If you have seen this lightning image before, yep, it was featured on a newspaper, website and in the Esplanade before.

Although I have been in the media field for quite a while now, I have never made any publications or dealt with publications. All my works are usually digital, namely videos, websites, 3D artworks, shirt designs, etc, but this zine was the first.

THE CONCEPT

As you all know, my past works are all digital, either in photos, photo-manipulation or vectored “papercuts”. I wanted to base this project on photo-manipulations, with reference from reddit’s photoshopbattles sub, but decided against it due to the time constraints.

So, as mentioned in my previous project when I drew reference from my “chasing the sun” vlog, I wanted to go along those lines for this project. I have decided to go with “storm chasers” concept, based on my expedition to the US in August 2011 to chase and record these storms. This will be made into a “intro” booklet to provide information and maybe invoke some feelings in photographers alike – through the landscape photos – to want to go for a “YOLO” adventure too.

REFERENCES

For this zine, since I will be primarily showcasing landscape photos, I felt that it was rather difficult in composing each page layouts. From the “draft” layout I showed Joy on the previous consult, she suggested that I had to look into more references (photography zines), take note of the layout hierarchy and improve on the typographic elements.

EXECUTION

For the execution, I wanted the booklet to go from preparation to execution in catching the lightnings. Therefore, I have orgainised the spreads respectively.

Originally, I have used a black sans-serif typeface but I felt that it needed something more. So I came up with a slightly thinner and angled it so that it seems like the text is running/chasing. I have added wind lines (when there is storm there is wind!) to give it an extra movement feel.

In this spread, I wanted to give an introduction by using the 5W1Hs, so it consists of the location, the aim, the people, the time and duration.

In this spread, its a day shot of the scenery from inside the transport we used. I have intentionally added a white border as a frame to show that it is an “inside-the-van” view.

In this spread, I wanted to give advice and info to the audience, from the equipment, to techniques, and to the things needed in the trip. For this, I have created an infographic page on the left, on the typical items that can be found in the bag.

This full-page spread of a sunset shot marks the transition of the journey, as many of the lightnings we tried to catch failed.

In this last full-page spread, it is the execution and destination of the storm chasing journey, with fruitful results. I have also intentionally composed it so that the middle line did not break the lightning, separating 2 lightnings on each side.

The last page I have actually added a quote to seal the deal, hoping that it connects to the photographer in the reader that they should try it out too.

REFLECTION

First, I would like to apologize for my lengthy post. My short presentation on Monday lacked many of these details as I was really stoned due to barely getting any sleep for.. say 3 days hahahaha…

With only a little knowledge of inDesign in creating a interactive CV in the past, I found it rather different when I had to do a publication. Apart from the bleed and trim, I also had to take note of creep, gutter and grids, which was really new to me. Some improvements that were suggested was that I should have a clear aim and a better conclusion.

Overall, I really liked the outlook of my “professional-looking” zine (as described by my peers, thank you!) and it gave me a enriching experience in publication making!