[CLICK HERE TO ACCESS ZINE PDF FILE]
For the two week graphic design workshop, we were asked to make a Zine based of a theme of out choice. I chose to work with the theme Cyberpunk/Dystopian Cyberpunk, since I feel that the most common theme in Cyberpunk/Dystopian Cyberpunk pop culture is very close to what we have today. It is also a very dear theme for me since I’ve always been fascinated by technology and how it would help build the future.
My first ideas for the Zine was to do it with heavy graphic design element. I didn’t want it to be realistic and went for an “image trace” look from illustrator. Using the image trace tool does not take a lot of time, and it give quite a nice stylized look to it. But I quickly realized this is not what I had in mind and scrapped it. I was also thinking about making a city in Illustrator, I began working on a city illustration, and after 5 crashed within 2 hours I gave up and decided to Photoshop instead.
The sketches of the said Illustration ideas. The city landscape got lost since I deleted the filed out of rage.
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I decided to play around with the idea of photo manipulating in Photoshop with the theme I chose. I found several images on google and put them together with editing to get a finalized product I’m happy with.
I wasn’t too sure what to do with this image when I was done, I had a concept but how would I present it? I came up with the idea of using my Zine to tell a story with ads and edited images, like a magazine.
I came up with a logo and made it in Illustrator.
With a logo I could now build an identity to my Zine, like a short story.
The idea I had for this “company” is a super power, of a company. They would have monopoly over most things and lie to the consumers and trick them into thinking they’re doing right for the people and the environment. But in reality it is to make powerful people more powerful and less fortunate people, less fortunate.
To write the text I went onto big corporations websites and went onto the “about us” reading part, and just copied it. I got the idea when I made the company that I wanted it to be as much capitalism as possible, so I used Amazon and Coca Colas website for it. Since they’re known to kill small businesses.
Here is the finished product, with the logo and the commercial added to it. I had a lot of fun with this idea and started playing with it a lot. I looked around the web to find more inspiration to a dystopian futuristic ad. I managed to get a few ideas out before it went blank. But I’m more than happy with what I came up with.
There are some design elements in a few pictures that I like more than the others. With this ad I wanted to use the whole “sex sells” but with a male for a change. I spent hours looking up images of men failing to drink water without making a mess til I found the perfect one in the correct resolution. From there I started editing in Photoshop to change the colour of the fluid etc. The outcome was amazing, and I was really happy with it. There are actual words in the description at the bottom. Loads of dangerous chemicals for humans.
The sketches from the two previous images.
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The other ad ideas and non ads I had, sadly have no sketches because I made them experimenting in Photoshop.
After making the two first ads I wanted to expand the dystopian idea. Since our nature is a risk and humans being as non sustainable as possible, I came up with ads relating to nature and wealth. I love alternative fashion and if I didn’t love graphic design as much as I do, I wouldn’t hesitate to study fashion and make a collection using latex, being a bio material made from trees. I played with the idea and came up with several ideas to mock several current issues. Like privileged people in this scenario is allowed to breathe fresh air, is a reflection of privileged people being able to drink clean water from the tap. Etc.
For this latex ad I wanted a fashion magazine feeling to it, I used very minimalist elements with very dull colours to make the imagery pop out. I wanted it to say clean, modern, elegant etc. I feel like I really managed to capture it using several different techniques in Photoshop to get the desired outcome. My favourite piece of this image is when the words sustainable and environmental merges with the E in sustainable. As well as the text curving around the models hand and skirt.
Here is another ad, but I won’t explain it, since I want people to understand that the majority of images in this Zine, being an AD, is a mockery of some sort, or that it’s supposed to reflect current issues.
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Here are some of the images I had saved that I manipulated, I did the mistake not saving all the images before I modified them. Like background and the original pictures etc.
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I made three images from running dry on ideas what would be a good ad, but I realized that it would be a little bit too much with just ads, and decided to made images, to capture the theme, feelings and colours. Three images I’m very happy with.
The image of a model standing with a car is probably my masterpiece and the best edit I’ve ever made in Photoshop as of today. I wanted to make a neon picture with the said picture of the model and found the perfect image for the background. It took me about 2 hours to make it but it was all worth in the end.
After looking up inspiration for my theme I saw a lot of portrait images on Pinterest and wanted to make my own in my chosen theme. I used two different images and merged them together, to later on adding the phrase “I don’t understand” in Japanese, repeating, with a neon glow fitting the colour scheme of the images I merged.
The last image was an idea I wanted to play with from the very start. I found this image of a young woman wearing a vr headset sitting on a sofa in blacklight. I decided to make a grid out of the main elements of the original image and then remove it it mimic the cyberspace and her being there. I also added a screen so it looks like she’s watching or playing a video game.
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Front and back cover
It’s very simple and minimalist, I didn’t want anything special for such a plain and boring company. just easy, clean, cheap so they can save money.
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In conclusion, this was an amazing project and it made me find myself again when it comes to photo editing. To give us free hands to do what we wanted was an amazing experience since everything was unique to each person. The feedback that was given was perfect and it helped us to grow as artists and designers.
I mainly used Photoshop in this project for the images, I used illustrator now and then but did finalize the pdf and the pages in inDesign. I didn’t write a description for every image since some does have a meaning and some does not. I feel like it will kill the purpose and irony behind the images if I have to explain them.