Before I started any designs I first set out to decide what kind binding technique I will use for my zine, using my knowledge of book binding from previous projects I quickly went through the positives and negatives of simple binding techniques. Each technique had negatives but I found the simple fold bind was most suited to what I wanted to produce because it enabled me to print on to one single sheet thus saving money on print, it provided rigidity and durability because it wasn't weakened in order to bind and finally it is limited to 8 pages which is perfect because I only want to create a small informative zine and not to go into too much detail.
Even though I had my heart pretty much set on using the folded book I still created the other two so I had a better idea of what the final zine could potentially look like.
Concertina
Folded
Stapled
I have thrown the concertina technique out of the window and it's now between the folded book and stapled. The reason I have re added staple bound to my ideas is because when i created the folded book it was really untidy around the edges and i'm worried the designs for the pages will be offset when folded. Therefore I intend on creating both because it won't actually take any more time to design, once printed I can then decide which is most suited.
These are just some quick sketches of ideas that were floating around in my head, I've gone for a more simplistic modernist design as opposed to punk because I want it to be a juxtapose to the style of punk the same way pussy riot are a juxtapose of Russian society. I particularly like the image in the centre of the second row, the simple words Pussy riot and the balaclava don't give too much away about the content and will cause more intrigue to know what is inside. On the bottom of the sheet are just simple balaclava designs that will be used throughout my design as; stickers, front covers, information graphics etc...
These are some slightly more developed ideas that are influenced from the previous sheet, after holding a small crit with my peers everybody seemed to favour the top right hand corner design because it had the image, the title and a small body of text. This they believed would work the best for people who knew nothing on the subject. From this information I received I instantly set about creating the design and came up with these 3 below.
These are 3 different colour designs I quickly produced, the colour on the balaclavas represents the 3 females that were arrested wearing brightly coloured balaclavas, however i'm unsure to as which colours were arrested a part from yellow. The yellow provides the best contrast on the black background anyways because of the tonal values. Simple below the images are the title pussy riot in Helvetica to go with the modernist aesthetics I strive to achieve, and a small quote taken from the judge that sentenced the ladies. It reads 'Crudely undermining social order?' I turned it into a question because I want the viewer to have their own opinions once they've read the zine, therefore, it's asking what do you think? I added Russian on the other half of the page because I want it to reach a Russian audience as well seen as it is to do with them and it happening in their country at this moment in time.
These are just cut out versions so you can get a greater understanding of the final designs with the slim white border around the edge.
I then placed the front cover design onto the folded book net to create a mini prototype of what the design would look like on the front of a zine.
For my zine I'm going to create some bar charts to visually represent my primary research I have collected. Below are just some different variations of the bars.
When type is applied
Below are two examples of how I have applied the balaclava from my front cover into info graphics, it's hard to notice what the image looks like because of the grid I was using but also because I was working in fast quality mode which turns placed vectors into grey boxes. But they are a good example of showing the process of achieving a clean precise and detailed info graphics for my zine.
Above is the printed version of one of the info graphics further above, they are the same page explaining who pussy riot was but I was uncertain whether to use a photograph of the group or to illustrate the number of group member with balaclavas. After a short discussion with peers we decided on using the info graphic because not only does it tie in with the front cover it also states in the brief to visual represent research through info graphics.
Below is the spread for my complete zine minus the front cover, it was pretty straight forward to create because I already had the information to insert from my research it was just a cause of information graphics, images and most importantly the layout. To achieve the minimalist modernist aesthetic I spent many hours on the layout so it all was align and fit into a grid system, however, because I translated into Russian as well the body copy was mostly longer than English. This meant it was hard to use the same grid throughout therefore the widths of body copy aren't the same throughout.
This is a scaled down prototype of the book I created just to check if the layout was correct and it worked once folded.
Cover design
I received a prospectus in the post a few years back from UCLAN and it was packaged in a folded envelope and I wanted to recreate it, however I struggled to find the same design online and unfortunately I threw out the prospectus. Therefore I had to create the cover from memory meaning there is insufficient research on the process. However for future reference I did create a digital net so I always have it incase I need it for future projects.
This is the cover folded up
Digital net
Once I had created the cover I unfolded it and created the net on indesign, it was a pretty simple process of just drawing lines where the fold lines are. By creating a digital version it allowed me to experiment with placing image and type on the cover. From the image above to the one below was just a process of adding an image of the group and information of the event that got them arrested. I chose yellow to tie in with the rest of the zine.
When folded up it looks like the image below, only showing the text on the front and on the back is the image of the group. the Pussy riot is revealed when the flaps are unfolded. The only issue is because the image is rectangular the corners of the photo have folded round to be on the front of the cover, this is simply resolved by just cutting the corners of the image of the image off on photoshop and reprinting.
Sticker development
I did different variations of the balaclava design on circles with and without text to see which worked as a sticker. The most simplest of designs worked best because it suited my sine and package design best. But i'm torn between two designs, the plain balaclava and the striped balaclava. Therefore I am going to print both out and decide then because the colour will be different and I will be able to place both on my package to see which one looks best.
