Short Ones: The Politics Question

Over the last few days I've wondered how the political spectrum appears in design discourse, and how this applies to designers generally. But I always get stuck on one thing—where are all the conservative designers?


They must exist—it stands to reason that they must be out there, somewhere. The Republicans had designers for the McCain/Palin ticket, the Liberals had them for the 2010 election, and so on back through history—and some of those must have genuinely believed in the causes they were working for. But where are the voices of these designers in the world of design criticism? Why don't we here them more often?

Often as far as this goes is with the critique of the First Things First Manifesto and it's millennial sibling1Barnbrook et al; 'First Things First 2000 Manifesto' in Adbusters 1999—a critique that labels such a document as elitist. I'm not arguing here for a right wing design discourse; instead, I'm concerned about the lack spectrum within our discussions. Systems of thought can only be developed through constant probing of their fundamental principles.

Design has shifted from a near-amateur craft, with little formal training, to a discipline that is thoroughly embedded in the academy, and it has done so without proper examination of its precepts. This is one of the reasons why design discourse is such a fluid body—magpie like, it steals systems of thought from other disciplines and adapts them to its own ends.

It may well be that designers are, as a whole, simply unable be conservative. Our discipline calls upon us to be forward thinking, to create new solutions to old problems. I don't think someone schooled in conservative thought would be truly able to be a designer of any real note.

Then again, they must be out there. Somewhere.

Comments, queries or objections can be mailed to me.
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