F.T. Marinetti, “Manifesto of Futurism”; Aleksandr Rodchenko, “Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group”; and El Lissitzky, “Our Book” are found in our main text Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong on pages 19-31.
In the beginning of the 20th century, Avant Garde designers were trying to confront their societal changes they were seeing through industrializations. Within the chaos of technological advancements and the world slowly recuperating from the events of the Great War, the young artists spoke in manifestos by making new designs in both posters and books, trying to create order and meaning with new visuals in vocabularies. Embracing mass communications and scourging aesthetic conventions and ornaments, they looked towards the machine for inspiration as it was seen as untainted visuals. Perfect for fitting new and untouched forms which caused new ideas to spring up, spreading and clashing alike, they have created movements that formed the modern foundation the graphic design industry emerged from.
This is one of the events that happened during the 20th century and the way manifestos were written during that time. Another event was the Manifesto of Futurism by Fillipo Tomaso Marinetti. In this manifesto, Marinetti hailed the beauty of the new machines being made and the energy created by them and glorified violence by destroying museums and libraries but were not limited to those places. The movement also tried using the working class to rise up and take charge in advancement for the future and sought to destroy anything that they deemed insignificant to their cause such as feminism, moralism, and utilitarianism.
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