Kristian's Kraving's

The Design Injection: Zine Progress..

Been in working on the collaborative carnival zine again today. Its coming together, but I’ve got to say i’m having a much different experience working with other designers compared to on my own. I think its cool that each page will look different, but organisation is pretty difficult in such a…

Got it in one Graham! A definite harsh reality of how industry works. Hopefully It should benefit the Zine and refine the concept but effectively the concept should have been defined originally e.g. having a clear connection to carnival and incorporating lateral aspects to connect to Salford Uni and ourselves as designers.

Definitely more input ultimately makes a better solid piece of work but should be involved from the start. I would never agree with people having to share DPS just because of print costs. If its a collaborative zine everyone should have the same equal platform to work from whether that be stock to print on, size i.e. DPS and therefore everyone has an equal opportunity to shine in there design and the techniques they use.

And I reckon your DPS was awesome anyway Graham

Alternate feathering edge. I think this is definitely an improvement on the previous designs as the text is not necessarily hidden but blends into the design better. Accentuating the layered aspect of the design.

just trying the development process of the design. Somehow it still doesn’t sit or fit right so definitely need to develop the composition further.

Carnival Zine and meeting the Cannonator..

Becoming more immersed in the carnival event and the proceedings I stumbled my way into the zine group and have found it a definite eye opener in terms of real world application for industry.

Art directed by Brian Cannon, hence forth the Cannonator and Robert Potts its definitely taken shape at a fast pace and needs to continue as such. Another session this Tuesday should see a final zine completed and ready to blag the printers with.

Worked with Robert on the last project for the Roses brief and he definitely has a sense of direction and knows what he’s talking about and as much can be said for the Cannonator. Coming for a predigious background of designing some of the most iconic CD covers its been a real experience to meet him, especially considering he’s from Wigan (or at least I think he is) and his application of work has a similar sense in how I work.

I’d definitely consider myself to be quite practical and develop graphical outcomes in conjunction with photography and physical forms compared to photoshop. A trait the cannonator explained himself when showing one of his covers which included a real neon sign.

So going back to the sessions I’ll break it down,

Session 1- bit apprehensive and was obvious everyone was in abit of a stand off, allowing a few of the group to do the talking. Essentially we finished with a good basis to work with and total control of our own design with any creative freedom we had and could use. Good Times. However the only downside I didnt have a clue what to use or design.

Session 2- a few days of deliberating and I thought if I was going to communicate how I work in graphic design my Carnival typeface encapsulated most of this quite elegantly and in a gritty, grunge manor that I consistently use. Making definite headway on the zine though with a full mock up of everyone’s initial designs developing and a full basis to refine from which will lead onto session 3 this Tuesday.

I’m expecting to have some small refinements for the pieces but overall we should have a fully made and designed zine ready to print with only deliberation about materials and paper types to take into account.

Decisions, decisions??

So from all the designs which one/s are people liking so far and how would you say it could be improved?