(Hippocratic) Oaths’

‘I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.’

This is one of the more famous quotes from the Hippocratic Oath, the oath that some (not all as is commonly supposed) doctors take. Other bits talk a lot about pessaries and gods, but more relevantly it goes on to say:

‘In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.’

In short doctors (or some of them) swear to:

• Put the interests of their patients first.
• Not use their status and ability to gain advantage over those they work with.
• Respect their patient’s confidences.

This oath is over 2300 years old but despite its archaic formulation still covers the important parts of the doctor patient relationship. Now obviously some doctors do naughty stuff like murdering their patients, seducing their patients or extreme cases patching their patients up so they can be tortured; again and again. But this post isn’t about global politics, but is about the politics of design. What do we believe in? What do we stand for? What are our obligations to our clients and our users?

If VisCom designers were going to swear an oath what we swear on, what would we swear to do? The First Things First Manifesto (the original by Ken Garland) is a lovely and entirely appropriate piece of work. It tells us what, in an ideal world, we should do. I applaud the manifesto, but observe that when I was working designer my inclinations were quite simply to earn as much money as I can, as quickly as I could to cover those luxuries of being a designer in London: feeding my family, buying my daughter a buggy and getting an occasional haircut. Little things all, but they seemed important at the time.

In short the FTFM (the original) is the ten commandments of graphic design. As set of aspirations that are daily watered down by the general needs of graphic designers to stay alive and keep being a graphic designer.

It might be better to have a set of guides that would govern the relationship between designer, client and user. At least we would know when we were being bad, overstepping the bounds and letting ourselves down.

Perhaps something like this might do:

I swear by Schoeffer, the first art director, by Games, Tschichold, and Bass, and I take to witness all the great designers, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:

To hold the values of the society of designers and communicators to my heart, and to treat my fellow designers as my brothers and sisters.

I will design for the users of my designs according to my best ability and my truest judgment and never create designs that knowingly brings harm to the world.

I will not design work that brings harm to the world just because I am asked (with money or fame waved in my face), nor will I advise such a plan; and I will not allow harm to come to anyone when through my designs if I might prevent it.

I will render honest and truthful service to my clients and actively promote the well being of users through my work.

I will not claim expertise in areas where I have none and will not pitch for jobs where peers will render a better service; I will leave this work to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this field.

In every place where I come I will enter only for the good of my clients and the user, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all people and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, I may no longer call myself a designer.