| Thirty-three well-known graphic design practitioners, critics, and educators signed the First Things First 2000 (FTF 2000) manifesto in the fall of 1999, adding their names to a manifesto about the profession of graphic design. The discussion of FTF 2000, which connected professionals across the discipline, was used as an entry into research exploring graphic designers' perceptions of FTF 2000 and networks of power/knowledge. Open-ended interviews with nine graphic designers (FTF 2000 signatories, prominent practitioners, and rank-and-file designers) living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, or New York City metropolitan areas were used to gather data. Preliminary analysis revealed that tension is a dominant theme in the participants' reactions to FTF 2000 and in their work lives. Foucauldian, post-structuralist theory was used to analyze the data and preliminary findings to evaluate networks of power/knowledge in graphic design discourse. Graphic design power/knowledge is the binding of power with knowledge that is visible as individual actions, processes, and struggles that compose the graphic design profession. Power/knowledge was identified as the ways in which graphic design discourse invests graphic designers with the ability to create change in the world. FTF 2000 was identified as a point of confrontation in which power/knowledge relations become visible. Through self surveillance, such as the use of standards to evaluate work, graphic designers exert pressure upon themselves as power/knowledge. Actions are produced when power/knowledge is asserted, such as a decision to critique FTF 2000 or to pursue its goals. Graphic design power/knowledge is enacted to pursue specific objectives, which include the pursuit of increased profits for graphic designers and may include the implementation of a governing board. Networks of power/knowledge are complex and multifaceted, and compose the field of graphic design.;This research demonstrates how post-structuralist, Foucauldian theory can be used as a new lens through which practitioners, educators, and researchers can view the profession. To help the profession move forward, reevaluating the underlying assumptions of graphic design discourse---the central project of Foucauldian analysis---can guide future discussions and actions to help graphic design develop as a discipline. |
