Page #1-2 (Puffin)

So now that I have created my plan for how to set my zine out, I will be starting to assemble my pages, and the step after this I am happy to report, will be printing, and more illustrative based work.

Going over the plan, the first and second page is a reserved double page spread for the Puffin to be featured, and I am very excited about these birds being my first look into the zine.

Of course, the way a book works is that the first and second page isn't printed on one sheet, but is actually the first page also has a section of the last page featured.
If what I am saying is hard to follow, hopefully the following photos will help to make me more understood.

The images below are of a small booklet that came in the mail, and the same principle apples to any book/zine.

This booklet is constructed in a very similar way to that of how my zine will be.

It is bound by the staple bound technique, like my zine will be.

If we dissect the booklet, you can see how the document is assembled.

As you can see, on the left side is page 2, and on the right, is page 47.
Hence the first and last pages are on one sheet.

Because of the way in which the production is laid out, I must print the left and right section of the double page spread on two separate sheets of paper.

To allow for easy placements in the zine, I will create, and split every page up, and then when the time comes to print, I will simply insert each individual page into its allocated place.
This method of working works best for me.

I began the production of the first page by putting two of the three Puffin illustrations on the page, in a way that showcased them well.
These two illustrations work well together, so by putting them side by side, they compliment each other.

I enhanced the colours of the illustrations in order to counteract the scanning process, which washed out a lot of the colour.
I manipulated the colour settings of the CYMK properties in order to do this.

At this point, I really felt that the page was rather bland, and although there was still a bit of wording to add, which I discussed in the learning agreement, as well as a few of the previous blogs, I felt that perhaps adding smaller, simple illustrations amongst the page would help to not only make the design more visually appealing, but also would work with the theme of the Puffin to help enhance its traits, and characteristics.

With these small doodle illustrations added, I moved onto looking into the wording to be featured on this particular page.
I decided in a previous blog to base all of my language featured in the zine around the theme of folklore over factual information, and when researching the Puffin earlier on in the project, one term stood out to me above all others.

The Puffin is commonly referred to by many as the "Clown of the sea", and this is mainly due to their brightly coloured beaks.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Atlantic_Puffins,_Scotland.jpg < image reference at this link.

This is a term that I feel may work with the design of my first page, and so I went about writing this term using watercolour paint.
I decided not to write in digital font, because I feel the hand drawn feeling works better with the design of the illustrations, and it also feels more hand-made, and natural.

The painted typography.

I was happy with the typography, and also the use of folklore, and so I scanned the wording in, and embedded it onto the page of my design

Page #1 finished.

I had another illustration that I was happy with, and because the Puffin had a double page spread, I began work on the last page to feature the Puffin.

The illustration that I wanted to showcase had more of a mono-tone style to it, but I still felt that it was a strong illustration that was deserving of being featured.
Using the principles that I used to assemble page #1, I set to work on page #2.

I enhanced the black point of the image to make the design bolder, as the photocopier washes some level of tone out of any image that it scans, and then placed the small doodle style illustrations amongst the design in order to make the page more appealing from a visual standpoint.

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All in all, I feel that my first two pages are very strong entries to be featured in my zine, and I am happy that I decided to choose the Puffin as my initial illustration.
I feel that these two pages will allow for the readers curiosity to read further into the zine.







Thomas.