In week two we were asked to create a design manifesto for our creative practice. I wasn’t completely certain I knew what a design manifesto was. I had looked at examples of other design manifestos online, but I started my process of writing it rather literally. I created a mind map of words that I associated with my creative practice, thinking more about my design process than my values.
From this, I developed my design manifesto as such:
Identify: Identify the problem
Understand: Understand in more depth why the problem exists and what solution it seeks
Empathise: Understand who this problem affects and think about what they would want from the solution
Research: Research on the target audience, context of the problem and existing competitors
Inspire: Find inspiration through research
Ideate: Start thinking about your own ideas
Brainstorm: Exercises to further ideation
Sketch: Visualise initial ideas
Explore: Explore multiple different approaches
Variation: Create multiple variations of different ideas
Reflect: Take a step back to reflect on work thus far, what is working and what isn’t?
Rethink: Try to think of a new approach from another angle
Share: Share your work with other creative practitioners
Feedback: Gather feedback on work from others
Collaborate: Potentially work from other’s ideas to enhance your work
Criticise: Take this feedback to criticise your own work as well
Adjust: Adjust designs based on the feedback
Discuss: Discuss changes with others, open to further improvements
Explain: Explain the process behind the finished designs, make it clear why it is the way that it is
Evaluate: Evaluate the final outputs; what could have been done better? Use this evaluation to enhance future projects
CONDENSED:
Identify: Identify the problem, aim to understand why it exists, and what solution it seeks
Empathise: Understand who this problem affects and think about what they would want from the solution
Research: Research on the target audience, context of the problem and existing competitors
Ideate: Start thinking about your own ideas, find inspiration from research and use this in ideation exercises such as mind maps
Explore: Start to explore multiple approaches, sketching initial ideas and creating multiple variations
Reflect: Take a step back to reflect on work thus far, what is working and what isn’t? Use this to think of other angles that are worth pursuing
Share: Share your work with other creative practitioners, gathering feedback. You could even use this feedback in collaboration to develop new ideas
Adjust: Adjust work based on the feedback
Discuss: Discuss changes with others, explain the process behind the finished designs, make it clear why it is the way that it is
Evaluate: Evaluate the final outputs; what could have been done better? Use this evaluation to enhance future projects
After reading it out and hearing other classmates’ design manifestos, I realised it could still use some development, and would benefit from being more value-based. I made the following notes about potential design manifesto points:
Always aim to understand the context, research enriches practice
Know your audience, and know your competitors
Think deeply but not to the detriment of doing
Never be afraid of exploration, growth happens out of your comfort zone
Execute everything and reflect later- bad ideas are helpful too
Always be open to criticism- and act on it
Try not to get too attached, change can be good
Keep looking for what drives you
I colour coded them based on the different areas they touched on. This manifesto is something that I will continue to develop as my creative practice becomes clearer during the course.
Coming from a media production course, I feel as though I need to explore my creativity a lot further during this MA. I don’t feel confident that I have unlocked my full potential, and I feel as though I need to delve much deeper with my design process. I think the weakest part of my design manifesto would be the exploration point, as there are a lot of creative mediums that I have yet to experiment with since starting university. As I have previously done an art GCSE followed by an A level in graphic design, I know that there are some skills that I have buried since coming to university that I would like to rediscover and develop.
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