After all my refinements and developments, this is the final outcome that I've produced. As I've said in my previous blog, I liked the Cyclus Offset 100gsm paper stock much better therefore I decided to use it as the paper stock for my final. Not only is the paper stock light enough and it has a very zine-like feel, but it's also very cheap (£0.56 per A1) therefore it would be quite affordable it the publication was to be mass produced. Calculating the price more accurately, with the publication being A5 in size and having 20 pages and 11 spread only 5 pieces of A3 are needed so one publication is only (£0.70p); adding the printing cost in the university (£2.50); with the sticker and poster cost (£1.00 = £0.50p each) the whole publication cost us (£4.20. I think this is quite reasonable and is probably the cheapest we can get it.
From my developments that I did, I decided to keep the decisions that I've made as I thought that they already made the publication look good as it is and that if I decided to try and develop it more that it wouldn't feel as complete (also, because me and Jocel have decided to have those same elements of: type, type style, size etc.) that if I was to change something it would mean that I also have to tell Jocel in order for her to change her designs in order for us to have cohesive layout that would represent the whole branding aesthetic of the publication issues. In addition, I also think that they compliment the publication nicely and communicates the concept very well as well as the practical elements such as the hierarchy of information by using different point sizes and styles in order to indicate to the readers and guide them through the publication.
Furthermore, throughout the whole process of creating the publication, I have constantly been communicating with Olivia, in order to gain feedback and opinions from her for how the publication should look and feel overall. In addition, to the meetings that we had as a group of 4, we've kept in touch through email and sent files through our shared Google Drive. I think through this constant communicate with her, I felt more confident in creating the publication as there's someone that would help me if I was stuck on something as well as confirm that I am doing an okay job so I could develop further. In addition, to this as well, collaborating with Jocel was also good because I had someone to talk to everyday so I had constant feedback form both sides which made everything so much easier. The only thing Olivia mentioned as feedback that she'd like to change was changing her name from Olivia to Livvy in the credits, which I immediately did, other than that she was really happy of how it turned out which I was really happy about as well, especially because I was worried if she didn't like how I edited her collages, however she thought it was really nice and put together well.
I am also aware that I didn't really explore on any binding method for the publication. This was because I already knew that i was going to use Saddle Stitch as my binding method as it's the most time and cost efficient method of binding, especially for mass produced zines. It was also appropriate for the zine as it doesn't have that many pages and therefore could be stapled easily together. I thought that if I experimented with other binding methods it would be quite pointless and would just waste my time when I already knew what binding method to use that is not only cheap but also time and labour efficient too.
For additional content for the zine , we also though that it would be nice if there's additional content that readers can use and keep with them. We thought having a sticker and poster set would be nice as it's quite fun and fits with the zine publication theme as well. It can also be very engaging and is also another way of trying to get readers to anticipate for the new issue. For this publication I decided to take aspects of the collages that Olivia created and made them into stickers. I tried to pick aspects which fit with the theme of fantasy and mysterious as well to fit with the whole aesthetic of the publication. For the poster, I decided to use the double page spread that I put in the publication as it seemed to be the most impactful of the collage designs and looks and feels appropriate for the zine. In addition, it was also the page that both Jocel, Olivia and Nusheen really liked therefore I thought it would also be good for the readers to have as well.
Thoughts and Reflection:
Overall, I think that the publication is very well put together and is considered very well. I think that we were also successful at presenting the theme and concept that we wanted to portray for the Pisces character, as we didn't want it to look too obvious and basic, therefore we choose it's characteristic that would be interesting to use. I also think that everything has been considered very well design and practical wise which would help use in the future if we actually continue to make this into a monthly issue series. Furthermore, I also think that the collaboration aspect of the brief was also really good as we were able to communicate well together and bounced ideas together every time we had interim meetings as well as communicating through email and sharing a Drive. I also thought ti was a good decision for me and Jocel to work with two Illustrators or else it would've been to hard if we only collaborated with one as there's a lot of things to do - we didn't want to overwhelmed them with info therefore working both together and separately has helped us make quick progress with the publication issues.
All in all, I'm really happy with how the publication came out and I think that it communicates the theme well, as fits its target demographic through the niche content that will understand and engage with as well as relate. In addition, it's also a good way to ease them through the whole idea of zodiac signs as it involved minimal jargon which can be overwhelmed and confusing.
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