Manifestos, Mottos & Mantras
What is it?
By definition mottos and mantras are a brief induction of words to localize and self-interpret an ideology, belief or ethical/moral stance to give the reader a unique motivational boost of morality and to retain their thought to focus on life/ideological goals.
What it means to me and my Intentions
To me it means resetting my core values and allowing me to find my foundation again whilst re-equipping and reminding myself with a stance of succession and motivational thought.
For this I will be going back to the naturalistic foundation, (where everything starts) I want to explore depiction of an naturalistic settings/mottos to create a sense of self evaluation and judgement, resetting societal and personal standards and removing corruption within the mindset. I want my manifesto to convey a story with a meaning which picks me up and resets my core values.
Dadaists
The Dadaism movement and artform began during the first World War in the neutral country of Switzerland, Zürich. It was a moral judgement against the atrocities and recklessness committed during the ongoing war. The artform contained satirical, mocking and “modernism” in an attempt to reclaim a higher conscious and to confirm a perpetuated position of politics/life.
Hugo Ball was the instigator of the Dadaists, his intentions were to destroy traditional set values in art by replacing them with a new courageous artform. His radical left-wing affiliations and pro anti-war stance meant that his artform mocked policies, leaders, etc. Through defiling artistic material and uncorrelated sporadic imagery.
Unique Qualities & Characteristics of Dadaists
- Humorous and Satirical
- Nonsensical
- Mocking authority/capitalism
- Montage of photos
- Spontaneity imagery
- Rustic colour palate and artform
Some examples of Dadaists:
Hugo Ball
Tristan Tzara
Surrealism
Surrealism begun as a cultural revolution post World War 1 in an attempt to break creative boundaries and to revise the outlook on visual lifeform through the use of irrational, unconventional and unconscious art style creating a distorted view and bringing dreams to reality.
The founder, André Breton saw that by using this artform it overthrew the oppressive and conservative rules/values of modern society by demolishing its backbone of rational thought thus entering a phase of ‘super reality’. Quoting his aim, “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dreams and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality.”
Characteristics of Surrealists
- Morphing visual dreams into reality
- Pastel tone
- Irrational & Surreal imagery
- Disjointed narrative
- Juxtaposing images
- Distorted reality
- Creatively obscene
Some examples of Surrealists:
Salvador Dali
The Great Masturbator (1929) The Persistence of Memory (1931)
Max Ernst
The Barbarians (1937)
Created in 1917 by two pioneering Dutch Abstract artists, Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doesburg. Originally a publication, De Stijl which means ‘The Style’ in Dutch promoted ideas on art and abstraction. Soon enough ‘De Stijl’ turned into a movement consisting of uncoordinated yet precise geometric shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, lines, etc. De Stijl
Characteristics & Qualities of De Stijl
- Geometrical patterns (horizontal & vertical)
- Contrasting colour palate
Some examples of ‘the style’:
Theo van Doesburg
Composition in Gray (1919)
Piet Mondrian
Victory Boogie Woogie
Research
Colour Palate
For my finished piece I wanted to use a lowkey matte colour palate. This led me onto looking at California sunset photos combined with the colours of apple/maple trees to create a calm and soothing scene whilst also sticking to the naturalistic theme.
I decided to use these colours:
Font – Roboto (BOLD)
For my typeface, I chose Tahoma (bold) to cover my Manifesto. The reason for this is the proportions of the letters are evenly balanced thus making it easier to read and catch on to the message, also prescribes a sense of calmness. It also retains a certain curvature aesthetic without being to informal.
Graphics
For my graphics I am inspired by a famous Informative YouTube channel Kurzgesagt as I have idolized their graphics/illustrated artform for a while. It fits into the aesthetic which I want my mantra to convey – calmness, earthliness and proportionate.
– KurzgesagtOther inspirations:
Manifesto:
I decided to create a mind map on Miro which concludes all of my ideas so far.
My manifesto was to be about nature, and symbolizing humanity and nature in an almost metaphorical way. A few words popped into my mind such as growth, blossom and, sprout. E.g. A branch is a human, blossoming is the process & fruiting is the goal.
Option 1:
“A branch always has a chance to regrow and outgrow”
Option 2:
“Be the branch that stretches the longest, grows the biggest and blooms the brightest”
I decided to pick option 2 as it struck out the most and conveyed better story.
Sketches:
I found drawing on paper abnormal for me as I am so use to using programs on the computer such as Photoshop and illustrator. I decided to draw three sketches of the same nature and came to the conclusion that Sketch number ‘3’ looked more ambitious and atheistically pleasing than the rest. (Scribbles = manifesto)
I decided to further my chosen sketch in more detail by redrawing sketch 2.
To finalise my sketch, I decided to use vector based Illustrator.
I tried to go by the golden ratio guideline as much as possible to give the illustration a satisfactory eye catching position as it will be amongst the writing.
Final outcome
I am very happy at the outcome of the manifesto and capturing the desired aesthetic, graphics and colours.
