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Aalto university's BA in design -preliminary assignments are now published. This year’s assignment has a strong and socially relevant theme: Manifesto. Read our Head Teacher Eeva Jokinen’s analysis of the assignments and take advantage of her tips!
“A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political, social or artistic in nature, sometimes revolutionary, but may present an individual's life stance.”
(Wikipedia)
Present one positive social initiative that takes place in your community. Summarize why you see it as positive via a concise social manifesto. Maximum length of the manifesto is 100 words.
Express your manifesto visually using a graphic mood board. It can serve as an inspiration to anyone who reads your manifesto and wants to act by it and create new initiatives.
Create a 3D render or a physical mock-up of a public space art installation situated in your community. The installation should live up to your manifesto. Indicate the scale of your installation. Take a couple of pictures from different directions of the installation. Plan the composition and present all three parts of your work in a one-page document.
You can use any materials and tools. The maximum size of the file is 1GB. (However, it is recommended that the file does not exceed 100 MB).
Clear and concise communication of ideas, aesthetic value of the work, 3D thinking, understanding of contemporary materials and crafts skills.
Do your research! Make sure you understand what a manifesto is and how many different manifests exist, to understand how widely you can approach the assignment.
The choice of issue for your manifesto and your interpretation of the topic is important, as well as the way you approach the visual presentation of the task. Think about your own position and perspective to the world: what are the positive social issues in your community that you appreciate or think are important? Research your subject further and learn more about it, create a plausible concept that observes your topic from different perspectives so that your point, the MANIFESTO, is not only clearly communicated, but also justified.
Remember that Aalto is not looking for 42 similar students. There are many ways to approach the task and all choices you make communicate not only your topic and the issue, but who you are as a potential student and a designer. You should show your authenticity and personal interests in your chosen issue and in the visuality, as that is what makes you unique and interesting.
The imagery and graphics in the mood board should support your message and bring more information about your topic and the visuality of your manifesto. Note, that the assignment does not ask you to create the actual manifesto. It asks for a presentation of the issue and how it would look, in addition to taking the manifesto’s spirit into a public space in the form of a space-art installation. So they are basically asking for a design concept, a kind of a brand-identity of your manifesto which then culminates in the prototype of your space-art installation. What a great assignment, which asks you to observe your chosen topic from many design perspectives!
As you will only be returning one page PDF that will communicate it all, graphic design skills, such as composition, layout and typographic choices play a huge role as well. What kind of graphical elements can you use to visualize and communicate your chosen topic to support your manifesto’s message, but also you as a designer and potential student?
-Eeva Jokinen, Head Teacher
Scandinavian Design School
Fredrikinkatu 61 A 58
00100 Helsinki, Finland
Scandinavian Design School
Fredrikinkatu 61 A 58
00100 Helsinki, Finland
Scandinavian Design School
Fredrikinkatu 61 A 58
00100 Helsinki, Finland
