zine

There are 4 posts tagged zine (this is page 1 of 1).

Typography I: Assignment 3 – Archetypes and Typography (Part 2/2)

CONTENTS

  • Final Outcome
  • About the Individual Archetypes
  • Link to Part 1 (Process)
FINAL OUTCOME

A5 Booklet (artcard, staplebound)

About: A booklet about the different archetypes going on a trip together. Left page is a hand-drawn silhouette of the archetype, while the left depicts a moment/scene that is more constructed (structural.). The individual archetypes are also represented in varying shades of different colors.

ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL ARCHETYPES

Grid used: Modular Grid

► Explorer

Spread

Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

 

Font Choice: Mount, Rockwild, Open Sans

Color Choice: Yellow/Orange. To me, these shades of yellow/orange represents grit and earth.

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): I gave Explorer little boots and a backpack! To me, the Explorer represents adaptability and practicality. I decided to go with mostly distinct and easy-to-follow lettering.

Concept (Right Side, Structural): As I’m basing my right page after a moment/scene in their trip, I decided to use a boarding pass to represent the flight. I used Open Sans for the structured look of an airport, and Mount and Rockwild contained to represent the Explorer. The dashed lines are also meant to show the perforation of the ticket but at the same time represent movement (elevators and travellators in an airport!).

► Hero

 

Spread

Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

Font Choice: Mandrake, Rowdy Light, Open Sans

Color Choice: Blue. Blue and red are both common colors chosen for a hero. I decided to go with blue as I wanted to portray a more police-like hero, a do-gooder.

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): To me, Hero is bold and strong. I was very influenced by the many chinese novels I’ve been reading lately and decided to go for a more proper, square approach for Hero. The Hero is law-abiding, loud and big.  I incorporated a little bit of a slant for the lettering to depict some arrogance and pridefulness as well to contribute to the quality of loudness. I also used the ‘G’ from Mandrake to give the Hero a pair of flexing arms and convey that everything is okay!

Concept (Right Side, Structural): The right side depicts a scene from the text – of the burger that Hero gets to enjoy! The burger and layout is constructed out of mostly Rowdy Light, with select areas such as the ‘ceiling’ using Open Sans as Rowdy Light and Mandrake weren’t stiff and structured enough to portray the airport interior.

► Outlaw

Spread


Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

Font Choice: Toxia, Rakesly

Color Choice: Red. Red to me is the sign of danger, individualism and law-breaking. It’s a very loud color that stands out from the others. I also chose to use almost-black red and off-white for the background to break away from the rest of the pages in terms of contrast.

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): Outlaw’s left page is the only one that breaks away from the rest subtle-ly. My impression of the Outlaw is someone who doesn’t care for the law, but doesn’t go out of his way to break it, only when it’s convenient for him – a lazy scoundrel. In accordance with this, he stands within the frame, but the tip of his cigarette peeks right out of the space that the individual archetypes are supposed to stand in (in white).

Concept (Right Side, Structural): The scene is set up to look like a lonely car driving on a vast sandy road with ‘no doing stuff’ signage. The text conveying the tale of the Outlaw has little cat ears and an S for a tail to represent the cat!

► Jester

Spread

Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

Font Choice: Da Bomb, Nova Classic

Color Choice: Green. While I could have reversed Explorer and Jester’s colors easily, I felt that green is a more unorthodox choice for Jester. It throws off people abit and despite how it’s usually used for nature, it takes on a more unique and strange meaning when used to represent other things. Popular and more bizarre examples I can think of are DC’s Joker, The Mask or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I also decided to use green as it also represents a sense of freedom and doesn’t have the sense of ‘groundedness’ as the earthy brown/orange.

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): The lettered Jester is inspired by the pumpkin-like pants that a Jester wears as well as the curled tips of the Jester’s shoes, hence the exaggerated curves within the word. I wanted to portray a light form that’s almost dancing with the curves as well.

Concept (Right Side, Structural): For the structural side, I wanted to convey a simple and empty scene of a flower being held and blown away – that the Jester has nothing except the clothes on his back. Compared to the other structured pages, the Jester’s right page to me is also a reflection of his simple mind, using much less tones and easy to look at. I used a contrasted curly whimsical font to a classical one intending to show a juxtaposition and how this archetype is whimsical and tends to flip-flop in extremes.

► Magician

Spread

Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

Font Choice: Dukeplus, Timeless

Color Choice: Purple. Purple is mysterious, elegant and regal. I feel that this color was most suitable for the Magician because of the sense of depth it conveys!

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): I modeled the handlettered text after the silhouette of a literal magician (with dress shoes and a bowtie!). To me, the Magician is authoritative and smooth, so I decided to represent that with something thick and bold, but fluid. The ends of the drawn letter trails off to something that is wispy and flame-like.

Concept (Right Side, Structural): On the right side, the scene depicts a structure akin to a medieval castle/building with the dash lines leading up to fireworks (fire flowers). I wanted to depict something that’s more grand and older compared to the rest, to show the old, and still burning bright, mind of the Magician.

► Lover

Spread

Left Side (With Grid)

Right Side (With Grid)

Font Choice: Youthful Touch, Josefin Slab

Color Choice: Pink. I considered red and other colors but still came full circle back to pink since it was a little difficult to escape the feminine impression this color gives (especially since I wanted to go for a more muted version of all the above colors).

Concept (Left Side, Hand lettered): I lettered Lover with delicate, flowers and bugs in mind. The first words I thought of when the word ‘Lover’ comes up were ‘infatuation’ and ‘sweet nothings’. It gives me the impression of a small delicate flower and honey. Hence, I lettered Lover with a much thinner body – like a light, youthful and refreshing touch.

Concept (Right Side, Structural): The scene is constructed to look like a pair of rings (represented by Os in the font Youthful Touch) and a torch-like airport control tower at the back. I decided to go with a larger percentage of white for this particular right page so as to convey the nature of the text (a wedding proposal – popularly represented in white).

 

LINKS

Process (Part 1/2): https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/typography-i-assignment-3-archetypes-and-typography-part-1-2/

 

 

Aster: Graphic Form Gallery

Project 1

I expressed the characteristics of 4 ideal jobs interwoven into 4 characters, based on Japanese game concept art!

Link to Project 1 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphicform-project-1-part-2/

Project 2 Part 1 (Locale)

I did research on Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and created 4 pieces of infographics with the collated data featuring anthropomorphic characters and a layout inspired by the reserve!

Link to Project 2 Part 1 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-locale-2/

Project 2 Part 2 (Zine)

Based on Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, I created an 8-page zine personifying the emotions and experiences of the 7 senses!

Link to Project 2 Part 2 Outcome: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-part-2-zine-2/

Graphic Form Project 2 Part 2: Zine (´･ᴗ･ ` ) (Research & Process)

Early Concept Ideas

This was the first two pages I created for this concept – based on how I could tell the information in the signs at the wetland reserve. I wanted to tell the information of the nature reserve through containers at the reserve. (Or was it the information of the signages of the nature reserve through marks at the nature reserve?)

Anyway, I think I overcomplicated the criteria for myself and got myself so confused with the zine criteria. I had a difficult time working with this, so I decided to take a step back and review what I could do with a zine and with my location.

Early drafts

start over with my concept based on my 7 senses – which I felt was closer to heart.

Research for 7 Senses

I decided to think about the fundamental elements of a zine (8 pages, etc) so that I could tap on the elements of this zine’s criteria and go on to  personifying the 7 senses.

I decided to draw inspiration from the moon gates that you can find in China or Japan. These doors are found in gardens and I think it’s interesting because of how it controls what you can see of the garden and how it creates a very curated scenic view!

Image of a moon gate (Japanischer Garten).

Image of a moon gate by Alec Finlay.

I also did some research on parts of the eye and how the eye worked:


There was an interesting article I read about ‘forbidden colors’: red-green and yellow-blue. This was an excerpt:

“While most colors induce a mixture of effects in both sets of neurons, which our brains can decode to identify the component parts, red light exactly cancels the effect of green light (and yellow exactly cancels blue), so we can never perceive those colors coming from the same place.”

I decided to experiment with these basic colors for my concept later on.

Zine-Making Process

Conceptualizing

As mentioned, I had alot of difficulties working with my initial concept and decided to revise and start the conceptualizing stage over. I decided to piece the format and each piece together a little by a little, standardizing that the ‘focus’ would depict the physical sight I saw/experience I felt, while the ‘peripheral’ would express my emotions towards that impression, emotions and the location.

Early revised concept:


Motion blur for movement!

Creating Focus: Photo Manipulation

Started off with making trippy images out of the photos that I had of the most impressionable parts of the wetland reserve!

From this:

To this:

Lily Pond (Hear):

After that, I used Audacity to play an MP3 of the video of the lily pond sounds, and screenshotted the soundwaves of the place to impose it and create a pattern for ‘Hear’!

Golden Orb Spider Silhouette (Touch):

I made a spider wallpaper. 🙂

And the aquarium image I used for ‘Smell’:

Warping the image of berries (Taste):

Proprioception (Spatial):

All:

I was really surprised when I placed all the layers together and they looked like a painterly Sungei Buloh! (‘o’) I did receive feedback during consultation that it looked too green – like it was too much slanted towards the pages ‘Balance’ and ‘Hearing’ because it was very green and yellow.

However, I do want to slightly draw it back to my visual experience at the location, so I wound up trying to work around the proportion of green instead.

During the early consultations, I also made the choice of including words because I was worried about how the zine has to be a ‘show-don’t-tell’ book – but I was informed that we’ll be explaining our zines, so I decided to just take out the explanatory content completely.

Early draft with caption

Creating Peripherals: Mark-Making

I couldn’t take anything from the site for mark-making, so I decided to take more photos and recreate them instead!

Honestly they look nothing alike HAHAHA.

The wings that took the most effort but also looked the most hideous.

This one’s based on the shadows of leaves!

My hand is my mood – icky.

I THINK IT’S READY???

Also – other marks that I tried with gouache and rope but didn’t work out so well.

Ripple marks didn’t end up being very suitable either. :’)

Intended to draw a structure to impose for every piece but it didn’t work out very well aesthetically, so I just extracted the flower in the middle to use as a mark instead.

It was pretty challenging working with the concept and timeline, but I had alot of fun. To view the outcome of this project, go to ‘Project 2 Part 2 Final Design’! 🙂

Links

Project 2 Part 2 Final Design: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-part-2-zine-2/

(Previous) Project 2 Part 1 Process & Final Infographics: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-locale-2/

References

Moon Gates: https://insteading.com/blog/moon-gate/

Image of moon gate: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Japanischer_Garten_IGA_Rostock.jpg

Parts of the Eye: https://lookafteryoureyes.org/how-your-eyes-work/parts-of-the-eye/

Graphic Form Project 2 Part 2: Zine (・∀・*) (Final Design)

Final Pages

My concept is ‘If Senses could See’.

I wanted to take advantage of the fact that the zine is a visual look-book and I decided to personify the senses (excluding sight).

Our seven senses, based on 7 Senses foundation.

I based my individual page format on the idea of having a clear ‘focus’ and a blurred ‘peripheral’ – much like an eye. The circle in the middle, ‘focus’, depicts the best physical impression, and the ‘peripherals’ are expressed through marks that I create based on aspects of the wetland reserve.

Each page is broken down into a single color to convey the idea of isolation and the solitary sense. More about the color choices will be explained under the ‘Color Meanings’ section!

Overall

Page 1: Front Cover (all senses)

Concept: A compilation of all the other senses fused/imposed into a single piece – If you had all your senses, this is what you would see! I wanted to convey the idea of the eye and have the other emotions creeping into the circle of vision.

Execution: The cover is in monochrome to show the all-encompassing nature.

Page 2: If Hearing could See

Concept: In the ‘focus’ circle, I have the image of an edited lily pond because that was the most impressionable sound! My emotions are expressed through the wings – to express the beat, rhythm and lightness of the sounds there. Overall, I also wanted to convey how otherworldly the place looks – therefore making the image feel a little like a moon or little planet!

Execution: I imposed a picture of the lily pond that I took at the wetland reserve and imposed it with the sound waves of a video I took at the pond there. Inspired the wings of the birds and the map of their migratory patterns, I used them to express how the the sounds there have a rhythm that comes and goes when you are in different parts of the nature reserve. The background is also part of the lily pond, but out of focus.

Page 3: If smell could See

Concept: The wetland reserve smelled very thickly – of animal waste, heat and also my exhaustion. Walking alot generates saliva and foam in your mouth and also makes breathing difficult. I felt that the best way to convey that is through mud and water.

Execution: I took a picture from the Visitor’s Center Aquarium for the ‘focus’ circle in the middle – frosted glass effect to show murkiness and crack lines to show even though the environment around me is seemingly crisp and refreshing, experiencing it for yourself is actually kinda harsh.  The ‘peripherals’ are from a picture of a mudskipper photo to show the effect of thickness and choking – I’ve used ink and soap foam to mark-make the thick consistency of mud.

Page 4: If touch could See

Concept: The most impressionable experience I had of touch was almost walking into the Golden Orb Spider the size of my palm! The spider makes its web really low so it made me feel a little paranoid throughout my walk – because there was alot of them.

Execution: I took a photo of the Golden Orb Spider that I had and created a pattern out of the shape of the spider, and half-toned to create the paranoia and feeling of ‘there but not there’. I used ropes to feel how I felt super paranoid and confined by my own impression of how tingly and itchy the place made me feel after my encounter with the spider. The ‘peripherals’ are the environment where I found the spider.

Page 5: If balance could See

Concept: The most impressionable feature when it came to balance was the Mid-Canopy walk – it was very jiggly and it gave me motion sickness, but yet it was a really fun walk!

Execution: The photograph in the middle is edited from a Mid-Canopy walk photo. I used motion blur and tried to find the right balance of movement that matched the video I took of my experience on the bridge. To show my motion sickness, I replicated the lines from meandering waters and ripples at the reserve. There is also an imposed falling flower to express how motion sickness causes an illness and causes the sick feeling of wanting to throwing up.  Green is also the color of nature/good health but also of sickness.

Page 6: If taste could See

Concept: I based it on the berries I found at Sungei Buloh. Despite being inedible, I imagine that they would taste refreshing and juicy, like the breeze at the reserve. The small little berries seem like they’ll go pop in your mouth – which gave me a sort of crystal/gem-like feeling because they look like tiny treasures.

Execution: To show the gem-like quality, I used the clean, crisp cut of leaves to express the refreshing quality of fresh berries and breeze. This page faces Proprioception, because it’s the only sense that doesn’t help you to perceive a external sense of space, which contrasts with Proprioception.

Page 7: If proprioception (space) could See

Concept: To express proprioception as the sense that controls other senses and a spatial interpreter. I decided to find the place that gave me the best sense of place and made me extremely self-aware of how small I was standing in the wetland reserve.

Execution: The central circle is a manipulated photograph of one of the most stunning shots I have of Sungei Buloh Wetland Research – the open roof of a viewing pod. I chose the roof because it made me feel short and small.

For my feelings, I imitated the outline of the lily pad (rest spot for frogs!) with copic pens – to emulate the small frog-in-well feeling.

Page 8: Back Cover (Absence of senses)

Concept: An amalgamation of my emotions at Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve. I wanted to express it as ‘my mind’s eye’ and a party/firework of senses, therefore it’s an abstraction of lines and colors, and does not contain any photos.

Execution: The back cover is created purely out of the previous marks I’ve made for the other senses, on a black background with the stone path texture from Sungei Buloh’s entrance.

Color Meanings (in order of pages)

White: All-encompassing (reflection of all colors when the eye is open)
Yellow: Sense of Hearing (Sharp)
Blue: Sense of Smell (Deep)
Red: Sense of Touch (Agitation)
Green: Sense of Balance (Yellow + Blue = ‘balance’ between the light, uplifting sounds and heavy, drowning scents)
Purple: Sense of Taste (Red + Blue = ‘taste’ is only possible through interacting with ‘smell’ and ‘touch’)
Orange: Sense of Proprioception  (Yellow + Red = ‘hearing’ as the uncontrollable input from the distance, ‘touch’ as the closest self-initiated sensory output)
Black: Absence of all colors (Absorbed and devoured by the senses)

Pic of the physical zine!

Feedback

Lecturer’s (Joy) Feedback:

  • Placement of senses; perhaps place the more common ones first
  • Put the ideology behind choice of colors on OSS (done!)

Classmates:

Reflection

I think the most difficult part of this project for me was definitely understanding the criteria for this project. I thought I had it in a bag during the first consultation but things didn’t go too smoothly. I’m glad to have found a straightforward direction with ample time to work on the spreads!

This project definitely taught me alot about preparing a good rationale and understanding your own idea fully before starting on your work. :’)

I’m also semi-sad I can’t take anything from Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve for mark-making (or I’ll be fined/arrested)… but I took alot of photos and it was fun recreating the marks!

Links

Project 2 Part 2  Research and Process: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-part-2-zine-1/

(Previous) Project 2 Part 1 Process & Final Infographics: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/laum0005/graphic-form-project-2-locale-2/

References

7 Senses Foundation: http://www.7senses.org.au/what-are-the-7-senses/