This is the spread for my folded zine printed on bulky news print. The print looks really clean and crisp upon the stock which I think suits the modernist style I chose to go with. Before it's even folded I think it looks pretty good as a print because it gives an overview of the full zine which is something you never really see also because it's equally balanced with colour, photos, illustrations and type.
This is just a quick shot to document the folding of the book, it also illustrates the structure of the book and how it's made with the slit down the middle.
This is what the finished folded zine looks like on the centre page. I really like this technique of book making because it binds the book solely on folds as opposed to stitching, glue or staples meaning its a lot stronger and durable but also has a seamless appearance.
However one downfall is that folds are always slightly off because the front and back page have to fold around the entire book meaning they fall short of the edge because of the bulk inside it.
This is my staple bound zine, it has the exact same content but instead is printed double sided and bound with staples instead of being folded because. The reason I created this staple bound book is because I doubted the folded zine would turn out well because the bulky print is quite thick I worried that the paper folds would be quite untidy, uneven, just bulky and unsightly.
This is what the spine looks like when it has been bound with staples, the staples detract from the clean aesthetics I tried so hard to maintain inside the zine, however it does make the the zine less bulky and untidy at the edges. The zine feels a lot lighter and much more pleasant to read. But I have decided to go with the folded zine because it ties in more with the zine cover, it's a lot more durable compared to staples that always seem to fall out or rip the page, but it also enables me to maybe an A2 print to the other side of the spread that is visible only when the zine is unfolded.
(Insert print image)
These are the folded zine covers printed out onto A3 bulky news print, i've done two different versions; one with fold lines and one without just so I compare the two. Even though the one with the fold lines fits the modernist style and the layout of the type, the one without them looks seamless, clean because of the use of white space and the balance between the empty space and content.
The problem was that the prints/cover was too small because when folded it has diagonal edges instead of corners therefore I had to cut slits so that the corner of the zines could pop out, however this will be rectified and I shall print a bigger print/cover.
This is how the Zine would appear to customers/public, it has the basic information on the outside with a balaclava sticker on it. I haven't added what is inside the cover or what it is about because I wanted to provoke thoughts and curiosity of whats actually inside. I'm unsure whether it would cause intrigue or just lead to people ignoring it without an example on show, but to me it causes intrigue because it has the dates, location, participants and arrests. This information accompanied with the image on the back instantly makes me want to know whats inside.
As you unfold the cover more and more is revealed, so now the viewer now knows it's about Pussy riot. I think this is probably the best part of the cover because more information is revealed in steps as you unfold each section, my only issue with this is the 'K' gets covered up by one of the folds which doesn't affect it too much but it's just one of them small attentions to detail that annoys me.
Once you unfold the packaging you reveal the zine which is placed in the middle of the sheet. I'm torn between having the large white empty space in the background and having an image, each one bring something to the table; the large empty white space puts all focus and attention to the zine, however because the zine is so small compared to the white sea behind it I have been told people focused more on that than the zine. An image will obviously get rid of the mass white space but will it become confusing with the zine laid on top and detract from the zine?
I have decided to leave it as a mass white sea for now and sea what feedback I receive from the crit then react to suggestions.
This is just the sticker sheet I produced to hold down flaps of the cover, I did originally create two designs but because of the mass amount of white I decided that only the striped ones on the right would suit my cover because of the limited white. I also think they look more like balaclavas than the stickers on the right, they resemble a ghost instead of balaclava .