Manifesto

Project 01: Creating a Manifesto

 

What is a Manifesto?

A Manifesto is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer. The manifesto is a means of expressing and publicising ideas for an artist.

Manifestos can be used as powerful tools for change or revolution. Therefore I feel it is important that my manifesto comes from a personal place, to be powerful to my mindset in tough times, if not others.

Research- Artist Mantras and Quotes

Beginning this project, I decided to research quotes and posters from artists that I’m inspired by; Salvador Dali, Renee Magritte and Vincent Van Gogh.

Salvador Dali

The reason I chose the first quote was Dali’s message behind motivation. What I take from this is that, procrastinating creating something because you’re afraid of failure is pointless. Pure perfection in your own mind is nearly impossible so the important thing is to just try.

The second quote from Dali makes me think what you put your time into is important. It is good to have ambition but if you don’t have a structure or a set goal in mind it is useless.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Renee Magritte as an artist inspires me a lot because of his ability to trick the mind in his own way.

What I think the message of the first quote is that dreams can inspire life just as well as life can inspire dreams.

The second quote makes me think that, art is important it allows the mind to be set free and bend reality even just foe a moment.  This is an essential part of Renee Magritte’s art and I think it speaks very true to me.

The third quote really inspires me personally because sometimes ideas can come from everyday life.


Vincent Van Gogh was a very influential artist to me when I was younger, I was always drawn to his creative use of colour and impasto to create texture in his paintings. They always seemed to evoke so much emotion when you look at them.

 

This first quote of his made me think about how important it is to be brave when exploring your creativity because you never know where it can take you. One of the greatest things art can offer is the freedom to explore new ideas and your individulity.

 

This next quote by Vincent Van Gogh I think celebrates the idea that an individual is as important as the greater picture.

Small acts of kindness can make a stranger’s life better. Small acts of environmentalism such as correctly sorting waste and walking when possible could, in part, change the world.

This sentiment in particular is one of my favourites . The idea that at times when I feel insignificant or uncreative, I can still contribute to something, anything, no matter how small.

 

 

 


Research- Posters and Illustrations

I then went through Pinterest to look at posters and illustrations and saved them. I went through the posts is saved and analysed what components of the poster drew my eye to them in the first place. These were my favourite illustrations I found.

I enjoyed the colour scheme of the first poster; I liked the contrast between the dark shadows and the vibrant highlights, they really draw the eye to the image. This is the effect I would like to replicate for the design of my manifesto.

Similarly, with the second poster, I found the colours used really beautiful and I enjoy how they juxtapose each other, to create depth within the illustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The illustration of the woman sitting meditating really inspired me for the main design of the manifesto. Her hair being used to show a colourful pattern of leaves and nature. I feel it really shows the energy you can draw from your own mind.

 

 

 

This last poster I think is very bright and eye catching. I really enjoyed the even line-work and how it really defines and emphasises the man and the piano and creates depth.

 

 

 


Designing My Own Manifesto

The Text

The main themes for what I wanted to say are;

  • Motivation
  • Individuality
  • Confidence in yourself and work

The manifesto ideas that spawned from those themes are;

  1. “Never Compare Your Art to Others, Strength is in your Individuality” 
  2. “It is Important to be Free Yourself From The Fear of Failure, You Can’t Create In Doubt”
  3. Just Take a Pencil to Paper and See What You Can Do, Even at Your Most Uncreative,
    You Can Surprise Yourself”
  4. “We’re All Different, In The Same Way”
  5. “We are all Unique, But We Are All Connected”

Out of those ideas, my favourites are 1,3 and 5, Which I will use as inspiration for poster designs.


The Design

I then began to sketch designs for posters that came to mind when I really thought about how these statements made me feel. They are a baseline idea to develop further into a fully formed design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The design I’m going to continue developing is the ‘We are all unique but we are all connected’

To get more inspiration for the design, I looked up some designers that creatively use typography.

The first artist I looked at was Alex Trochut, who is a spanish artist now based in New York, he’s designed album covers for both Katy Perry and The Rolling Stones. These are some of my favourites of his work;


I love the simplicity and minimalism of the design on the left. It really makes the actual design of the typography stand out.

I chose the design on the right because it’s different than others I’ve seen, I think it’s a brave use of colour and different patterns that I think I could take inspiration from. The point of my manifesto is to show uniqueness while being apart of a bigger piece therefore I think the quirky aspect of the design I could take inspiration from.

 

 

 

Another artist I liked was Marian Banjtes who is a designer from Canada, these are some of my favourites work of hers;

 

I really like how she connects her typography together,seeing these gives me a lot of ideas for my own designs.

 

 

 

I enjoy the hand-drawn look of her designs and how complex yet easily read each of the designs are.

 

Following this, I then sketched some more ideas for my Manifesto;

The first thing I did was change the quote slightly to be more personal to me as that is part of the project.

In the first sketch I tried to link every word together to emphasise the idea of being connected . This sketch took more influence from Marian Banijtes.

In the second sketch I tried to keep it more minimal like Alex Trochut and use black and white colours to make it stand out.

The third sketch I tried to use colour as maximally as Alex Trochut did and I thought breaking it up into sections allowed for some spaces to put the text.

 

 

I then created digital versions of these designs;

 

 

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