What can you say?

Personal Manifesto

The aim of this project was to 'design a personal manifesto of information based on aspirations and experiences'. I initially interpreted the question 'What can you say?' literally by starting this project with research into manifesto itself, I then considered other factors like who I can influence, who I am and who influences me. This led me to look at some of the things that make me who I am. (my background, faith, environment, heritage, family and cultural history) I didn't find this research extremely beneficial as creating a manifesto based on the information gathered wouldn't be a personal one. 

In terms of research I looked at the graphic treatments by Hannah Viktorsson for her manifesto. This influenced the direction I took as it led me to consider how literal I want to be in terms of the content of my manifesto as well as how I want to present it visually. Conceptually, I decided that I wanted my manifesto to be a reflective and thought provoking one, not only for me but also for the audience. Rather than using statements I decided to use general questions as they reflect my character better. As an individual I spend a lot of time reflecting therefore I think this approach to writing my manifesto is the most suitable. 

Visually, I didn't want to simply create a poster as I felt that was too predictable. I decided to try something new and be more experimental which led me to choose to use a mirror for my final outcome. Initially I wanted to use handwriting for the text but as I began experimenting with different styles of type that the best outcome was to use an existing font and rather than create my own type I decided to use an existing typeface (Haettenschweiler) and scratch/etch it unto the mirror. This decision was also influenced by the feedback I received in my critique. In order to capture my manifesto and put it into context I decided to photograph myself looking into the mirror. 

Fig.1 Manifesto feature (authors own, 2013)

Fig.2 Manifesto feature (authors own, 2013)

Fig.3 Manifesto feature (authors own, 2013)

Fig.4 Manifesto feature (authors own, 2013)

Fig.5 my personal manifesto (authors own, 2013)

Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my personal manifesto nonetheless, I feel that it lacks clarity as a graphic piece as it fails to communicate visually that it is my personal manifesto in its own, without further explanation. In addition to this my time management was quite poor as I wasn't able to finish it in the set amount of time. This is due to my slow thought process in considering the possible outcomes. In order to avoid this problem in future projects I need to be quicker and experiment as I think of ideas as this is a skill necessary as a graphic designer. 

Manifesto readdressed*

Fig.6 Personal manifesto (authors own, 2014)