charlottelehanezine

[charlottelehanezine]

Evaluation

My final idea for my zine was to create a mini guide to some popular cocktails, and how to make them, with the inclusion of photographs and illustrations of said cocktails. I came to this idea through my own interest in cocktails, and my experience in being a bartender for a couple years. It really interested me to see the vast amount of drinks you can make with a small list of the same ingredients, so I wanted to create my own little “How to” on the methods of how to create some of the most popular ones.

Due to there being so many topics a zine can be made from, I found it hard to find my inspiration solely from looking at existing creations; due to the limitlessness of the project in terms of idea generation. Instead, I found inspiration from my own experiences, as I also felt it would be a lot more fun to create it based off of something I already enjoy, rather than research something interesting to create it on.

Aside from college and personal issues in the past few years, the main thing I interacted with aside from those was my job on a bar, and so I felt it was a big part of who I currently am, as well as a subject that could be easily condensed into a zine without missing out large chunks of the topic in order to fit the time limit.

While I didn’t follow the original aesthetic for zines (creating the master copy by hand on paper then photocopying) I created my zine using one of the most popular methods aside from that technique. I designed my zine digitally, using various pieces of software to design components and place them together, before printing the zine in colour onto printer paper.

However, during that time I also designed things on paper by hand, before scanning them onto my computer in order to add them onto my zine digitally. This was mostly used for the illustrations I created for the different drinks, as well as the patterned borders, and bullet points on the page. I didn’t want the whole thing to look too neat and computerised, which is why I opted to add in these hand-drawn aspects (although I did add more to them through digital colourisation on Photoshop).

After printing I then proceeded to punch 3 holes into the spine of the zine, and connect all the pages together with the use of cotton string.

In terms of what went well during my final process, the majority was created without any issues at all. I am particularly happy with how my borders turned out, as I didn’t initially plan on having them in my final design; they were just a side thought that I wasn’t planning to actually involve into my design.

It was through my desire to add a banner to my title, which I later took out, that these borders were created and then used throughout my zine. I also was initially worried about issues that might arise in printing, like the bleed being wrong or leaving too much gutter space, but after I printed a test, it looked great, and I didn’t have to alter the settings at all.

Some issues I found was the sourcing of copyright free images to use in my zine. While I looked through many websites that house royalty-free images (such as Pexels, UnSplash and Pixabay) I really struggled to find all the photos I was looking for.

I ended up also having to search google with copy right settings set to “free for commercial reuse with no modification” and “free for commercial reuse with modification”. Luckily I was able to find some more images after that point that I could use without modification.

Over the course of this project, one of the main things I have learned is how to efficiently make my way around InDesign and it’s features; while I have used it in the past, it was not to this extent and so there was a lot I wasn’t sure on or didn’t know about the application, which I have now picked up over the past weeks. The main things for that was image transformation after it had been placed into the document, and how to print in such a way that my zine could just be easily folded and all the right pages would be in the correct spots.

If I could do this project again, I would definitely alter it so I also included food that paired with the drinks, as that was my original plan to pair with the drink guide, however I found researching this side too difficult for the time frame, and so I had to drop it, which is where the sourced photographs came from, as I originally wanted only my designs in the zine.

I would have also like to have taken my own photographs of cocktails, if I could have when left with the option to use images rather than food ideas. However, due to not being a bartender anymore, I was not able to confirm a time to visit another bar or restaurant to take the photos myself. My main issue was that I can’t just request them to make the said cocktails for me to photograph, as that would be impractical for them, but then waiting around for said drinks to be eventually made would take too much time and then be impractical for me, and so I had to leave that plan this time round.

One of the main things I like about my zine is that I was able to include some of my own illustrations within the project, such as the borders and drinks. I think it added some of my own personality to the design, and let me add some of my own touches to the design, that wasn’t just research and text. I also think I made a good choice for my colour palette, as it made the zine look relaxed and cute, which went well with my choice of script font.

One of the main things I dislike-however- is the fact that not all of the design was my own. As I said above, I ended up having to outsource my images off of the internet, rather than be able to take my own due to the time frame and inconveniences. I really hated doing this as I wanted the zine to portray what I can do personally as an artist, and not mix in others work, as “free to use” as it was.

But overall, I am happy with my zine, and I think I filled the project brief for this well.

[charlottelehanezine]

Dizzy Ink and The Nottingham Zine Library

For research, I visited Dizzy ink and Lee Rosey’s, a printing company and Zine library respectively. This research gave me some insight to more zine designs for inspiration, as well as an idea of other printing methods I could potentially use.

Dizzy Ink

Dizzy ink is a printing company in Nottingham that specialises in Risograph Printing. The Risograph is an enviromentally friendly and cheap way to print due to the process using soy as its main base for its inks.

“The underlying technology of a Risograph is very similar to that of screen printing. The original image file is sent to the machine and it is burnt onto a master, the master is then wrapped around a print drum. This drum then rotates at high speed which pushes the ink through the screen and onto the paper as it is sent through the machine” -http://hatopress.net/printing/

Another great use for risograph printing, is that due to its printing method, you are able to print Neon colours, and even ones that appear metallic, which is due to each print drum only containing one colour, which does not mix to create other colours like a normal CMYK printer would. This allows you to make your prints more unique and colourful compared to normal printing, although the price is obviously higher compared to normal printing, however cheaper than other methods all together.

Due to how the designs are printed, however, most risograph printers will not have a set price, as it is all pending on each individual order, cost of that specific colour, area of print etc.

https://www.instagram.com/dizzy.ink/?hl=en

Lee Rosy’s

Lee Rosy’s is a tea shop in Nottingham that is also the largest zine collection holder in the midlands. They house a vast number of zines, of great uniqueness in both design and topic.

Artists from around the UK send them issues of their zines to be displayed and stored here, and just from their Instagram you can see they store at least a minimum of 150 zines. And just from these posts, you can also see just how large the variety there is in the zines that they house. 

Theres a mix of both hand drawn and digital, to coloured and black and white and so on, as well as a large variety in audience from just looking at the many zine covers on display on their Instagram.

it was a nice way to get some inspiration of all the topics I could possibly cover, as well as styles you can take your zine in as well as interesting ways to spice up the design.

[charlottelehanezine]

Creating My Zine In InDesign

New Document > Print A5 Portrait >  4mm bleed > Default Settings > 20 Pages

I will add columns later as i need them.

I began by adding photos of the drinks I was including. One photo per page spread, alternating from the first and second page of said spread. Every two spreads, I would then add one full spread image to add interest.

I then began importing my borders headings and illustrations that I created from illustrator

I then added in my main text and small vectors to finish each page off

my first and last page was minimal, and only included some illustrations along the bottom, and some text in the center of the page.

I then printed it in booklet mode and with the 2-up saddle stitch setting, in colour. I used a hole punch to create 3 holes along the spine of the booklet, and used thread to attach the pages together.

[charlottelehanezine]

Designing Aspects of My Zine

Proposal

What is it for?

I have decided to make a zine for a guide to making popular cocktails, as well as good food pairings for it. I chose the idea from my own interest of mixology, as well as my own experience as a bartender. I will mostly include well known cocktails, but I will also add a few that I know personally from my time on a bar.

Who is it for?

I don’t have a particular age in mind for my zine, my main aim is to make it for anyone with an interest of drink making, either for parties or personal interest etc. 

What will it include?

Each page that includes a cocktail will have the name of the drink, it’s ingredients, the method to make it, and an ideal food pairing. There will also be a mini illustration of the drink somewhere on the page. My idea is to alternate my pages between drinks and illustrations or shorts based on the same topic.

Design Aspects

Colour Swatches:

Aiming for a soft, cute zine, so I am choosing a pastel colour palette of soft pinks blues and yellows.

Style:

I want the style to look a bit rough but cute, so I will create my illustrations in illustrator, and perhaps colour them in Photoshop loosely, so it is a bit messy.

Started With my Title, using fonts from Typekit and altering them in Photoshop using layer masks to make them wrap around each other a bit. 

I then created some sketches for some of the drinks I will include, a long with some patterns that I could add into my zine as borders or bullet points etc.

(I decided later on that I did not want to include snacks in the zine, due to the time it would take and also the lack of conclusive results i got during my research on that part, so the title had the bottom line removed from it)

Sketches

Colourisation

I had to first alter the contrast on the scanned image so that I could easily make them into vectors before I coloured them in. I altered some of the initial palette colours for the drinks as I wanted to better match them to the original colours. These are the only aspects I will alter colour wise.

Patterns

I used the pattern brush tool to create these, after turning them into vectors

I then chose to add a border to my title to add a bit more to the front page, as i didn't want it to plain. I used the mixed fruit brush to do this.

(It was later decided to not include this border as the sliced pattern at the edges of the banner began to agitate me and i felt it didn't look good to put on my zine. I tried to alter the pattern brush settings to fixed this but they all gave similar results)

Font and Text

Due to the college computers not allowing me to use my own downloaded fonts, I chose to type out my text in Typekit, and then turn it into an editable vector to add into the zine. I used the fonts Cantoni (a script font) and DINosaur as my main text. I used the image trace tool to do this, and created my own customized setting in order to be able to quickly trace multiple screenshots of text.

After tracing and colouring all my text, I collected them all onto an illustrator document so that I could easily access them later to add into my Zine document

[charlottelehanezine]

Zine Research

History

Zines are a self-published, nonprofit type of magazine. Zines are miniature versions of magazines, and so they usually revolve around one specific theme, such as a particular time period, or style. Many of the original Zines included topics too controversial or niche in order to be placed in mainstream media (mental health, sexuality etc). 

“The word zine is derived from fanzines, a publication distributed amongst a particular fandom, which traces all the way back to Science Fiction publications in the 1920s.” 

From that point, they grew and grew, eventually being used as the backbone for many protests and minority movements(such as women's rights group Riot Grrrl, who covered topics on sexuality, abuse and empowerment), then onto promoting small bands, before being recognised as a form of art.

Movements and collectives used this method to let their views be heard, as it was one of the only ways that they could. Most mainstream media refused to show their views and ideas, and they were unable to constantly protest due to the oppression they might have faced at the time. 

As Erika Rienstien(the founder of Riot Grrrl) says “Every time we pick up a pen, or an instrument, or get anything done, we are creating the revolution. We are the revolution.”

Now a days, however, zines are used for a wider range of purposes, not just for controversial material. They can range from a persons personal interest in a specific topic, to mini guides of a place or activity.

Printing Methods

Photocopier

One of the most popular forms of printing zines would be through the use of a photocopier, in order to create a more rugged, homemade look. However, its origins mainly came from the low cost of using a local library to print zines, as many of the people who created vines didn't have a lot of money at their disposal, and so had to publish on a budget.

Printing from digital

Another method is to do the design digitally, and print copies that way. This is usually done by more professional publishers, as they have the tools at their disposal to use software like InDesgin in order to lay out their Zine. This can become costly overtime, however, as they would have to pay for the upkeep of their own ink and software subscriptions, compared to drawing by hand and paying very little at a public place.

Another form of printing is risograph, which i go into more detail on in a later post from my visit to Dizzy ink, Nottingham.

Materials

There are no limits as to what you can use in order to create a zine: plain paper/card and pens are usually a go to, but since you can photocopy and paste things onto your print, you can really use anything you think will suit your end design. Some find really unique ways to create spines in their zines, for example. Many will use string and create intricate patterns, or maybe do really rough stitches to match the feel of the design.

Some will incorporate plantlife, or random items via copying and pasting them into their zines to create an interesting collage in their artwork, or to line the edges of their pages.

Some may also make use of plastics in order to create window designs in their art and to potentially add depth to a particular image/photograph

There's also the creativity you can have to package it. While many zine makers do not do anything expensive to do this, some who are potentially only creating a dozen copies may opt for some creative packaging for their zines, in order to have it stand out more.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Guide-To-Zine-Making/

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Zine_Making/Putting_pages_together

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Zine_Making/Making_copies

Looking at published Zines

Dear artist- We regret to inform you (Dana Stirling)

2015 Published in NYC

This Screw Post Binding style Zine was made by Dana Stirling in order to show that art isn’t always about success and that you will face a lot of rejection before you reach the right audience. It was her way of reclaiming her passion in her work and art, and to view these rejections in a wider view: They don’t matter. None of the letters are special or unique, its just another person she needs to prove wrong.

“This book was not made out of anger towards the rejecting places, but more from a place of trying to reclaim my passion as an artist”

I like how this artist is using her failures as a stepping stone to success in another way. It’s a very hopeful standpoint on the subject, and it's interesting to see someone actually make art from rejections.

http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/07/dear-artist-we-regret-to-tell-you-by-dana-stirling/

The Wrestling Colouring Book (Ben McNutt)

2017 Published in Baltimore

McNutts interest in wrestlers fueled this zine. He took photographs of wrestling in action, and then turned them in to line art work so that they could be coloured in by those who buy his zine. Its meant as a lighthearted introduction to wrestling, using colouring as an interesting way to put yourself into that world.

http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/10/the-wrestling-coloring-book-by-ben-mcnutt/

Minimal Body (Toby Zeng)

2017 Published in California 

This zine was created in order to show appreciation of the human body, and focus on aspects that create our beauty that aren’t normally focused on, but have a bit part in our form. Toby makes use of photo composition and colour, along with shape to create interesting photos that show the beauty of the little things.

http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/09/minimal-body-by-toby-zeng/

How We End ( Hannah Schneider and Kate Stone)

2017 Published NYC

This zine is full of illustrated short stories written by a woman at the moment she realized the relationship she was in was over. The photographs next to the accounts represent the place that the moment occurred, and used a mix of this personal account, along with a collage of internet sourced images in order to reflect the distortion and skewed views breakups create.

http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/05/how-we-end-by-hannah-schneider-and-kate-stone/

Ordinary Magazine Vol 3 (Multiple artists from around the world)

2016 Published in Amsterdam

This zine is set out to show the usefulness we would not see in every day household items. In this issue it is a cotton ear bud. The creator of the zine sends artists packs of the item, and asks them to use it to create something out of the ordinary for the item. They then send back Photographs of their work, to be shown in the Zine.

The issues item is also send as an extra inside the zine itself, to allow the readers to create their own take on the item. 

http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/02/ordinary-magazine-issue-3/