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Adbusters: Re-Design

14:52 / 25.07.01

Article

quote: A brief history of design: so much rebellion, so little revolution. Design constantly turns against itself, as designers search for the next big It.

Today, there's a nagging suspicion that there is no "next." Design is like a corpse - beautifully laid out but not going anywhere. It is caught in the endless re-telling of the same old story -the catch the eye! stimulate desire! move the merchandise! story.

Now a worldwide movement is naming commercialization as an enemy, along with branding and corporate power. From Seattle to Quebec City, Davos to Genoa, designers can't fail to see which side they stand on in the defining cultural showdown of our time.

In 1999, Adbusters launched the First Things First 2000 design manifesto, an urgent demand for "a mindshift away from product marketing and towards the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning." The debate became a movement, then a maelstrom. And out of it came an unavoidable question: Where do we go from here?

Opinions?

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05:58 / 27.07.01

A university lecturer once asked the class 'what determines whether a new invention is taken up commercially by our society?'
I was confident with my initial response, ' Supply & demand. If there is a sufficient demand for a theoretical product, and the ability to manufacture it becomes available, then it will get made eventually.'. I didn't expect the guy to say - 'No. You're wrong. Wrong answer.' - I thought the point was one full explanation of the forces at work here.
But after a while he had me feeling pretty naive for an underground type - by pointing out that we have full designs for many technologies which we do not manufacture, even though these machines would greatly benefit most of us. It's orthodox economic teaching that the products you could, but don't see on the shelves are actively suppressed by existing interests all the time. Very successfully, in fact.
Type 'Garrett Carburettor' into a good engine & you'll be inundated with full design specs for water engines & free energy generators. These machines are not manufactured. But there are much less sexy technologies, from hardwood substitutes to composting systems, which any human being would concede to be a good thing, which our ( in my opinion deeply sick ) society actively represses due to preexisting prevailing economic factors.
Yes, most things have already been designed, there's nothing new under the sun - but most of them haven't been made yet - that's what I'd like to work on.

HEeeey ..... But WhaddayagunnaDo, Uh?

Molly Shortcake

05:02 / 29.07.01

Who's gonna fund the revolution? We need our very own Mason.

15:31 / 17.05.05

"a mindshift away from product marketing and towards the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning."

This is an old thread but an interesting question especially since Adbusters is now marketing products. I was recently on their site and was very interested in the 'earth friendly' shoes they were promoting. They hide the price tag from you until you've navigated through about four different windows. $95 USD, They may be earth friendly but they definitely aren't people friendly.
I'm not sure how i feel about this because i've always loved ad-busters, but selling a product by marketing it as 'anti-corporate' seems to be a bit mixed up.
Is this their intent? i don't know, what do the rest of you think?

20:10 / 17.05.05

The V1 is a little more affordable at USD $57.50.
I read an interview with the CEO a while ago where he was explaining the idea behind the shoes. On the whole I agreed with him, especially regarding the idea that if a shoe can be made cheaply and ethically it should be. I felt that he wass being a bit disingenuous when he claimed that the "black spot" gimmick was an anti-brand or an anti-status symbol. If a person is the sort to be cognizant of these shoes, chances are they associate with people who are likewise cognizant of them. Also, for nearly $100 USD, when I get MY pair, you can bet your ass that I'm going to be drawing as much attention to them as possible. That black spot is branding, pure and simple, every bit as much as the Swoosh is. If Adbusters was truely serious about creating an "unbrand" there would be no spots, no tags, no nothing proclaiming who they were made by.
Having said that, I still want a pair.

21:46 / 17.05.05

Type 'Garrett Carburettor' into a good engine & you'll be inundated with full design specs for water engines & free energy generators.

i just tried google. it turned up the "Garrett AiResearch T3 turbocharger". that doesn't seem like a free energy generator. and a "free energy generator" sounds very much like the kind of thing that can't exist because of the laws of physics. that's not a conspiracy, that's nature.

14:59 / 18.05.05

Your right lekvar, spot or no spot, the shoe is a good idea. You'll have to let me know how they hold up. $100 i guess really isn't too bad if the shoe is good quality. I'd rather give my money to Ad-busters than Nike any day.