IT'S ENOUGH TO RUN AWAY FROM
This hand-bound; 30+ page; self-written story gathered inspiration from the traits of memorable people that I have met throughout my life. The finished Zine was entered into the prestigious Loerie Awards and won Gold in the Crafts category (2017).
The story follows the journey of Klepto, a young Klatrevovian as he runs away from his home that is literally drowning in noise. Each of the four chapters opens with a colour-coded map focusing on the specific area the main character is currently in to follow his journey. Each chapter showcases what creatures live in that environment as well as the possessions they own. Each new character’s given name and physical appearance alluded to the traits that I took as inspiration from people I‘ve personally met.
The Klatrevovian race have their inner voice and conscious manifested on their own heads as strange head-like growths that can speak freely. For this reason, Klepto the main character is a being that cannot physically keep a secret, prompting him to run away to hide his Kleptomaniac nature. Inspiration for this character was taken from people who over-share information with people they barely know.
On his journey for silence, Klepto comes across the Peelsrevo (read backwards, over-sleep) characters that were inspired by the more relaxed and docile people I’ve met. While enjoying the rolling purple hills of the Peelsrevo homeland, Klepto comes across a deep valley, seeking deeper silence he makes his way down.
In the valley, Klepto almost overlooks the Aibohparoga (backwards, Agoraphobia) creatures inspired by those that are extremely quiet and like to keep to themselves. When seeking solace, the Aibohparoga hide behind their long hair-like tendrils. This silence proves too much for Klepto, and so he leaves.
Klepto eventually makes his way to a new land and comes across a temple of sorts. Inside he finds stacks of Tnagorra (backwards, Arrogant). Statues, piled high, these characters were inspired by hard-headed people who think over-highly of themselves and put their own interests above others. But while Klepto explores the temple, he discovers his past catching up with him...
As speech and secrets are an underlying theme of the story, I felt it needed to be the main focus on the cover. The zine is hand-bound using a Japanese stab binding technique, allowing the spreads to lay flat for ease of reading and to fit the fictional world. The project is printed on smooth matte paper and laser-cut to compliment the clean-cut vector medium of the illustrations. As the story became longer, I decided to incorporate folded pages to allow for a larger, less text heavy layout.
Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my work.
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