and the well being, and the lives of others and you influence others you have to be held to some sort of very high moral obligation.

I think there's a lot of crossover with graphic design, because you're influencing people too.

You're influencing people's thoughts, people's decisions, and people's choices, and people's ways of life. We look at the obesity epidemic.

That's because of messaging that people are given. That's impacting health, and safety, and well being of people. I think it makes sense.

In medicine when you start medical school, in order to get your white coat you have to say the Hippocratic Oath. That's true universally throughout the United States, and then some

variation throughout the world, that you make a promise that you are going to dedicate your life to helping people. The main take away from the Hippocratic Oath is first, do no harm. You're committing to a career where you are going to do everything in your power to not hurt others and to do no harm. That's very broad. It can be physical, emotional, social, it's to individuals, and to society as a whole. That has to guide your every decision in the medical practice. Every time you prescribe a drug, every time you offer advice to a patient you always have to have in the back of your mind, "am I making sure that I'm not causing further harm, or further pain, or further disease of this person."

It sounds really intuitive, but it's actually more challenging that it is, because every medication that we give, every intervention we do always has a risk associated with it. You have to weigh that.

I think it's translated hugely to my life. Thinking about that outside of medicine will impact how I interact with people. It's a responsibility that I have, not just in my career, but to every relationship that I have outside of school, and outside of my job too. I think having guiding principles and a ethical code, moral code that's written, that you know that all of the people that 171

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you work with have to adhere to, can help you to make difficult decisions.

For example if you want to do some research in medicine to find a new chemotherapy drug and you have patients that are participating in a clinical study and this drug could save lives in the future, but one of the people in your study is getting very ill from it, what do you do? Do you stop your study and stop the advancement of medicine?

Well, in this patient, yeah. Your job is do no harm.

If this is harming somebody then you stop. I think in a sense it helps you, because I gives you very strict boundaries that you can't cross. You don't have to grapple with these decisions as much on your own. Your community and the society holds you accountable by these kind of guiding ethical principles. It can be really helpful. It can of course be limiting too.

Another big one in medicine is confidentiality.

People make themselves extremely vulnerable to you. They tell you things and they show you things on their body that no one else in their lives, sometimes, has seen or knows. One of the guiding principles is that you will not share that unless somebody's directly involved in the care of that patient. That's a moral principle of confidentiality.

I think in translates over to marketing world and production world and entrepreneurial world, by, if you work with a client who's got an idea, who's got a vision, who's got a passion you need to think about whether it's okay to talk about that with somebody else. You can really quickly manipulate the credit somebody gets. I think there's a lot of crossover there.

Nimi You've always been a moral human being that's wanted to good in the world and respected peoples boundaries. Do you feel like, after you took that oath or after you've been in this kind of environment, you feel like just that oath part and being around those people has changed you? Do you feel like that's just a progression of what your life was going to lead to anyways.

Shira I think any structural rule system in this society has a place. There's also places where you have to cross that. I think that's being tested for new medicine. I'm seeing how it's tested in the people who are mentoring me and they're teaching me. There's a set of guidelines. In our community there's a rule that you don't steal. You don't go into a store and steal something, right?

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That's the law. But ethically if you see somebody who's poor and they need a blanket and you see a blanket laying out by a store, then you ask yourself do I follow the law here? What if I don't have money, but I see that there's coffee and nobody's watching. Can I fill up a paper cup with coffee and give it to this person that's suffering? You're struggling with the rules of the society, this rule, this guideline of don't steal, but also this ethical moral obligation to help somebody. When is it okay to cross that line?

I think in medicine there's an expectation that you be professional. It's a big deal is professionalism. That dates back to really the source of the Hippocratic Oath 330 BC where it was a family of doctors that was providing care to their community. There were other people who wanted to be doctors too. This family held themselves to a very high standard.

Like our family, we have moral rules within our family. We have things that we do and if we were providing a service it's obviously amongst the five us that we do it in the Einstein way, right? What if somebody else from the community wanted to join our business, wanted to serve people in the way we wanted them to serve, so this oath came out of that. A family that wanted to incorporate other people into their family way, but wanted them to follow the same guidelines. It wasn't just family loyalty anymore. It's now becoming a practice.

They wrote out guidelines for if you want to be part of this organization, if you want to serve people in the way we serve people you have to adhere to these rules, and they were ethical rules.

That's where the oath started from.

That includes being a professional member, that includes respecting professional guidelines.

Whatever that means in your community and society. In medicine you see doctors walking into a room and they shake their hand. What's crossing that boundary? Can you over-share? Can you give somebody a hug? Is that crossing the professional boundaries? Those are areas where you have to decide for yourself what goes beyond that code, and what doesn't.

Nimi Aba [dad in Hebrew], you are an architect.

There are a lot of considerations to be made too about peoples physical safety. I'm sure in school that's something that you guys talked a lot about.

Before that you were also in the military in an environment where you had to think about people's well being in your community as well. On the flip

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

side now you've been a working architect for many, many years. There's a lot of other considerations like making money, and making sure your project manager gets the project done on time.

Josh Yeah, so a couple things come to mind.

First of all, start with the fact that there is no Hippocratic Oath for architects, period. That being said I always thought it's interesting, I was recently at a training to get access to the Intel site.

I have to get a badge and I have to go through safety training where they talked about safety as a culture. They brought up the fact that certain things are values and certain things are goals and objectives. I think in my mind what underlies the Hippocratic Oath are values that don't change, but rules and regulations can change. I think rules, regulations, and also ethics can totally change over time. Either regionally or under certain situations. What suddenly is okay for our president is suddenly okay for other people because he is president.

There's a couple of things that I think are relevant to this kind of discussion. First of all the first thing that came to my mind, and this is kind of recent, is this whole concept of sustainable design in architecture. Which started with commercial design, it started in more affluent cultures, modernized cultures. In that area there's what's called the triple bottom line. I'll give you the history on sustainability and the first conference where it was identified and talked about, about leaving the planet better than it was before, and any project you do. That's the underlying concept of sustainable design.

The triple bottom line is the concept of anything you do supports, at the same time, three different areas. •

One is the environment,

•

two is the community, and

•

three is life cycle cost.

You're trying to reduce the overall financial burden, but at the same time you can't take away from the environment or impact the environment, or the culture. That is not oath, but when people talk about, people that care about sustainable design, are basically making sure that they're adhering to three things that are in many, many, many cases competing.

Like the Keystone Pipeline where it is a big economic development. It will give homes,

schools, funding for people. It will potentially help the culture of the people that live there, but it's a dramatic potential impact to the environment.

That's a great example of where the code of ethics, if you will, of architects would say I don't work on a project that harms one of those areas. We tend to always put finances though even if you think it's all equal and above ... That's why you see in certain economies where at the end of the day there's still impact. None of us want to have to buy a pair of jeans for $500, so we're willing to assume that young people are maybe sewing it somewhere in a developing country. Another thing that came to my mind is that, yeah the primary metric for a ethical or compliant architect is really the codes and regulations. Those are governed by an organization that's given them, in the United States the AIA and different parts of the world.

Most countries have their equivalent and they do lay down codes and regulations. They start it from certain countries and they get translated into others. Every country has it's own building codes and regulations. Then every code has, over time, more codes get added. Like the American Disability Act which was a critical code. A great example for that is that by law you have to allow access, let's say wheelchair access to a restaurant. For many years it was okay. You'd get your approval for a restaurant and if you got them to get in through the back door, through the back alley near the garbage, no one said what's the quality of the experience that you have to give them. You just have to give them access.

That's where you go from that's not a value.

Inclusive design or supporting diversity is a value it's not a code. The reason it's hard to just say let's be inclusive and support diversity is really it's a metric. How do you get the permit. Who defines what the permit is. They have to get to the lowest common denominator. That came to my mind.

Then you have highest level. It's like a Maslow's triangle. The basic is ADA codes and regulations.

The Maslow's triangle concept is that you got the foundation is really codes and regulations.

That's because you have to govern it somehow and it has to be metric. Next level is this whole concept of inclusiveness, diversity, things that are not very tangible or hard to ... but certain people they leave the house that's the things that matter to them. The codes are just making sure they're guard rails on a road, but it doesn't mean you drive across them, right? You look for quality.

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Then the next level is more altruistic. It's people like Architects Without Borders, and organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and start thinking the whole concept of shared spaces, and people after events go volunteer to build habitats or help people.

Who's right? Who's ethical? Who isn't? Is the person that just focuses on compliance and code a person that checks drawing everyday to make sure they meet ... is that person not a higher level of values? I guess the last thing I was going to say is another interesting thing. I think where Shira was talking about the Hippocratic Oath for doctors it's saving lives. It's this value above everything. Forget the fact that they're in physical hospitals or ambulances and prescriptions. This is above everything.

For the architects one of the interesting things is who's your client? Which I think is a really interesting question. They're going to build a building and it's a school. You have who pays for the project. Well, it could be the city or the county or private entity. There's contractors that they have to meet a certain cost, and you have to make sure that they're making money or at least helping them be successful. There's the students that go to school. There's the principle. There's the general concept of education, and is it going to drive better education? What is better education?

One of the reasons I think the oath is challenging for architects is it would be really hard to say who gets to say you did a good job? Does everyone?

Do you have to make sure that they all say you have a good job to be able to say that you've actually made it?

My personal approach has always been that my focus has always been on the end user. If I were to design a hospital I would be focusing on who's that user. It would be a combination of patients, but also doctors or nurses that spend their whole day there. They're my end user. The people that hire me and I interact with, with a lot of detail over a period of it could be six months to a year, day to day on a design, I don't see them as my end customer. I have to make them happy, because if not they may not hire me again. But ultimately I'm going to push, I'm going to try through collaboration to explain to them the values of the ideas we come up, in regards to the return. To do that I seek out from them what is the ultimate goal for the program. Which means that there may be certain programs that once I understand their goal I wouldn't want to do.

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If their ultimate program is, to make this completely extreme, to design a concentration camp. Architects designed concentration camps.

The end result is you know what you're designing for. Would I do it for a slaughtering house for cows? Would I do it for a cigarette manufacturing company? We all have to make those decisions.

There's still many cases where we do products for clients that the end result is something we support like a school, like a road, like a manufacturing facility. I would have to be sure that the client is comfortable with me focusing on the end users. Like the people that work in the facility that are going to be in 120 degrees all day, or they're not going to have daylight. From their perspective there's no reason to put windows in there. My Hippocratic Oath would be that I have to make sure that I'm taking care of the well being of the people that work there. That's what's going through my head.

Nimi (To shira) You were writing notes. Did that spark off an idea?

Shira Well, yeah it sparked off a couple of things. I think one thing that you talked about Aba is who holds you accountable to your ethical moral obligations. Who? Is it your client? Is it your boss? Who is that at the end of the day says yes, you adhered to the ... you did your job. You served your people. You did your project. I think it's really interesting in medicine it used to be, kind of still is, that you got paid for what you do.

You know, for procedures you do, you get paid. If you go and do 20 colonoscopies in a day you're going to get paid for 20 colonoscopies that you did in your facility.

Nimi Which incentivizes going and cutting people open.

Shira Exactly, and does that adhere to the principle of do no harm? Not really.

Nimi

No.

Shira Right, so then docs are going and doing these things, and cutting things out of people, and giving people medicines, and doing imaging.

An x-ray is not a benign thing. That's exposing people to radiation. That increases your risk of cancer, but every x-ray you provide your radiology

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

department is getting paid for it by the patient, by the government, whoever. Medicine is now moving, and this is worrisome for many patients and your doctor (to Josh) will talk to you about this because it's really hard for folks that come from the days of you get paid for the services you provide, to a shift that's moving more towards being held accountable; Patient satisfaction as being the way that hospitals and providers get compensated.

When I am going to be paid as a physician, in too many more years, my salary and the chunk of money that my hospital will have to use will depend on patient satisfaction. Patients will say, "I received good care. I received the services that I wanted. I was offered the safest options for myself. I got the tests I wanted. I didn't do the tests that I shouldn't have gotten."

Josh You're actually starting to see that now.

I went to the chiropractor and the chiropractor has a form you fill out that says what's bothering you. Then it says what lifestyle would you like to bring back if your treatment is successful. Then that way there's a measure for accountability.

Shira

Exactly.

Josh If you're like, "I can't reach my shoes to tie them" by the end of your treatment you can therefore you metShira

Patient satisfaction goals-

Josh

That you created.

Shira Exactly. Every time when you go to the doctor you're going to get a survey. That survey directly impacts who is going to get paid and how much they're going to get paid in medicine.

Nimi But, also as a doctor you know better a lot of the times and the patients can be pretty set in their ways. You look at Hillary Clinton who was not a very good public speaker, but was an amazing politician who did amazing things. People didn't vote for her in part because they wanted their president to be energetic and give amazing beautiful speeches. How do you measure that asshole boss that gives you the best care?

Shira Right, that's the other really tough thing.

Aba was talking a little bit about you have these

different things you weigh. You want to do the best for the environment, but you also want to provide a product that people can afford. Those are both ethical principles. You don't want the dude that's making ten bucks an hour to not be able to afford your product. That's not just. That's not fair, but also you don't want to be supporting sweat shops in Sri Lanka. You want to protect your environment. How do you weigh those things, and that's a concept in psychology called dissonance, cognitive dissonance. It's this idea that you have multiple guiding principles and that they contradict. You have a challenge of one versus another. Small kids have to pick just one.

Josh The rules which are codes or standards they are way farther away. Those are just the guard rails so you don't fall off the street. You don't get to put money into politicians pocket.

Most of the time you're not dealing with those.

It's obvious you're not going to break those, and some people do, but your focus is within the constraints of the rules; How do we give a better outcome. It's funny because what you said is very similar to a trend in architecture and design.

Instead of having a general ethics at the project level it's a term, I think came from Lean Design it's called Clients Conditions of Satisfaction.

What we do in our preliminary design we sit down and say, "Okay" and we try to get it down to five things, ten things. "What are the key things that really matter to you on this project relating to your companies values, your previous experiences."

They'll get to very global things like safety is important. Okay, we know safety is important, but what's the part of safety? "We don't want to have any person die during this construction project." Okay, now we're starting to get closer.

"In the past what are the deaths that you've had on construction sites?" "Well, we've had falling, and trips, and whatever." "Okay, thank you." Now we start building a list of what we call the client set, and we write them and put them on the wall.

Now our staff that work on the project can start ... when there's ever a dialog should we do this or not say, "Wait a minute let's look at the condition set. Will that help us guide the solution we're developing?" It's not black and white. You're creating, if you will, a ethical environment at the project level.

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Nimi Right, like you said there's these big rules.

Like you have the Hippocratic Oath, you have AIA, and then you start segregating it. Every hospital that you go in might have their own set of rules.

Josh

Oh, they have mission statements.

Nimi They have mission statement. Then your project manager might have a little bit smaller, and then you have your personal, or you and your five friends know you will ... you said (to Josh) a couple weeks ago that there was someone that refused to work on a project for Trump, right?

Josh

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Nimi -and was like, "I will quit if I don't."

Everyone then has their own individualShira Right, with medicine one of the hot topics right now I'm in my obstetrics gynecology rotation.

Yesterday we had a lecture about abortion. Here the religious organizations in town are not going to provide abortion after 12 weeks lets say (Crosstalk) Josh (Crosstalk) a doctor an OB/GYN. Could a religious OB/GYN say I will not provide abortions?

Shira The rule is that every person who is trained and skilled in their field of medicine ... let's make it a little bit more simple. Contraceptives; There are people that believe contraceptives goes against God's will. That if a person is going to get pregnant they're going to get pregnant and we don't have the role to intervene in that process.

The rule is that for the practice of medicine, in the United States patients have to be able to get, for any given institution, have access to the services that, that institution says that they will provide.

A provider in that field must be able to provide that service.

OHSU is an institution they provide abortion care. There are babies that we know are not going to survive outside the womb. The minute that they are out in the extra-uterine environment they're going to die. We know that. They don't have a brain, they don't have lungs, whatever it is that allows them to survive inside the womb is immediately in extra-uterine life not going to be compatible with life. That's a little bit more clear cut. Even in Texas there are providers who will allow that woman to get an abortion.

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Nimi

OHSU could not provide that right?

Shira

Right.

Nimi They could say at a hospital level we will never do any abortions. Could they do that?

Shira They can't say that, because in the constitution there is aJosh Wait, a private hospital though, religious hospital could say they won't do abortions (Crosstalk) but if there's a car accident and there's a baby inside the woman and they could save the woman by taking the baby, whatever they may do it as a medical procedure, but not as aShira Right, exactly. Actually Texas is being unconstitutional right now with some of the laws that they're putting in place. It is a constitutional right for women to get an abortion if her life is at risk from continuing that pregnancy. Also, if there's good evidence to believe that, that child is not going to survive in the extra-uterine life. Most of the institutions in Texas are now saying, "We're not going to provide abortion. We're not going to provide abortion after 12 weeks." Often it's not until 20, 25 weeks that we find that a woman's not going to survive carrying this pregnancy through or that this child is not going to survive.

Those are some things, but at OHSU that's a place where they provide abortion without restriction.

Now, as a provider you can opt out, but if you are the only provider that's available to do an abortion, no other provider is that skilled, but you have the skills, you have the training and you're there you have to by that institutional guideline provide that service. It's like if you can provide seamless transition of care to another provider to do it then that's fine.

Nimi An individual OBG can say "I will never, while my time here, do an abortion unless there's no one else available"?

Shira

Exactly.

Josh I think it's important to take one or two step, and you may or may not in your other conversation doing this. What's the highest level? Why do you even need these things. I think there's what a group of people get together and

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

say, and do, and write, and put in code, or put in letters. I think one of the critical things just the fact that a community has this conversation.

The outcome of the conversation, in my mind, is almost secondary. This conversation should continue, and in theory the second constitution should change with the right processes and procedures to make sure it's not arbitrary. I think just the fact is as trusted advisors, trusted servants in that you have to decide if you are or you're not a trusted servant as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a plumber.

Some people may say, "You pay me. I do what I want. And that's how I work." In modern cultures there is a discussion, about you get the same care if you're rich or poor. I think a great example of that is prisoners of war that did terrible, terrible ... like the series we just for a guy that's a crazy murderer, but they tried to save his life when he got shot, because they want to put him to trial. The doctor taking care of this patient, the nurse says, "Do you know who you're taking care of?" He says, "Yeah, it's a human being." You know this guy's done the most horrific things.

Those are the things that students need to hear, and in theory, in your life you will have points where you will have that ... hopefully. Actually I would say it would be really bad if you didn't Nimi I think these manifestos and oaths a lot of them are not legally binding, right? It's a community that hold each other accountable for it, not the law. The law is a thing that's understood. Under the constitution you have to offer up these services, like abortion and whatever. Then there's the next level of do no harm. I'm not sure if the Hippocratic Oath, if you go against it you can't practice anymore, but it'Josh I'm sure in malpractice there are times where they'll bring that up to prove that there's (Crosstalk) Shira

accountable. As I'm reading through these the main stuff I've been looking at so far, just because of time, has been these 20th century architecture manifestos. In the first one Adolf Loos was like, "If you have ornamentation on something you are a degenerate, and a criminal, and you are a lower power." Of course they're crazy and they're all these things, but in that community they have managed to everyone say we will never ornament something, ever, at all.

Josh You mean put something on a building that's not of purpose?

Nimi

Yeah, right.

Josh Because a building is a machine, or whatever.

Nimi Right, and because why invest more energy looking at a thing, producing a thing, whatever if it's not integral toShira

The function of it.

Nimi -to the function of it. Which as a concept I think can transcend to a lot of different fields as a metaphor. They managed to achieve the ultimate perfection of non-ornamentation, because they were holding each other accountable. Because it was such a specific manifesto, every decision they made they didn't have to think about it. It was like, "Is this integral to it's function? If it's not then don't even think about it." When I interviewed the woman yesterday in the Army, every time they walk it's a very specific step that they take. At a certain point there was an adjustment to it where in basic training people freak out and they have a problem with authority and whatever. At a certain amount of time into that program there's certain considerations that you don't even have to think about. In a hospital doctor community do no harm-

Mm-hmm (affirmative), all the time.

Nimi It's a very vague and subjective thing, do no harm. Do no harm has a lot of different levels to it. It gets down to the smaller the group of people that you have sign on to these oaths or manifestos the more specific they become.

The more those members of that community that have taken that oath can hold each other

Josh It's like doing procedures like cleaning your hands.

Nimi It's also like do no harm is just a thing that you do. You become a more ethical human being because you have to abide by it, because you don't even have to think about it. It just becomes part of you.

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Josh Yeah, but so I think there are somewhere in the spectrum, there's a spectrum and it talks to Maslow's triangle, that you're moving from surviving to thriving. You can call it different words or whatever. I think if you're on the survival side then it's much more black and white. The code is more draconian and it's like you will, you won't. I think we have learned over years through psychology, and studies, and all this that ultimately our goal is to thrive, not to survive.

Now the question is who gets to decide what is thriving, what enables thriving, and what contradicts thriving. That's where it becomes much harder.

Nimi The three of us are going to be or are in a profession that provides service where our audience is extremely different from us a lot of the time, and very diverse, and has many different considerations. For an architect you have to create a building that people can use. Like accessibility, no matter if they're in a wheelchair, or if they have to carry many, many pounds in their backpacks everyday. We don't have a limitation ... What I'm trying to say is we can limit ourselves in how we make, and how we do, and how we serve people. The outcome of that is that people are going to come to that services with many different backgrounds.

Josh We have over the years though, and this is going to get with big data and all that it's going to get even more extreme where with your ability to do DNA analysis excreta, we are going to have much more exposure to areas that used to be non-tangible that you couldn't put metrics to.

Because of that you will be able to create more accountability for areas that used to be black magic to usNimi

Intuitive.

Josh -this weird stuff, right? Like productivity.

You will be able to create environments that can haveNimi

Measurable.

Josh -or peoples health, like a building health.

You will be accountable for the chair you give a worker, because you know certain chairs will give them longer back health versus not, and if you don't do they can sue you for, "You made me 178

work eight hours a day in a chair that was known now to actually have ..." That's a certain level of accountability that maybe you didn't have, because you couldn't nail it to that, or that you don't give your workers in a factory every 30 minutes time to blink their eyes and look at something green, I don't know. There's going to be science that will tell you that. It still goes back to the values. Are in you charge of making sure that the well being of ... The really interesting challenge in my mind is how far do you go? Do you incorporate planet, and trees, and bees, or do you focus all this on humans? In general all of these oaths are about the human condition.

Shira Right, exactly and something somebody said to me once that was really interesting was I met this guy when we were out with a bunch of friends. He said, "What do you do?" I said, "I'm in medical school. I want to take care of people."

I said, "What do you do?" He said, "Well, I guess we have really different goals then. I am a forest restoration. If we both fulfill our goals then they will directly be at odds with each other."

Josh

Why?

Nimi She wants more humans and we wants more trees. The less humans the more trees that there are, right?

Josh I did an archeology project, and an archaeologist would rather humans don't come visit their site because it's going to ruin it.

Shira Exactly, exactly so the ultimate goal create an environment, save the planet, make it more habitable place that's got more natural resources, cleaner water, cleaner air so that we can have people who are healthier and have longer lives, but then those people by default dirty those resources. That gets into a whole other ... but bringing it down a level even if we have these rules and regulations and then within that we have values. Those are a little more gray than the black and white. I think in the field of medicine sometimes it's really tough. There's not just do no harm. We have a few other guiding principles like autonomy. Patients should be able to choose for themselves what kind of care they want.

Josh

Confidentiality.

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

Shira Confidentiality. Another one is justice which is allocating resources and making sure that everybody has access to equitable quality care. Another one is beneficence which is do good for the patient. Do the best thing for that patient. You can probably come up pretty quickly with times where those things directly contradict each other. If a hospital has a bank of money to spend on their clients and you have a drug addict that's coming in for his fourth time. He needs a heart valve replacement because his injected drugs that he gave himself put him into heart failure. That's something that happens, a bacterial infection goes into his blood stream, hurts a part of his heart, we have to take him to emergency surgery and fix it four times. That's up to $100,000 and we have 50 people outside that are waiting to have their gallbladders out, because their gallbladders are infected.

We can either serve this guy four times for the choices that he's making of giving himself drugs and getting infections versus these 100 people who need their gallbladders out because their human body failed them. Do no harm, do good, do what that patient wants or deserves how do you weigh those things. In medicine we're really lucky and fortunate that we always have a board of ethics. We always have a group of people in every single health institution that you can go to and say, "Hey, these things are in dissonance.

These values if I do it this way then that's neglecting this value. If I do it this way it's neglecting this value. What do I do?" They will talk and make a decision and say, "Here's the most ethical thing to do." It's really tricky.

It can get tough really fast. You know a person says to you, "Hey, I don't want to know if I have cancer when you do this blood test. I don't want to know. It will ruin my life if I know." Then you can say as a doctor, "Okay, well I'm going to do no harm. I'm going to not give this person this medication, and I'm going to give them this medication," but then you're getting rid of the principle of autonomy, which is that person making a choice for themselves with their treatment. What's your comfort level with that? Even the values seem like you only have to worry aboutJosh I think the reason a lot of this exists is because humans have the skill, the gift, and maybe it's detrimental, of interpretation. Any word can be interpreted multiple ways. A cultural

interpretation, an age interpretation, and religious interpretation. Therefore we do our best, for example when we don't take the letter of a code verbatim, but we actually say what is the intent of this code? What's the intent of the disability act versus do you have a ramp to the restaurant.

Nimi That's the whole thing with the constitution right?

Josh

Yeah, it's about principle.

Nimi

Like the-

Shira

How you interpret it.

Nimi

-right to bear arms.

Josh Right, but you could read it both ways.

It has to do with your values. In my mind the discussion about this is almost more important than the words that are finally chosen.

Nimi I don't know. I think you're right, and I think with doctors the fact that everyone says this oath when they take it and everyone's aligned and you understand when you go into a hospital as a worker that everyone around you has taken this oath I think that has a lot of power.

I think just saying those words, just the tradition of it I think it's special.

Josh That's because that field at it's core is dealing with life and death. Not every profession has as it's coreShira The risk with medicine too is that it can very quickly become self absorbed and self directed. This is one of the fields in our society where people make the most money, and have the most both financial gainJosh

Power.

Shira -power in their community. When someone says I'm a doctor they're put on a pedestal immediately. I think it's especially important for them to have a code of values and ethics that brings it back to the patient.

Nimi Architects, I would argue, instead of dealing with one person when you make 179

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decisions you're dealing with hundreds and hundreds of people. You're building is going to be up for ... I meanJosh Now look there's a doctor that I have a book about it's called the Health Cities. He worked for CDC his whole career, Center for Disease Control, Keith Richardson and he got an award from the AIA. His presentations say that only 25% of human kinds ability to thrive live longer lives, etcetera in the last 200, only 25% has to do with medicine. 75% has to do with environment.

Shira

Yeah.

Nimi

Shelter, right?

Josh

Physical environment.

Nimi Food, water, and shelter. That's the three basic principles of keeping someone alive.

Shira Well, and things that contribute to health are, are you exercising? Are you moving your body? Are you walking? Are you breathing clean air?

Nimi

And emotional mental health, right?

Shira

Right.

Nimi

Our environment.

Josh If a contractor does a remodel in a school today, Wilson High School, they go in and do a remodel they will do lead abatement.

Not because they want to. They will do lead abatement because today it's a process of getting the permit for adding a toilet in that building.

Nimi A preschool teacher, someone who deals with our children, is raising up the next generation of people, is giving people ... right?

Josh That's another question. If the learning environment talks about well being in a certain way it's inherentNimi Not even just talks about. Graphic design we are people that don't have immediate physical harm to a lot of people. Even one step removed from architecture.

Josh

Nimi No one's going to die, but you look at fake news, right?

Josh Well, fake news or if you started putting posters downtown in Portland saying kill all the Jews...

Nimi

Josh Taking out, for example, toxins from the growth environment was not governed by code.

Nimi

No, and airflow-

Josh It's covered by the sustainability movement. Trailers, people that live in trailer parks 90% of the trailers that were built before 1985, 1990 out of formaldehyde. The material they usedShira Every house here that was born between 1973 has lead paint. It wasn't the law that you wouldn't. We have kids now who are adults who are cognitively impaired, because of the homes that they grew up in.

Nimi I think doctors have a very immediate harm that they give patients, and so does the army, so does the (Crosstalk) 180

Yeah, no one's going to die.

It does.

Josh The swastika, pretty dangerous graphic symbol.

Nimi

Yeah, a pretty successful piece of branding.

Shira Yeah, and you put advertisements up of skinny models andNimi

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say.

Shira -girls kill themselves because their body's don't look the way that these graphically manipulated posters don't look.

Josh Let's be clear there are people amongst us, as educated as us, that don't believe that pornography or that type of marketing is in any way harmful. There's also people that with all the science don't believe there's climate change.

I think people do agree on it that there's life and death and if you could stop-

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

Nimi In those professions that have immediate harm there's a lot more regulation and there's a lot more accountability.

Josh I think some of this has to do with consensus it's that simple. There's religious crazy people that will say, "I don't care if you're a doctor. I'm not giving my immunizations even if they die," and they put them in jail. That's against the law. They're actually doing whatever they call a child ... whatever. They take their kids away from them. That is because there's a consensus about well being and children that exists. It's not the law.

Nimi Consensus is valuable and consensus is designed, and it'sShira

It is the law.

Josh

It's the law?

Shira

It is the law.

Nimi

it transitions into the law.

Josh If it wasn't the law then it would be easier for someone to say in my religion we don't take our kids to the doctors.

Nimi

Shira

-you're the only one.

Josh Well, if a car crashed and this person had a thing on that said don't give me blood transfusions.

Nimi Well, what about older patients that say don't resuscitate me? Right?

Shira Yeah, or withdraw life sustaining treatment.

If you're under 18 we do whatever we need to do to keep you alive. We give you blood, we resuscitate you.

Josh Even if a parent's sitting there saying don't give it?

Shira Even if a parent is sitting there and saying this personNimi

Will be shunned from our community.

Shira

-will be shunned from our community.

Nimi

Never talk to us again.

Shira Yeah, if they're under 18 the state has responsibility for the child when it comes to life and death.

Nimi

Kids have to go to school, right?

Josh

Yeah, right.

Nimi

You can't, under a certain age,-

That was changed pretty recently.

Shira One example that we deal with all the time is Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to take blood products.

Josh If there was Jehovah Witness country and they were able to create their own lawsShira There are anesthesiologists who will opt out of taking care of patients who are at risk for losing a lot of blood, and that anesthesiologists, who is the person who is in charge of that persons life during surgery, can't give them a blood transfusion. They can't give them a life saving blood transfusion because of autonomy.

Nimi

You can opt out of that?

Shira

You can opt out of that unless-

Nimi

Unless you're the only one.

Josh I want to close my part here. Is there anything else you wereNimi I guess one more question I had specifically for you is going back to this idea of the law being this big guiding principle and as you go people create their own guidelines.

Have you done that for a group of people yourself? As a boss or as a manager have you said we're going to evaluate these specific ideas?

Josh Well, so the answer is yes, but because of this I believe versus you know on NPR they have people that do "this I believe," and they have their guiding principles.

My guiding principle has developed over years, but it was intuitive as a young designer. Over time 181

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it comes down to very simple terms. Make it work and then get excited. That's how I keep it to myself. Making it work is building to the code, making sure that everything is compliant.

That's the entry level. If you've only done that you haven't done what I believe is architecture.

Architecture has an emotional experience component to it, I believe. Therefore the next step is to say what's the best human experience value? I believe that that's as important, but actually it's not as important. You can't do it in contradiction to safety, cost, all these things.

I went to myself first and now I can ask my staff to do it is anything they do first make it work. I just did a review of a project for a little factory. 20 people are going to work there, 50 people. Their bathroom works. There's enough toilets in there. It all works, but it's not going to be a nice environment to use. My job is to say, "How are we going to make this a place where people walk in it feels really good?" I believe that's why we get paid.

Nimi And you hit the metric, right? You hit the metric.

what you call that. I think all good architects, what I believe are the good architects, are the ones that, that's what they focus their energy on.

You know, the next step. I think the same thing with any chef. You could make a burger and serve it, or you can create an experience.

Nimi Yeah, and it goes back to the Maslow's, right? At a certain time of your career you're going to have to hit the bare minimum and you're going to have to be okay with it, or you're going to have all these other limitations that say this building needs another door. This patientJosh It's an enormous amount of energy to get past that first level of Maslow's triangle. In medicine for Shira, to get to the proficiency of just doing what is needed is enormous. The metric for her to be a successful doctor is way beyond that.

Nimi It changes, because in Lao if she has X-amount of money from a grant or whatever, she goes in it's much more important to give AID's treatment or water sanitation to 1,000 people then create that next level for-

Yes, and no. My example to that is Josh You have to, but that's the starting point. Josh I heard a report that was done on Ebola in ...

For me architecture starts with everyone. Like what's a country that have Ebola?

Shira it starts with she knows how to identify if you need antibiotics or not. Is it viral? Is it bacteShira Sierra Leone rial? That's the starting point. Now once she got to the fact that you need antibiotics she doesn't Josh Sierra Leone. One of the key contributors just give them antibiotics. She says, "Here's what to the disease spread was how they buried their I'd recommend. Pro-biotics. I also recommend people. You can come in there and say anyone's that you drop your milk products for the next six touched we incinerate them. You don't get to see weeks. I also think you should do some exercise." the body. That would solve the problem immediately.

That to me is what medicine should provide. Is If they're dead you take them away. They couldn't there an oath that will make you do that? No. it would be way more detrimental than the There are a lot of doctors, a lot of architects who deaths they would have. Maybe not. I don't know will say, "Yup, you need to add another door to if anyone died. It's a hard call. If Shira finds your building. See ya," because that's what the out to treat AID's in Lao that you have to get the code requires.

Buddhist priests on-board to make it successful, That's intuitive to me, but it's not especially for young professionals. Therefore I have to say, "Cool. she's going to have to spend two days not taking care of bodies going to meet with the priest, You made it work. Great. Guess what now you got because ultimately it's going to impact their to make it an amazing experience. How are you ability to ... if they don't get the priests on-board. going to make that stair an amazing experience."

Getting from floor to floor there's a lot of complexity That's not a medicalto make that stair work, to get all the stairs and Shira Well, even if a step before that is me, railing, make it work. Now tell me what are you as a white person, coming to Lao and saying, going to do to make people use it instead of using "The most important thing for your infrastructure the elevator? I believe that's a value. I don't know 182

Shira & Joshua Einstein, 3rd year Medical Student, OHSU, & Architect, Global Practice Leader, CH2M

is for me to come and take care of AID's," it can be detrimental to a society. Whereas coming in and saying, "What do you want? What do you need? I have resources to give. Where would you like me to put them" is a different conversation.

Josh Or, we all agree on an AID's epidemic.

I have some medicine and best practices. I'd like to share them with you to see how we could best implement them in your country. I've had this with architects. I was a project in Taiwan where the captain there was screaming with his lungs, because he wanted to put the air handle units on the roof. The client's like, "That doesn't work."

He said, "Of course it works. I've done it all over the world." At the end of the day it was more about the client had a bad experience with it and they were never going to do that. No, it doesn't work for them. They could have just said, you're done.

Shira

What other questions do you have?

Nimi

I think we covered a lot.

Josh

Yeah, it was awesome.

Shira

You have a lot to work with.

Josh It was really interesting. I think it would be really cool if you know the more people you talk to the more ...

Nimi I think what you said before is right. The biggest thing, even if nothing gets implemented is to have people talking about the way that they practice, and to kind of make people realize that there's a lot of responsibility that comes into doing things that deal with peoples lives.

Josh For example I would have no problem having the dialog is buying a gun constitutional or not. I do want to hear other people that want to use guns. I want to hear why they think it's their right.

There are points there that may be valuable versus black and white. I think one of the reasons it's so controversial and almost dangerous is because we haven't created an opportunity for a dialog.

Nimi

Yeah.

Josh

We're just, you're wrong I'm right.

Shira One thing you can always do is when you start working with a new group of people you can sit down and set aside an hour with a big white sheet of paper and say, "What are values? What are the values that we're going to hold ourselves accountable to as a group of people.

Nimi Right. Well, and that's a big thing I've been looking at a lot of different companies now even retail. REI has a manifesto.

Josh

Yeah, and Patagonia.

Nimi Patagonia, so Patagonia's is truthful and they have actions that back their words.

There was a big convention now in Nevada or somewhere, a place that the money from the convention was being used for the Dakota access pipeline, or whatever. Patagonia pulled out. They were like, "We are not going to do any business in this state."

Josh

Well, Nordstrom's just pulled out-

Shira

Right, Ivanka Trump's-

Nimi Some of them back those words up with action. Sometimes it's like, another company has we're going to be free spirited and whatever.

From all of those you put your values out there and then your customer can see it. They see whether or not they align with it. Business do it too. A graphic design firm will say, "This is our manifesto. These are the values that we believe in." That's a way for business or clients to come to them and say, "Okay, these are things that we agree with, or these are not things that really matter to us at all." I think even just putting your own values out there is important.

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Thoughts Nimi Einstein, March 17, 2017

1 Before anything, before InDesign, illustrator, paper, and pencil, we must talk about and realize the power we hold and the consequences—both good and bad—that come out of designing.

I will say it again, and maybe you are tired at this point to hear me say it, we actively manipulate the world around us, people’s physical and mental interactions with the world, and build & rewrite culture over and over and over again. We get paid a lot of money for it by the people who have the most money, not necessarily the people who have the public’s good in mind.

2 We are public servants.

The work we make is for the 100% for the public. Sometimes its for a smaller public, and sometimes a public behind a set of doors, but always, our profession is hired to make work for human—/living— interactions. That means we have a responsibility to that public. It means that we can’t just pump shit out without knowing of the consequences.

A smart man once told me that everything we do advantages and disadvantages people at the same time. Ideally, we advantage more than we disadvantage, but we will always disadvantage some. Don’t be a fool and think we won’t, don’t be an idiot by ignoring it. We have too much at stake for ignorance.

3 We are public servants without the accountability of a governing body.

The amount of power we have to manipulate people’s lives is equal to the lack of accountability we have to make sure we do not harm people. That’s fucked up. It’s as simple as that. The main things we learn in graphic design can be learned through many different fields of design and these skills are being and have been transferred to every single area of human lives from government to bakery, science, to intimate relationships. My working definition of design is “conscious decision making for specific consequence,” and in graphic design, that has meant both Utopian goals and propaganda, Nazi branding and hippie aesthetic. We have the power, and no one is keeping us in line, therefore we must. Read the AIGA code of conduct and realize how shitty it is and non-committal and long. AND THEY DON’T EVEN GIVE STUDENTS FREE MEMBERSHIP! The only reason i have read it was because of this book!! WTF?? Have you read it? If you skipped it, go back 185

Final thoughts

and read it. Now. Now read the Hippocratic oath, now read the AIA code of conduct. Now read a anything else. We need a LEED-certified style certification for people who do good work and a watchdog group to call people out that do not. We aren’t getting thrown in jail when we only use tiny, skinny, tall, white, beautiful models in advertising with the consequence of creating mass anorexia, and frankly, we should be.

We aren’t getting fined for pushing forward an obsessive culture of consumerism with the consequence of absolutely destroying our environment, and frankly, we should be.

Yeah, you’ll say “well, those are your ideals and you cannot push them on anyone who doesn't want them” and yeah, I have heard that from some of my best friends, but fuck that!! We need to start somewhere!

We need to start now! And we can build upon it, but do not tell me that we can’t begin because someone might want to destroy the planet, harm young girls, appropriate culture, continue global warming, a little more than I do. Fuck that. You KNOW that’s fucked up and playing the devils advocate is complying with and furthering the bad that is happening .

You are the harm if you let it continue.

4 I almost didn’t write anything to end this, until a smart man—Caleb Yarian—told me “you have to say something, because people have to say something.” And he’s right. I have the privilege of power, whatever level that is, and we, you, I, designer, have quite a bit more than the average person. Do something, make your voice heard because people need to hear it. We designers, out of everyone, know the power that communication has, and luckily, we are trained by the best at it.

1. We have power, 2. We are public servants, 3. We aren’t held accountable for our power over the public, and 4. Our voice matters. If that isn’t inspiring, if that doesn’t get your blood moving then I don’t know.

Now go design.

Nimi Einstein, March 18, 2017

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Thank you so much for picking up this book! It is meant to be a tool, a source of inspiration, and a conversation starter.

Write in the margins!

Fold some corners, highlight these pages, and please share it with others when you are done!

In this book you will find manifestos, oaths, guidelines, laws, codes, advice, interviews, and my personal annotations, curated non-chronologically to form a series of conversations between writings in order to get you, the reader, to critically think about the way you practice design.

We are designers, decision-makers, impellers and instigators. We designers form attitudes and shape decisions on a massive scale every single day. It is our duty to honor that power by discussing and realizing our responsibility.