Graphic Form Project 2 // Research and Process I

LET’S DEZINE.

I have always loved reading magazines, especially zines. They have strong personalities, ideas and visual identities that is expressed through their content and visual graphics (photos/illustration/layout). The RUBBISH FAMzine series of Zines by local family art collective holycrap is one example of this. Their use of Zine as a platform to share personal experiences and thoughts as a family engages readers as their content becomes relatable and thoughtful. Combined with their use of strong visual themes, no wonder this Zine has won numerous design awards and is well recognised worldwide as well.

Rubbish FAMzine Issue #5
Rubbish FAMzine Issue #5

Approaching this Project, I decided that I would want to create a zine that would allow space for these areas to show. Hence, my aim and objective for the zine is to introduce thought-provoking ideas and combine them with interesting visuals to capture readers’ attention.

Journey to Bendemeer (Project 2a).

BENDEMEER. YES. I travelled from Yew Tee to Bendemeer (which I actually have never been to before) cos that was the area suggested/given/selected by me. I thought that the nearest MRT was Bendemeer (on the downtown line) but I was wrong. Turns out that Boon Keng is nearer to the Bendemeer Estate.

To cut a long story short, I actually visited the area twice. I alighted the first time at Bendemeer and ended up exploring the Industrial Estate there (which was not very interesting) and the second time at Boon Keng where I explored the residential areas and other areas of Bendemeer.

The MRT at Bendemeer was actually really empty (as though it was unoccupied). Felt kinda creepy.

MRT at Bendemeer

Anyway, read all about the exploration here in my presentation slides!

WONDER-ZINE.

While crafting the presentation, the idea of using collages to express a different side of Bendemeer came to mind and I decided to continue to explore that idea.

For the first consultation, I created a moodboard to firm up certain ideas I have had. I settled on a theme for my zine that would be exploring the concept of “seeing”. I added words that I associated “seeing” with to give myself a rough idea of what content and what other ideas I can explore with the zine.

I also included references images, and examples of layouts that inspired me.

As I have already curated a series of photos for use in my presentation, I decided to continue with these photos and try collaging them. The aim is to create a surrealistic visual that will allow readers to question the image.

Here are some examples of the first collage drafts:

Some feedback for the images were that some were not “surrealistic” enough and so it was back to photoshop once again.

Once I was done editing the image, I started to layout the images and spread them out to try the layouts. (without the content).

Presenting, WONDER-IN #1

Zine layout 1

I decided to use a sky image of Bendemeer as it gave the magazine a sense of context. The typography of the main title logo was deliberately wavy to translate the idea of “Wonder”.

I split the content into 3 main chapters, and tried to use different colours and typography treatment to highlight each chapter’s unique aspects.

The difficulty was trying to experiment interesting layout while ensuring that every spread is consistent and not out of place!

Feedback were that the spread for pg 4-5 and 6-7 were lacklustre in the energy in terms of the layout as compared to the spread in pg 2-3…

I was quite satisfied with the use of colours, and typography for the first draft so I didn’t change it much.

WONDER-IN #2

For V2 I tried experimenting more with the potential of the layouts but with the content not done, the layouts continued to grow and was edited along the way. To cut the long story short, here is the finalised layout at the end. which was V3438247384379482.

Final Layout.

With the content more or less complicated and in line with how I want the visual graphics to tie and link with, the layout was completed soon after. Due the to small amount of pages for this zine, I decided to do away with page numbers as well.

Apart from the minor changes in terms of layout, I also included a map of Bendemeer at the backpage as well as a QR code with a scan that links to an instagram page set up. But more on that in my next post!