IXD101 – Manifesto

Creating a Manifesto

I want my manifesto to invoke dedication and persistence. I want to be able to portray the understanding that you cannot always be at your best, and that it is okay to fail from time to time.

Here are a few quotes I have considered:

  • It always seems impossible until it’s done.
  • Strive for progress, not perfection.
  • It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it.

In order to come up with ideas for this project, I compiled a collection of sources in which to focus my research on:

Link to Miro Mindmap

I decided that I liked the first quote from my list the best – “it always seems impossible until it’s done.” This quote is from Nelson Mandela. I thought it was very powerful, and motivational for the work I am going to be doing.

Sketching

I proceeded to create a few sketches of my initial ideas:

After receiving feedback from my lecturers, we agreed that my text-based designs seem to be the strongest, so I should focus more on creating a piece that solely uses typography and not illustration.

I quickly created one other sketch, with the idea of typography in mind. I liked this idea because it made use of both the background and text, blending them together. My next step is to begin transferring these ideas to a graphics software, in order to create my final design.

Creating Graphics

The software I have decided to use to create my manifesto is Figma, which I am quite new to, but due to its similarities to Adobe Illustrator I have been able to pick up on it quite quickly.

I decided to create a draft of my first sketch, where the text is aligned towards the left. I highlighted the word impossible in red, because it is both the longest and most important word of the quote, and I feel that red goes well with the black and white colour scheme of the design.

The same design without the bottom text, and the text moved up slightly:

I decided to change the background and text colour to teal. This also matches the theme of my blog.

I felt that the design was going well, but needed it to be stronger. I felt it was too dark at the moment, so I decided to try adding some white into the design.

I liked the idea of having a line going through the text, because it made the background feel less empty and boring. However, I felt that a plain line was too simple. I decided to try out the idea with an arrow instead.

This was the idea I was going for, but I didn’t like the design of the arrow, as I had used the arrow tool instead of creating it myself with shapes. I decided to try out the latter solution, to create an arrow better fit to my design.

This was my final design.

Review

While I do think my manifesto design had improved from my initial designs, I do still think it wasn’t up to the standard I wanted. It still felt far too plain, and the use of only one colour made it seem very boring. The layout of the text wasn’t very exciting, and the piece felt empty and barren.

I decided to go back and create a mood-board to evoke some inspiration, and then create new sketches from there.

From this mood-board, I have been able to generate a number of ideas. I particularly like the idea of using newspaper cutouts as the main typography of the manifesto.

Sketches

I decided to make up a few sketches, using my mood-boards as inspiration.

Again, I like the middle idea the most, with the centred text and the letters coming from newspaper cutouts. I want to try and attempt this idea on Photoshop.

Editing

I downloaded a pack of newspaper cutout letters from here, which I then used in my piece.

Final Image

I like this design a lot more than my previous one, as it has more character to it. However, it is still simple, with a plain background. The grainy overlay helps to add a retro, aged effect to the design. I also like how the word “impossible” stands out, and the rest is in monotone, as it is the centre of the image and is very eye-catching.

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