Ruben Pater

Capitalism could not exist without the coins, banknotes, documents, information graphics, interfaces, branding, and advertisements made by graphic designers. Even anti-consumerist strategies such as social design and speculative design are appropriated to serve economic growth. It seems design is locked in a cycle of exploitation and extraction, furthering inequality and environmental collapse. CAPS LOCK uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. The book features designed objects and also examines how the study, work, and professional practice of designers support the market economy. Six radical design cooperatives are featured that resist capitalist thinking in their own way, hoping to inspire a more socially aware graphic design.

How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and How to Escape from It

Caps Lock

Krystal

There are almost as many CEOs named John, as there are female CEOs, in the 2018 Fortune 500.

…it is almost impossible to practice graphic design today without turning everything into a desirable product. Daniel van der Velden calls this ‘the problem of luxury’. In our late capitalist society graphic design can no longer claim neutrality and be used for ‘pure and objective’ communication.

For the upper classes a connection to the internet, to fashion, to what we call ‘the first world’ is easy. But for most of the population, piracy is a necessity; it means access to culture, development, and education, but most of all it’s about the economy, a way of living, culture, and a way of consuming modernity. 

Brand personalities were created to fill the void of the absent craftsmen. Now those working for brands have to hide their personality of the corporation.

Branding has become a promotional vehicle that disconnects the conditions of actual production, the workers, and the materials, from how products are sold. 

Joasia Fidler-Wieruszewska

Today, designers are seen as the ideal Post-Fordist workers, because they work almost exclu- sively on intellectual property and immaterial products, and they embrace creativity and individuality. Sooner or later, designers too will be challenged by the same forces of global competition that laid off industrial workers. With the rise of algorithmically produced design and online job platforms for design services such as Fiverr and a growing designer class, the question is not if design will remain a viable profession in post-industrial societies under capitalism, but for how long.

As the economies in the Global North shifted to the ervice economy, areas such as marketing and design expanded. Th shift from blue-collar to white-collar work is known as Post-Fordism. Deregulation of labour laws made flexible contracts the rule rather than the exception. This rising class of workers with flexible contracts, permanent uncertainty, and faced with the pressure of being always available and promoting oneself, has become known as the precariat. One characteristic of the Post-Fordist work ethic is that it demands all workers to be creative and flexible beyond their formal work requirements.

The factory owners embraced the Protestant work ethic, preaching hard work as a moral, individual duty that benefited society as a whole. This religious foundation still shapes the moral dedication towards work under capitalism. The Protestant work ethic is heralded as the origin of high productivity and wealth in the Anglo-Saxon and Northern European countries, even though this ignores the role of slavery, resource extraction, and unpaid reproductive labour without which capitalism could not exist.

„There is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work because that is their lot." This quote from Ecclesiastes 3.20 isa testimony of how the European view of work was largely shaped by Christianity. Religious doctrine held that work was a blessing, and repetitive or heavy labour-like that of monks who meticulously copied manuscripts-was seen as a service to God. Sociologist and philosopher Max Weber wrote about this in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). In this influential work he proposed that there was such a thing as a capitalist work ethic, which sprung directly from the Protestant values of work, which were punctuality and frugality. At the heart of Weber's argument is the term 'calling' (Beruf in German), a term that did not exist prior to Protestantism. One's calling' (from God) meant that hara work was the highest duty in society, 'which man has to accept as a divine ordinance, to which he must adapt himself." Work was just an economic necessity, it becanme a 'moral practice and lective ethical obligation', as Kathi Weeks writes in The Problems with Work.

The political involvement of US fruit companies in Latin America has led to decades of unstable governments and armed violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia. Guatemala suffered the most, and is still one of the most violent countries in Latin America. Between 2011-2012, seven banana union members were murdered in Guatemala. Colombia has been scarred by violence for decades, and scandals still surround the activities of United Fruit Company, now rebranded as Chiquita International. In 2007 they admitted paying $1.7 million to death squads in Colombia, to silence union organizers and intimidate farmers.

On the assembly line, mass-produced products don't present a very appealing narrative. A handmade shoe that is directly bought from the shoemaker has a clear value, as you know how much time, energy, and passion went into it, and advertising is not even needed. But a mass-produced shoe contains little or no information. Who assembled the shoe? Where do the leather and laces come from? Who designed it? Where was it made? What materials went into it? Were the workers paid well? We don't know, because this information is often inaccessible to the consumer. The social relations that constitute the capitalist economy are transformed into products (a shoe), which in turn are made up of smaller products (laces, leather, rubber).

Graphic designers can be more critical of their role in how everyday life is enclosed and commodified for profit.

[In the 1960] Conformity was replaced by individual expression through consumption.

The process of enclosure of the commons in society, where shared spaces available to everyone that aren't privately owned are seized and sold off, from healthcare, to housing, to nature, often happens through branding. (…) 

Branding shows that capitalism sees everything as a product, and every social encounter as a sales opportunity.

Designers cannot claim ignorance and externalize all ethics to the client.

Part of the popularity of branding comes from the irresistible human urge to leave identity marks as a reminder of someone's existence.

Brand personalities were created to fill the void of the absent craftsmen.

The modernist corporate identity form has claimed a universal design language, which was assumed to be the best form of com- munication for all countries and in any culture. This claim has been challenged by designers who point out that this is a very limited view of what design is, rooted in a Eurocentric modernist design Culture. The corporate identity studios were also notably uncritical of capitalism and its worst excesses. Many designers sincerely believed that merely applying a modernist style was a radical act, while ignoring the actual political struggles of the time. 

While designers compared logotypes, activists put the spotlights on corporations, revealing financial malpractice, labour exploitation, tax evasion, and the extraction of resources. In light of such a lack of morality, the professional modernist branding that designers provide has proven to successfully obfuscate corporate wrongdoings. 

The partners of Chermayeff & Geismar-who branded oil companies, banks, and pharmaceutical companies-explain their view vorporate identity design as follows in Printmag:When we a great logo for an environmental organization, we do not Gourselves as saving the planet. In the same way, we cannot take responsibility for the "evil" actions of corporations we brand.

Total Design was criticized in the Netherlands for designing everything from phonebooks to corporate identities in the same style, flattening any cultural or historic differences and qualities in the name of technological progress and efficiency.

Handwork and recognizable personal expression by the designer was considered inefficient and unwelcome for corporate design.

The design of these first corporate identities established many of the rules that are considered standard today, such as using grids and measurement systems, consistent colour use, and simple layout rules with simple and recognizable logotypes. Design theorist Philip Meggs writes how Unimark 'rejected individualistie design and believed that design could be a system, a basic strue ture set up so that other people could implement it effectively.

taylor miles hopkins

A long time coming!! A wonderful resource and thoughtful, densely-researched work (with Pater’s amazing ability to remain absolutely approachable and concise). Will be referring to it for years to come within my own practice, my teaching, and as a general human that questions the way things are. 

Beautifully designed book that delves into the practice of graphic design and the various role its played alongside capitalism and its rise. An absolute delight to both the mind and the eyes. 

Isabella Chiara Vicco 

The beginning of the book covers the history of design and capitalism more in depth than what I had previously learned in school. It was probably the most interesting part up until halfway when the writing and ideas become really scattered and it was difficult to keep up with what the author was getting at. It started to become painful to read so had to call it quits.

Me gustó mucho. Si bien la primera parte que es más histórica es interesante, la segunda aborda la problemática contemporánea del diseño, y se vuelve crítico con las estructuras hegemónicas europeas, algo raro en libros de aquellas latitudes. Lo interesante, pero nada raro, es cómo esas problemáticas se adaptan muy bien a las realidades de mi país -México- y de Latinoamérica. Recomendable.

Caps Lock How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and How to Escape from It

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