2D II // ZINE_final

zine

www.GIFCreator.me_FBOPso

cover

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)
coverThen 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?
COVERdoodles
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.
hattie

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.
snapchat

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!

COVER

me

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!

2

fashion

fashionspread ref

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.

3

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!

shine

interview

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!

4

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.

final

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”.

BACK

printing

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.

1 2 3 4

paper

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!

reflections

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

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