SparkPoster: SPRK 001 / WHO WE ARE / 01–05–18 / A Manifesto
We reject the position that communication design must remain impartial in a context that increasingly allows: platforms for racism and misogyny; both fascism and ocean levels to rise; homo/trans/Islamo/phobia. It’s time to pick a side. / We work toward design that is not neutral; design that is explicitly anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist and decolonial. We recognize that we attack from a position of privilege, and will use that position to platform the oppressed. / We work through design toward justice and liberation for womxn, for all people of colour, for LGBTTQ2* people, for people with disabilities, migrants and refugees. Justice for First Nations. Climate justice. We work to not only be allies, but accomplices, comrades. / We are anti-capitalist. We reject the role of design in the market, in advertising, in manufactured demand, in conspicuous consumption. We propose a root-level reboot of design, to be reimagined as a system not submissive to capital, but in total service of the people. We work not for oil companies, banks or the palaces; we work for cooperatives, movements and the huts. / We call for design that acknowledges the “creative class” as a myth; that designers are in fact of the new working class—the precariat—and that our struggle is rooted there. / Up with full unionization of the design workforce and a democratic workplace. Up with a world where womxn in design are paid as much as men for doing the same job. Death to unpaid overtime, all-nighters and burnout culture. Death to side-hustles just to get by. Death to all exploitation that neoliberalism demands. / We work for socialism—an intersectional, Marxist socialism!—to replace capitalism. / We have chosen our side. We choose to fight, using design as our weapon.
design manifestos .org 