Seeing Red Zine
Seeing Red is an experimental zine created as a first-term university graphic design project. I used the freedom of the brief which required us to produce 2 copies of a handmade zine for an audience of our choice, as an opportunity to try something new. Through the project, I explored the intersection of photography, print, lenticular printing, and illustration in publication design as well as graphic design.
The zine explores the colour red and the versatility of its meaning, illustrating how, in certain contexts, red could be perceived as the colour of humanity due to its association with extremes such as love and hate along with being the colour of blood. The zine aims to introduce this versatility to the reader and allow them to see red in a new interesting way. Seeing Red is aimed at those with an interest in colour meanings and philosophy.
32p, saddle-stitch bound, custom size W 13.1cm H18.8.
The dust jacket uses red acetate, the book cover uses G.F Smith Colourplan Bright Red and Mohawk Superfine papers for the inner pages. The lenticular print uses regular glossy photo paper with a 50 lpi lenticular sheet placed over it. The zine features articles and poems with relevance to the symbolism of red.
The project required a lot of testing and experimenting with paper types and printing methods, when a successful method was devised, I recorded it in my notebook to refer back to later. This project also required the use of cutting machines and various materials. I also had to think carefully about the gsm values of the paper I was using.
Pitch test sheets for lenticular printing.
Scans of some of the pages of my notebook for the project
In order to get the lenticular printing correct I had to use a pitch test, which is a rather technical way of calibrating the printer correctly so that the motion effect will work when the printed image is placed underneath the lenticular sheet. It was a lengthy process but very rewarding in the end.
With my background in animation, I wanted to explore how motion could be applied to print media. I accomplished this through lenticular printing methods that I did at home. I utilised a bitmap effect for the eye cover to give it a more analogue feel.
For the book I sought the contributions of my classmates who were from diverse cultures, For example, red has a strong association in China symbolising various things such as luck and strength. I wanted to highlight other people's stories, so rather than me writing about the meaning myself I felt it was better to have someone from the culture explain it in their own words.
I wanted to keep a consistent but simple colour scheme so I opted for red, white and black.
The combination of hand-drawn illustration and photography presented with a halftone effect style served as a way to communicate the duality of the colour by the juxtaposition of the two styles. The heavy editing collage style of the photographs gives the work an abstract feel to correlate to the abstract nature of the colour. The animals in the illustrations serve as symbolic motifs to communicate the emotion or theme being spoken about on the page.
I also produced some posters as companion pieces to the book that I sold, I felt with the very textured and analogue look of the illustrations they would work well as posters.
The final result is a visually striking book that embodies the colour it talks about. Through this project, I was able to fully explore my skills and push myself into new territories in bookbinding and print media. Whilst zines are often commercial projects with this project I aimed to allow a space for me to explore and experiment. It was a fun and enriching experience that introduced me to many new skills, lessons and ways of working.