How can you create your own unique manifesto design to bring your dreams and vision to life?
I’ve studied over 1000 manifestos over 10 years to discover seven different ways you can visualise or design your manifesto. Plus, I found two types of manifesto designs that aren’t visuals.
Which one do you need right now?
To be inspired every day, you want to see your manifesto every day – put it on your wall, your desk or tattoo it on your face. No, don’t do that last one.
But whatever you do, don’t leave your dreams hidden in your computer or stuck in a drawer.
Here are the seven manifesto designs and more than 20 examples you can use to visualise your dreams and be inspired every day. (Watch the video above to see all of the examples discussed in this post.)
1 Words
One of the most powerful manifestos ever written created a new country. It was written by hand in pen and ink. I’m talking about the US Declaration of Independence.
Another manifesto used a typewriter to create an art movement and inspire the birth of modern architecture. It’s the Futurism Manifesto by Filippo Marinetti.
A third example was created using simple desktop publishing software that is available on every computer and even tablets. It’s the Repair Manifesto.
Writing your manifesto is the simplest and most basic way to create a manifesto design. And these examples show that this might be enough to change the world.
2 Word Cloud
If I asked you what a manifesto looks like, you’d probably describe something like this…
That’s the Holstee Manifesto, Lululemon Manifesto and Rob Cressy’s Manifesto.
This type of manifesto design is a Word Cloud or a Tag Cloud.
Strictly speaking, a Word Cloud represents the size of the word based on the frequency of a word’s usage. The more the word appears, the bigger it is. They were used in the early days of website design to visualise the topics covered in a series of blog posts.
These examples don’t quite fit that principle, but the visual effect is the same. Simply list your manifesto words and arrange them in different sizes to highlight keywords.
This type of manifesto design will suit you if you have a lot of keywords and phrases in your manifesto.
If you want a more complete explanation of this process, then check out Rob Cressy’s video here.
3 Graphic Image
If words aren’t your thing, then maybe visuals are…
And the simplest way to create a graphic manifesto design is a Vision Board. Simply grab a bunch of magazines and cut out the pictures that inspire you and your vision. And you can also do a digital version.
But remember to print it out – the whole point of a manifesto design is to make yourself visible during your daily life. You want to be reminded of it often, so you can be inspired often.
A famous graphic manifesto design you might have seen is from the 2008 US presidential election. Shepherd Fairey created this graphic of Barack Obama and simply added one word to it.
The design has three main qualities:
- A contemporary image (What is your image?)
- Patriotic colours (What do your colours represent?)
- A one-word message (And what words do you want to use?)
It was such a hit that there have been multiple versions of it since.
And it goes to show that you don’t need a long list of words to create your manifesto design. A good visual with a handful of words can work.
You can also present your manifesto in multiple ways. The Cult of Done by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark has two versions. The first is a traditional word cloud style. And this second version is more abstract.
The key point here is that any type of graphic can work, as long as it means something to you.
4 Icon
An icon or a symbol is a special form of a graphic. Typically, a graphic is more descriptive, whereas an icon is more abstract.
Icons can have great power because they have a deeper meaning, and that deeper meaning comes from the story we tell about them.
A popular example is the flag of a country. Flags declare this is who we are, what we stand for, where we came from or what we believe. A typical flag is composed of a series of shapes and colours. And they appear to be abstract until you hear the story behind their design.
For instance, the US flag has 13 stripes that represent the original colonies and 50 stars that represent the current states. This flag tells us who the US is and where it came from.
The Mercedes-Benz logo is one of the world’s best-known brand symbols. It is a simple 3-pointed star with the points representing land-sea-air, which were the three domains for which they created vehicles.
Another famous manifesto icon is the Nuclear Disarmament Symbol, more commonly known as the Peace Symbol. It was designed by Gerard Holtom and represents the letters N and D in the semaphore flag language. It was later adopted as an anti-war symbol and was widely used in the 1960s by protestors of the Vietnam War.
5 Visual Model
Another type of graphic is a Visual Model. These are a popular tool used by thought leaders to show a series of concepts in a shorthand format.
Here’s my simple example of two overlapping circles. They want to make change happen – to go from the dark blue circle to the light blue circle. And in the middle is the transition or change zone – that’s where I do my coaching and design work. It’s a simple and effective reminder for me and the work that I do. Plus, it enables me to tell a simple story to potential clients to explain what I do and how I work.
A popular format for a Visual Model is a Quadrant Model or Johari Window. A classic example is the Eisenhower Matrix, or Urgent and Important Matrix. It’s a time management tool that US President Dwight Eisenhower made popular.
And here’s a more detailed example from the best-selling book by Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The diagram shows how the seven habits fit together.
6 Book
The Covey example also leads us to our sixth type of manifesto design: a book.
Books are a long-form version of a manifesto. Some, like Covey’s, include a visual model to help clarify and summarise the core ideas in the book.
When I mention the word ‘manifesto’ in my conversations, most people think of another book – The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. This manifesto created a new political system and which led to the Cold War between the US and the then USSR.
The best-selling book of all time is another book manifesto – The Bible. This is a manifesto for how to live a Christian lifestyle.
It’s worth noting that all the major religions have a manifesto book as part of their toolkit to share and spread their ideas. For instance, the Tanakh (Hebrew), the Koran or Quran (Islam), the Vedas (Hindu) and the Tripitaka (Buddhism).
7 Video
And for our final example of manifesto design, it is at the top of this page: a manifesto video.
In this case, I am sharing my manifesto for manifesto design, and I’m declaring there are seven main types – The Manifesto Design Manifesto.
Here are two famous examples. One is a non-fiction story or documentary, the other a fictional tale about how life could be lived.
In 2006, former US Vice President Al Gore created an award-winning manifesto called An Inconvenient Truth, which highlighted the Climate Crisis. It was awarded an Academy Award and a Grammy.
In 1969, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern wrote the Hollywood movie, Easy Rider. This presents an alternate or counterculture view of life in the US in the 1960s, including bikers, drugs, communes and the hippie lifestyle. Its goal: a life of freedom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Rider
Visual and Auditory
I promised you seven types of manifesto design. Now, for two bonus manifesto design types that may inspire you in a different way. The previous seven examples were all visual designs. But a manifesto can also be verbal or auditory. Here are two ways you can do this…
8 Speech
Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech is one of the greatest talks ever given. It’s a speech manifesto.
An estimated 250,000 people watched Dr King present on August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. It was a famous moment in the civil rights movement. And today it remains an inspiring vision statement and manifesto for how the world could be.
9 Songs
Manifestos can be spoken as well as sung.
US R&B and soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye released his album What’s Going On in 1971. It sold over two million copies, reaching the top of numerous music charts. The title track was inspired by his observations of police brutality at an Anti-war rally in Berkeley. The album contained a series of protest songs.
The video example below shares the original song (1971) with an updated visual message (2019). But it still asks the same question: What’s Going On?
Other famous song manifestos include:
- National Anthems for all countries,
- Football theme songs,
- USA for Africa’s We Are the World – a 1985 charity song to support African famine relief
- Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince (2019) and Only the Young (2020).
Which Manifesto Design Type Should You Choose?
Well, there you have it – nine different types of manifesto design. But which one is the right one for you?
- If you find it hard to visualise your manifesto, then simply write it in words. As I mentioned, one of the greatest manifestos of all time (the US Declaration of Independence) was written by hand in pen and ink.
- The easiest way to create a personal graphic is a vision board.
- The easiest way to create an iconic design is a flag style. Just make sure you have a story and some meaning behind your chosen shapes and colours.
- If you want to be a thought leader, consider a visual model.
- And if you’re not a designer, then employ a freelancer on Fiverr or somewhere similar to create your manifesto masterpiece.
More on How to Create Your Own Unique Manifesto Design
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