1. The “Snask” manifesto differs from Bruce Mau’s manifesto by the factor it is portraying. Snask uses the viewpoint of inspirations and guidelines relative to how one treats other humans; Mau uses the viewpoint of beliefs, inspirations, and guidelines according to the concepts of design. In other words, Snask relates a manifesto to relationships between a designer and his or her client, whereas Mau relates a manifesto to relationships between a designer and his or her client’s work.
2. My final presentation and coursework will reflect my design competencies through multiple factors, including:
- attention to detail in my designs and written presentation/visual aids
- organization skills in written and verbal communications, and in the visual order/layout of my presentation
- business professionalism in presentation, through appropriate language, dress, and visual aids
- unique take on my surroundings through my choice of assignment variations and differentiation
3. My resume and business card represent my design ideals of being versatile for various industries. For example, my business card incorporates much color and visually appealing graphics, which would be useful in high-end advertising. My resume is much more aimed toward the business professional eye, with necessary content, delicate order, and minimal color. Yet, I have achieved another of my design ideals of being consistent and creating an entire identity through various mediums; my business card, resume, custom Twitter background, and soon-to-be-published website all have correlated elements to achieve that fully-integrated feel to my brand. My ideals of being creative, unique, integrated, and capable of simplicity come from my desire to be useful in many areas of marketing, from vibrant advertising jobs to traditional legal marketing jobs.
1. The most evident difference is the length of the manifestos. Snask’s is clear and concise, Bruce Mau’s is long and descriptive. Next, Snask’s leaves room for the readers interpretation while each of Bruce’s points are accompanied by an explanation. It’s interesting that Bruce Mau’s is called an “Incomplete Manifesto,” possibly symbolizing that a piece of work is never truly complete. On the other hand Snask’s is just “Manifesto,” therefore possibly meaning a piece of work does have a definite finish?
2. My presentation will reflect my competencies through my preparation. I’m a planner; I plan to make a plan. I have extremely high expectations for myself (sometimes unreachable ones) but only because I believe never being satisfied makes one work harder. This is why I always ensure I know the material I am presenting well. Also, doing run-throughs help to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
My work will reflect my competencies through my attention for detail, colour coordination and similarities within my design. Some of my most successful pieces of art are focused on the minor details and less on the big picture. I like to believe I have a good sense for what colours complement the image and each other (I could be wrong). Also, through my designs one can usually find a similar attribute whether it be colour scheme, shapes, layout, or line design.
3. My design ideals are:
There should be no rules or guidelines because there should be no limit to ones creativity. It’s like children in early years of school being told to draw something a certain way, or colour it a certain way just because that is, “how it’s done,” this hinders their creative development.
There is no such thing as complete originality because all of one’s ideas are a creation of experiences and the visual memories one has.
My resume and business card are built off of my second ideal because it doesn’t make sense to try and compose an entirely original piece. It does make sense to recreate a great idea and add your own unique twists.
It’s easy to lose your identity as a graphic designer. You’re told in school to perfect your skills in a variety of areas, yet what really matters is developing your abilities in specific areas that separate you from everyone else. Ost and Mau have slightly different views on how to be successful as a designer and achieve this individuality. Ost focuses on being personable and moving forward through hard work whereas Mau shows the importance of making mistakes and using others’ experiences as building blocks for your own learning. My presentation will reflect my abilities because it will be simple, and will highlight the areas of my design I’m most proud of. My designs are different from everyone else’s because they challenge the bounds of what they are “supposed to be.” My identity pieces encompass my design ideals because they emphasize simplistic design that highlights the information and feels like a poster design. Those are my design ideals because simple design is usually the best design because it delivers information and catches viewers off guard because of how easily and beautifully they received the information.
The main different between the “Snask” manifesto and Bruce Mau’s manifest, is what the idea that the main points surround. The first one focuses on how you treat others; it states that if you love what you do, show to the world and treat everyone you meet accordingly. Mau’s manifesto focuses on how you find yourself, your personality, and what you feel.
What sets me apart from everyone else is that when I get an assignment, I create more than just one project, I let my mind wander and I can invent three or four ideas. My work is clean, organized, and straight forward. These things are all reflected in my business card and resume. I have a clean grid layout, simple colors (black, white, blue), and simple but professional type.
The Snask manifesto is all about being down to earth and even though you are a part of the competitive and rough business world, it does not mean that you personally have to be like that. It takes every task down to the basic level and explains that communication between people can be free flowing and conversational instead of robotic like. The Bruce Mau manifesto is about keeping your mind and eyes open to all the possibilities around you. Not one thing has to be one way or is better. It is how to control your own life and things you can do to explore more options.
I believe that my presentation and my work will show others that I am determined to produce the work or or objective in the most simplistic way so that everyone in the public can relate to me and feel a part of my design and experience. I am able to see the underlying meaning in everything behind the “stuff” that is surrounding or covering it, which I think is an advantage. I am looking for the hidden beauty in life and dig to the core.
My resume and business card represent my design ideals because they are simple, clean lined, and crisp. I am not one for a lot of “stuff” going on in a single work to make it look more interesting. I live a simple life with not a lot of extra things that I think I “need” in life, therefore I am down to earth and stick with the basics.
1. The SNASK manifesto is different from Bruce Mau’s manifesto because SNASK is implementing not only design/work information but also just about personal and life skills and beliefs. Mau’s manifesto is purely about how to be a good designer and use design elements.
2. My presentation will show my competencies by displaying both my photography work as well as my graphic design work and explaining how I implement what I like about both mediums into both or how I use elements from both mediums in my work.
3. My resume and business card encompass my design ideals because they are both design-like layouts and my business card also includes one of my photographs so they show both sides of my work. One of my design ideals is to not have something too simple because I like to give the audience many aspects to look at. For example on my business card I have a photograph taking up the entire front, text, and also my logo that I created myself layered over the top of those. There are 3 elements that all tie into each other but do not look too cluttered.
Computer Arts Magazine is a publication from the United Kingdom encompassing the very best designers and work from around the world. Please respond to the following Feb 2012 article titled “Stop being so boring” As you read this article think of yourself as a metaphor for the “full service agency”.
This article is meant to inspire you to think about how you will bill yourself to upcoming employers or cliental. It is important to know who YOU are for the people who do not yet know you. It is as equally important for your brand identity to be cohesive in both the visual portfolio aspects and your written voice.
- After reading this article read the full “Snask” manifesto that Freddie Ost references. How does this differ from the “Bruce Mau” manifesto that many of you read in 318? (see your 318 personal one here from Fall semester)
- How will your presentation and your work reflect your competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else as far as your design capabilities are concerned (not personality traits, virtues ect…)?
- How does your resume and business card encompass your design ideals? What are they and why?
I found the information about QR codes really helpful because I didn’t understand why they were so prevalent. I personally think the whole QR code trend is the newest “fad” that design feels the need to embrace for some reason. The look and feel and use of QR codes really feels like the bar codes on packaging (below). They also feel like the books we had as kids that had bar codes for the words and the pen that you’d drag over the words to read it.
Although I found it interesting learning about how each part of the QR code works as far as how they’re read by Smart Phones, I am a right brained person and didn’t understand most of the mumbo-jumbo in that article.
Also, although I understand the attraction to make QR codes more appealing through adding things to their design, I think it kind of detracts from them because it feels like you’re trying to disguise what they are. If you’re a QR code, look like a QR code.
After following the links and reading further into QR codes I am not confused anymore. The link that breaks the QR code into different parts made is simple to understand how and why the codes work the way they do. It was fun trying to design my own unique code. However, I am interested to see how to make it even more unique. I found a couple images that sparked this curiosity.
QR codes seem to b ea very complicated number of squares that seem to be impossible to hold all the information that they do. They have seven different parts that have to be included in every single code and the rest of the pattern of squares is different. As long as they have the seven basic parts then they can be any color, have a logo in the middle, or have an image in the background.
QR codes are becoming very popular recently even though they were invented in 1994. Businesses, artists, and many other people use QR codes to link to their websites, contact information, or other information that can be useful to anyone who scans the code. Since I do not have a smart phone, iPod touch, or iPad I am not able to scan QR codes.
I am going to have to get one eventually because it seems that QR codes are going to be the best way of retrieving information.
As one of the few people left in this world without a smart phone, I have never payed much attention to QR codes, therefore it was very interesting to research yet another technological advancement in our society. After reading, QR codes are a great way for customers to be closely connected with the product or service. If an owner of a smart phone and you want to to know more about the product/service, the customer has instant information and can make the purchase right there. I have seen many products/services have QR codes for customers to fill out surveys, show other products by that company, or if purchased, receiving coupons. QR codes are an easy way for customers and companies to become more interacted and access information quicker.
A problem I have with QR codes is that they are limited to those who have a smart phone. I understand that the alternative to those of us who do not have a smart phone is to type in google or the url for the product/service and find the information ourselves. The problem I have had with this is the url for those of us is the general website and we must navigate to the page that the QR code instantly goes to. This may not be true for all QR codes on a product, but a suggestion to companies is to provide the url that the QR code goes to for those of us who do not participate in the “smart phone world”.
I found the anatomy of the QR code interesting, as I had some preconceived notions of the position detection pattern, but wasn’t sure how it could be read on a curved or uneven surface. How data is organized is interesting as well, it is around corners rather than from a central location.
I like the Microsoft code better, as it can be more image-based than a QR code. However, there are probably less people who use them than QR codes.
With the rise in popularity, more people are using them and using the apps to use them, however I feel they are still in their infancy and shouldn’t be the primary means of sharing information. However, sometime in the future I can see an entire business card with a QR code in the center of one side and that’s it.
From Kris:
Here is a good online article on more information on the differences and a picture.
