Our second project in Intermediate Type was to create a zine. The theme for this edition was “experts”, so you were to choose something you are an expert in, or something you would like to be an expert in. 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. 

My first question was about what I am an expert in, but I couldn’t come up with anything that I could present in a zine, so I went with what I wanted to be an expert in. My edition of our Expert zine is about video games. I enjoy playing video games, mostly RPGs; however, I am definitely not an expert in them. The next question was what I could talk about with video games. I decided to discuss the different genres of video games, such as horror, puzzle, and first person shooter games. Doing so would allow me to set up the spreads in a clean organized way. For me to accomplish this I looked up different examples of zines and formatting of grids. 

My first step was to find an appropriate source for the information that would go in my zine. I looked at several different websites including one by Hackernoon; I was specifically looking for information over the different genres of video games. After I found sources, I went searching for the right pictures. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, so I began on pexels and simply searched “video games”. After that, I began to search for the video game genres to find screenshots of the specific video games that fit in that genre. With all my content, I began to lay out my composition. At first, I had all of the pictures at the top of the page with the text below. I also had to search for appropriate fonts, and I landed on Krungthep for the title. I created a rectangle to emphasize the title and color coordinated it to the pictures; each spread has the same color. After our first WIP, it was suggested that I should change the layout occasionally to give it more variety and balance. So I began to switch around some of the pictures and the text. Another suggestion was made to add some texture to the white spaces, so I looked up some textures on pexels. I experimented with a few and decided to go with one that was just a paper texture. 

I have never created a zine before, much less anything editorial, so this was new for me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the process and am very proud of the outcome. I took several risks by having bold colors. The cover is very bright to capture attention, and the colored rectangles containing the text are also bold. Although the colors are bold, I still wanted the piece to be clean and simple. 

For this project I made sure of the deadlines beforehand. And guess what? I was able to complete everything on time with no worries. I have found it’s helpful to keep a planner AND set reminders on your phone. 

I learned a lot during the process of this project. Like stated before, I have never designed anything editorial. It was fun looking at different examples and knowing that you could really experiment with the layout of this piece. From the suggestions of my peers and professor, I learned that you should add variety to and balance each spread.