DVB201 | ASSESSMENT 2 | WEEK 12: ZINE FINAL
Meghan Shae Venter n10248366
Final Zine
Design Explanations
Colours Used: [Yellow] #fff200, & [Navy] #163561
Typefaces Used: Impact, Segoe UI, Bebas Neue, Baskerville Old Face, Bauhaus 93, Rockwell
The two flat colours rule was a major challenge, I explore layer blends such as ‘Overlay’ etc. To create the desired effect, however I decided on using varying opacity on white paper to create various shades (something that I checked with DV201 Lecturer Manuela Toboada to see if I could do, which she said is fine). I really aimed to explore creative ways of depicting anatomical parts which I believe I achieved within my final design. From my draft I reordered pages and replaced the black elements with navy to explore the use of colour more and I feel Black and Yellow is too common of a combination used.
Typefaces Used: Impact, Segoe UI, Bebas Neue, Baskerville Old Face, Bauhaus 93, Rockwell
The two flat colours rule was a major challenge, I explore layer blends such as ‘Overlay’ etc. To create the desired effect, however I decided on using varying opacity on white paper to create various shades (something that I checked with DV201 Lecturer Manuela Toboada to see if I could do, which she said is fine). I really aimed to explore creative ways of depicting anatomical parts which I believe I achieved within my final design. From my draft I reordered pages and replaced the black elements with navy to explore the use of colour more and I feel Black and Yellow is too common of a combination used.
I used Impact for all my main headings and part of my cover titles. As I discussed in my zine critiques, I was very drawn to the Bold colours and text, that I felt gave the zine style and personality, something I wanted to incorporate in my own design. I feel the use of Impact as a typeface is a good choice to do just that while being legible for a small print. Furthermore, the use of Bauhaus 93 in my cover page subtitles was a good match with Impact, having a good balance of harmony and contrast. The geometric nature of both fonts, yet different styles I believe achieves this.
For my section titles, subheading, label titles and internal words/lettering; I used Bebas Neue. I feel this was a good legible, capitalised font that again creates impact, but also has structure and professionalism – which for a zine of terminology, I feel is very appropriate. Similarly for all my body paragraphs I felt it was appropriate to use Segoe UI, a personal favourite and one I used in other tasks, which throughout I found to be a good fit for body text and legibility. I am not too fond of serif fonts and have a bias leaning towards sans-serifs, and so because this zine is meant reflect my personality and preferences, I thought it would be fitting. It also has a visual relationship and harmony/balance with all the other fonts I have used for my zine.
Finally, for all my ‘analogy elements’ – oversized characters being visually dissected - I used Baskerville Old Face, again inspired by my zine critiques. It is a beautiful typeface, even though I do not typically prefer serif typefaces, this one of my favourites and I thought it would be the perfect font to use. Moreover, I have used san-serif everywhere else which typically isn’t a preferred practice especially when considering combining typefaces, but I did this strategically knowing my anomaly elements would be serifs. Combing San-serif and Serif typefaces in design, especially done in a strategic manner can work to create effective, beautiful design as discussed in lecture content. Thus, here I tried to do the same – something that I believe I have achieved. Creating balance and harmony in my design. I used Rockwell once, to demonstrate an unbracketed serif.
Overall, readability was my biggest concern for my zine and so all my choices were heavily dependent on that.
The choice of navy and yellow, was to establish better contrast yet visual interest, initially I thought of purple and green, then black… then black and pink, then yellow – until I decided to approach the zine from, again, my own interests, personality and preferences, which navy and yellow is. I believe it works beautifully, again reflecting boldness and professionalism. To create the shades within the my zine, I played with opacity of my colours – which was cleared to be done and was fine.
SPECIFIC DESIGN DECISIONS
Covers | I wanted both covers to line up, so they wrapped around and flowed nicely, making sure everything lined up perfectly. However, I made sure that the font cover stood out more by emphasising ‘Basic’ making it larger, grabbing more attention. I also included my name on the back cover at the bottom.
Spread 1: Basic Anatomy of Typography | Using a modular grid to make this spread work. I made more broad terms, yellow follow by the definition within the graphic. Other more specific terms, in order to avoid clutter I sectioned them out, made the label text white followed by their term and definition located in the ‘footer’ of the spread – like a glossary. ‘Basic Anatomy’ in serif and ‘of Typography’ in a san-serif, a common practice/technique of combining type, allowed me to more establish what a ‘terminal’ is in this spread as well as just create visual interest. Counters had a bigger definition, so I created a different visual section for this definition.
Spread 2: Vortex & Apex | This I wanted to be a completely visual page, I wanted to use line and form to pull the eye and cause an viewer interact and play with the zine, rotating and viewing it from different angles. I created this with the use of many ‘V’ stacked at different sizes. I also created a rectangle for where the definition would sit, to give the illusion of an ‘A’ as the actually use of an ‘A’ the bar fell off the page – not visible – I did this to bypass the issue, although not break task restrictions.
Remaining spreads: Serifs, E, G, S & Q | I alternated my single column layouts that include a border, which I made and established with the used of master pages and my anomaly based grid pages to create a varying composite design throughout my zine booklet. I did not feel it would be appropriate to use page numbers not a content in my design so that was not included. The serifs ‘header’ colour block is different to allow or the ‘N’ positioned on to be included, others are yellow to balance the used of the ‘Navy’ and the final spread changes again, to create further visual variety and end with a more unique spread like what we started with.
Overall | I altered my order of spreads to make more logical sense and to be better in educating viewers. My synopsis is where I tried to explain the zines purpose and topics relation to me. I consistently used section titles and formatting across all pages, to create a good harmonious design. Some text is small, but readable and something to expect in designing for small pages. I believe I created a really effective, good design and found my own creative way of displaying typographic anatomy that I have seen done before. I feel I effectively used grid structure, paragraph styles, typefaces and colour to achieve visual hierarchy, interest and a good composition to print and publish. I would have loved to explore my folded zine idea; however, I believe the booklet was the best choice for the submission format and zine topic/purpose. I met all task restrictions and with slight leniency for my shades, but I still only used two colours on top of a white page to achieve this design.
Grid Structure
Throughout my zine I use a mixture of single column/manuscript grids, as well as asymmetrical, anomaly element based grid layouts. For one spread (Basic Typographical Anatomy) I used a modular grid consisting 8 columns (4 per page) and 6 rows.
MOCKUPS
Thank You!
