Zamir Antonio and Antoine Choussat are London-based designers and art directors, responsible for the collective Eat Sleep Work / Play. Their vibrant, chromatic compositions are favoured amongst London’s kicking and screaming scene of nightlife, through fashion and music circles such as the Boombox parties and designers Kokon to Zai and Gareth Pugh.
For Yohji Yamamoto’s A#2, Zamir and Antoine contributed two copies of their artistic manifesto for the new millenium, ‘Last Things Last’ – one in English and the other in Norwegian, originally written in Oslo for a 2004 graphic design exhibition. The new manifesto is an appropriation of Ken Garland’s 1964 manifesto ‘First Things First’, a call for pure and honest creativity from graphic designers who became unsatisfied with working purely on hollow advertising campaigns:
First Things First 1964
a manifesto
by Ken Garland
“We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.
By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.
In common with an increasing numer of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.
We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.”
Last Things Last 2004 a manifesto
by Antoine Choussat & Zamir Antonio
‘Thomas Edison said “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”. Without the one percent inspiration, all the perspiration in the world is only a bucket of sweat.
Design is better than fine art.
Designers are self-centered, but at least they know it.
Design must be playful, but it is to be considered seriously.
Work hard, play hard, do both at the same time.
Designers dispose and propose.
Design should be strategically thoughtful.
Never just do it, sometimes just do it, do it quick, do it right.
Never feel comfortable. Take risks. Produce original work.
The world is only black and white, there are no greys.
Burn your idols on a stick, and all your work while you are at it.
Fuck design, let’s dance.
Yes go ahead, take the last cookie.”
Antoine and Zamir’s manifesto is light-hearted, persuasive and inspirational, and prompted several interesting replies when the pair reached out to the wider artistic community, in an earnest plea for contribution and evolution of the manifesto – even offering a DIY envelope diagram in A#2 and their postal address (for artists to react on their work).
We recently got in touch with the duo and they so kindly provided us with the images below, of one of the special replies that they received to their open letter. This reply came from Dutch fine artist Willem Snitker, who wrote ‘life is a gift we often take for granted’ alongside a sample of his work. For Antoine and Zamir to see physical evidence of their work reaching out to others was a significant moment, as Antoine so poetically noted, ‘these replies completed our manifesto piece in A, and proved that people out there are ready and willing to go one step further in their interaction with print publications and their contributors!’
If you would like to react on their words, feel free to email us here!
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