We were tasked to create an 8-page zine where we can choose to explore our past works or work an entirely new creation. After going through numerous thought processes and conceptualising, I decided to do a photobook zine where I put a bunch of photos into an 8-page zine. The central focus I am looking for in my zine is my travels in the past few years.

I went to search on various travel magazines and zines that could possibly inspire me as well as how I want the layout of my zine to be.

Here are some of my inspirations:

Cereal magazine

Kinfolk

These 2 magazines contains similar styles and I love their minimalistic approach on their photos and text. Everything looks very clean and easy to absorb and it just looks aesthetically pleasing.

Some other inspirations:

I’m inspired by how the layout of the zine can be very simple to give a clean look to the overall zine and the photos are not overwhelming to the eyes.

Initially, I started with 3 main countries that I would like to feature. Mainly, Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Each spread will consist of photos from the mentioned countries.

Here is some examples of the first draft.

First Draft

Second Draft

After reviewing the first draft, I decided to change my focus to one country instead that features 3 main places I’ve visited in that country. For this, I wanted to include short texts about each place, giving the readers a brief context of the place that is accompanied with the photos.

Third Draft

After going through consultation with Joy, she suggested I needed to find a unique selling point for my zine and what I am trying to tell people through this zine. She suggested that I could document my journey from one place to another place. For example, taking a train and taking a bus in different countries so the underlying concept is about commuting to different places. I then decided to incorporate my drafts and this idea together to form my final draft. I kept texts to a minimum and instead only wrote the name of the place in one of the photos.

There was still more ideas that I needed to explore to make it work but I know roughly what I was aiming for and how the concept in my head should turn out physically. My next post will be the actual final piece of the zine.

The binding method I will be going for will be the pamphlet stitch binding and the type of paper I’m using will be between 200-250gsm matte paper.

Pamphlet Stitch Binding