MANIFESTO × ARTISTS

The Manifesto is an appeal for conscious, sensible production and consumption in our time. It was born out of the FREITAG ad Absurdum exhibition staged at the Lausanne mudac Design Museum by the Freitag brothers and the Riklin twins.

And because four men as authors is at least two too many, we asked eight female* artists and designers to illustrate the FREITAG Manifesto and their own individual interpretation of it.

*Yes, exactly: female.

WHAT DOES GOOD DESIGN MEAN TO YOU, JISU?
It may be a cliche, but I like designs that prioritize functionality. But then again, I work mainly with visual elements, so esthetics are often more important to me than function.

IN OUR MANIFESTO WE SAY: «WE KEEP STUFF IN CLOSED CYCLES». HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT PERSONALLY AND WHAT, IN TERMS OF DESIGN, DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
I see myself as a creator. So, ultimately I directly contribute to a system that produces new things. But for a few years now, it’s become increasingly clear to me that it’s too easy to produce and consume goods. And that realization has worried me in a number of ways. Working with you guys has freed me up a bit from these concerns and has been an opportunity to share these messages with others.

COULD YOU TELL US THE STORY BEHIND YOUR ARTWORK?
I clearly had a message I needed to express. We have a reason to be nervous: after all, this could be our last chance to do something meaningful. «The end is nigh!» I don’t want to talk about that because it sounds too much like a religion or a cult. But something like an «end» is clearly coming. And, sadly, I have a feeling that we’ll get used to the idea of that end without resisting.

WHAT’S HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR?
Nothing. There’s no other option now.

COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN A FEW SENTENCES?
My name is Patsachon and I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. I have been living and continuing my studies in Germany since 2019.

WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN FOR YOU?
Design with a simple look and reasonable functionality.

COULD YOU TELL US THE STORY BEHIND YOUR ARTWORK?
The artwork seems to be clear and straightforward. I do not like things to be complicated. The only complicated things in the artwork are probably the textures. I used a variety of paper from my trash paper stock* to create some texture and experimented with acetone. Acetone is my favorite kind of medium, as revealed by the scratched texture on the forms, some dirtier frame texture on the background and the typography.

*«trash paper stock» = unused shopping paper, paper bags from bookstores, used sandpaper, etc. that I am collecting.

WHAT’S THE LONGEST LASTING OBJECT THAT YOU POSSESS?
A jean jacket from my grandmother.

WHAT DOES «LASTING» MEAN TO YOU?
Reliability

COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN A FEW SENTENCES?
Hi, we are The Rodina, an Amsterdam-based communication design studio. In our work, we often explore the spatial and interactive potential of virtual environments as an area for new thoughts and aesthetics emerging from the space between culture and technology. Sometimes, our approach may appear experimental because it’s permeated by strategies relating to performance art, play and subversion. Whether it’s commissioned work or our own autonomous projects, we love to activate and reimagine a dazzling range of layered meanings across, below and beyond the surface of design.

WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN FOR YOU?
There’s no universal answer to that question apart, perhaps, from the kind of design that doesn’t harm anyone. A design that makes people curious and excited and encourages them to explore and play. It’s an engaging process that makes you think and evolve.

TELL US HOW YOU ENGAGED WITH THE POINT IN OUR MANIFESTO THAT STATES «WE BELIEVE IN SYSTEMS DESIGNED FOR COMPATIBILITY» AND WHAT THE TOPIC (IN A DESIGN CONTEXT) MEANS FOR YOU.
If we think in more relational terms, doesn’t the fact that we are integral parts of earthly human and non-human structures make it beautiful that things and bodies can coexist nicely together? We find this idea of compatibility incredibly exciting: Imagine two things that are different from each other yet which function together and complement one another.

For the Manifesto specifically, we were looking at surfaces, zippers, and other connection points in FREITAG products that would enable an exciting aesthetic to come to life in our online video game. The game you can play here features a visual world built entirely from all the unique Freitag bag surfaces we’ve collected. These faceted surfaces manifest the compatibility and sustainability concepts as essential themes of this era.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING (OR SYSTEM) THAT SHOULD BE DESIGNED WITH COMPATIBILITY IN MIND BUT HASN’T BEEN CREATED YET?
A much better educational system, free for all students, fully supported by governments and truly academic because it is no longer owned by private companies.

WHAT BOTHERS YOU THE MOST ABOUT CONSUMER SOCIETY?
The fact that we – all of us – constitute that society. We disapprove of the way consumerism comes into existence and the future to which it condemns us. The consumerist lifestyle is thoughtless at so many levels, and its impacts are horrendous. It starts badly enough when governments and corporations feel entitled to extract scarce resources from the upper layers of our planet. But on a more human scale, it exploits workers, who are paid a pittance to produce substandard-quality goods.

All this deadens us to the excitement of the new. We are losing our powers of imagination and creativity because it’s easy to buy objects that are beautifully crafted. We are seduced by design, by superficialities. Why can’t we be bothered to repair our precious belongings? How come we simply accept the built-in obsolescence of devices that would otherwise have a long service life?

We are losing control over just how much plastic and lithium goes through our households. And the result of our dangerous lifestyle, which encourages us simply to discard things, is to inundate the most endangered areas of our planet with even more trash.

WHAT WOULD BE AN INTERESTING NINTH POINT IN OUR MANIFESTO FOR YOU?
«Our design cares and loves.»

HOW DO YOU WORK TOGETHER? HOW DOES THE DESIGN PROCESS FUNCTION FOR YOU AS A DUO? OR, TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY: HOW COMPATIBLE ARE YOU IN YOUR DESIGN WORK?
We are ultra-compatible because we rarely agree. In a positive sense, of course. We complement each other. But rather than create conflict, it encourages a critical process of debate and reflection on our projects as they develop. It often opens up new ways to find the most exciting or effective approaches to design. In a process as creative as this, we value playfulness and curiosity. It encourages a stimulating dialog with our clients, leading to greater openness and transparency.

COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN A FEW SENTENCES?
Born in 1990, in Morges and having grown up in Lausanne, my studies turned towards the artistic field. My apprenticeship begins during a preparatory year at the CEPV. There, I was introduced to graphic design; a discipline that I studied in depth the following year in Geneva. After that, I returned to Lausanne, in order to continue my graphic design studies at ECAL. I then went to work for NORM and later for the Lineto foundry and the design studio of its founder, Cornel Windlin, before deciding to devote myself to my own practice.

WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN FOR YOU?
The things that interest me and inspire me in graphic design always revolve around meticulousness: Visuals on passports, architectural plans, banknotes, geographical maps, tachograph discs, encyclopedias, etc.

To be able to establish a grid system which allows the layout of a large amount of information by making the content clear and accessible represents, in my opinion, one of the axes of what good design can be.

PLEASE TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT WITH OUR MANIFESTO POINT «WE PREFER ACCESS OVER OWNERSHIP» AND WHAT THE TOPIC (IN THE CONTEXT OF DESIGN) MEANS TO YOU?
In my design practice, although I have chosen to work alone, I believe in the idea of collaboration and sharing ideas. To not enter into conflicts to claim that an idea is your own, but rather develop your own projects by opening discussions with friends, whose work I respect, in order to share our opinions and references. In a way, the material approach of sharing an object rather than owning it reminds me of this.

WHAT DO YOU OWN THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH OTHERS?
Books, research, my home

WHAT BOTHERS YOU THE MOST ABOUT THE CONSUMERISM SOCIETY?
It bothers me that we don’t question more, or even choose to ignore willingly the working conditions of some brands, even though it has been revealed in the media.

WHAT WOULD BE AN INTERESTING NINTH MANIFESTO POINT FOR YOU?
Another point that would underline the importance/values of collaboration.

WHO ARE YOU?
We’re Aurane and Marielle. We are two French women designers exploring different fields that are more or less related to graphic design practices.

WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN FOR YOU?
It’s about taking the ball on the rebound...

HOW DO YOU WORK TOGETHER? WHO DOES WHAT AND WHY?
…you move in that direction, and I react here.

You add. We build.

Look at the dish! We cooked here…

PLEASE TELL US HOW YOU RELATE TO THAT POINT IN OUR MANIFESTO WHERE WE SAY: «WE PAY FOR RESULTS, NOT RESOURCES»?
…we took what we had at home. What friends gave us. What we came across by chance in our cupboards. We measured. We cut, sorted and chose. The result is more than what it cost us.

HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN THIS MANIFESTO POINT IN A DESIGN PROCESS?
Are you coming to our house for dinner tonight?

DO YOU EVER WASTE THINGS?
We have too much food for the two of us. If you wanna join, it would be a pleasure to get to know you better. And we hate wasting food.

COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN A FEW SENTENCES?
I’m Molly Dyson, an illustrator and graphic designer from Australia currently living and working in Berlin. My work mixes nostalgic low-fi aesthetics with digital graphics and typography.

WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN FOR YOU?
That’s a tricky question. I like design that has something particularly human about it. I’m drawn to design that is expressive, emotional, silly or tells a story about why it is the way it is.

CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU ENGAGED WITH THE POINT WE MAKE IN OUR MANIFESTO THAT «WE LOSE SPEED TO WIN TIME» AND WHAT THE TOPIC (IN THE CONTEXT OF DESIGN) MEANS TO YOU?
When I work, I often lose track of time and feel I’m wasting time when things don’t work out the way I plan. As a designer, I find it difficult to control how much time I spend on projects and wish I could work faster and be more efficient.

This point in the manifesto made me reflect on the amount of time it takes to complete things, and how we sometimes spiral or go around in circles to end up at a final outcome. For me, we lose speed to win time means giving in to processes that aren’t necessarily efficient or productive but, in the end, give you a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of time well spent.

HOW DO YOU SLOW DOWN?
Probably like every other person on earth, I try to look at my phone less, but I am terribly addicted to it: an obvious new year’s resolution would be less screen time, lol!

But definitely, reading a book, or just looking at the window, and letting myself stare out of the window can be a good time break. Five minutes staring out the window feels a lot longer than five minutes of doom-scrolling on the phone! So that feels like winning time.

COULD YOU TELL US THE STORY BEHIND YOUR ARTWORK?
My animated poster is inspired by the Japanese designer Kohei Sugiura, who made a series of infographic ‘Time Distance Maps’ that measured things like the time it takes to get across a city compared with the actual distance to the city itself.

I was interested in how these transient concepts of time and speed could be visually depicted. Since Covid and during lockdowns, I think we have all noticed a change in how we experience time. The concepts of future, past and present have become rather slippery; the past or the before feels very long ago, and the future is difficult to anticipate.

I based my design on the spiral motif, the slowly paced snail, wormholes, and a time/space continuum loop. The animations float between words we use to describe time and speed; before and after, soon and later, now and then. The whole poster loops and gives a sense of endlessness.

HOW IMPORTANT IS «TIME» FOR YOU? / HOW DO YOU VALUE TIME?
Time is incredibly important to me, but I also try to ignore it. For example, on my computer, I have the time shown by an analog clock-face instead of digital numbers. This way, I don’t stress myself out by glancing at numbers and realizing 10, 20, 30 minutes have flown by.

I try really hard not to get angry at myself for ‘wasting time’ and remind myself: time just passes, whether you notice it or not.

COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN A FEW SENTENCES?
I'm Wanqing Zhao and I'm a graphic designer. I grew up in China and did my postgraduate work at the University of the Arts, London. In 2017, I founded a design studio called XYZ Lab in Shanghai with my partners Shao Nian and Lu Tao.

WHAT DOES GOOD DESIGN MEAN TO YOU?
As a designer, I believe there are countless ways of assessing whether a design is good or not. For me, and in terms of how it feels, good design is alive, sustainable, engaging and honest.

PLEASE EXPLAIN TO US HOW YOU APPROACHED THE «P.S. HAPPINESS IS CYCLICAL» IN OUR MANIFESTO?
My aim was to make my response to this point in your manifesto easy and straightforward. I tried to turn «P.S» from a state to a verb. Each use of the tape is a «P.S.» on the object, so that happiness follows at all times.

HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN THIS MANIFESTO POINT IN A DESIGN PROCESS?
It would be nice to find ideas or even mistakes that have not been used in the past, so that they can be revived or redeveloped. This is something that would make me (or even any of the creators, I assume) feel really happy.

WHAT WOULD BE AN INTERESTING NINTH MANIFESTO POINT FOR YOU?
I think it would be a good idea to insert «...» into your manifesto. It would leave a little space, so you could easily update it.

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Reading and spending time with my family.

HOW DO YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE CYCLE OF HAPPINESS?
I’ve just given the «P.S. Happiness is cyclical» tape to one of my friends.

DOES CONSUMING MAKE YOU HAPPY TOO?
Yes. Sometimes consumption is an experience and not simply possession. Consumption is not necessarily the opposite of sustainability.