Manifesto
As a student of Design in the early 2000s, Aphrodite was influenced by the late Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto published in 1964 which called on all creatives to use design for good.“There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning.”
– First Things First Manifesto, 1964.
Last updated: 1 February 2025.
The Illographo Press manifesto is to make publishing accessible and sustainable. We focus on originality, we value quality over quantity and we strive to create personal connections to counter mass consumerism. Illographo Press was established in 2021 with the goal of publishing original works that don't fit the mould of commercial publishing; connecting with diverse creatives; and supporting local and independent bookstores.
Sustainable printing
All Illographo Press publications are self-funded and independently produced open and limited editions sold directly by the author/publisher and distributed to select independent bookstores. Out-of-print titles are not reprinted (unless it’s a revised edition) to make space for new ideas and create more opportunities for collaboration. Paperless or digital editions of titles are also available. By printing in small quantities and designing with accessibility in mind, we elevate the value of each publication while keeping our production lean and reducing our carbon footprint.
Accessible publishing
Illographo Press believes that everyone has a story to tell and our vision is to give aspiring artists and writers a voice by giving them access and support to publish their work. We’d love to collaborate with creatives of all ages and abilities; from all religious, cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Send us a pitch for a story, an idea or creative project in English or any languages. We are open to publishing new zines and books that aligns with our ethos and we’re here to help creatives self-publish their work. The only requirements are originality, passion, patience, and perseverance to see your creative idea through to the end.
Breaking up with Big Tech and moving on with life
[Published in Cordite 117: NO THEME 14 issue - 12 August 2025]
Growing up in the 90s, we didn’t have internet, emails or smart phones, let alone tech apps or social media. We played out on the streets, read books, went to the cinemas, queued for concert tickets to see bands we heard on the radio, visited places we discovered through word of mouth and sent handwritten letters to each other. Meeting face to face was a big deal and without a mobile phone to bail out at the last minute, we all learned the art of waiting, noticing, and showing up. Analogue days were slow. There was no rush, no instant gratification, no followers watching your every move 24/7. If you had told me back then that one day it would take me 3 months to work up the courage to delete a bunch of pixel logos on a hand-held device that has consumed the lives of billions, including mine, I would’ve thought you’d gone mad.
Perhaps it was my millennial yearning for community and organic human connection that inspired me to create Wolfbound Books. But to really understand how our artist-led collective works, you need to understand where we came from. We have Filipino blood running through our veins and inherited trauma from our motherland’s colonial past. To this day, the Philippines is still nursing unhealed wounds from Spanish Colonialism and American Imperialism – this is why everything we do is an effort to decolonise our hearts and minds. Activism is in the DNA of the Wolfbound Books collective, which includes Illographo Press (publishing) and School of Zines (workshops). The idea for Wolfbound Books was formed in December 2023, as a reaction to Israel’s live-streamed genocide of the Palestinian people and the deafening silence of so-called “diverse” not-for-profit organisations in the arts, literary and publishing community I was a part of. I experienced first-hand how Pro-Palestinian and ethnic voices were being silenced, censored, and swept under the rug to appease funders, corporate partners, and the government. Palestine was my red line and I wanted to stand on the right side of history. Showing solidarity with the Palestinian resistance resulted in loss of job opportunities, projects, and income, but these sacrifices were minuscule compared to the ongoing suffering and ethnic cleansing that the Palestinian people have been enduring for over 75 years.
I spent the early months of 2024 re-building the world in my head and piecing together my broken sense of humanity and purpose. With the help of my partner and creative friends, all from migrant and refugee backgrounds, we healed together by co-creating a safe, inclusive and accessible space where art and activism serve the community. A space where human rights are not debatable, and where diversity is not a KPI but a gift to be nurtured. Wolfbound Books, Illographo Press, and School of Zines work hand in hand to empower creativity, celebrate diversity and foster community connection – this is how we plan to decolonise mindsets, stand up against capitalism and advocate for a free Palestine.
Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of tech and social media but I knew that I couldn’t possibly start up Wolfbound Books without them. Having previously worked as a Marketing & Comms Manager for a bookshop during the pandemic, I learned that social media and online engagement can make or break a business. I applied the same marketing principles to Wolfbound Books and it worked. We signed up for the works: Squarespace e-commerce, Square reader, PayPal, Google for Business, and a professional Instagram account. It was all too easy to set up and the integrations between each platform were seamless. Our online shop was our main income generator and Instagram was our primary communication channel, gaining over 6000 followers in just one year. The Wolfbound Books studio was only open 3 days a week but online, we were hustling 24/7. I didn’t even question any of it until Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States in November 2024 and I was reminded of what modern capitalism looked like. Seeing Big Tech CEOs Musk (X), Zuckerberg (Meta), Bezos (Amazon), and Pichai (Google) among other tech billionaires at the front row of Trump’s inauguration was a massive red flag. When Trump stood side by side with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back in February 2025 and proposed that the “US take over Gaza, level it and build resorts”, it was the last straw. It was terrifying to witness an oligarchical, Orwellian totalitarian state taking shape in real time and no one, not even the media, was questioning it.
It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots between Big Tech, digital colonialism, Western imperialism and Israel’s Occupation of Palestine. Michael Kwet writes:
“For decades, Silicon Valley has been supporting the Israeli apartheid regime, supplying the advanced technology and investment needed to power its economy and occupy Palestine. Today’s largest US-based technology corporations see an opportunity to profit from Israeli apartheid – a by-product of US-driven digital colonialism.”
Money is the lifeblood of Capitalism. Genocide and war crimes are methods of Colonialism. The only way to stop the war machine is to make it unprofitable to run. Without money, they have no power. The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement embodies this by encouraging individuals and organisations to boycott and divest from businesses and institutions that prop up the Israeli apartheid regime. We have no control over where our government spends our taxes but we, as individuals, can choose what we consume, which companies we support, and what causes we fund.
Back in March, we looked at Wolfbound Books’ brand values and our vision to establish what our ethical standards were. Drawing on guides from ethical.net, Ethical Consumer and boycott-israel.org, we reviewed our ways of working and digital systems to ensure that we’re investing in companies that valued human rights as we all should. We learned that PayPal, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google and other top tech companies were leaning towards right-wing politics, removing Diversity, Equality & Inclusion policies, and investing billions in Israeli operations which ultimately funds the genocide in Palestine. We could not in good conscience continue to use them. Once we had made our plan, we communicated our Big Tech Exit Strategy to all members of our community who will be affected by our transition — stockists, consignors, partners, collaborators, friends, followers, and subscribers.
We began deleting our accounts from platforms named in the BDS tech list: Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google, Microsoft, Amazon, among others. We replaced Google Suite, which we previously used for emails, document editing and file management, with Protonmail — a free and secure email service powered by community, not surveillance capitalism. We downloaded all our content, inventory, data, and sales reports from Google’s servers before deleting them. We migrated our website content from our previous Squarespace sites and redirected their URLs into one simplified website on Cargo. In the current media and political climate, we’ve concluded that we have more to gain by deleting our social media accounts— Instagram and YouTube—and focusing on our in-person experiences.
Big Tech will make it difficult for you to leave because you’re no use to them if you’re not on their platform consuming their propaganda, buying their ads, playing their games, taking selfies and feeding your facial and personal data to their AI. They’ll make you go through a maze to find the delete button. They’ll even hold your account for 30 days in case you change your mind. Hold your ground. Breaking up with Big Tech is hard but only in the beginning. Once you quit, you’ll realise that you didn’t really need them at all. You’ll start to assess your own consumer behaviour and choices. Why do I need to sign up? What am I really signing up for? Where does my money go? Is there a more ethical alternative?
We have yet to find an ethical e-commerce alternative that doesn’t use Pro-Israel payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe, so we decided to pivot and trade 100% offline in person with cash, PayID and EFTPOS options. We survived a Zine Fair without a Square reader (or as most call it, ‘tappy thing’). Some people walked away because it was too inconvenient but those who get it happily did the extra work to pay the ethical way. Those are our people. These days, people just tap and go, turning the art of bookselling and the zine fair experience into a business transaction rather than a meaningful exchange. Boycotting Big Tech and letting go of some modern conveniences may have slowed us down but it has given us a fresh perspective on life, and even made bookselling more fulfilling!
Buying a book at Wolfbound Books is no longer an instant transaction. People linger long enough for us to introduce ourselves and shake hands. By the time someone finds loose change in their bag to pay cash or sort out PayID, we’ve chatted so much that they no longer feel like a customer but an old friend. As it turns out, boycotting Big Tech makes for a great ice breaker. People ask questions—Why are you boycotting? Should I boycott too? How?—and we jump at the opportunity to educate them and challenge our own beliefs as well. Some engage us in a debate to test our knowledge and conviction, so we exercise our freedom of speech, we listen and learn. We don’t know all the answers but we’re all for starting a conversation. Even if we don’t change anyone’s minds, the fact that we make them re-think their relationship with Big Tech and social media is a win. On a good day, a few people would leave us with an encouraging smile, an affirming nod and a heartfelt: “Good on you!” Those acts of kindness and genuine human connection is priceless, and it’s what keeps Wolfbound Books going.
“What difference would boycotting Big Tech make?” is a question we’re always asked. It’s the voice of self-doubt that nags us every day. It’s true that Google, Meta and all these tech companies have billions of users all over the world—Wolfbound Books is only one of them. Deleting and deactivating our accounts won’t even make a dent as more users sign up every day. It might seem like we are a lone wolf going against these giants, but we know that we are not alone. We are part of a growing resistance. We are not just deleting one account or stopping a single transaction, we are divesting our lives from Big Tech from here on out. That’s up to 30 years of consumer lifespan being liberated from the capitalist machine. Even if just one person follows our example, the impact will already be doubled. That is the power of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Small consistent actions over time can create real change. A drop of water can send ripples across the ocean.
As of 1 July 2025, Wolfbound Books has switched off our online shop and re-invested our time and resources towards nurturing our offline community, enriching our physical spaces, and investing in in-person events. We hope to continue to run monthly Open Days and zine workshops from our studio at the Arts & Cultural Exchange in Parramatta, participate in zine fairs and book fairs across Australia and abroad, and collaborate with other artist-run community initiatives. If we are successful, you won’t hear about it.
We are fully aware that we will lose income and patrons by going in this direction but, true to our ethos, it is Art that sustains us, not profit. This is exactly how things were done back in the 90s, I remember, and look how creative and resilient we turned out! Now more than ever, we need to challenge the status quo, shift our mindsets and be the change we want to see in the world. We all have rights by virtue of being human but it’s up to us to uphold them.
“If you’re lucky, you realise early on that each decision you make answers a question that all of us muddle through: how to build meaning in our lives. Meaning is not something you stumble across or what someone gives you; you build it through every choice you make, the commitments you choose, the people you love, and the values you hold dear.”
– Maria Ressa, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight For Our Future
We acknowledge the Burramattagal people of the Dharug Nation as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land where we live, work and create. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
We stand in solidarity with Palestine and the oppressed peoples of the world. We stand for Justice, Human Rights and Freedom.