Manifesto by Jelena Vukovic

MANIFESTO volume 1

april 2020

london

Jelena VukoviÄ&#x2021;

Table of Contents 1-2

Introduction and Module

4-7

Statement of Intent

8-22

Reflections (6)

Industry Advice

25-26

Critical Evaluation

27-28

Summer Show Research

MODULE Work Ready 1, as module, deeply focuses on industry studies and industry practices. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been exposed to live briefs such as the Summer Show Identity project which gives us an input and an approach to new ways of executing a project. Being introduced to elements such as the budgets, pitch deck, different and professional ways of instantly accumulating our ideas, also pans out as part of this module. Being interactive with a client and assessing feedback is a very important fact of this module and its delivery outcomes. Focusing on visual components, such as a professionally designed CV and Portfolio is also a helpful part of this module. Using design principles to work out and professionally display our work even in the beginning stages, learning how to conceptualized and most importantly design under a strictly constructed brief is Work Readyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission.

INTRODUCTION Hello, my name is Jelena. I’m from a tiny coastal Mediterranean country called Montenegro. Although, I’m currently based in London, having spent a part of my life in the country of Belgium and in the U.S.A. I’m currently pursuing a degree in Graphic Design. I’ve always been passionate about the interpretation of shapes and colours within the world of aesthetical design. My main interests revolve around literature, history of arts, theory of form, shape and colour, as well as social causes. I’m fairly fond of interactive design pieces. Currently, what interests me the most has to be Digital Marketing from the aspects of Graphic Design. During my time at the university, I’ve undertaken more of an analogue approach, such as learning the ways of a risograph and the process of screen printing. I’m a very persistent and punctual individual, who is also particularly driven and perceptive.

STATEMENT OF INTENT At the start of the module I’ve decided to contemplate and broadcast the concept of our Summer Show promotion through a visual representation of the school’s history. I’ve intended to pursue an abrupt and abstract based typography of our creation made through the Illustrator software. My poster design will heavily pay homage to the industrial structure of the Cass building, once again illustrated and designed through a system of a linear elements and singular shapes. Depicting both the building’s exterior in an architectural manner, as well as the interior elements such as drain pipes. Inspired by Wes Anderson’s Swimming Pool series, the school’s own history of once being a public pool and washhouse, it generated our teams idea of the usage of the colour blue , which due to the riso print outcomes turned my colour pallets to the colours of the riso. Since the target audience is a variety of young intellectuals and practitioners, I intend to deepen our concept to thoroughly portray the essence and feeling our school, that exudes and inspires, both through its past and its contemporary present. As the Manifesto project is a personal project, a vessale for our critical evaluation, I’ve intend to use illustrator to create an illustrations that reflects both my studio work and my work ready outcomes, heavily inspired by simples shapes, pattern and bold and brave colours, they can be seen on the left. Both text and illustration will be

a playful 16-page publication that will try to conceptualize the idea of familiarity, the essence of home, as something that reflects my own person state of mind, as the Manifesto is something I feel passionate about. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always liked playing around with Magazines and designing layouts. I intend to use 2 different types of typography, a legible one to contain the huge amount of text and a decorative type that will spell out different headings and titles. The decoritive type (Omnium Bold) is inspired by my studio project. The plan for it was to be riso printed on a texted white paper; however it will be a digital publication embracing the colours of the web. My Professional Portfolio will be subtle display of all my work done during this school year, as can be seen on the left. I plan to conceptualize and utilize a certain element to create a theme for my portfolio will be visible in the CV, as well. Simple drops of colour will add an effect to an already minimalistic display of work which will feature mocks up of different outcomes. Followed by a simple, yet effective and clear typeface, it will tie together, the essence of my work and the professionally thought out portfolio that will house my work from this year, as well any other future projects.

MY DESIGN PRACTICE As a student of Graphic Design, I would have to say that my practice within in this field is fairly amateur. I would like to building onto that stages and expand my practice in a certain and chosen direction, while also pursing the stereotypical experiments, ( do more analogue work, storyboards, rotorscoping, colour photographams, more photography ) known to Visual Communications Speak from the point of the view from the work that I’ve already done, I would have to say that, my most prominent feature would be colour, an abrasive, abruptive colour. Whether an illustration I’ve decided to do, decides to be very simple, I would spice it up with colour, or turn into a selection, escalating into a pattern of colours, fully pledged with different tones, shades. I’ve previously studied Colour Theory, intensively, so I’m consistent in expanding in such direction, particularly the work of Olafur Eliasson. I’m also keen on learning more about Digital Marking within the world of Graphic Design, which as I’m assuming acquires a more minimal approach to illustration, but heavily focused on shapes, colour, and functionality. Something I’m constantly trying to focus on. Some of the work I’ve done has historical meaning, whether metaphorical or literal, as I’ve always been keen on the history of arts, so I’m using the information of my many years of studying to fully broadcast a certain point. I would love my practice to expand in that direction as well. My first project during this has that historical, and as well social approach, where I’m working with an already set to stone alphabet, the Cyrillic. Which can only be manipulated so much, without losing much of its content and context.

Bringing social issue into play with such projects, is something design has been doing a very long time. I plan on expanding in that direction as well. I want to pursue in future projects that carry historical concepts and social causes, that can inform and educate the masses. My second project during the last year, portrays historical building in a different light, as it is a 30 second sting, using the historical building as its secondary motive.

MY WORK THIS YEAR My work this has been a mix of different experiments. Working on two live project such as the Cass Summer Show Identity, and the Studio Outputâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mixcloud Rebranding has given me information into the industry structure I was not familiar with. Working with such a fast pace brief, does put into perspective that a lot of work can be done in such a short amount of time. The only thing we need is consistency, and volume. We also have to give into consideration that, that brief we are doing is a group work when done in Studio Output, while we, as students, are doing it all on our own. The fast pace that it is forced to me considered certain element much more effectively, as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not too drawn to continue researching afterwards. It has thought me to be on brand, rather than design upon my personal wishes, what I deemed necessary.

I’ve used all of our research to further pursue my project. I decided on a typeface, colour palette, pattern, graphic assets, very quickly, as it was already there, on our explore board, waiting for be utilized. We just had to handpick certain element that works solely for us. The element, that we know how to use, to fully complete our make phase. It was very efficient. My Mixcloud rebranding focused on colour as an emotion, and as a sound. There are a lot of shades of purple. It’s also very functional. My first studio project is however a very personal experiment as, it deals with identity. I would have to say that the Manifesto, also lingers into that direction, as the Manifesto does portray our wishes and ambitions. As for my first project, I’ve found myself researching a much familiar subject, which at times did cause a bit of problems, as I was too familiar with the subject. It varied from historical stories, to modern painters, to digital collages, to poems, to final illustrations. I finally dubbed them as ‘educational illustrations from children who know how to read Cyrillic’ as I was finishing my project, and for the most part, it did make sense. There illustrations ( seen on the left) do represent the children in their playfulness, in their structure and their expansion of colour. They are very type based with a few iterations of historical sites, giving an homage to the culture I’m trying to portay as an identity. The sites are indeed very famous religious locations, as the Cyrillic alphabet has always been very tied to the Orthodox Religion. As for children who know how to read Cyrillic, all these motives are very familiar to them. The root of the story has already been explained to them in their own upbringing.

Skills and Development I would have to say that during my first year at the university, I’ve learnt the most, while my current/ second year is where I’ve started actually using my acquired skillset. From analogue activities, such as riso printing, screen printing, book binding, dark room photograms, relief printing, letterpress and to varies other photographical activities, to digital workshops regarding Abode and other application such as Stop Motion. While most of the work I’ve done this year is fairly digital, I’ve gladly resorted to analogue printing techniques such as riso for a more prominent outcome. The usage of the application called Glyphs is also something I’ve found quite useful, as it fairly easy to use and gives you so much power in creating a typeface, even a generic, legible one, for your body copy. The usage of letterpress, also comes in handy when designing a poster, per say. Emphasising certain words and titles, over a riso printed publication can give it a pop of colour, that the risograph is lacking. Handling a camera, and having certain elements introduced are also quiet a relevant workshop, as it put in the position of the photographer. Documenting, photographing, and building a portfolio enlarges our chances at succeeding, as everything is previously considered, as well professionally photographed. Some skills I’ve like to further pursue would have to be digital ones. I would like to engage in neo-media, creating projections and video installations. One of my inspirations would have to be Max Hattler, I would like to acquire similar skillsets, as portayed in his work. Another skillset I would like to aquire would have to the skillset of a product designer. I would gladly undertaken any project of such manner.

I would like to further pursue work in After Effects, as I’m keen on focusing on different kinetical type and advertising as such. These are the things I lacked in pursuing, this school year. I would like to further pursue Cinema 4D, which I’ve started engaging on earlier this year, as I’ve found the ways to use it for my first studio project, however, I’ve decided to leave it to further interrogation, as I finished my project elsewhere, using another Adobe Software. Another skill I’ve would like to further pursue would have to be Motion Graphic, as I would to use any initial information and knowledge for my future outcomes.

Research Reflection After reading the Manifesto brief, I decided upon looking into Manifesto movements already familiar to me. The first on the list was; the Futurist Manifesto, based in Italy. The art movement of speed, aggression, violence, change, and the industrial revolution, portrayed through a variety of paintings and typographical solutions, where the colour palette is strictly based of the painter. We have typographical solutions where the bold and invasive text covers half the page, you only able to read such words if your head is tilted. An example can be seen in our Summer Show Identity Project outcomes, mocked up on the right. The usage of exclamation marks is also very common during the era of Futurism. The reflection of onomatopoeia, where each word is portrayed in such way, that you can anticipate the sound it makes. It also portraits the feeling of urgentness, the change that needed to happen in people. It is something anticipated by the Futurist, in order for society to exist. Futurists, also have, very radical measures, such as suggesting the burning of museums, in attempt to leave the past behind, and be optimist about the industrial future. A future, where the mass manufacturing is an everyday occurrence, keeps in mind that the futurist movement happened in the mid-20th century.

They synonymised museums to graveyards, stating that are an almost identical institution, where they lay objects and bodies of the past next to each other, without them having known each other. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Truly identical in their sinister juxtaposition of bodies that do not know each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The painting of a dog by Giacomo Bala, another one of Futurist pioneers, represents speed and movement, portraying the dog as a robot per say. Emphasizing that we are moving towards an era, where the electronics will take over our everyday lives. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a sense of aggression seen in these painting as well, the full speed of the image gives it that feeling. It also has quite a dull colour pallete, where the grays are overshadowing a bigger part of the painting.

Typeface Reflection My initial idea was to use two different typefaces, one that will carry my body copy, a generic, familiar typeface that I will use for my titles and the front cover of the Manifesto publication. Meanwhile researching and recruiting a second, more design based typeface that will hold some of the text, yet not large portions. Bamq typeface: Inspired by the modernist architecture, the Bamq typeface Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve stumbled upon reflects the geometrical and minimalist commodities of large spaces. Could easily be used for creative book titles, expressive posters, and promotional material for an online brand. It could also be easily used to create a logo, or an interesting word marks for an interesting looking company identity. The typeface is definitely brave and daring, a stand out peace all by its self. The lightness of its parameters gives it a minimalist aesthetic. The fact that some parts of the typeface, in certain letters, look detached, give it an abnormal sense of movement. It definitely reminds me of Futurism, in a detailed way, however, much less aggressive.

Dakota typeface by Rosalind Stoughton: A versatile typeface, that I can see be used for my body copy. A highpoint of this type face is that all symbols, foreign letters, numbers are also included. Meaning, when writing in a foreign language, you wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to revert to a different font. It is a standout piece, all by itself, just as the typeface above. However, its usage is much more practical. It is very legible, and the slight tweaks that haven been done to such a standard font, have been done on purpose. A Manifesto front cover can easily be designed with the help of just this typeface. I can see it being use with a variety of different colour, as well as a more motion based project, using this very typeface. I ended up not being able to download this typeface, however, the analysis of the type helped me tremendously.

Illustration Reflection The illustrations I’ve done for the Manifesto reflect my work I’ve done this year at the University. I definitely wanted my Manifesto to be illustration based rather than imagery, because I find it reflects more my way of tackling certain projects, that I’ve done this year. I was able to use a single element, a simple illustration of a house, and create a selection of different patterns based on solely that design. I’ve applied in the house in different parameters, different sizes, and different colours. One of the reasons why I chose a floating house goes back to my research, and personal evaluation vessel, this Manifesto should implicate. To many of us, a house is our safe haven, a symbol of comfort and family. A house can also symbolise, a space of creating, a mind, and an idea, or this scenario, a house of ideas. So, it only make sense to choose this particular illustation, as the Manifest ‘houses’ our ideas. I have practically chosen the shape of these images, as well. As they should be able to fit the template, I’m currently working on right now. The template should resemble a magazine, with the implication of body copy and text.

The colour palette, that I’ve handpicked, after my research, should also resemble the colour palette of the illustrations. There will be lots of bold colours, and complementary colour sets. I’ve done my share of patterns, this school year, so creating a pattern, came fairly easy at this point in time, as I’ve already picked that single detail, the single element that hold together the graphic based pattern. In the end I ended up not particularly using, all of the, said images, as they took too much of my Manifesto. I ended up including Project Work, both studio and Work Ready, as suggested in my feedback. The typeface should mimic illustration in some way, as the two should work together in order to form a harmonious balance, however not completely overshadowing the potential image. The body copy, should be readable, and should not be overthrown by all other elements that are a part of the page. The most essential part of this publication, is that it’s meant to be read, too much designing could ruin that aspect.

Industry Advice ‘Don’t be afraid to add your own uniqueness to such generic projects, when conceptualism and functionally is the number one priority. Try to keep that quirkiness, you would otherwise use for a more personal project.’ ‘Don’t be afraid to push projects beyond the standard project outcomes, and don’t be afraid to pursue these measures even after the deadline. Expand on the project.’ ‘Punctuality is everything! Slacking off is a big no! Respect the deadlines, respect their time. That’s how you leave a good impression on your client.’ ‘Each person has their own unique skillset, a tool box. Discover yours!’ ‘Don’t be afraid to reach out to a variety of institutions, museums, studios. Don’t be too afraid ask, email, and pursue different scenarios. Never stop trying to make things happen. Be persistent.’

Critical Evaluation The Work Ready module was definitely an interesting experience for me. Surely, it helped me understand what it means to work with a client, and how long it takes to actually execute a successful project. We’ve spent a large amount of time working on the Summer Show brief, and went through a million of different ideas. It was definitely nice to see and pin point, what was unsuccessful and what worked for our chosen concept. It was a good practice; we all needed in order to fully and professionally understand a live brief, with a client on the other end. Also, the constant presentations and feedback, helped me a lot. I’ve come to appreciate such approach, as it kept me busy and constantly experimenting. We, as a group, divided our tasks, and delivered very different outcomes in order to pursue our initial concept of the Summer Show Identity. I enjoyed hearing the opinion of others and combing our ideas into a sole outcome. I definitely liked working on the Manifesto and the Portfolio, much more, as I’m able to put my own creativeness to test. I enjoy editing and putting together booklets and magazines, so I saw the Manifesto, as a fitting project for me. I’m a little disappointed in not being able to print, said Manifesto, however, hopefully, I will aim at that in the future. I also, would have liked working on the Manifesto, a bit longer, as our schedule the last new month was very hectic and we’ve had other projects to focus on.

I enjoyed doing my own individual iterations to the Summer Show brief, and seeing them as mock-ups, while being disappointed in not being able to print them, because I don’t think certain mock-ups do these projects any justice. Most of my work this year, has been very digital, so I feel a bit uneasy in not being able to see them in their physical form. I enjoyed doing the Portfolio, as I really like looking into and researching layout design, it helped me put together everything I’ve done throughout this school year. I’m aiming at a professional looking execution of all these projects, as I’ve never done a professional Portfolio before. I’m putting my own little touches in the Portfolio, in choosing bright colours and an interesting typeface. I liked building my own visual identity, that I hope will be able to exude a more put together look in the future. This is the first time, I’m self-branding, so I’m very happy with the outcomes, I’m hoping for an even more successful outcome in the meanwhile. It was an interesting module, and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot. The year started a bit slow, as we’ve been focusing on only 2 projects at the time. However, after the second semester, the module has picked up its speed, putting into consideration all the things that have been happening in the last couple of months. Surely, it was very challenging at times, and very helpful in achieving our goals in the Work Ready module.

Reflections Alexey Bogolepov photographs are the focal and starting point of my individual research and individual section of the Summer Show Concept. The simplistic and minimalistic approach these photograph exude is quite educational. The colour red, as the colour of passion, dynamic, force, and authority plays well within our concept. We do feel the need to emphasize the used of the colour red as a visual identity, that ties back to the history of Sir John Cass, the man the school’s named after. The black and white imagery were our first idea as we are representing the history of the school, so Alexey’s photographs grasp a visual part, we’re also trying to reach throughout our testing and development. There is dose of playfulness within these imagery, based on architecture; outlines of the building, as well as seriousness with the colour tone, as it is mostly black and white with the exaction of the linear illustration. The line is an important part of any kind of practice whether it is design, architecture or art. It has been and will away be the most important element of any creative skill and discipline. Alexey’s photographs have helped us start a conversation based around the way-findings , they are very literal, visual and easy to navigate. My individual Summer Show wayfinding can be seen on the right. After mocking it up, I’m starting to realize the resemblence, my wayfind has to the work or Morag Myerscough. I’ve done a lot of research into her work, last year, and have seen it in person.

Dora Maurerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is quite similar to the photographs of Alexey Bogolepov. The series of unfinished, minimalistic, quite linear and abstract design and artwork give out a dynamic feeling. It is heavily typography based, and the focal point is movement. It is a collection of very old work done by her, as so many of the work lack colour. Based around asymmetrical and geometrical shapes, it develops further from a singular linear idea, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been trying to show previously. The usage of shapes as my promotional components is quite popular and can be made by a variety or different processes. We are contemplating the usage of different 3D shapes that are featured on the posters, as well as the print invite. The linear installation accompanied by drastic color that would draw attention to the design we are trying to building.