Manifestos

In order to get an idea of what designers and studios deem as what modern design should be, manifestos published by the manifesto project (http://www.manifestoproject.it). 

Disrepresentation Now! Experimental Jetset 2010

The manifesto written in 2001 does not align with their design ideology today. 
Disrepresentation should be Non-representationism.
Functionality and amoralism are not used anymore. Looking back they state their work is moralistic. 

Political qualities of graphic design are situated foremost in its aesthetic dimension. 

1. Theo Van Doesburg's point on both painting reflects the modernist principles of objectivity and functionalism. Representative paintings are suggestive, tendentious and false. 

2. Jetset relates this representation to the filed of advertising where its design "is inherently representative". Advertising is never about its own message but about something else.
Advertising uses design and techniques to describe and represent appearances other than itself.
Presentative graphic design underlines its own physical appearance e.g. logo design. The message of the logo has to represent the value of the company. Advertising makes products look like they represent an ideology that doesn't necessarily align with the appearance of the company. 

3. When "causes" are formulated outside of a design context and imposed superficially onto a piece of design, it becomes tendentious, representative and as a result reactionary. This evaluation of the design process can be related to the more superficial and subjective nature off ugly design because ugly design incorporates more pictorial and more literal forms in its style. It can be said its a form of representative design.

5. "To create a piece of design as a functional entity, as an object in itself, is the most social and political act a designer can perform." If functionality is regarded as being paramount, then ugly design should be evaluated to how well its functions with regard to its context and concept. Experimental Jetset refers to functionality as being colour, form, type, spacing, paper, ink, space, time, object, function and most importantly context and concept. 

Context and concept should be the way to evaluate the success of ugly design.

Otherwise Forget It. Bob Gill

He states designers are to be problem solves if they want to survive in a world where computer and technology has made it easier for designers to create, which removes the mystique of ordinary design and print. Gil's description go what designers prefer to do, can be seen in the subjective tendencies of ugly design. 

"They get these tricks for the culture. Most designers spend their time trying to emulate whats supposed to be hot, whats current, whats trendy." Itsnicethat.com is a prime example of a resource informing readers of whats trendy and current. Looking at this website, it si clear that ugly design is trending. If designers want to create something that's original, how can they if culture tells everyone the same thing. Therefore it can be said that ugly design inspires other designers to create ugly design. 
"Most designers are not very interested in problem solving. They're more interested in producing work that looks good." Bob Gill offers a statement that supports the rationales behind the 'ugliness' of ugly design. 

Ten Principles for good design. Dieter Rams

These rules can be a reference point to judge the effectiveness of ugly design and its purpose. However Rams was a product designer. Therefore he talks in terms of products, design as a whole. Nevertheless the designs these ugly designers create should be treated in the same manner because of their public domain. 

First Things First 2000

For the most part, work done by modernists have in turn made the graphic designer create more commercial work. This manifesto is aimed to hopefully change all that and promote more work that demonstrates the skill and creativity of graphic designers. More importantly it calls on to create more 'design' rather than advertisements which are not honest forms of design as explained by Dieter Rams. 

Experimental Jetsets manifesto to call for non-representation on design is similar to the message of First Things First. They both call for a shift away from advertising and commercial work. Although they do not have entirely the same message. First Things First calls for more recognition of the designer where as Jetset's manifesto calls for design to be more honest.