A Statement to LIVE and WORK by | Final

Who am I as a designer? During my presentation I acknowledged and expressed how my own personal works tend to have lots of depth and meaning, as I like to use my skills as a visual communication designer to provoke thought and expose social issues. I have identified my own personal reasons to why I have a passionate approach towards social equality (as identified in my previous post, click here to read) so that I can better understand where this drive comes from and why am I this way as a designer as well as a human. I also feel that as a millennial, we are the future generation and we have the power and voices to be heard if we want ideologies to be altered. Expanding on this, I feel as though my generation are more exposed to issues than previous, due to the internet playing a dominating role within our age. We are able to speak anonymously (or not) and freely, to reach an intercontinental audience with information and opinions, which is a unique aspect compared to previous generations.


For this project I began with basic, standard manifestos - a set of rules that I will aim and aspire to follow throughout the remainder of my time at university as well as my life. However I felt that these manifestos/rules were too standard and didn't say anything about me personally, as a unique and individual designer or what I stand for. Thus recapping on my presentation where I identified that social issues tend to drive most of my more passionate works, I realised that this project and any project from here on shouldn't be any different.

Letting my social activist side take over, I began to write a list of rules that have been set in place due to my gender, class and race, that I feel I am forever trying to break. I always feel the pressure of intersectionality, as every aspect of my identity overlaps with a minority class, such as my gender and ethnicity. These invisible rules that no one talks about but we feel subconsciously pressured to follow have been clearly listed within my piece.

I wanted to spotlight these invisible rules so that they could be reviewed and made visible, so that we can consciously be aware of the perimeters set by those who do not feel the constraints of a minority identity and a society that wants to keep 'us' within our lower position.

I was inspired by the Guerrilla Girls and their use of witty copy to expose issues within the Art community, so as millennial, who's childhood was shaped by the rise of technology, I opted for a list of Terms and Conditions as I am targeting my piece towards a likewise generation who have the power to promote change within our future, and this is a common colloquial that we speak. Utilising this vernacular I then outlined the rules of our oppression that I wanted to expose. Terms and Conditions are a formality that everyone tends to ignore. We scroll straight to the bottom and click "I confirm" just so we can hit next. No one reviews them, and no one questions them; just like our assigned place within society.

A sans-serif typeface is often used when outlining Terms and Conditions, so I adopted this visual language to echo that, as well as to make my work as legible as possible, modern and also aesthetically 'stripped'. I want people to stop and read, not just glance and move on. The concept and subject matter of the information and the copy is stronger and more important than a pretty picture or an interpretation. I want to be as clear as possible and have no visual 'waffle'. By photocopying and printing this poster on standard copier paper in greyscale to redistribute around London, I am emitting a street-art, protest language to prove that power, money and/or status is not required to make a change and to expose issues.

I didn't want this to be a hate piece against those who may enforce these rules upon the lower members of society, so I refer to the force enforcing these rules as 'LIFE' and 'SOCIETY', even though our only rule set by life is to reproduce, evolve and die. Thus by 'LIFE' I do not mean in the biological natural sense, I mean life as in existing as a human within our current conditions.

The thought behind this piece is that when we are born we are instantly categorised and our identities set due to conditions beyond our control such as our sex, where our parents were born, where we are born, how much money our family earns etc. By being assigned a category before we are even born, 'SOCIETY' already assigns these sets of rules despite our wishes; thus my piece exposes not only the rules, but how we play no part in agreeing or disagreeing with our conditions or role within society.

My aim is to break these rules and encourage others to do the same. I want to amend the terms and conditions of 'LIFE' that was agreed to, not by me, but 'SOCIETY' due to conditions that were beyond anyones control. I aspire to be outspoken, bold, loud, fearless. I want to shake the hierarchy and turn it on its side. We are all humans. There is no biological food chain amongst us. Naturally we are all equal in terms of prey and predator, so I want to expose this unnatural hierarchy that humans have self-enforced. My manifesto is that I want to deface the rules (terms and conditions) imposed on me due to my position within this hierarchy and I hope to encourage others to do the same.