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

Layout of the Publication

Over the past few days Me and Sean have been looking at the ways in which we can present the work in the zine and exploring all the different possible layouts that we could use, we did this through changing the work of the typefaces subtly.

After creating a layout for the musician tribe, we then had a layout and master page to create the other 4 designs from easily only therefore changing the typeface and colour of the work, which would make light of the different stereotypes, which would give the pages unison, but also highlight the differences in the tribe.

We deiced on changing the layout many times, as we wanted areas that were more busy than others to ones that were more simplistic in a info graphics style, so therefore give the audience areas of more interest. This therefore gives the person a more interesting read rather than it being busy and jam packed with information on all the pages.

I left that by doing this with a group it was better as you could see what other people may find interesting and what may work best for a wider audience rather than purely doing a piece you like graphically.

Maps and pictogram Ideas

After talking about the layout of the zine along with the epilogue we wanted a map to go along with this that represented where the tribes hung out around the NQ, for example the goths being in Afflecks palace or the stoners being in Dr Hermans. I felt that this would work nicely as a piece of info graphics with a simple pictogram representing each of the tribe. This would also be a page purely dedicated to graphics which would break up the mainly illustrative book.

At the start we decided to have a map with all the stereotypes on it, as it would show how the NQ is evenly spread with the tribes, however with the final page and the narrative with the hipsters ruling the NQ we chose to have the map over run with the Hispter pictogram. The pictograms would be on the page dividers as well as this would be a good introduction to the work.

Idea's for the pictograms

Hipster glasses, obey hat, tattoo, nose piercing, docs, clothing

Goth raven, skull, pentagram, goat skull, candle, cross

Nerd mask, light sabre, geek guy, glasses, maths equation, 

Stoner blunt, bong, cannabis leaf, dreadlock guy, rasta hat, rasta flag, rasta lion, Jamaica outline

Musician Rockabilly tattoo, card symbols, guitar, dj set, double bass, instruments, cigarette

For each of the tribes we tested a few of the ideas out and together me and Sean chose what ones to take forward, for the hipster one we chose the obey hat, the goth a raven, stoner the cannabis leaf, the nerd a mask and finally the musician was a combination between a dj set and guitar strings.

Each of the pictograms had one colour and white to give the image in the piece, we deiced on colour relating loosely to the tribes 

Hipster-yellow

Goth-black

Nerd-red

Stoner-green

Musician-blue

Rules of the tribes

As part of the zine we chose to do rules for each of the tribe to follow, therefore came up with these rules that could be used that would fit the stereotype and make light of each of the sub genres. After creating the rules we and Sean then developed some of the rules further and set about having 5 for each one as that would give each of the tribes equal weight in the zine, which would make the piece better as it would follow the same structure.

Here is the lists of the different rules that I created that were whittled down when designing the zine.

Goth Rules 

body mod is good body mod 

If you can’t read the band name it’s a good band  

Judge the world in every light with a sarcastic comment

You are properly going to get blamed for a lot of shit, so be as weird and strange as possible

Your’ e not a goth if you’re not social, your just a social retard

We are the most unique people, but we are all the same

We secretly listen to bring me the horizon, but we judge and laugh at them in public

We don’t were that much corpse paint, leather and spikes it’s more of a Swedish/Norwegian thing  

Hipster Rules

Obey shepherd fairy, even though we don’t know who he is 

Always like things ironically and never show happiness, just a moody sexy face

Act like a twat and that you’re better than everyone else

Get glasses even when you can see 

Be as uninteresting as a piece of toast

Love vintage shops and tea even though you have no knowledge of any

Justin Beiber is are style inspiration even though we won’t admit it  

Instagram and hash tagging are out lives it’s the only form of happiness we have

We are unique and alternative in a mainstream manufactured way 

We are all artsy creative types even though we don’t know anything about are and can only instagram

Photoshop and edit every photography before it goes on twitter/facebook

Musician Rules

No modern technology 

Everything should be played on vinyl 

The only sexy girls are pin up girls

Leather jackets will never go out of style 

Pulp fiction is our life, we live it everyday

We only ever eat a burger, fries and a shake 

Nerd Rules

A blow up doll is an acceptable girlfriend

We are cool on the internet that’s all that matters

The big bang theory is for cool nerds, real nerds play dungeons and dragon in their mum’s basement

We don’t not like to socialise unless it’s through a screen

My mum is my best friend

Stoner Rules

Puff puff pass to the left always

4/20 is always weed time, not matter where you are

If you are stoner, when stoned you have to turn into a great philosopher to rival that of Aristotle is not you’re a lazy fuck

If you whitey you fail and will have to leave the circle

A circle is the only shape for smoking weed, a square or triangle is just wrong

Rastafarians are true believers; if you have dreadlocks you get the blunt first

Anything is acceptable when you have the munchies

Space cake is an invention of god, eat get stoned, get the munchies, get even more stoned the circle of weed

Laughter makes the world go round so light up and be happy

Everyone loves a stupid stoner, it’s better than a arrogant, angry drunk

Tribe leaders Narratives

We came up with the 5 different ideas for the tribe leaders based from the illustrations, that the illustrators provided due to it was easier to fit it around that way. We chose to make the tribe leaders the most unique and strange as tribe leaders through are research we noticed how the leaders would commonly push the boundaries of normality and express themselves in a more drastic manner.

Hipsterpocolypse

The drastic increase in hipster culture is no mistake rather than forces way beyond human control.There are many theories to which the origin of these pretentious subcultures comes from, many speculate xenos interference deities beyond the stars bearing down on the northern quarter in craft technological far beyond our comprehension. Wearing tacky glasses and out of date fashion from earth history as gifts or from vintage boutiques, in which they come in the night warping our mind and control causing an arrogant zombie like state. Some believe they evolved from sewer rats to rise up from their under empire from the gutters of the northern quarter. Some however believe its toxic chemicals in our water dumped by mega corps, or a self aware government logging site learning from the internet controlling us via fashion.

Its been rumoured that they’ve been known to prefer anal probing.


Fantasy in Forbidden Planet 

Forbidden planet is a land were anything and everything goes. I can transport you to far away lands of medieval battles of to places of low resolution gaming that were around in the 80's. In there lives a man in which he has tried to get into the X men but miserably failed, due to his social anxiety has made him seem a bit of a creeper. He has however collected everything from the comic book series, and believes he can bend metal with his mind much like that of magneto. He also plays a lot of online poker so has a special connection to that of gambit, even though he has gambled away his life savings. 

He is unfortunately lord of the Nerds, even though he hates the interaction

Rockabilly of Ages

In the basement of Picadilly records, there once was a girl who distasted with the modern world, she hated being under the dictatorship of Simon Cowell. She seeked to travel to a world in which vinyl ruled. Once day in work she found a ominous glow on the shop floor and examined the ominous black hole, after listening to JLS for the 10th time today she said fuck it I don’t want to live anymore and jumped in the whole to fix her fate.
When she arrived she was in the Vinyl exchange, and transported to the 1950’s were everything was black white and was greated by a shop assistant called tony who shared the same interest in tattoos, they got matching tattoos.

Legend has it he had syphilis and they died, he hated her but stayed with her for the sex


Back alley witchcraft

My recollection of the northern quarter is somewhat hazy between the listed building and the vintage shops it’s a free for all. You can eat anything imaginable between the melting walls and the voices in my head I find time to beg the people to contribute to my cause. In exchange for what coins, buttons and various currencies for my potion, to enter the world within our own, I am the saviour I fight demons in my head to keep the northern quarter safe. On the outside I appear to be an addict asleep in my piss and various fluids but beneath this human shell I am a being of pure wisdom and spirit.

I am the dirt wizard of the northern quarter, and I have the munchies.



The lonely girl

In the mist of opium that comes from the basement of Affleck’s palace, their lives a girl so dark that people dare not speak her name. She has killed the children of the corn as they gave her competition. She lives in a coffin in and around her lover’s corpses at the tender age of 12, it is Manchester after all. She’ s said to have the head of a goat and her common tongue is that of lyrics from black metal songs, a candle is her only source of light, and spiders her only company. It has been said that even Edgar Allan Poe has wrote stories about her, then been admitted into a mental hospital.

She’s a happy child really

Narrative Ideas

We decided on the idea of a epilogue and prologue in the work and decided on a abstract reality on which the tribes to work within. We therefore chose to make the idea as strange as possible. We chose to use the narrative idea as it make the work more interesting rather than be purely a fact file of the tribes with very little content in the work.

Prologue

In the year 2013, Manchester’s Northern Quarter plays home to a wide variety of mysterious beings. In said area there is a fierce rivalry between the five tribes that reside there. Each of these tribes are controlled by a single fearless ruler who determines members of the clan and the territory in which the tribe will reside. Its very rare that members will venture away from there own and interact with other tribes, but it is said to happen on occasion. The tribe of the Musician has the freedom to move between time periods and is ruled by a loving couple hell bent on rock and roll. The nerds; with a leader who has an affection for pornography and comic books; look to the stars hoping to one day be part of a galaxy far, far away. Deep in a dark basement dwells the leader of the Goths with the power to manipulate creatures of the night and control the dead. The Stoners are guided by the dirt wizard who frequently changes the northern quarter in to a surrealist landscape in the envy of Salvador Dali by one puff of his bong. Finally the biggest clan of all, the Hipsters, who with the ability to shape shift are constantly looking for their own identity but sadly to no avail.

Epilogue

In the battle for the dominance of the Northern Quarter in Manchester, in which the rest of Manchester was unaware because it didn't care. The nerds with there white completion, and ginger hair where the first to fall, as they couldn't come out to even fight. The stoners quickly fell as they didn't know what the hell was going on, the goths a little while after that as they couldn't see what was going on in all the darkness. The most dramatic battle came between the musicians and hipsters, in which both were accustomed to fighting, the musicians primarily from their rockabilly days and there skills with a knife, and the hipsters which was usually a fight with the mirror and what to wear for that day. It was however the Hipsters that one and had dominance over the Northern Quarter and claimed the land of the area, they infected each of the other stereotypes with anal probing, and made everyone look just like themselves.

The Hipsters rule the Northern Quarter for now.

Layout of the Zine

After talking about the zine layout and the what would be in the piece, we finally came up with the concept of giving each of the tribes 6 pages in the zine to let them have equal weight in the zine and follow the same layout so that there is unison in the work. The layout so far is like this;

Front cover
Prologue page
Map Page

(then for each of the tribes the following layout is)
( the style of each of the pages would follow a colour coding system from green for stoner ect, in addition to this, this would be accentuated by the typeface and imagery on display)
Pictogram divider page
Photograph of were that tribe hangs around
Narrative to the tribe leader
Tribe leader drawing
30 little heads of people in that tribe done simply by the illustrators
5 rules of the tribe

then after that  a map and epilogue

New Plan of Action

After splitting from the group, as a group we then developed a idea for the zine from the original idea of stereotypes into a more abstract concept of tribes of the NQ. We decided and talked about they ways in which we could look at presenting the work and how we would look at the content of the zine and saw any possible content layouts and what may be included in the zine, which will give the piece unison from the very different tribes.

However at this stage it was generally just the idea stages and just talking about different ideas, I felt more confident on the concept of the work and what goal we were possible working towards. But, this stage lasted a lot longer than I would have wanted as people came up with ideas that were too late to be incorporated into the zine, so therefore create too many changes to the work.

Tutorial Day

On Friday we had a tutorial with the tutors today to see what we had we had produced since the we had been giving the groups to work in. On looking around it was apparent that many of the other groups had worked more effectively and that the groups had a clear goal set out in what they wanted to achieve through their concept. However are work seemed like a mismatch of different styles and different ways of working which may look effective when put together but however on the table there was no real connection between the work.  This was also a time in which we had seen some members of the group for the first time which  the y may have got confused with the concept.

On talking to the tutors on which may would be the best to carry on working an how we should go about solving the problem, the tutors came up with the idea of splitting us up into 2 groups of 4 one focusing on the tribes which would me my group and the other consisting off people who were concerned with the secrets focusing on that.

The tribes group consisted of 2 illustrators and 2 graphic designers, (myself, Sean, Will and Ben) I would help illustration with there work and then when it would come to the final layout of the work I would then help Sean with the designing if need be. This suited me as working with Sean and Will both styles fitted my own, and the changes from my graphic work to my illustration work.  In addition to this it also helped me due to I felt that we could achieve a proper plan or concept to work to and have people that would tur up to discuss the work on a regular basis.

Working towards Fridays tutorial

After going to the NQ we had more focused, on what we were going to produce as a group,in taking the photographs we decided to think of ways in which we could manipulate the imagery and what possible different printing methods may look effective.We deiced to manipulate the photos primarily and look at simple ways of promoting the work. However even doing this I felt that we never really had a idea of what we wanted the style of the zine to be and what the content would be, which would have been more helpful for me personally. In addition to this at this stage in the project we had not really seen some of the people in the group so felt as if we could not really get a move on with the work.

In thinking about the work me and Sean decided on looking at getting tutorials or using the risograph, letterpress, screen printing and laser cutter. Which would make the piece look more effective rather than being purely presented as a indesign piece, which may look less personal.

At this point I wasn't too sure what work had been completed by the rest of the group and what style people may be looking at creating which was something that I wasn't too happy about.

Drawings of stereotypes

As I mentioned before I decided that I want to focus on illustration work in this project and for the up coming tutorial from out tutors I chose to focus on 2 of the stereotypes that being the goth and musician stereotype. I chose them as I believe that they were the ones that fitted my style of illustration well and were the ones that I would personally have the most fun with. I chose to take reference for the goth illustration from the workers in cyberbog as it was a truly unique place I could gain inspiration from and was something that I could have fin doing. I later did 2 musician drawings, I had a little problem in what to focus upon as music is such a broad spectrum, I however decided on the idea that I would focus on the rockabilly style of music as I felt it gave reference to the vinyl

shops that are scattered around the NQ, in which I took inspiration from the cd covers and people within the shop.

Stereotypes

On choosing the concept of stereotypes we settled on 5 stereotypes being that of ; hipster, musician, goth, nerd and stoner. I originally decided that I wanted to do illustrations for the project, as illustration is something that I have always liked and wanted to do for a while.

For the illustrations and the basic concept of the zine we wanted the idea of having the stereotypes and making them more abstract and surreal, so therefore pushing the boundaries for the illustrators to work within, which is came across when looking at each others work. We also chose to focus solely on one person in the illustration and too make the piece detailed to therefore it would be of a high quality.

With the new concept of the stereotypes of the NQ some of the group that turned up chose to go to the NQ too get photographs and ideas that would be useful to the work and get references and ideas that we could possibly focus upon. I was looking at the people that concerned each stereotype and what possible attributed they may have.

After taking the photographs we decided to go back to university and see what could possibly be done and used in the zine and create simple ideas and layouts too show the tutors on Friday and present a more detailed idea of our concept and get a more detailed idea of out layout.

Change in Concept idea

With problems in the group of people not turing up we chose to discard the idea of the having the secrets of the NQ, as it may not have worked to peoples style of working, and after new people joined in the discussion we had to accommodate their style of work in to the publication and fit it too everyones strengths.

We therefore felt that the idea of the stereotypes of the NQ would be best suited to the work of people, however in choosing this concept when not everyone was in the same problem was going to arise at a later date, which it did. I felt as a group people did not communicate enough to be able to grasp the change in concept and through not coming in they never got the chance to express their own thoughts and feelings towards it.

I felt at this part of the process with the change in ideas and the drastic changes in what would actually be in the publication that we had wasted time and not really got a clear concept, which is something that would have benefitted me personally, as it would have been more useful for me too create my work if I knew the style of the work and what possible content their would have to be.

Developed Concepts and Manifesto

After the initial mind mapping stage, of which only three of the group turned up we chose to use social networking to be able to make other people in the group more involved in the ideas that we had and the concepts that could be develop. They in turn did the same so on the second day we met up we were able to see what each others had done and be able to properly evaluate which ideas to take forward as they had more scope to them and which could be discarded primarily as there was no point wasting time in trying a idea out and then not being able too take the concept forward.

After deciding on 3 ideas that we could develop forward we then chose to pick apart the concepts and see what we could, from what parts of the project people may be interested in and what may work too peoples strengths.

We came up with the idea of the secrets of the Northern Quarter and we wrote this manifesto to go with the project.



Unit X 

The Onion Quarter (because onions have layers)

Our group aim is to explore and uncover the secrets of the northern quarter, the things that are hidden during the day, for example the underground clubs that are only open to people who are in the know. We also wanted to explore the history of the buildings and how this has possibly impacted the future of the shop. We will document the people throughout their daily life how personalities can change and develop from having a coffee in the early morning before work to after work going for drinks. To see how there mood can change and develop, and how there mood can change throughout the day, this is culturally relevant as the history of the northern quarter has developed with a history of alcohol, and recentally with coffee culture, it has became a hotspot for a alternative coffee culture. Which is against the mainstream of usual Manchester life

Final Zine Publication working with illustration and animation students

Today we learnt about the groups that we would be working in and for the final piece in unit X. we were then told how the next few weeks would plan out, and what would be expect of us for a final outcome, which is that of a zine publication like the last two projects that encompasses the work of illustration.

Like the last two projects we mind mapped the various random ideas we had that might be useful as a reference for a later date, in working with illustration students we got a better idea and new perspective on what we could possibly focus within the zine, which was based in the NQ, we were able to get a different idea initially on what would work both from a graphic perspective to also that of what would be interesting enough for the illustration students to work in.

We decided to jot down any idea that we had to use for reference, from different quotes we said from the day to any possible concepts that we could look at developing at a later date, this was primarily useful to see, what style of work people were interested in.

Reflection of the digital Zine

On reflection I felt that the zine produced worked well as a carry on from the original piece we created and how the story developed as a narrative, which is something I have always wanted to be present in my work and it something that has attracted me to other peoples work in the past.

I felt as a group we worked effectively as a whole and there was a lot talking between each of the members of the group and everyone got on as a whole and where allowed to give their own input into a idea they had. I felt that through this we overcame many tasks that were set too us, from the idea of planning a effective narrative, which was done in a timely manner as everyone knew there role within the group and what was expected from them. Which being in the same mind frame was useful to complete the work.

Personally I am not proud of the drawing I did, due to they are not my personal style of illustration but with the time constraints and other items of the page they work effectively.

On looking at the finished the design piece, I particularly like how it has developed drastically, and been given a better unison throughout the work. Even though the style of indesign is not my usual way of working I like the way in which it reflects the people that bought the objects and is neutral to all the items so it doesn't complement just one persons item. I felt however that maybe it could have been given a little bit of difference by making each person show their own style of indesign for their own person to make it more personal. However the way in which the pages are arranged differently gives light to that in a more professional manner.

Overall I like the work my group produced as it responded to the previous zine and I liked the challenge of bringing a narrative to my work to make it more personal and unique.

Final Publication

After sorting out the narrative ideas and the drawings for the people, we next set upon working on the pieces in indesign, we chose on a blue colour system, and using the same typeface throughout the work to give unison to the piece which made the work more effective and looked a lot better personally, compared to the previous zine we had done. As a group we worked on the piece, but however people had there own chance to add certain areas and pieces to the work to what they found most effective from changing the layout or size of certain objects.This made the whole piece more effective and gave everyone a say in the design process, which was useful as a group. We finally as a final touch chose to print the piece on a darker brownish paper to give a vintage feel to the work and add a sense of nostalgia to the work, this in addition to these points made the work more personal and unique rather than printing the imagery on plain white paper.  We decided on giving each person a page to themselves to show the item, and the reason why they chose it, we then decided on having the first double page spread as a introduction pages, by having simple maps and making them more graphical through the use of indesign.