2D FINAL ASSIGNMENT: Zine

About

Making self publication at a budget. In the zine, we include things that we have learned throughout the semester or the year from 2D foundation class.

Concept

For this project, I want to use my 2D projects to create fashion art/fashion illustrations. In order to do so, I decided to use Shamekh Bluwi’s cut-out illustration as inspiration.

Shamekh-illustrations

Research

Below are the research I did for the format of the zine.

bc90fa93543331430b0c5d30a09c5734 2862f7c6ff033d2bed803b56771836d9 f482cf8e38836fabc1247ab8243ed491 8334ec26a34b16186dc20f3b4dbf3f9d

I wanted to do postcard styles, or binded-by-ring or ribbon style, however, I found it hard to do my concept in such a way. I want one cut-out illustration to have its dress filled in with all the 2D artworks I picked.

Formatting

Hence, the formatting is something that I created special for this zine. It would allow both sides of the cut-out illustration to be used, ‘filtering’ the pattern from other pages as the pages are folded alternately one by one.

It is kept in rectangular, A5 shape in order to give the magazine feeling.

PROTOTYPE 1 PRINT B

Cover

ZINE Cover Zine Cover 2Zine Cover Zine Cover Final

The first two are initial designs of the cover, but those cut-outs are not satisfying. it’s not classy enough. So, I decided to draw another original illustration. The simple and minimalist line give classy look and it simulates vintage Vogue cover. There are some changes in the text alignment.

Content

The challenge in deciding what pictures should be put in the content page is whether the image will fill in the dress well or not. So, a lot of trial and errors are made.

Below are the errors.

Trials 1 Trials 3 Trials 5

And after some more changes, the final content pages are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

So, when they all fill in the dress:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Oh and yeah some of the content pages can only fill in the dress of the cover or the back cover.

Reflection

Designing it is pretty tough because of the unusual format and unique idea. Sadly, the format that I used is only fit A1 size paper, which cause the printing to be bad. It’s not sharp to be printed using A1 printer. Thank God it still looks good tho.

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 2.24.32 AM

Well, but the content pages contain too much words. I didn’t know that the font size of 10 can be soooo big on A1 size paper…

Typographic Portrait

About

In this project, we are assigned to create postcards with a typography of our name. Just like its title, the typography should be a ‘portrait’ of myself: a representation of who I am and/or my aspiration.

 


 

Research

The first artist I have researched is Hannah Hoch. Her collages speak their messages strongly, and some even have multiple interpretation. Her pieces intrigue me to try ‘less clean’ photomontage.

1 2 3

 

The second research is Dada Movement. Here, more typography is involved in this style even though it is similar to Hannah Hoch’s.

4 5 6

 

The third one is Russian Evolution art. This one is more poster-like and bold.

7 8 9

 

The fourth is DIY typeface. This is experimental basis and surely will bring a much more distinguishable look than digital image.

10

 


Process

First thing first, I did a mindmap about myself: my facts, my aspiration, and “If I were…”s.

Some of the ideas that I picked are:

  • Messy perfectionist
  • Nerdy bimbo
  • Dreamy fashion designer
  • Mischievous artist
  • Coquettish tai-tai
  • Emo musician
  • Mischievous Christian

Then, I started sketching drafts. At first, I was influenced heavily by Hannah Hoch and Dada art, making me to plan a too image-drive postcards. I forgot to emphasize much on typography and to infuse my characteristic into the text, not the image. The first set of draft sketches/planning is wrong.

For the 2nd set, I did both traditional pencil sketches and digital sketches. Some of the digital sketches I have done:

Dreamy Fashion Designer draft
That is a flying needle, and the ‘i’ is a mannequin silhouette
Naughty artist draft
The naughtiness is portrayed through the evil horns, tail and trisula. The artist is portrayed through the brush as the ‘i’.
Sleep-deprived art student
The idea is ‘having panda yes’, and replaced the panda eyes with artist palette, and the ‘panda’ is wearing an artist beret.

 

However, I think that these drafts are still lacking ‘thoughts’. The first one can be developed further but the 2nd and 3rd…they are not really satisfying.

As the deadline was getting near, I chose 4 points out of all the points I mentioned earlier about myself and worked on these 4 ideas.

The final inspiration I gained:

  • emo musician: inspired from music sheet’s 5 lines and written notes. The blood, the last idea I got to improve this typographic portrait, is to portray extreme depressed action of ‘self-cutting’.

Emo Musician 3 Emo Musician 4 Emo Musician 7

Emo Musician 9
If I were a musician, whenever I felt depressed, music would be a platform for me to transfer my pain into. I won’t let myself bleeding because of self-harm, but I will let the music the bleed the pain out.
  • nerdy bimbo: I want ‘bimbo’ to be portrayed through makeup kits, and the ‘nerdy’ idea through various chemistry class’ equipment.

Nerdy Bimbo 1 Nerdy Bimbo 3 Nerdy Bimbo 4

Nerdy Bimbo Final
F.N. can be Feliciana Natali, or F for fashion, N for nerd. It’s purely coincidental but that is one of the reasons why I made the ‘f’ for bimbo character and ‘n’ for nerdy character.

 

  • dreamy fashion designer: the idea of using mannequin as the ‘i’ is derived from the digital sketch I have made earlier. Then, for this postcard, I use the ‘opposite’/mirror concept. ‘Dreamy’ means I love to think of fantasies, fairy tale, impossible things to happen.

Dreamy Fashion Designer 2 Dreamy Fashion Designer 4 Dreamy Fashion Designer 6

Dreamy Fashion Designer Final
The idea of ‘fashion’ is depicted through the use of mannequin as one of the ‘i’, and (subtle intention) the use of font type Didot, which is used by a high-end fashion brand of Valentino. The ‘dreamy’ is portrayed as ‘fading reflection’ of my name to show that my dreamy characteristic may not be obvious, I look like a practical and realistic person (well that’s true) but deep inside I am quite dreamy and imagining many fantasies. ‘The two sides of me’…

 

  • mischievous artist: initially, I didn’t think of monkey to be the symbol of mischief. I thought I would use something like messy brush strokes and splashes on a wall, which is not very communicating the message…

Mischievous Artist 5Mischievous Artist 2  Mischievous Artist Revised 2

Mischievous Artist final
So, the ‘monkey me’ wrote ‘atali’ with its tail messily. The grin is to show it’s playful and potentially mischievous. The broken halo is to show that it is actually benevolent and not mischievous in a harmful, evil way – it just wants to have fun. The ‘artist’ is highlighted by the red palette and brush.

 


Exploration of Style/Reflection

It is natural for me to create a ‘clean-style’ image. However, the usage of only three colors: black, white and red is unintentional. The first two images (Emo Musician and Nerdy Bimbo) are both consist of these 3 colors only. Hence, I just continued making the last two images to be in the same colors.

Initially, I really wanted to try photomontage. However, the idea of photomontage drove me to think of image not typography. I am very new to typography and hence I decided to just focus on typography, and let all the messages I want to deliver stored in the typography only.

The simple/clean style also allows me to create design aesthetically through the meanings, not through visual elements such as colors and shape. First, I focused solely on how to convey the messages effectively, then I altered here and there to get the desired aesthetic of the design as a whole.

Overall, this project exposed me to the door of typographic art/typography’s world. I am amazed by how simple typography can be but the simplicity carries out a lot of mood, message, purposes. This project makes me want to learn more about typography.

 

the-end