Assignment 3 “Zine” – Subsequent Development and Final

Zine – Concept


(cont’d from part 1) ONTO PART 2!

After developing the overall theme, I selected a few works (both personal and for school) that I felt fitted the theme better – I decided to organise the zine into 2 parts: The Heart and The Brain. The Brain contained the more whimsical, fun works while The Heart contained works that were more introspective in nature.

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For the works, I selected a mix of photography, collage and illustration to create more variety in the zine.
interspace logo 04interspace logo 03

These 2 designs were actually logos/ promotional material that I did for my friend! They didn’t get selected eventually, but I really liked them so I decided to put them into my zine.

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I also added a few of my personal film photos

I also experimented with hand-binding, as I liked the handmade effect that it had which I felt gave the zine more personality. Unlike the tutorial which I used (here!), however, I used rough twine to add to the rough, handmade style that I was going for. I also switched the orientation of the booklet (inside becoming outside) as I preferred to have the last knot on the outside of the booklet – something which I found out after doing a mockup.

(From https://sewcompelled.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/saddle-stitch-bookbinding-tutorial/)

(From https://sewcompelled.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/saddle-stitch-bookbinding-tutorial/)

The switching of the orientation was also inspired by the group critique (thanks Heng Tong!) who suggested that I did a double cover zine to fit my zine format better.

For this project, I also experimented with paper stock – I used tracing paper for the inserts and the covers as I liked the translucency and I printed the zine on cream/off-white paper: white paper felt too clean and glaring to me and I didn’t like the sterile look it gave.

View of the 2 different paper stocks

View of the 2 different paper stocks

I tried printing on 2 different off white papers and eventually chose the one that had a lesser tint in the colour and gave me the crispest lines.

For the font, I tried a variety of styles to keep the zine interesting. It was hard to pick fonts that fitted the style of the zine but yet was also able to show individual colour for each work. All in all, I used 3 different methods:

Handwritten brush typography (black/silver/gold)

Experimentation with brush font

Experimentation with brush font

Black print

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Trying my hand at print typography

For this part of the zine, I tried to relate the words visually to the work – the increasing letter sizes of D A R K to simulate a torch shining into the darkness, and aVOID as a pun: a void, and a place that one should avoid at all costs.

Letter transfer (red)

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An interesting experiment

Another technique that I tried and had fun with was letter transfer! I found these (pretty old) transfer sheets sold outside artmark so I bought some to try out. I really like the vintage style and colour, and the irregular way it transferred onto the paper added personality to it which I liked, so I added it to my compositions as well.

 

 

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Trying out brush typography in metallic colours (failed version)

While doing all the experimentation for this zine, I experienced a few hiccups. One of them was the control of my hands on brush work. For my first iteration of the Sun/Moon work, I didn’t draw in guidelines (too much confidence ahhh) and so the final work ended up being misaligned so I had to redo it. It was kinda painful but at least I learned something from it!

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Misaligned printing T_T

Another hiccup that I learned to resolve was on printing dimensions. When I did the printing for the mockup, the printing was somehow skewed. After a lot of fiddling around with the computer settings, I realised that it was because Adobe pdf sets the default printing size to letter (damn American dimensions). Luckily, I found out so I was able to change it for my final piece.

Final


Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the contents but here’s a front/back shot of the final piece!

Front

Front

Back

Back

Reflections


All in all, it was a very satisfying and fun project and I really enjoyed it a lot! This project got my feet wet in Indesign (which I definitely have to learn to master) and I liked the experimentation with fonts that I did.

I would have loved to try more in terms of layout and cross page spreads, and perhaps more experimentation of layering and textures – perhaps a new zine created with totally new work would give me more leeway to do so.

Many thanks to the class for being super supportive and fun throughout this whole journey and Joy for being an awesome tutor ^^

 

Assignment 3 “Zine” – Research and Initial Development

Zine – Initial Research


 

As someone who was already familiar with the concept of the zine before this project, I was really excited and really looked forward to it!

Upon receiving the brief, I first went online to find examples of zines and editorial styles that I wanted to try out.

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(From http://hokkfabrica.com/create-your-own-zine-inspired-by-zinester/)

I was really inspired by this set of samples, especially of the photos of the usage of tracing paper/ mini inserts – so I tried to play around with layering different paper styles and textures for my zine. The samples also had a lot of layering text, which I decided to play around with by using rub on letter transfers in my work.

Concept


At first, I found it really hard to find a unifying factor/theme for all my works and so found it really hard to define a central concept for my zine. At one point, I seriously contemplated redoing all new works for this project (thank god I didn’t).

At one point, I remembered a little personal comic project that I did a long time ago – Sleeptalk (you can read the comics here. For a long time, I’ve been wanting to redesign a new logo for the series and so I decided to use this chance to do it! The concept of Sleeptalk also fitted well with my works (somehow).

The concept of Sleeptalk is basically – what I talk about when everyone is asleep. As a chronic night owl, I work into the wee hours of the morning and it’s then that I often have funny and weird thoughts. So Sleeptalk is basically a collection of these moments, both the weird and the scary and the introspective parts of my brain that works at night.

In the design of the logo, I referenced old vintage style tarot cards and eye logo designs – to convey the idea of being asleep/awake.

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(From http://www.behance.net/gallery/Street-Loyalty-Artwork-Urgh/12407525)

(From http://www.nychukdesign.com/)

(From http://www.nychukdesign.com/)

(From http://ostaratarot.tumblr.com/)

(From http://ostaratarot.tumblr.com/)

(From http://moonandtrees.tumblr.com/post/100754074616)

(From http://moonandtrees.tumblr.com/post/100754074616)

I wanted a slightly vintage, oldy look to the logo design that was at the same time easily readable in its motifs.

Eventually, I came up with the final iteration:
sleeptalk logoI also did 2 more iterations of the design to create the eye opening/closing effect.

Eye closed

Eye closed

sleeptalk logo half lid

Eye half opened

For the tarot style cover I was going for, I design a few motifs as well – mainly the sun/moon motifs to denote the shift between day and night:

Untitled 3

Together, the tarot style composition looked like this:

sleeptalk tarot logo

 

Assignment 2 “Point of View” – Process and Final

POINT OF VIEW

stage – Michael Jackson – Nietzsche – urban dwellings – passenger – astronaut

Final work

 

Space from the point of view of a performer is a stage.

To a performer, the stage is a special and holy place kept close to the heart. To a true performer, any kind of space can be a stage for them to perform and create wonderful works. After all, isn’t all the world’s a stage?

Space from the point of view of Michael Jackson is a walk (in the park).

This is a double pun that I’m kinda proud of keke – the walk refers to the Moonwalk (hence the fedora on the moon) and it’s a walk in the park for Michael Jackson as dancing the moonwalk (and controlling the space) is so easy for him.

While doing this I learnt how fedoras are surprisingly hard to paint.

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Space from the point of view of Nietzsche is The Void.

This work draws from the philosophies of Nietzsche, and his famous line, “And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” I wanted to try to create a visceral horror effect as the eye surfaces from the black void, hence the white lines to simulate goo.

Space from the point of view of urban dwellings is a luxury.

This was one of the compositions that I struggled with, but I eventually settled with this after the very helpful group critique! I wanted to created the feeling of cramped quarters, but also wanted to continue with my visual concept of images suspended in space (hah) so I decided to restrict the buildings to the middle. There are painted buildings camouflaged within the composition too, as physical space isn’t the only thing that is a rarity in an urban space.

Space from the point of view of a passenger is impossible!

Space from the point of view of a passenger is impossible!

I got inspiration from always being squashed in the mrt hhahaha. It doesn’t help that I’m short, which makes carving out my own breathing space even harder. For this piece, I decided to portray the idea of “sardines in a can” to evoke meaning of the idiom visually, instead of directly portraying people. Hopefully this makes it more interesting!

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Space from the point of view of an astronaut is exploration.

This was the easiest composition for me, and the first one finalised. It’s a more literal reading of the word space, but I decided to add a traditional oil lamp instead of just showing the astronaut hanging as I wanted to give the figure a sense of purpose, and to evoke the feeling of searching in the dark.

Process/concept

Unfortunately I don’t have many photos of the process (read: almost none ;_;) as I tend to bury myself in my work when I’m working and forget about everything else…

But here are some detail shots that I have!

fishies

These were a bitch to cut out.

For all of the compositions, I incorporated some form of photographic elements but I decided to go with a physical collage rather than a digital one (like my previous project) so I could add more illustration to it.

Fishies sitting in the can.

I also wanted to use traditional collage as I wanted to create a layering effect for the images and thus make it look more real and tangible, by the different paper thickness.

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point of view (9 of 18) crop

This also helps my images to pop up but just a little more so they looked more three dimensional and less flat, kinda like a pop up book.

All the photos/illustrations were stuck on with blu tack as well instead of glue as I felt that glue would stick everything together too well and not let them pop up as much.

Initial composition for Nietzsche

Final composition for Nietzsche

I decided to change my composition for Nietzsche as well, substituting the drawn iris for the photo one as I wanted to maintain the consistency in using photographs in all my images, and I felt that the photo iris was more descriptive and gives a better contrast with the drawn lines in the composition.

Reflections

Personally it was very satisfying to me how this turned out;  I really liked the visual direction that this project took (unlike the previous project which left me very dissatisfied) and I got to return to traditional mediums like watercolour which I liked and was more familiar with.

I also got to try out traditional collage which I must say I really enjoyed, maybe even more than digital collage (not that I still don’t love digital collage)! It was a little tedious at times, but I like the tactile nature of it and the kind of depth that it lends to my works. I will try to experiment more in that area in the future 🙂

Assignment 2 “Point of View” – Project Prep 1 (Research)

18 Points of View: SPACE

SPACE from the point of view of an astronaut is uncharted waters.

SPACE from the point of view of a passenger is that which leaves to be desired.

SPACE from the point of view of an alien is its normal habitat.

SPACE from the point of view of a plant/ nature is opportunity/territory.

SPACE from the point of view of a bubble is its existence (or is it?)

SPACE from the point of view of a designer is a canvas.

SPACE from the point of view of a performer is a stage.

SPACE from the point of view of history is political (space race).

SPACE from the point of view of Kowloon Walled City is impossible.

SPACE from the point of view of a wormhole is non-existent/ irrelevant.

SPACE from the point of view of me is consciousness (headspace).

SPACE from the point of view of strangers is comfort.

SPACE from the point of view of music is a break.

SPACE from the point of view of Michael Jackson is a walk (in the park).

SPACE from the point of view of Star Wars is a setting.

SPACE from the point of view of a clock is time.

SPACE from the point of view of a child is fantasy.

SPACE from the point of view of Nietzsche is the void.

SPACE from the point of view of a key board is the space bar.

SPACE from the point of view of teeth is a cavity.

SPACE fom the point of a city is a luxury/expensive.

Visual references


 

On spaces: Interesting/ abandoned spaces in urban dwellings

Abandoned spaces in Japan

Kowloon Walled City

Vintage Graphics

Album Covers

Other visual references

 

Focus on:

illustrative style

narrative in the composition

minimalist/emptier compositions – giving space

muted/ controlled colours

 

 

Assignment 1 “Typography Portrait Problem” – Project Prep 2 (Exploration)

Exploring Character Traits


1.I am a… Book worm

Personally, I am someone who really loves reading so I decided to pick this as my first personality trait to portray. Instead of using the imagery of books, I decided to portray the ‘book’ part of bookworm in the form of letters as I thought it would be interesting to use varying letter forms to see what effect I could get.

a m y

I cut out different letter forms of the letters A, M and Y that make up my name and scanned them in, and manipulated them on Photoshop to turn them into grey scale half-tone – so as to provide the contrast with the colourful gummy worms that were going to be used in the composition.

maze smol

Try to find the letters A M and Y!

maze

Where my name is hidden in the maze (gif)

To portray the idea of a ‘bookworm’ visually, I decided to create a maze of letters spelling my name and to have colourful gummy worms (depicting me) travel through it, as if they were eating up the words. It was hard to manipulate the gummy worms and make them stay the way I wanted them to on the paper but I think the irregularity adds to the fun spontaneity of the composition.

typography (5 of 6)

Final composition

Final composition

2.I am a… music junkieDSCF7136 DSCF7137

To show the kind of music junkie that I am, I decided to form my name using my favourite (and my best) pair of headphones, with a variety of album covers in the background, sorted by colour to showcase the variety of music that I listen to.

MUSIC smol

3.I am a… wanderer

cartography-visscher-1658

I find myself a person filled with wanderlust, often filled with the urge to find and explore new places. I also love to wander around and just observe.

My initial concept for this composition was to recreate a vintage cartography (maps) and let my name be spelled out by the trade routes. However, I found this idea to be too flat and not really fitting in with the other 3 pieces hence I decided to try something different.

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Real Life Where’s Waldo

As I’m quite short, I always find myself getting lost in crowds when I wander around, making it hard for other people to find me – hence I decided to go in this direction to explore this character trait. I hid myself within the crowds of my friends in a way such that it would spell out my name when it’s all joined together

4.I am a… daydreamer

For the concept of daydreamer,my second trait, I decided to draw smoke to depict my name as it was dreamy and it was something that I liked to doodle when my mind was wandering. To add in the fantastical, whimsical element, I decided to add a photo of a fish to juxtapose with the hand-drawn, unreal feel of the smoke. The smoke was also depicted in bright colours to contrast with the black and white of the fish and the background.

typography (1 of 6)

typography (4 of 6)

Initially, I tried out gouache on paper but I didn’t like the result – it was hard to get a smooth layer of colour and the entire image seemed flat and dull. Some colours like the yellow also didn’t show very well on the grey background.

typography (2 of 6)

typography (3 of 6)

So I tried a different approach – paper cut. I layered the image of the fish with the cutting of the smoke on top of a piece of watercolour paper painted with watercolours and silver ink in various hues. Although I had to sacrifice some details in the smoke, I was able to vary the hue and saturation of the colours more to bring about more depth.

Overarching Concept


To link all the different concepts together, I decided to play on colour – I received feedback that all my traits had something to do with my introverted nature, hence I tried to juxtapose the black and white/ colour to show the difference between my outer and inner world. For example, the black and white letter maze in the first composition represented the words/ books I like to read, while the colourful gummy worms represent me happily immersing myself in the books.

For this project, I also stuck to a more photographic/ collage style as I wanted to try something a little out of my comfort zone.

Assignment 1 – Typography Portrait Problem – Project Prep 1 (Research)

What is typography?

Typography – the visual representation/ reinforcement of the written word.

Hence

  • Typography is primarily utilitarian;
  • Focus: On effectively conveying/ reinforcing the message portrayed by type
  • Effective typography > Typography that is aesthetically pleasing but ineffective

Methods:

  • Using visual image/ symbols that echo the message
  • Unconventional mediums/ presentation
  • Playing with colours, shape, scale etc.

Research

Hannah Hoch

Picture1

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Hannah Hoch is one of the few rare female artists from the Dadaist movement, and as a German artist created many prominent works in response to the the horrors of WW1 and the discrimination she faced as a female in the Dadaist artist community. To me, I like how she pieces together disparate images from various different sources (often bearing no semblance to  each other) to convey her message in a unique way.

Having experimented with digital collage last semester, I really liked the process of selecting and assembling images, as well as the end product – hence this might be a possible direction to take for my Project 1.

Handmade Typography

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Out of all the different examples of handmade typography I saw online, these few examples stood out to me as the presentation of the type (i.e. typography) was not only interesting, different but also really effective and successfully reinforced the message portrayed by the type.

Hence I feel that for my project 1 to be successful, a clear message needs to be defined, with the presentation of the type streamlined to fit the message – so that the typography does not become a mere gimmick.

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“Do not play with your food” #1 SWEETS AND CANDY by Alex Palazzi

Personally, I really liked this project as the focus on recreating the textures and look of the foods in the typography made the text more tangible and real to the viewer instead of being mere words. At the same time, the studio setup style of the typography background with the very consciously chosen colours makes the typography look unreal and fantastical. This creates a very interesting contrast in the portrayal of the words.

Sakanaction_Aruku_MV

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Sakanaction – Aruku Around

Personally this is one of my favourite examples of typography in video – the joining of seemingly random elements to form the characters creates a constant sense of surprise and suspense for the viewer, and it actually helps to create movement and flow throughout the entire music video. Hence, not only was the typography effective in conveying the song style and lyrics, it was able to adapt to the video format and add to it.

I found it interesting too how the director chose to add various elements of the type together, instead of cutting away (additive vs subtractive) as seen in the meat poster above. Hence, possible exploration can be done in this area to see how it affects the viewer(s)’ impression of the message portrayed.