zine – Hello.

Josiah Tan – Project 2 Gallery

In my travels around Pioneer, I found many burning bins. This made me think of the morbid question: Are the pioneers all dead? I took a couple of photos of the insides of the burning bins and saw the moon. This made me think that maybe they went to the moon – a metaphor for them passing on. The poetry that accompanies the images were transformed from being just a narrative of the pioneers passing away to my reflections on the difficulties in connecting with the pioneers. In the poem, there is a progression from the ease of communication between kids and grandparents, to inexplicably losing it in our youth, to its complete loss when our grandparents have passed on – perhaps to the moon.

Where have the Pioneers gone?

The burning bin takes up space in spread on both sides. Only part of it is shown on the first spread and the reader is invited to guess what it might be. The moon and the cool colour tones used suggest that it is night. The font used is a handwriting font and is meant to set the tone as having a child-like mindset (i.e. a children’s book)

The grass bleeds into the concrete environment to on the left page to give a surreal feel to the spread. It also contrasts with the blocky, grey elements on the left. In that sense, there is a transition from greys to colours. The font on the left is larger and playful looking to suggest excitement; different but still consistent in style with the font on the right. On the right, the text is arranged in a way that reflects the pacing of the content. The font decreases in size at with each “thud” and only ends with a period on the last “thud” – suggesting the end of the bouncing back and forth.

On the left page, the text is done in a manner more rigid than any of the other pages. This creates a contrast and a sombre feeling as compared to the rest of the pages which tend to be more dynamic. The solid shadows enhance the loneliness of the red chair. The hut on the right page cuts into the left page just slightly to suggest that something is off; it’s not a fairy tale. The chess table is placed at the bottom-right mostly to create space and balanced asymmetry in the composition. Because of this, I am given enough space to create an effect in the text where it looks like each line is slowly breaking apart up to the point where the word “left” hits you. It then returns to normalcy, which prepares the reader for an epilogue/conclusion.

This was a simple spread, but was by far my most favourite. I like that the perspective was enough to suggest a burning bin, ashes, soot, grass and the burning candles and joss sticks. I added craters in the bin to help readers form the connection to the moon (it was what I thought of when I took pictures of the inside of these bins). When they turn over to the back cover, they will see the same candles, joss sticks, and handles and it will be clear what they were looking at in this spread. The font of this page is done larger to suggest something along the lines of wanting to hold on to fairy tale ideals. Perhaps it is better to live a beautiful lie.

That is all. If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Wew~

Time to get some sleep!

The pioneers too have gone to sleep.

2DII Zine: A Pioneer Story

Following presentation, I planned out a rough spread-by-spread design using the photos that I took.

I wasn’t able to think about a front cover but I worked on everything else. Arranging the photos on InDesign, I created my very first draft.

IFC & pg 2

Pg. 3 & 4

Pg 5 & IBC

Back Cover

I liked the use of some of the photos and how they fit into the composition.

Overall though, I felt like I should be doing illustrations instead if I intend to take a narrative “children’s’ story” approach. I was worried about the illustrations not being able to convey that what I saw was actually there, but it turns out that it was not a problem at all. That was nice.

Before proceeding, I went to find inspiration for zine designs. I made saw a couple that piqued my interest.

Chungking Express Sardines

I loved the variety of designs in each spread of this zine by ADM seniors.

Poems from Egghead: Or, you can’t live on ideas alone.

I enjoyed the poems and the way it was paced. The illustrations were delightful as well.

Random Pinterest zines

Thought about using the shadow effect, but this being a simple zine, I took inspiration from the mood of this piece

I like how this piece has a square-ish shape that crosses the page

With a rough composition out and zinespirations, I proceeded to work on the rough draft in illustration,

I found the use of images blending into each other or crossing over to the other page to be very liberating. I quite liked the recurring motif of the butterfly to represent souls flying through though I suspect that I will have to work on the composition before locking down the idea of the butterfly.

Now I needed to watercolour the composition and then add in the words and lay them out.

Personally, it would have been better to do a wet-on-wet medium but I didn’t have the means then. Still, I think that it achieved the intended look for the most part.

I thought about handwriting everything but I heard from someone that it was necessary to make use of InDesign so I did. That’s why I painted them in spreads as opposed to the “print” order. I also decided to use fonts because it forced me to think about different fonts to make use of. In the end, scanning and editing them on photoshop made it easier to lay it out. Composition-wise, I think that editing it in post-production helped.

Adjusting the colours to make the sky look more like night.

Playing around with colours to see how it affects the content

Tried funny things like putting the “left” on the left side of the spread

Playing around with different fonts and cutting across the spread too. In the end, I decided against it

After trying and failing a couple of times, I managed to settle on design that I liked. I don’t like the idea of having to put my name in the zine but it seemed like it fit stylistically so I put it in. So finally, here are the final spreads.

After finalising the zine, I went to the adm library to print it.
$4.28 per zine – I thought they were supposed to be cheap to make.

Butterly flying straight towards the end of the right page to suggest that heart rate monitor flatlining.

Overall though, I felt that the butterflies and the lines were distracting. Okay, it was just the lines but I didn’t want to include the butterfly without the lines. It then just becomes another element to think about. I didn’t want that.

Off to print again!

Total money spent: $8.56.

I was thankful that the binding wasn’t too much of a hassle. That said, I learnt valuable lessons about binding. Firstly, remember to score the centre of the zine first, then staple them together on a surface like an eraser (or blue foam). Other than having the bleed marks, it is important to know how to use the bleed marks properly. I made the mistake of cutting it all the way through from one side to the other. Because of this, either the horizontal or vertical bleed mark will be cut away and you will have no marks to work with on either the horizontal or vertical mark, depending on which you worked on first. What you should do is: use a penknife to cut it from the bleed mark and not from each end of the paper. cool stuff.

Zine Research

After weeks of gruelling assignment after assignment after assignment after assignment, I was forced to leave the Technological University of the Nanyang in search of something majestical to capture within the vicinity of the Land of the First Men – Pioneer.

It took awhile for my eyes to adjust to the new surroundings. I saw, lying on the patch of green, a crimson orb that has been keeping the secrets of an old tree.

I saw many more wonderful things.

I saw many different portals to new worlds. I saw the moon.

There were people who had been around the Land of the First Men, but all that was left was their chairs to tell their stories.

I looked up the concrete towers of fabric and saw paradise. The wind would blow and I would hear what each line of fabric had to say to me. They were reaching out to me and I was thoroughly entranced.

10/10 would definitely come back.