Project Brief
In my final project for Intermediate Type, I had to create a zine. A zine is a non-commercial publication usually devoted to the specialized and often unconventional subject matter. The objective of this project was to develop a more typographic skillset, with specific emphasis on creating a visually compelling narrative that is comfortably read by the viewer and a layout that guides the eye through the zine purposefully and logically. I learned more about typography, the structure of a layout, but I learned a lot about printing and the process of printing. I had to print off two copies of my bound zine; one for me, and one will be at the A-State Library for future A-State students to get inspiration. I had to create my zine with a minimum of 10 pages, including the front and back cover. The size I had chosen for my zine was 8.5 by 5.5 inches. The topic of my zine was hot to improve your bowling average.
So why Bowling?
The topic I chose was bowling. I chose this topic because bowling has been one of my passionate hobbies since high school. I found myself as a person and designer because of this sport. I had my first job, established life long friendships and met my boyfriend all because of bowling. Bowling helped me get through the tough things in life, and I could forget about reality or life and all the problems that come with life when I am bowling. While in high school, I made some fantastic achievements and was awarded a bowling scholarship to help pay for college. Some of these achievements were having the high scratch series, placed first at state, and I qualified for Nationals. I bowled a perfect game during a benefit tournament, which helped my team win. Bowling is like an escape route from life, at that moment you don't have to worry about anything in life. I have developed more friendships and have a closer relationship with my boyfriend, Dylan all because of bowling. I was able to meet some of the Professional Bowlers that came to Jonesboro, AR during a tournament I attended to cheer on Dylan. Bowling helped me focus on one frame at a time and reminded me how I can use the same strategy on homework, clients, or anything life-related.
Visual and Historial Research:
Before I could get any design work done, I had to research what a zine is and figure out what would make people want to read my specific zine about bowling. Not only historical research, but also I had to look at magazine layouts to get an idea or a feel of how I wanted to make my bowling zine. My inspiration was from the magazines I found laying around my house.
Sketches:
When creating sketches, I had to make sure my swatches of color palette, the article's title was on each page, used X's to represent images/illustrations, horizontal lines as copy, notes about the intended binding method, and photos of my grids. So these are not simple sketches; I had to make the sketch concept a perfect idea of how I wanted to tackle this and show my professor the direction I wanted to go. When setting up my InDesign document, I learned many cool tricks and shortcuts with InDesign. I knew that the bleed should be at 0.125 inches; I could not go any bigger or smaller. I had to choose my binding method when creating the gutter, so I did not have to worry about losing information at the final stage. When putting images and body text together, my zine was coming together. I had to use only one text box for all of the body text on each spread because too many boxes would make the file bigger. I learned how to make color squares, emphasize each title, and give the title movement. I copied and pasted the articles I used and put them into Grammarly to make all the information into one piece for creating my body text. I had to fix some widows and orphans on some of my spreads so it would not appear awkward. From work in progress to the final, I had lots to select and improved some things. For example, I had to change the front cover and back cover. I had some spacing issues with my title and body text of the first spread, so I had to add more leading on both. The second spread I did had title and image issues, where I issued some of the letters to make the letters dance with the bowler by movement. To the final critic, the only thing I had to change was creating a black box with the opacity to ten percent and adding it more, leading to all my body text. Many of my classmates loved the layout and composition of my spreads, and I am excited about how it turned out in the end.
Brainstorming:
After gathering all the research I needed to complete this zine, I had to pick the content of what I wanted to add to my bowling zine. I had to brainstorm on what photos I wanted to include and lay everything out because creating a zine is like completing a challenging puzzle, all of the pieces have to fit together perfectly for it to make sense. Some of the content I gathered was from my boyfriend, Dylan, many photos from Unsplash, and some from PBA bowling. After picking the picture content, I moved on to how big I wanted to have my zine and created a grid. A grid is the basic structure of layout and composition. Without a grid, in a magazine, booklet, or flyer, the design and the document with different elements will fall apart. I learned this through critics and why grids are essential for magazines. I moved on to creating sketches, but I changed the layout because I learned to let the ideas come to me instead of trying to push the thoughts out.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Throughout this project, I learned so much by doing this project on InDesign. I feel comfortable doing projects with InDesign along with Photoshop and Illustrator. One thing that stood out was creating Character Styles for different titles placements. For example, I had to make big numbers on each spread. I did click on Character Styles and picked the style I wanted for all of my big numbers, and I did a two-click, which makes it consistent throughout all the pages. Another thing I learned I could create something in Photoshop, and it will update it into InDesign. This is definitely a time management tool since I had to do that with all my photos where the words are within the body to emphasize the photo's movement. Another thing I learned with InDesign was that when sending a file to a friend or Office Max, I had to package the whole file so they could get all the fonts and images to complete the file to be able to move or change things. From designing to the printing process, there was so much to learn. For example, I knew what bleed marks were and the gray lines were to tell you where to cut to complete your final product. I had to imposition some of my pages to complete the booklet. Imposition means moving pages around InDesign to line up so the booklet could be easy to print at Office Max. On the first magazine look, I didn't love the gutter look of where I die cut it and did a saddle stitch, but some of the staples were coming out, so I had to create another page to complete the booklet. From this experience, I learned to communicate with your printer or whoever will print off your final product to get that professional feel. This project taught me to make sure I have enough pages before I print, so I do not have to keep printing additional copies and not hurt me financially. By doing this project, I am ready to take on a more prominent magazine or layout project such as helping a client make a significant magazine for them to use for their business.
