Process and Production / Self Publishing / Nick Deakin

Over the course on this years process and production I will be learning simple methods of self publishing and how to create these low tech, low budget, yet highly immediate and dynamic designs of communication . This week I am specifically exploring the zine. A zine is a self published method where the designer does not answer to any one. It is motivated purely by expressing ones self than making money, as it is low budget and outside the mainstream. To make a zine there is no need for any special equipment. I made my zine with A3 paper folded and cut to make a little booklet and was provided with the words, minimize, like, share, update, off, dream, live and an emoticon.

To begin with we created a practice zine to sketch out our ideas for each individual world provided. Then with my concluded ideas I progressed onto the final refined zine. The ideas I didn't like in my rough zine was the idea for minimize, update and share. Below are images of my zines in both unfolded and folded form.

I added contrast between pages for my final zine, using a black sharpie to create much more of a visual appeal to the design. I created type spelling the word dream with attached to balloons floating up into the sky, to be the front cover of the zine. The following pages are the words emoticon and off. For the emoticon I created a 'dab' emoticon with eccentric patterns with black pen to add contrast between the pages. For the next page I created a representation of the word off, through the communication of a red card. I felt this page had to be coloured to illustrate a red card has in-fact been shown and green grass to represent the grass of a football pitch. Turning over, the following spread of pages and the words live and minimize. Live is represented with a home and type to illustrate a path leading to the front door. I chose to draw a classic impression of a house, as the saying goes there is no place like home to live. Next to this I have drawn a shrunk white circle within a larger dark circle to represent the idea of size and below in a minimal typeface I have spelt the word minimize. The final spread of pages are the words update and friend. Simply for the word update I drew an arrow pointing up and below I drew a clock with the exact time and date I drew the idea. This was against a black background to add contrast to the following page friend, with a smiles face with thumbs up to mimic the famous quote 'friend' off of the Inbetweeners. Finally the back of the zine are two hands shaking, sharing kindness and respect between two ethnicities to conclude the zine.


NBHD 2016 from Picture House Social on Vimeo.

I like the idea of making a video like this with a zine. It is simple and effecting to engage the viewer and effectively communicate a message. I want to create something similar to this with my own zine. I will add type to tell the word and have flashes of the zine imagery to illustrate the words being communicated through the type. Using Photoshop will be the best way I know how to proceed with this idea and using After Effects to collate and overlay the imagery to create a flowing short and flashy video of my zine brought to life.

My Zine video from Charlie Hamnett on Vimeo.

Above, I have created a video, using after effects, to explore one of the many creative possibilities that a zine can offer. I have photographed my zine against different backgrounds, creating many frames to work with in after effects. To help transition the different pages of the zine, I created my own art work that tied the frames together. Also, I have included the words that the illustrations resemble in the art work. This helps to clarify to the viewer, what the illustrations represent in my zines. To conclude, I have learnt a lot about self publishing and have discovered many creative possibilities that self publishing can offer.