In my first year of A-Level Graphic Design, we were asked to create a zine in a topic of our choosing. My choice was the famous story of Alice in Wonderland, as I have a great love for this tale and felt the unique topsy-turvy nature would work well. I wanted my zine to feel like an information brochure, explaining the different characters and how they affected the plot of the story.
I started by creating a mind map. I noted down some of the characters I wanted to include and some of the overarching themes, like the theme of card suits. Then, I thought about what each page should look like and decided an accordion style would work best as each side would hold a different style of character - one side holding the good characters and the other the evil. This was mapped in two different ways - by writing down what each page would hold, and then creating a second version where I could draw what the design of the page would look like.
Sketches of the front page and what the inside would look like gave me more of an idea of what the final result would be. I was keen to use a belly band for the front page, with the title of the zine on. Each page inside was to include three sections of text - one on who the character is, another on what they represent, and the final paragraph on how they affect other characters. A photo of the character would be placed in the white space I had left. I also created a lino print to use in the darker area of the pages, with a continuing pattern of card suits. I printed two different versions of this - one being black and the other red to further match the theme.
I created my own font for this project, using a website called Calligraphr. I used this for all text in the zine, and think it turned out pretty well. The next stage was to design the front cover and the halfway point for the zine. The picture of the gate to the Queen of Hearts Palace is something I drew by hand to represent the transition from the good side of the zine to the evil side. Alcohol markers were used to colour it in. Photoshop and Illustrator were used on the front cover design to edit photos and piece them together to create a full collage of the different characters in their different representations. Finally I put the whole thing together, and added all the text and writing to the pages. Once printed and folded, it created the final piece, pictured below.
