I chose to design the 10th declaration, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” I chose this, as I have an interest in world culture, and knowledge of the religious symbols around the world, and interestingly, most of them are made up of points and lines, which would be suitable to use in this design.

I started by creating these four symbols, representing, in order, Christianity, Islam, the east asian religions, and Judaism. I also chose colours related to the religions, red for the most common cover of the Bible, green for the Arabic flag, yellow for the colour of the clothing of Hindu and Buddhist priests, and blue being the traditional colour of the Jewish star of David.

I arranged these symbols in a curve, and added a large circle on the bottom left of the frame, representing a person, so that the circles can mean not only religions, but also the aspect of thought of this declaration, as they are arranged as thought bubbles coming from a person’s head. I also used the sizes of each symbol to show the amount of the world which believes in them, their size scaling with the population. I arranged the text using the grid, although not in line, the edges of each word are aligned with the edge of another letter, with the importance of each word being highlighted by its size. I added a plane at the bottom of the draft to hold the subtext, separating it from the main part of the declaration. I also used the typeface Caslon, as it is reminiscent of the serif typefaces used in religious text, such as the Bible.

I then inverted the colours, and altered the colours of the symbols slightly so that they would not be too overpowering against the black, I preferred this appearance, as it is softer and less straining on the eyes, but the text also seems more bold, drawing the eye to it first. After making these two drafts, I scrutinised them further to find any issues or improvements which could be made before refining the design further.

I extended the subtext and aligned it with the “and” of the main text, to make it seem less crushed within the bottom plane, and added the number 10, ghosted, showing which declaration this is. Most notably, I also aligned the symbols with the curve of the text, mirroring their positioning before, and moved the text slightly to improve its alignment and readability. I also added a body to the person’s head, aligning it with the bottom plane, making its form and message more clear to the viewer, being a person in thought.