CTS B - Compulsory Question 1
Our CTS B group manifesto from Week 11 was used as a design compass in trying to define how creative thinking translates into meaningful practice: it articulated a respect for mindfulness, collaboration, and ethical awareness in design. Visually, the manifesto employed a minimal palette and balanced typography a practice focused on intentionality and clarity in communication. Restraint was clarity, not limitation, every decision was made with intention and every space considered. Icons support the statements.
Beyond its formal composition, the manifesto positioned the designer as a reflective agent of change rather than a stylist of trends, more about self-reflection (looking inward). It emphasized that critical design necessitates awareness of how creative choices shape human experience. This certainly finds resonance in a number of socially responsive practices, such as Teo Yang Studio in South Korea. The studio fuses modern interior environments with Korean craft and symbolism (Yang 2022), making its work socially responsive through the active challenging of rapid, homogenizing modernization. Its approach keeps local Korean craft livelihoods going, while preserving tangible cultural heritage and hence providing a very important sense of cultural stability and continuity for the community.
Although I resonated with these shared values, the manifesto could better articulate vulnerability and the growth mindset as conditions for creativity. From my own process, I know the fear of failure can hold experimentation back, so I would add something like: "We embrace the uncomfortable; the misstep is the source of the breakthrough." Stefan Sagmeister voices something similar when he insists that "you have to be willing to be wrong. A lot" in order to create meaningful work (Sagmeister, 2009). For me, this means re-framing mistakes as milestone moments that refine intuition, rather than define inadequacy. Receiving imperfection within the conditions of the design process seems to build emotional resilience, which I now understand as foundational to ethical practice and critical self-reflectivity.
Design Communication as Critical Practice Applying them in this way, the relevance of the manifesto extends far beyond academic exercises. My Punjabi Cha project (for branding) is an example that echoes the manifesto's need to question rather than conform. This is an intentionally sterile rebranding of a deeply cultural drink, satire on how heritage is diluted for global appeal, a critique masked as design. It transforms introspection into communication.
In all, it is not a fixed belief, but a living framework-one that grows with me. It reminds me that design is not just about form but about values: clarity, empathy, and cultural awareness. It invites me to think hard, listen intentionally, and create work that has something real to offer the world around me.
(434 words)
References:
Sagmeister, Stefan. “The Power of Time Off.” TED, 2009, https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off
Teo Yang Studio. “Projects.” Teo Yang Studio, 2020, https://www.teoyangstudio.com/spaces
