Before I worked on the cover, I searched to see various designs of magazine covers like Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue, to spot its common technique (layout, font, cover girl’s cropping proportion etc)
Then I tried my own, but during consultations, group mates were saying that it is really too plain, then I thought……why not incorporate the cover with Hattie Stewart inspired artwork?
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I tried it out by doodling on the test print (in the visual journal) to see if I can capture the essence of Hattie Stewart’s art work.
I picked up on the strokes, the bizarre patterns, as well as introducing a “character” into the doodle – snapchat ghost icon peeping over my arm.
I am a really heavy snapchat user, and my pose on the cover was just so nice tilted to 1 side of the page, therefore, adding the snapchat ghost icon is actually pretty apt to me!
Then, it still doesn’t really look like a magazine if there weren’t any text, it can just pass off as a normal poster or artwork? So I took the magazine reference I showed above, and inserted some texts and added barcode on the cover to look more like a mag!
Typically, the following page after a cover would be advertisements, and it will slowly lead to the editor’s note or foreword. I thought adding advertisements of fragrances or watches or items may be a little weird, hence, I adapted the layout of an advert, having a huge image with a small description on the products on myself, and then created a column on the left for foreword. I wanted it to look a little like the credits page on a magazine, thus, I created the layout of the text in that manner!
In a fashion spread, it is quite a norm to see the layout being very free-formed. It usually includes models on a runway, and then clothing or cosmetic usually in .png format, and then some text to support the F/W collection or S/S collections, or maybe even covering NEw York Fashion Week or something!
So I adapted its format, and created a fashion spread like below.
I pointed out the details on my outfits, and gave quick short tips on how I usually dress-up or prepare before I head out!
As usual, I googled the the keywords to search for references, and I typed “magazine interview layout”. Above, I felt that the structure is pretty clear and comfortable for readers to absorb information, hence, my creation below!
I asked my friends to imagine that I am a celebrity (as of now), and what sort of questions will they want me to answer, then I constructed them, and interviewed myself HAHA.
Some designers insert advertisements on the back page of a magazine, some creates a connection from the front cover to the back, so that front-back looks in-sync.
I felt that placing an advertisement may be a little strange as I’ve mentioned above. So since this zine is really about myself, and if I still want to adapt the concept of an advertisement, I put a logo that represents me (so I am like advertising myself?! Haha), accompanied with my social media name! I chose it to be so simple because the front cover is already pretty loud and heavy, so I thought the back should be a little more simple and minimal. I love to play with the positive and negative space, so you can see my personal logo and social media name combined as one “Z”.
I’m not familiar with InDesign, so I didn’t know how to use it to let the pages switch sequence and be printed like a normal book. Hence, I made use of Photoshop and Illustrator to design and layout the pages manually before sending it to print.
The selection of paper has always been a challenge for me because I am not familiar with the different effect it will create based on the gsm and texture of each paper. I wanted this zine to resemble a magazine, but not too cheap, so I thought I should use a slightly thicker paper instead of the very thin recycled paper on a typical magazine!
I then used saddle stitch to complete the magazine. However, it didn’t occur to me that the gutter space has to be so significant, because I thought that there was only 2 papers, and I’m not sure how much space to leave blank for, hence, the position of the staple is quite weird, just so I don’t block the wordings on the interview page!
In the beginning, I wasn’t very sure on what to do. Like a portfolio of my entire 2D? Select one 1 past project and expand on it? Create an event brochure like how Singapore Night Festival always does?
Then I decided that, since I’ve been highlighting the point of “body parts” in various projects on 2D, and I admitted that I am a narcissist (healthy one, no worries hahha) PLUS, I love reading magazines, so I thought it’d be great to have my own magazine about myself! I have always wanted to work on a publication and print it for my close friends as a Christmas present – to sum up our year together and for me to have a platform to try out the layouts and technicality of publishing a magazine! So this final project really came in handy and I really felt like I pushed and learnt a lot, especially digitally drawing like Hattie Stewart, and after group consultations, where friends gave more ideas and suggestions on how I could improve my existing magazine then!
Through the final critique, I learnt that I’ve still got pointers to note and improve on the zine. So I thought MAYBE I can expand on it, add a few pages, and explore more during this vacation break! Then I can try out on the gutter space issue too 😛
All in all, I really had a lot of fun doing 2D this semester and I thank all of you + Joy for these great experience and memories! :’)
– xoxo @ziyuziyuziyu HAHA
