Reflection Of the Final Zine Publication

On reflection of working with illustration and animation, i felt that working within a team was a useful experience primarily working with those who do not do graphic design or, do not know certain aspects of graphic design.

In beginning the work it came clear that would be problems with attendance within are group and possibly styles would not mix, which was a problem primarily we struggled with up until we separated as a group into two different sub groups, mine primarily being of people that have the same style of graphic design and illustration as me.

In the subgroup me, Sean and Will worked well as a group and produced most of the work too a timely manner and too a good standard, however towards the end of the project the attendance and work was not being presented, so therefore we had to settle with different layout ideas than previously planned which was annoying and time consuming. I felt that Me and Sean were the ones that had too push the group in order to be in and make sure we produced the work in a timely manner so that we could print it and correct any changes of difficulties necessary, which is something that the other members where not aware off.

On reflection I feel that we had too make compromises with the publication and the exhibition with is something that could have been avoided if the work was produced in/seen in the given time frame, where everyone could discuss the ideas and the layout of each, which may have lead to a better final product.

However after all the problems and difficulties that we had too face, I felt that I became better at telling and organising people, which is something that I had previously left too other people and felt however more confident in saying to people that we need the work to be produced. Which is a viable skill when working in the industry.

The Exhibition and Promotion

Before the actual event we were given the task to promote the exhibition and present work in a given A0 space in the basement of cord bar in the northern quarter of Manchester. In the making of the zine publication it was primarily mine and Sean's work that was presented so we therefore gave the opportunity of the illustrators within are group to present their work as they previously had, had ideas on what they want to put up and display. However, before the time to display we could not get into contact with the illustrators and had no real idea on wether the work was finished to a high standard, I therefore had to test the ideas of poster design in order to be presented with are work, in which poster design is not something that I had done for a while, so felt it was difficult to get back into as I primarily like double page spread layout design.

This therefore made the exhibition, not look effective as the work was rushed as previously said we expected the illustrators to produce their work in a timely manner. This was a on going theme in the project so on reflection I should have probably at least explore ideas before hand. On reflection I feel that the work in the exhibition was not the best to are ability, and however it would have been nice to produce better designed pieces of work as it was not a true reflection of the work within the zine that we produced.

During the day when we where putting up the work, we were given the task of going around the Northern Quarter, from the different bars, restaurants and shops that are presented their, and asking wether it would be possible too place a poster for the event in their place of business. We were able to get a few posters in different areas, from the likes of Forbidden Planet, Afflecks Palace, Nexus art cafe and Pop Boutique. However some places were more forthcoming if we had flyer designs to display in the store.

Advertising for the event

We were told today that we were allowed to advertise in the space and we had around a A1 sized space to do so, as a group we therefore chose to look at the possible ways in which we could make items, or print pieces in order to advertise the work and create more of a atmosphere around the zine, rather than it simply being a zine on a table or on the side.

We therefore chose to think of quick ideas that could be achieved we therefore chose to look at interactive pieces in addition to this.

On reflection with the set backs we had and the challenges we have had to face we therefore felt that we had too stick to pieces that are possibly easier to create within the given time frame and work towards are skills as designers and illustrators, we felt that poster design was something that could work for the designers in the group so therefore looked at the some simple poster designs that would be effective in the space, however poster design is not something that I have done in a while so I some of them may not look effective in the development stage.

Printing and Making the Zine

Today we chose to make the Zine, we had previously looked at the ways in which we can create the zine and what would be the best for the publication and would be easiest for us too achieve.
We chose to firstly paginate the piece on indesign and print out the work fully paginated. Then after the work was printed we then chose to go down too book binding to make the work.

With the help of Hillary and Caitlin we then used the crease machine to get a good crease on the cover then hand folded the other pages in the middle or in some cases where the images met. Once the pages were paginated and constructed, Caitlin then helped us by stapling the pieces of paper together, which was the method we had preferred rather than that of making it by using the 5 stitch method, as the staples would be quicker and cleaner as I was not very good at doing hands on work. The last thing we did was to compress the pieces to make the book flatter and neater. The next stage in the process is too guillotine to remove the over hanging edges ( I can't remember the technical book binding work), this would therefore make the piece more professional and neater.

Making the booklet was a relatively easy process, from the construction of the work as it wasn't very technically difficult, however the biggest problem lay in the problem with printing the pieces as many of the printers were broken and actually sending the files too the printers came with problems due too their file size.

Front Page of the Zine

The final thing to complete the Zine was the construction of the front cover, we chose to leave it till last as it was something that we wanted to spend time on and be able to use the content as reference from rather than trying to fit the content around it which would make the content restrictive and hard too respond to. We chose to look at using the pictograms, text and colour systems that are in the zine as reference as they would it could look very graphical, and could have a simplistic abstract approach

Paper Stock Experimentation

Me and Sean after creating the work to in the Zine then chose to explore the different styles of paper that could possibly be used. We deiced on choosing off white papers of different textures, and printing the same image each time too see how it effects the image (even though it is not clearly seen on the images here) We then both of us decided on what paper too use from picking are favourite 3. We decided on using a textured paper at the start, put however felt that maybe the paper would be too thick to fold, so we therefore chose to use a more transparent and lighter paper stock for the content pages, but however use the thicker paper for the cover of the zine.

Risograph Printing

Risograph is a high-speed digital printing system manufactured by the  "Riso Kagaku Corporation" Riso Kagaku Corporation and designed mainly for high-volume   "Photocopier" photocopying and printing. Increasingly, Risograph machines have been commonly referred to as a RISO Printer-Duplicator, due to their common usage as a network  "Computer printer" printer as well as a stand-alone  "Duplicating machines" duplicator. When printing or copying multiple quantities (generally more than 20) of the same original, it is typically far less expensive per page than a conventional photocopier, laser printer, or inkjet printer. 

How a Risograph works

The underlying technology is very similar to a mimeograph. It brings together several processes which were previously carried out manually, for example using the Riso Print  

The original is scanned through the machine and a master is created, by means of tiny heat spots on a thermal plate burning voids (corresponding to image areas) in a master sheet. This master is then wrapped around a drum and ink is forced through the voids in the master. The paper runs flat through the machine while the drum rotates at high speed to create each image on the paper.

This simple technology is highly reliable compared to a standard photocopier and can achieve both very high speed (typically 130 pages per minute) and very low costs. A good lifespan for a risograph might involve making 100,000 masters and 5,000,000 copies.

The key master-making thermal head component is manufactured by  Toshiba. Similar machines to Risographs are manufactured by Ricoh,  All these other brands are now owned by Ricoh. Because the process involves real ink - like offset printing - and does not require heat to fix the image on the paper - like a photocopier or laser printer - the output from a risograph can be treated like any printed material. This means that sheets which have been through a risograph may happily go through a laser printer afterwards and vice-versa.

For schools, clubs, colleges, political campaigns and other short-run print jobs, the Risograph bridges the gap between a standard photocopier (which is cheaper up to about 50 copies) and using a commercial printer (cheaper over about 10,000 copies).

Risographs have typically had interchangeable colour inks and drums allowing for printing in different colours or using spot colour in one print job. The Riso MZ series models have two ink drums, thereby allowing two colours to be printed in one pass.

On learning what process can be done on a risograph machine, we then had a go at printing are own piece through photocopying an image of piece of design. We firstly looked at doing a one toned print, in using a vibrant green, after that we next had a go at developing this further by applying another tone of red over the top from moving the piece left or right to create a three dimensional effect due to the colours used. I felt that the machine was easy to use and you could create a various unique works of art from simple manipulation of the printer.

One of the things that made the risograph unique is the colour of the inks in which are generally very vibrant and can be seen as looking like UV paint, this is something I had never known about before being inducted and the brightness of the colours is something that could work for various projects within my time at university and would be something that I would want to explore for possible zine or poster designs as the dramatic colours is something that would look effective against normal printed posters. The colours on the machine give the pieces a three dimensional effect from the layering of the prints which also looks effective, another positive of the printer is like with normal printers a various paper stock can be used so therefore you can test a wide variety of inks on different papers to see what might work best for a project and to see what might look good on textured, or translucent paper.

 Another effect I liked on the machine is when photocopying an image you can move the image in various different ways, to shift in various directions and also has the option of zooming in and out, which gives the person more freedom to test and explore various ideas and layouts. Which can make a piece more interesting is everything is not purely fixed to type of perimeter so you therefore have the option to go off the p age and shift stuff to the left or right with ease. 

Me and sean chose to use the risograph as a way of experimentation and see what. printing effects could possibly done, we chose a paper stock that we felt at this stage may we one we would use, and decided to apply 2 designs to the printer in just two colours as a way of experimentation