602: Working on Task 4 & A Little Personal Branding

Past notes: 'What is a manifesto?'

Tells your audience: - Why you exist - What you're passionate about - Why someone should care about what you do

Good starting point is to think about why you're doing what you're doing.

Create presentation communicating your manifesto.
- Think about this as apitch you would make to a potential employer/studio manager/art director/client
- The presentation should include your manifesto statements and be made in the style of your own personal branding/identity, it may also include images of your work.

Presentations should last 10 mins max

DIFFERENT DESIGN MANIFESTOS:

Daniel Eatock's Mini Manifesto:

Begin with ideas
Embrace chance
Celebrate coincidence
Ad-lib and make things up
Eliminate superfluous elements
Subvert expectation
Make something difficult look easy
Be first or last
Believe complex ideas can produce simple things
Trust the process
Allow concepts to determine form
Reduce material and production to their essence
Sustain the integrity of an idea
Propose honesty as a solution

I like how it's punchy and straight to the point, it covers a lot of different areas in one.
Each statement can be something you keep in mind while working and creating, it's not too restricting so allows for growth too. 

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Anthony Burrill:

Work hard and be nice to people.

Short, simple, straight to the point. This is something you can keep in your mind while working, keeping true to yourself. 

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Bob Gill:

https://designmanifestos.org/bob-gill-otherwise-forget-it/

This manifesto is really long, doesn't seem to be true to the original definition of manifesto. But the content is really interesting and showcases Bill's perspective of design very well. 

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Enzo Mari: What is Good Design?

What is good design?

Good Is Sustainable.
Good Is Accessible.
Good Is Functional.
Good Is Well Made.
Good Is Emotionally Resonant.
Good Is Enduring.
Good Is Socially Beneficial.
Good Is Beautiful.
Good Is Ergonomic.
Good Is Affordable.

Again the punchy nature of the manifesto is was works, but this has a strong repetition to it, making it something that is easily memorable, it clear to see the intentions and purpose in this manifesto. 

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Snask:

01/ If you don’t like your job – quit.
02/ If you love someone – let it show.
03/ Generosity always pays itself back.
04/ Always achieve greatness yourself before pointing out the faults and mistakes of others.
05/ Bureaucracy is spelled Bureaucrazy.
06/ Talk with clients like you talk to your family, friends and pets.
07/ Social skills are as important as being good at setting type or knowing how to spell.
08/ See people as people, not as target groups.
09/ Just because you wear a black suit, doesn’t mean you’re a goddamn professional.
10/ Having enemies is a good thing. It proves that you stood up for something sometime in your life.

The clear "commandments" are really interesting here, they set clear parameters for the designers. They also have elements of humour in them which really showcases the studio, also the language is pretty colloquial so feels more approachable. 
- It's interesting that they're not all about design, a lot of the statements can be applied to life in general also. 

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THINKING ABOUT MY MANIFESTO:

Why am I doing what I'm doing?

• Expression
• Exploration
• Problem solve
• Question and answer creatively
• Learn through creating
• Wanting to contribute to something I love
• Wanting to get better 

Why do I exist (as a creative)?

• To ask questions and propose different ways of thinking
• To encourage open thinking within others
• Broaden minds creatively
• Use graphic design as a tool to present other content (psychology, thought)

What am I passionate about? 

• Making things people would want to engage with
• Making design that's successful from a practical standpoint but also is visually appealing
• Opening new pathways of thought (within myself through designing and to the audience with my designs). 

Why should someone care about what I do?

• To encourage new ways of thinking
• If they want to look a more open concept graphic design 
• To learn more about what graphic design can be (outside of brands and logos - nothing wrong with this at all I just enjoy making different work to what's more traditionally considered graphic design). 

My "about" from task 1:

Hello! I'm Evie, a creative designer based in Leeds with a passion for designing audience focused work. The key aspects of my practice stem from an interest in psychology, I'm always wanting to learn and understand the 'why' behind design. This inquisitive approach of questioning work, pulling it apart and piecing back together again leads to concept focused projects with dynamic outcomes.

How do I want to structure my manifesto? - Bold punchy statements? - More soft tone? - Can do both, thinking how Snask formed their statement with more general terms.

- Statements feel easier to remember, could keep in mind when working and progressing through my career.

Ideas:

• Think. Think. But don't overthink. - Too negative, want my manifesto to be something that lifts me up rather than bring me down. - Could think about why do I not want to overthink? Because it prevents me from just doing the work?
• Think. Think. Go for it. - Re-think of the first statement, more positive, now is something that is encouraging of thoughts rather than putting down.
• Exploring (creatively)
• Questioning (asking the why's?)
• Learning - For the three above need to just think about how the work can be

^ All of these directed towards creativity.

Want my manifesto to be something grounding, something I can refer back to when working on projects. - The ideas above are too vague, they need working on further? - Don't want to make too obviously about design, think I approach design similarly to how I approach problems in life so don't feel there needs to be a clear differentiation between the two.

- Thinking about capturing elements of childlike approach to creating but from a more mature perspective.

• Think openly
• Question everything
• Keep learning

^ I like these think they could be elaborated on more. 
As I want to find reason think having some with more detail would be great, help myself and others understand. 

My manifesto should be something that's more for me than for others, but when others look at it it should reflect me. 

Points for manifesto:

• Questioning/curiosity
  - Be the one to ask the why's
• Thinking
  - Think. Think more. Go for it!
  - Think openly
• Learning
  - Keep learning, you'll never be able to know it all.
  
• Problem solving
  - Make mistakes, it's no fun to do everything right first time
  - Embrace the happy accidents 
• Design is more than a logo
  - Concepts first, aesthetics later
  
• Trust yourself
  -Thinks is kind of answered with the 'think. think more, go for it' statement. 

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PRESENTATION:

My manifesto:

1. Be the one to ask the why's

2. Think. Think more. Go for it!

3. Keep learning you'll never be able to know it all.

4. Make mistakes, it's no fun doing everything right first time

5. Concepts first, aesthetics later

How to present myself, thinking about personal branding. 

Thinking back to task 1 and how I want to present myself, I think simple is a good way to go, I remember a VP or in a talk I attended the speaker mentioned about online websites not being too distracting, keeping things simple to not become outdated or turn people of your work.
- I think this is something I want to embody with my personal branding but I don't want it to be boring. Need to find a balance. 

My presentations so far have been black and white, nothing too complex, I need to consider my personal brand more to develop a pitch that feels true to me. 

Past presentations:

- Clean

- Simple

- To the point

- Minimal

Type from websites of practitioners I like:

Experimenting with type:

Wanting to use a combination of serif and sans serif I think.

- Good to have a mix. 

^Sans serif

^Serif

- Feel the serif typeface works nicely with the sans serif, showcasing different things, the body copy and titles being separated with the hierarchy. 

Thinking about adding in small hand drawn elements to bring a lighter tone to the presentation (and my branding in general), thinking back to task 1 and the visuals I presented.