I watched several tutorials on youtube or instagram reels from graphic designers.

Link to tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtakbeEDu2A

I liked the effect of this particular wave design so I decided to use it for my website.

The one of the steps I skipped was adding perspective to the mesh as I think it wasn't necessary and the look of this component without it was satisfying enough for me.

Link to tutotial:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyybuMPNYXP/

I strongly recommend checking the quick illustrator tutorials on various instagram graphic design content creators profiles as they show how to create simple yet very cool looking and trending designs in easy way.

Link to tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CztiL9UtALv/

Making this background was a little bit tricky tho... I tried several times and after an hour of trying I finally managed to make it look like in the tutorial I found but apparantly when I tried to do the exact same thing but add more gradient to it something went wrong terribly wrong and I still don't know what.

Link to tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cys4YTZNbve/

I like the effect as it gives the old school grungy vibe.

I also decided to add additional layer on top to make the pictures more vibrant.

This one in perticular looks great but there is a catch. Using wrinkle tool to get these kind of effects can make illustrator crash as it adds more and more points to the shape. On some point of using it a small window will pop up saying that the program won't let add more points to the object and it's super laggy while trying to move or scale the it so I decided not to play with it. I am pretty sure there is a way to "simplify" the object. I tried to import it as PNG file but it took so much time that I just lost faith in it.

At first I tried to find a photoshop tutorial and I played with making a custom brush and blurr effects but now I see there is much simpler way to do it.

I can't wait to have more time to play with it!

I ended up having millions of bookmarks with saved tutorials and inspirations and I am sad I didn't used majority of them creating my website template but I am pretty sure I will play with these in the future.

I always thought making things in photoshop or illustrator is difficult and that discouraged me to try new things and enjoy designing.

That was my idea from the beginning of my manifesto website but I could not decide what to do and I ran out of time so I decided to leave this for the future experiments.

I really hope I will have the opportunity to play using various methods in second semester.

I can imagine it to be an old school looking poster.

I don't know why but when I made the 20 artboards with simple shapes I didn't see the potential of them. I thought they are ugly and I simply didn't like the idea.

Searching for inspiration filled my instagram feed with many cool designs made with simple illustrator components like this one.

It will be the lesson for the future... MORE RESEARCH!!!

I also adore the small details made just with tiny circles.

Together with elegant font it made this example one of my favourite inspirations for the future.

I enjoyes it so much that I scrolled several times and saved this screen record for future inspirations.

Link to website:

https://www.aeropress.co.uk/

This is how they present the combinations provided wirth the code charts.

Link to instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/colours.cafe/

Link to website:

http://colours.cafe/

Unfortunately this is paid stuff but it also works great for inspirations.

Simply browese and use!

I despised the first tasks in illustrator and all I wasn't sure if I am in the right place. 

Of course I had to do something to pass the semester so I started exploring, watching tutorials and suddenly I started to like it. 

I thought illustrator is a very complicated tool. Well... It was for me 10 years ago when I used it at school and there wasn't much information on the internet on how to do even simple stuff with minimum effort. Back then everything was too difficult for me and the teachers showed us only couple of tricks.

This year when I opened illustrator for the first time I felt hopeless. This is not the tool I remember and the task we do at the university is much different from what I did years ago. 

Now I feel more encouraged to experiment and combine photoshop and illustrator to make cool things and have fun and even tho I have a feeling I could do better. I crave knowledge and I can't wait to come back to classes after christmas with my head full of inspirations and ideas. 

I didn't feel comfortable with the manifesto task at all. For the majority of time I didn't know what I want to do and how to do it so I postponed everything as much as I could knowing that this is how my brain works - I can't start a project before I have a whole picture of it in my mind. Otherwise it is just waste of time.

I started creating my website template around a week before deadline and even tho I knew I will manage but looking at it now I am not satisfied at all. Mostly because it looked great in my head and now i know I could change a lot of things and make it different.

I found great inspirations and NOW when my website is done I am angry with myself. This is not my aesthetics but honestly I didn't even knew that. I just combined couple of things I thought work well together and stand out. 

I know that this is just a 1st year project for students that begin their journey with graphic design but somehow I feel that I could do much better. 

This project is a lesson. I know that research is fundamental to get the inspiration and it's ok to have a couple small ideas that can evolve into something close to perfection.

Yes, I am a perfectionist and I mam rarely satisfied with my own work. I hope it'll change during the next 3 years. 

It looks like an old 90's website.

Link to website:

https://www.dogecore.com/

I like goofy things, especially when I can wear them to express my cringy personality.

Also their website looks really good, vibrant colours, many different fonts, just a lot going on.

Link to website:

https://threadheads.co.uk/?www.threadheads.com&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=16399364576&utm_content=130732667461&utm_term=threadheads&gadid=655470004441&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjfyqBhAsEiwA-UdzJM9ugCMg-rkvE2tAux3B2TQVeVi1IJn-DoiBlrPuLBGcTMbGzX9wxRoCB0AQAvD_BwE

https://designmanifestos.org/gustav-metzger-auto-destructive-art-manifesto/

https://designmanifestos.org/theo-van-doesburg-the-end-of-art/

I find the "dreamy" effect very satisfying.

I hope one day I will have an idea for a business.

It's a paid subsciption but in my opinion it's worth to skip couple of coffees at starbucks to invest the money in self development.

Instagram is just the easiest platform. The only problem with instagram is it's algorithm that very often hides many great designers work.

It works fine if it comes to reels tutorials as the algorithm pushes this kind of content forward and after watching couple of them my instagram feed started to show me more and more of graphic design related content which is helpful.

Futuristic style combined with elements of "old" art like classic paintings from gallery look very impressive.

Anti design on the other hand shows the only kind of chaotic design I enjoy as I am usual moving towards simplifying things I create. That's just a part of my personality - I like minimalism and order.

Fred has his own website where with various

exhibitions in which he took part as well as published books that can be purchased there. The website is easy to use, clean and minimalistic. The site is full of high resolution photos, videos and also music he worked on. Fred also has an Instagram account and strongly encourages us to post our work on social media, especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Pippa has an Instagram account full of her great work and also books and exhibitions but also we can see a lot of her personal pictures. Contrary to what previous WOW Wednesday guest, Fred Mann, said I think that showing parts of your personal life makes it easier to see a real person behing their art. Pippa said that she posts this kind of art if it's related to her work and even though she is a professional, she gives the impression of having a “chill” approach to promoting her work on social media.

Anna has a website and an Instagram account but she said that promoting her work on social media is not her strongest way to do it because she considers herself as a old-fashion person. Social media is not important for her as she used to find jobs through relationships and meeting different people.

It seems that her website is not that easy to find… Because I couldn’t find it lol.

Julia has an Instagram account where she shares her work mostly, she also has an etsy account full of her paintings and prints for sell. She said she had to make a website but it’s still not finished. She thinks that is very important to have a strong relationship with the followers on social media and that having connections and sharing inspirations with each other is very important.

Monika has her own website where we can see her installations, performances and videos. It’s easy to find, it’s designed clean and easy to use. She also has an Instagram account where she posts her work but also couple of personal pictures. She uses social media to promote her art and to share any events she is involved in.

Marc said that he doesn’t really have his own social media platform to advertise his work but the agency website he works for is easy to find and to use. It’s very satifying for a graphic designer, clean and interactable. However he said that having a website is a great way to adverise yourself and also Instagram is a great place to share any visual work because of the accessibility but he also mentioned that is’t worth to be aware of any other platforms.

Jon introduced us to his Instagram link where he shares many artworks of other artists which is very inspirational. I also found him on howardkennedy website where you can get in touch with Jon and his team in case of any law advice or help.

Lauren has her own website that’s easy to find and use. On her website can be found her own projects as well as her Instagram account and her e-mail address to contact her. She shares some of her projects on Instagram but also a lot of stuff from her personal life. I like the randomness of her posts there, seems like Lauren has a great time posting on insgaram.

Hannah has her own website (which I could not enter for some reason…) as well as she uses Twitter and Instagram. On her Instagram account she posts her projects, ideas and campaign she was involved in but also some of her personal life things. Also on her Ig is a link to the Thorful website where you can purchase some of the cards designed by her which are very simple yet funny and made me laugh.  

Since I remember everyone told me that one day I will be a great artist because I used to draw a lot as a kid. My passion for drawing died with facing the reality where I realised that drawing horses won't bring me money to pay my bills.

Also the extreme pressure to draw from my mother as young adult made and her misunderstanding made me hate drawing. Kind of sad but I am not even mad about it.

Here are the parts of my manifesto:

I never thought I would choose one of the art courses, but this one seemed the most intuitive to me among all the available options.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I feel like an outcast. Everyone around me is young, ambitious and has some ideas.

I'm no artist. I feel at least awkward surrounded by creative and "talented" people.

Foundation year was an absolute torture for me. I tried hard to find a shred of motivation to create something, to prove something to someone. To someone, but not to myself - I assumed from the very beginning that it would be the worst crap this university had ever seen. I threw myself into the deep end I thought that I had to look deeper inside myself and review my biggest traumas because that's what the most remarkable artists use as a tool in their work. As a result, I put too much pressure on myself and fell into a real identity crisis. Who am I exactly? Is there anything of value I could share? How can I give meaning to my work and make the audience feel what I feel? And what's the point of all this? Does art always have to be about important messages to the world? Can you feel pleasure in creating something, or do you have to torture yourself for it to have any value?

After all this, I came to the conclusion that I am not that person. I want to be able to create something pleasing to the eye, just like that. I want to find this one path of aesthetics for myself, and even if it will be funny memes on the Internet - so be it. I will not pretend to be a tortured soul inspired by Van Gogh's works. If anyone tries to find some hidden meaning in it, sweet baby Jesus, stop them.

Sander has his own website that is just amazing. Visually satisfying with one technical spinning animation and colour changing background. Website provides link to other social media. His ig account is full of the projects he was involved in and it’s just a great source for graphic design inspirations. Some of them are very useful for me as there is a lot of typography examples I can look at to take inspiration working on my winter break task.

I am a perfectionist and drawing many quick sketches was just a torture... Many of them were too messy for my brain to accept as a existing thing and I got rid of them...

Also I am not gonna add a reflection to all of them... I think the most important thing was trying out different techniques and some of my sketches were satisfying enough to not throw them away lol

But I can't promis anything. Probably I will totally forget about this idea.