Top 5 design manifestos

Manifestos are created to publicly declare intentions, beliefs and a vision for change. They serve as guiding principles when navigating a career.

Here are my top five that shaped my life’s work.

 An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mau

The first manifesto I ever came across was Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth (1998). I was a student at Sheridan College the year I joined the Association of Registered Graphic Designers. Timely, as I was newly embarking on a career and also adulting—figuring out what I wanted my life to look like.

Rather than making a declaration, Mau answers a more enduring question: “How does one sustain a creative life?”

No. 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."

No. 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."

No. 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."

Inspiration » Design is an ongoing process of living, learning and evolving. Nearly 30 years later, Mau's principles remain as relevant as ever. His philosophy toward living a creative life extends far beyond graphic design, as explored in the documentary MAU, which premiered at SXSW in 2021. The film follows his journey as a Canadian designer applying his ideas across architecture, film, and environmental design, driven by his optimism that design can address the world's biggest challenges and create massive change.

He has never stopped growing.

Inspired by that same impulse to push the boundaries of what design could be, I too diversified my skills and built a career supporting the AEC industry (architecture, engineering and construction).

Maxim/Dictum by Robert L. Peters

In 2000, I was the token student aboard the Millennium Design Conference cruise where international members of the RGD, GDC (now DesCan) and Icograda gathered to exchange ideas and imagine the future of design. Among those I met was Robert L. Peters (1954–2023), co-founder of Circle Design in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and a strong advocate for professional integrity and accountability in our profession.

In the late 1980s, Rob created Maxim/Dictum, an in-house manifesto of simple but powerful maxims “to work by and live by.”

• Have a mission
• Study the past
• Keep it simple and do more with less

Lessons learned » During my internship at Circle (2001), Rob encouraged me to think beyond the what and how of design to consider the why. The studio designed annual reports for The North West Company, one of the longest continuing retailers in Northern Canada with roots dating back to 1668, committed to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and community engagement. Each year, the reports featured a different remote community, bringing the people and places behind the business into focus. One of my projects was creating a multimedia opener (using Macromedia Flash) for the company's annual general meeting, which I attended. As the reel came to a close, Rob quietly shook my hand—a small gesture that left a lasting impression on me.

Over time, I developed a keen interest in archiving and defined a design style rooted in minimalism. Fast-forward to today, I've come full circle with a mission to design annual reports for organizations in every province across Canada.

Ten Principles for Good Design by Dieter Rams

A decade later, I ventured into packaging design at Umbra (2007).

Realization » By then, I understood that as much as visual aesthetics matter, the purpose of design is to communicate as quickly and clearly as possible. This was also perhaps influenced in part by my uncle, an avid Consumer Reports reader who often voiced his opinion on how things could be better designed.

In 2018, director Gary Hustwit's documentary Rams examined industrial designer Dieter Rams' reflections on consumerism, including its implications for sustainability through the lens of his Ten Principles for Good Design (1976).

No. 2—Good design makes a product useful

"A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it."

No. 4—Good design makes a product understandable

"It clarifies the product's structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory."

No. 10—Good design is as little design as possible

"Less, but better—because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials."

Rams also posed 15 Questions in his book As Little Design as Possible, starting not with whether something should be designed, but how. Learning to question, while observing the industrial designers in the studio refine and produce numerous iterations of their products, gave me a deeper understanding of the process behind what it takes to bring an idea to market. Working alongside them and conducting multiple material fit tests laid the groundwork for eventually launching a product collection of my own.

Think Different by Apple

The now-iconic Think Different campaign by TBWA\Chiat\Day (1997) was a response to IBM's “Think” slogan and a way for Apple to declare itself a non-conformist. Through a series of TV spots, print ads and posters featuring portraits of historical figures and creative visionaries whose thinking and work actively changed their respective fields, Apple celebrated the power of thinking differently without showing or referencing its products.

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently… About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things… And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

That same year, the Power Macintosh entered my orbit, becoming the industry standard during my co-op placement in the art department at Yellow Pages. Looking back, it marked the beginning of many “different” decisions I would make throughout my career. The first, broadening my reach outside of my school district to find student placement. Then, graduating early and heading to college that fall, while my classmates returned for Grade 13.

Insight » After 25 years of designing reports, my perspective has shifted. Think different speaks to more than a creative mindset. It's not just about us or the creative concepts we present to clients, but rather what needs to be said. Words are as important as the visuals—because one informs the other. Today, my approach to creative direction begins with a conversation with the copywriter. Sometimes, an idea takes shape through words; other times, I might propose a title structure for sections within a publication, knowing it could lend itself to beautiful typography. It's a collaborative process that allows the narrative and visual language to evolve together.

The Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns

What began as a pursuit of graphic design evolved into an ambition to pursue entrepreneurship—and learning how to make creativity profitable. The transition from occasional freelancer to full-time practice required me to look at the services I was offering and reposition them.

Blair Enns' The Win Without Pitching Manifesto (2010) is an essential read (read it online). It presents 12 proclamations that challenge creative professionals to rethink the business of design: how we create value, communicate our expertise and price our work.

• No. 1—We Will Specialize
• No. 4—We Will Rethink What it Means to Sell
• No. 10—We Will Refuse to Work at a Loss

In 2022, I participated in Blair's workshop with the RGD, What is Design Worth? He walked us through several scenarios that prompted us to reconsider not what the market is willing to bear, but what clients are willing to pay—and how to respond to potential pricing objections. With this in mind, I began presenting annual reports as strategic publications rather than archives—tools that could leverage marketing efforts and strengthen corporate communications. This redirected client conversations away from selling a single service and toward helping them understand the lasting value of their investment. By being transparent about my pricing and separating creative direction fees from design fees, I could better demonstrate the value of the thinking behind the work.

Practical advice » If you haven't discovered Blair Enns and David C. Baker's podcast, 2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship, it's worth a listen!

The 325+ manifestos collected by DesignManifestos.org span decades of creative thought and a breadth of disciplines from graphic design, typography and arts and crafts to architecture, product design, sustainability and more recent perspectives on AI.

A manifesto isn't simply something to read or agree with; it's something to put into practice. Wherever you are in your career, these ideas will lead you to examine your work, reflect on your values and consider how your practice might evolve in response to changing times.