Fashion Illustration & Imaging

AD138

Identity

 

For this project I have been exploring Identity, I chose to look more into ‘couples identity’. The aim of this project was to make a 12-16 page zine. Through out the month I have been learning different methods on how to bind books, Illustrator & Photoshop methods and researching into photography, illustration and imaging.

 

I started by researching different zines and online places people send their art work to be turned into monthly zines for teenagers such as crybaby zine. I then started to look at different typographers such as Elena Trofimova to get inspiration for the header of my zine.

 

I wanted to specifically explore ‘Couples Identity’ as I thought it was interesting to look at all different types of couples (young, old, gay, straight ect) and see what they are like as a pair.

I then looked at the definition of what a couple is and how the history of couples compares to the present day (women’s rights, feminism, evolution of gay couples being accepted).

 

I went on to do a series of photoshoots and interviews with different couples such as newly engaged, newly together, older couples and gay couples and international couples. I started by doing some test shoot with the couples just in my flat kitchen against the wall. I then realised that I wanted to use some of the photographs in my zine and I didn’t want the whole thing to be illustrated so I then redid some of the photo shoots and planned them out more thinking about location, styling and angling so they looked better in my zine. I did the styling and photography from the shoots and then went on to develop my work by doing a series of hand and digital illustrations of the couples for my zine.

 

I decided to use the Japanese book binding method for my zine as I enjoyed making this one the most. I did a plan of how I wanted my zine to look and wrote down all the key information I needed to include. I then started putting the pages together using Photoshop. I had to think about which side of the paper things needed to be on and on what types of paper. I wanted my zine to be digital and printed however I wanted to use all sort of paper. I used gloss, matt and acetate paper as I thought it would be interesting if some of the pages you could see through to what was behind.

 

I called my zine ‘TOGETHER’ and I created my own font for the cover. I found a font that I liked called ‘Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold’ and I scanned it in to Photoshop and manipulated it so it became a new font. It still had elements of the previous font but I liked the changes I made. I also wanted the front cover to be bold and stand out on a shelf so I used the black font against a white back ground with random orange letters.

 

After I put the zine together I noticed I had made a mistake on the last page and the page had cut off the rest of the writing. I had to stick the extra information in which is why the final zine is not totally smooth.

 

Over all I am happy with my final zine and I enjoyed this project, if I had more time I would have interviewed more couples and planned out the photoshoots more.