Our third project in Intermediate Type was to create another zine. The theme for this edition was “struggles”, so I chose the topic of self-esteem. As a class, we had to create brand guidelines that we will use for the rest of the semester. Once everyone’s zines are finished, they will be available in the library (if we ever go back :/).
I immediately thought of self-esteem/self confidence because I know people of all ages struggle with this. I used to struggle with this a lot in middle and high school. Fortunately, I have been able to gain more confidence in myself over the years, especially when I transferred to A-State. I’ve realized you have to just believe in yourself and find something you can express yourself with. For me, it’s my art and my outfits; I like to express how I’m feeling with my style.
My first step was to find an appropriate source for the information that would go in my zine. I looked at several different websites that gave appropriate advice to gaining self confidence. I also wanted the article to explain what exactly self-esteem was, and I found an article that not only explained that, but described what unhealthy self-esteem was. After I found sources, I went searching for the right pictures. I wasn’t really sure what I needed, so I looked at the articles I chose and decided to just look up “self confidence” on Pexels. As I began designing and looking for different pictures, I was lucky enough to find pictures with the same characters so that I could create a cohesive design on each spread. To create balance and harmony, I enhanced one picture to fully take up one page, while the text and other pictures and quotes were on the other; I made sure to switch the layout to give it variety. My first zine had a lot of white space, so I wanted to create something that was on the border of being too tight. As I was working, I noticed some of my spreads had a lot of white areas, so I added line designs to my layout. This also made my design more interesting to look at. To further cohesion in each spread, I eye-dropped a color from the picture into the rectangles. For my fonts, I used Avenir for the titles and quotes, and Cambria for the text.
This is only my second zine design, but I have enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I never got tired of working on this piece, and it was really fun to experiment with different layouts and designs. I wanted this zine to catch the viewer’s attention. I also tried to use completely different people to add diversity, so anyone could look at it and feel included.
Once again, I made sure to make note of the due dates beforehand. I had reminders on my phone and the due dates in my planner.
I learned a lot during the process of creating these zines. For this specific zine, I learned how to create a tight layout, with it still being readable and able to flow. I also learned how to use a clipping mask in Photoshop.
Photos from Pexels
