This task, which is the final task as part of an assessment for DVB201 Typographic Design, will be spanned over three weeks, with updates being done to this Behance project post each week. 

Overall, this task will require as to design an A6, 16-page zine to do with a typographic design of our choice. Typographic zine research, sketch thumbnails, draft zines in InDesign, and many iterations of these sketches and drafts will all be conducted to complete this design project. Furthermore, we will also have to find all of our content and images for the topic we choose ourselves. 

The first zine (see figure 1 above) which I contextually reviewed for this project was a zine called 'PRRRAZINE', designed by the Rowelt Design Studio, which contains a mix of illustration, photography, and writing (The Book Design Blog, 2017). As the design studio states themselves, this zine aims to maintain "a sweet element linked to moments of enjoyment and relaxation", therefore making use of a strawberry smoothie cover (figure 2) (Rowelt, n.d.). On the inside, the zine makes use of minimalistic and clean typography, including small body text, some different coloured body text, and bold headers. These are all used to create a visual hierarchy in conjunction with the icons and large photos/illustrations seen in the zine which relate to the text they are presented with. Furthermore, a multi-column grid system is used to create alignment with images in some cases (see the front image in figure 1). However, more often than not, this grid system is used to create interesting, asymmetrical page layouts, which keeps the user's eyes active and moving (examples of this can be seen in the back image of figure 1 above, as well as the image in figure 3 below). 

The inspiration taken from this zine design relates to the nice blend of images and text seen in the content of this zine, its use of minimalistic font in all paragraph styles, and how it uses different variations of its multi-column grid systems to create symmetrical and asymmetrical page layouts, sometimes depending on the content of the page. For example, in figure 1, the zine makes use of a very clean, symmetrical page layout for the bio of the man in the image above the text. It is these typographic design techniques which I have taken inspiration from and will look to use in my own zine design.

The second example which I have looked at and contextually reviewed for this project is a zine called 'Five Essential Typefaces' (figure 4 above), created by Junbae Choi (Choi, 2019). Choi designed this zine using five essential typefaces (Bodoni, Futura, Helvetica, Century, and Times New Roman), with each section focusing on one of those typefaces, and the person who designed it (Choi, 2019). As she states herself, she gained inspiration for the designs in this zine from Massimo Vignelli, "who is one of my [Choi's] favourite designers" (Choi, 2019). While this zine doesn't make use of any particular grid system, it makes a very interesting and creative use of the fonts she talks about in this zine. As this zine doesn't have any images in it, Choi makes full use of the typefaces as a way to illustrate her zine. As can be seen in figure 5 (below), the logo on the black background uses purely full letters and letter-shapes to create the symmetrical logo seen there. Furthermore, in figure 4 (above), the word "Futura" runs horizontally from the top to the bottom of the page, and is used to frame the words "Since 1927", "Paul Renner", and the little description and bio of the text at the bottom. This page design/layout seen in figure 4 is how Choi has laid-out the pages for each section relating to the typefaces.

Because the brief for this project requires us to use only type as illustration, I have most definitely gained inspiration from how Choi has used type as illustration in this zine. In particular, how she has used type to frame different words (figure 4), as well as create illustrative logos (figure 5) is something which I will look to in my own design. 

The final zine which is being contextually reviewed for this project is called 'Type', created by the user 'craig519809' for OCA Graphic Design (craig519809, 2019). The content which filled this included photographs, illustrations, and writings about different topics to do with typography. As with the 'Five Essential Typefaces' zine, this zine mainly uses type as illustration/imagery, however with the exception of one image seen in figure 6 above. On the front cover, the zine makes very minimalistic use of the letters involved in the word 'Type' for the magazine title. On the article pages, the zine makes use of small body text, unusually large page numbers, and large headers to create visual typographic hierarchy. The use of the red colours and the illustrative type throughout these article pages also adds to this visual hierarchy, highlighting the different articles and the content within them. Finally, the zine uses an asymmetrical, multi-column grid system to create an interesting page layout for the reader.

Overall, the use of type as illustration/imagery, as well as its use of an asymmetrical multi-column grid layout is particularly appealing, and is something which I have taken inspiration from for my own zine design project, as I have with the previous two contextual reviews for this project. 

After contextual research was conducted, the next step in the design process for this project was to start sketching initial zine thumbnails. For these initial sketches, I would be mainly focusing on the front cover of the zine, with initial thumbnail sketches for the inside pages being done once I have the content I will be using for this zine. These initial sketches will be found in the 'Zine First Draft' section, further down in this project post. 

For these front cover thumbnails, I played around with a number of layouts, with the main intention of designing an appropriate layout for the magazine title (The Typographic Perspective), the edition title (The Erik Spiekermann Edition), and any other illustrative type that would appear on the front (eg. a monogram of Erik Spiekermann's initials). All of these initial thumbnail sketches of the front cover can be seen in the photo grid below.  

Figure 7 (above) shows a more refined iteration of the design/layout to be used for the front cover of this zine. This iteration makes use of a fairly simple layout, however using type as illustration in the form of a monogram (using Erik's initials to form a shape), as well as bold, capital, and vertical letters in contrast with soft, small-cap, and horizontal letters. This iteration of a front cover creates an interesting block of the text for the user to read, as they move their eyes up/down and across, all while in a hierarchical order (even though it is vertical, the bold, all-caps lettering of "Erik" means it is read before his last name, "Spiekermann"). While this is not the final design of the front cover for this zine, I am definitely happy taking an iteration such as this from a lo-fidelity paper prototype, to a more refined hi-fidelity prototype in Adobe Illustrator and/or Adobe InDesign. 

When it come to deciding what content I wanted in this zine, there were a lot of factors to consider. Firstly, because the brief restricted the magazine size to A6 pages, I decided that I would utilise more double-paged spreads for each section of content, so I could fit more in for each piece of content. However, this also meant that I had to be selective with what content I could include in 16 A6 pages worth of space (with two pages already for the front and back page). Therefore, for this zine, I decided to include a short biography of Erik Spiekermann, a cover page spread for his works, and then two-page sections for four of his most notable and recognised fonts (Berliner Grotesk, FF Meta, ITC Officina, Nokia Sans). Finally, the last 2 pages will be used for references for the different content used. 

FF Meta was published by FontFont, and designed by Erik Spiekermann, Oded Ezer, and Akaki Razmadze in 1991. FF Meta is a humanist sans-serif font, which is part of the much larger FF Meta Super Family (FontShop, n.d.). As Erik Spiekermann stated himself, he intended FF Meta to be a "complete antithesis of Helvetica", as he found it "boring and bland" (Wikipedia, 2020). Therefore, FF Meta contains rounded dots, and more curved letter-forms with bends in them. 

ITC Officina is a non-Latin, humanist sans-serif font, which was published by ITC, and designed by Erik Spiekermann and Ole Schafer in 1990, as part of the larger ITC Officina Super Family (FontShop, n.d.). This font was inspired by Letter Gothic and Courier, making use of narrow, and sharp letter-forms (Typedia, 2012). 

Nokia Sans was designed by Erik Spiekermann, and was used as the font for the Nokia brand from 2002 to 2011, when it was replaced by Nokia Pure (Spiekermann, 2011). This font was ultimately designed to save space and allow Nokia's interfaces to include more letters on their screens, while still remaining readable (Spiekermann, 2002). 

"They're throwing out 10 years of brand recognition in favour of blandness" - Spiekermann, 2011

Berliner Grotesk is a lighter-weighted variation of Berthold Block (originally created in 1908) which was created in 1913 (Wikipedia, 2019), and redesigned by Erik Spiekermann in 1979 (Berthold, n.d.). As the H. Berthold Typefoundry (the foundry which Spiekermann redesigned the font for) explains, Berliner Grotesk makes use of a "high x-height, short descenders and rough edges", which are "appropriate for advertising, displays and short blocks of text. The bold weight is particularly useful for 'loud' headlines and ad copy" (Berthold, n.d.). 

Images in this magazine will mostly be displaying the different fonts which are talked about in relation to Erik Spiekermann.

This first draft, which was completed in Illustrator, showcases an iteration of the front page and an example of an iteration of the inside pages. The front page makes use of the design seen in the sketch of figure 7. 

This first draft of the front page (figure 8) shows the use of the design from figure 7. This design intends to use the "Erik Spiekermann" title as the first thing which the reader looks at in terms of the visual hierarchy. Even though the positioning has the magazine title at the top, the issue title uses bigger sized text, contrasting colours, and takes up more of the page. In addition, the fonts on this page include Bebas Neue and Abel, to create a contrast between the first and last name. Furthermore, this text was selected because it's bold and sharp, therefore reflecting Spiekermann's designs, and his overall personality, as seen on his website and in his books.

Reflecting on this draft, I have decided that I will keep the inside pages more or less the same. I like the minimalism and sharpness of the borders on these pages, as well as the space for the content to be laid out on. For the front page, while I still like the overall design of the "logo" on the front, I believe that I will have to continue playing with font choices, font sizes, and positioning and layout to execute the design perfectly. Furthermore, I will also be changing and iterating the magazine title on the front page as well. 

As will be seen in this final version, the front page of the magazine has been iterated on so that it has a more prominent magazine and issue title. This front page (figure 10 and 12) makes use of the design which keeps the "Erik Spiekermann" issue title at the top of the information hierarchy, while making the sure the zine title is still important for the reader, through the use of positioning, colour, and font size. The short issue description (below the issue title) is the last piece of information which the reader views on the page. 

As can be seen in the images below, figures 10 and 11 show the final versions of particular pages in the zine with the master pages and the paragraph styles functions being properly utilised. 

Figures 12, 13, and 14 above shows examples of the different pages seen across the whole zine. In particular, figure 14 shows an example of the design used across the inside/content pages. This design makes use of a strong header font, colour, and positioning to show the reader the font name, which is the first piece of information they read in the visual hierarchy. The next piece of information the reader sees is the quote on page 10, which is made clear through the use of the bold sub-header font. The final thing which the reader sees is examples of the font in use on page 11, as well as the body text on page 10. This kind of visual information hierarchy can be seen throughout the other pages which display this kind of content in the zine. 

The photo gallery below shows every page of the complete zine. Alternatively, people can view and read the complete zine in a PDF format by following this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O2PMOi_Ur0GlJGYrKD8WsTM274r1ZH6c/view?usp=sharing