PIERCE VICTOR - ART FOUNDATION BLOG : GRAPHICS PATHWAY - PROJECT 3: WHAT CAN YOU SAY, MANIFESTOS

This week's project was based on personal manifestos that are used in a political or artistic way to describe ourselves and our intentions. Previously, I had no knowledge of what a manifesto was however I now have a much better knowledge of how manifestos are used in the world. They can be expressed visually in posters or short films using text and imagery, in addition they can also be expressed through powerful audio recordings.

We had to create our own manifesto that highlighted anything from our experiences, our future, our past or what we believe in. I found this to be initially a very broad and vague starting point and I struggled for ideas early on so I began to jot down everything about me. I included my cultural background, my values and what I believe in which helped me start the development. languages and sense of place is something important to me so I have the intention of including some sort of photographic element in my manifesto and also some alternative languages that are significant to me in some way.

I collected some of my own photography captured by myself or my family and created a photo montage, I then scanned this onto illustrator and then played around with the filters, saturation, contrast level etc. My first designs incorporated a striking orange font, I thought this was really powerful and stood out from my background images very well. I stuck with this and used bold orange font on a gray scale backdrop of photos to make up my manifesto. I also included another language in the word 'positivite' which I chose because its obviously french for positivity therefore this meaning wouldn't get lost in translation whilst still having a personal french connection for me.

Overall, I am very pleased with my final outcome, considering I had no idea what a manifesto was and how to go about creating one. It was initially a painstaking process due to the many directions in which I could take, I had a few conflicting concepts which made progress slow, however I quickly found a direction. I am also satisfied that the manifesto connects to myself and has a meaning for me as well as others, I feel the manifesto is a reflection of myself but it is subtle in a sense that others cannot instantly see what is revealed.