It hurts to say this, but here I go: Print Magazine disappoints me more and more. After the redesign that downgraded its status, this time I'm in shock while reading — I take that back — while looking at First Person: Design Manifesto 'A debriefing, a creed, and analysis incorporating brands, lies, exploitation, and love' by Michael Ian Kaye (page 62, issue July/August 2005).


and


And so on, and so forth. What is this? A long poem set in upper case, followed by a long tirade against brands and marketing in the form of few pages mocking corporate ID books, brand values, brand positioning perceptual maps, brand communication and finally a few lists of brand consultancies with a gloomy "THE END IS NEAR" in overprinted black capitals. It seems like a distasteful joke, only it's not. Can this be really published in Print, the magazine of/for graphic designers? Let me quickly throw in some bullets pointing out why I think this is so off-limits:

· Print Magazine itself is a brand (only recently refreshed). Bashing brands and branding may turn against the pages that host the article;
· The issue is full of advertising to the brim. Bashing brands may offend the advertisers — people and organizations that make the magazine's existence possible;
· Some of its paying readers / subscribers are marketers or designers working in branding (like myself) or advertising and the article may offend them as well;
· Although pompously baptised as 'manifesto,' the piece seems to me poorly written and badly designed;
· "Design is love" may sound pretty but it's only hot air;
· Naomy Klein and Adbusters are out of fashion;

Can this be the same Michael Ian Kaye I googled to this Speak Up comment?


If he is, than building brands is what he's doing for a living. I don't get it, is this some kind of twisted humor, a public confession (rows of "Lies" set in different typefaces and sizes) or a weird kind of public professional self-immolation ("THE END IS NEAR")?



Let me summarize: in an issue dedicated to sustainability, Print publishes a design 'manifesto' that attacks the magazine, the clients, the fellow designers and marketers under the "Design is love" mantra. Now that's sustainability, bravo!

Sadly, in spite of a few good articles (including the memorable Right Stuff by Rick Poinor, about design ethics) Print Magazine disappoints me again. This is a subscription I won't renew, I suppose.