James King
Foundation
ZINES
graphic communication
Mood Board
I started my research into Zines by making a mood board on Behance. These are some of my favourite designs I found that use many different styles such as Illustrations, typography and shapes. I really like the text style of the third design as it uses very bold text and uses punctuation where it normally isn't used. I also like the bottom right illustration design as the colours work really well and is very pleasing. The eighth picture uses a series of magazines and puts them together in a box holder. I really like the idea of blowing up text or pictures that parts are cropped off. This would intrigue the reader to open it up and explore the Zine more.
Folding Experiment
With five A3 sheets of paper, I made different ways of folding to make Zines. My favourite was the folded concertina design as it has lots of space to put different things on, which could be one for each of my interests / things I want to include. It can also open up to make a big full size (either A3 or A2) poster that would be related somehow to me (could be my hexagon wallpaper with the logo on). I tried another fold idea where I attempted to fold it as much as I could, however it looks horrible so this one is my least favourite. I also like my last design as there could be some nice designs on the under and overlapping pages. It also folds out to reveal more information. The main problem with this though is that it would look quite messy when it is fully folded out.
Designer Research
Isabel Castillo Guijarro & Elliot Salazar
These two designers work for a company called Refinery29, who one year didn't make a company calendar. So they took it upon themselves to make it for them. They took unpublished work from their fellow designers and used broadsheet newspaper to make their R29 calendar. The calendar also turned into a full size poster for each month. I really like this idea of unfolding something to reveal something else like a poster, and this idea of a calendar is also a really cool idea. I also like the nod to their fellow designers, using their unpublished work.
Binding
Primary Research
(from Library)
Wire (Staple) Stitching
This is the best method for binding lightweight magazines and the stapling is reminscent of old school Zines that people used to make themselves on the library photocopier. The printed sheets are sorted with the cover at the top of the stack, centre spread at the bottom, then folded in half and bound together using two staples on the spine.This process is recommended for zines UP TO 40 pages. If you have more than 40 pages then they become very bulky when folded in half. This will cause your zine to ‘bounce’ open when laid flat rather than staying closed.
Perfect Binding
Perfect binding gives the Zine a more book-like appearance. We recommend perfect binding for zines of 40 pages or more. OR zines that have a width of more than 3mm. In the Perfect Binding process all the pages are trimmed to size and stacked in a block. They are aligned at the left hand spine edge, roughened up and a strong glue is applied. The separate cover is creased, wrapped around the text block and then bound on to give a square finish. The 'spine gutter' is the section of a page which is immediately next to the spine.
Primary Research
(from Library)
Ideas / Plan
This is my Plan for my zine which will be about my Top 5 Rollercoasters and ones I want to ride around the world. The pages will count down from 5 and each will include a picture, information, and my review of the ride. In between page 2 and 1 will be the honorable mentions of rides that I really like but didn't make it in the top 5. On the back of the whole thing could either be bucket list rides or a full size picture of Wodan, my favourite rollercoaster.
Final Outcome
I have done what the brief asked as I have created a final logo outcome for my Self-Branding, and two development ideas, as my Hexagon and initials idea. I did my research by making a mood board on Behance, by looking at other designer's logos and branding. People I looked at were John Gatapia, Joshua Walker, and Nella Ocampa. Their work is very interesting as some people make their logo as a shorter version of their actual name, and one person made it into a gif. My strengths in this project were knowing how to use Adobe Illustrator to create my logo ideas in and develop them. My weaknesses were not coming up with very different ideas to ones I had already designed, as once I find something I really like, I stick with it instead of coming up with more ideas. Tools i used in this project were Illustrator to create my logos in as it is the best program to make them in. I used features such as the pen tool, the type editors, and the stroke changer. New skills I learned included adding points in the hexagon shape either side of the letter to then delete the space so the hexagon outline doesn't obstruct the initials. My work has changed as the original idea was for the initials to be inside the hexagon, but as I developed it, the hexagon got smaller and the letters bigger. Throughout the project I always wanted to use a gradient in the logo but the white one was always going to be just white. I think the shape of the initials was successful as well as the colours I chose, as they work really well on a white background. I could improve the link between my logo and the three words at the beginning as I don't think they relate that well.
Evaluation
I have done what the brief asked as I have created a Zine for a personal interest that for me is Theme Parks, so I made my Top 5 favourite rollercoasters. I am also able to set up my Zine file in Illustrator and InDesign. I researched two designers who worked for a company that didn't make a calendar one year, so they made one themselves of other designer's unpublished work, into a Zine. I also researched Zine binding and other ways of folding paper to help me make my Zine. The work I researched is a really nice idea that has been portrayed really well, as it has been laid out nicely and the work featured in it is really nice as well. My strengths in this project were knowing how to use Illustrator and InDesign as I could use both programs to make my Zine, although I chose to use Illustrator as I prefer it. Also, I have made magazines at college previously so I had a basic idea of what I needed to do. My weaknesses were not knowing how to fold the zines as I had to keep asking to find out the right way to fold it. The zine was printed out on A4 paper and then folded, and was mostly made on Illustrator. My project was mostly successful, as my Zine printed out really well apart from the text near the edges were cropped by the printer. If I did the project again, I would change the Zine's bleed so it doesn't crop anything off, and I would also make it in InDesign as it is the correct program to use for Zines.