Mellvetica

There’s really something magical about posters.

In a way, posters remind me of poetry in motion. A way to connect through Word, through image, through placement and and intent! I love posters and I love their applications in the world. From movies to advertisements to events and everything in between, if I could simply illustrate posters for the rest of my life I probably would.

So imagine my excitement when the next assignment was poster creation!

After writing my brief for the assignment, I knew that I would be taking my initial inspiration from illustrative posters. Despite my end result taking different turns, this is where my heart lies in all of the best ways. Finding how to harmoniously merge idea with illustration with format. It’s wild! Here are some of my favourites and where I took most of my inspiration from for form, colour and content.

Visual conception can be a difficult thing to tackle. I find that there are always ideas that could work better, or ideas that you want to use that just might not fit the right mood, or it may be directed at the wrong audience. Knowing who you’re creating for and why is always the first hurdle of creating a poster or really any design. There is nuance behind every decision. In this instance, my audiences were prospective students of Medicine Hat College and the citizens and communities living in and around Medicine Hat that may be ignorant towards the plight of the art communities living and thriving in their spaces. For both of these posters, context was one of the most important indicators of mood and relevance. A simple word change, or the addition or taking away of something as benign as the wires on a keyboard really changed a lot about what was being said. Are you plugged in? Are you present? Are you detached, or are you simply ahead of the times, actively accessing new technology as an artist and designer, no longer tethered to the synchronicity of daily practice–?

There were so many questions to answer and so many visual elements to tackle. None was more important or meaningful as the last, as all marks made had a purpose at one point in time, though the meaning would be different to each person, with each interpretation holding its own weight and value.

I truly love the consumption of art, and we could talk about the effects all day long, but we’ll leave that for a different time. Instead let’s focus on how I tackled these problems myself with my process.

Getting started wasn’t too difficult this time around. I had a lot of ideas for the first poster designated for Medicine Hat College and the Arts&Design program. There were ideas that I liked more, ideas that I liked less and of course things that I would love to pursue in the future. My initial idea was to go with the first one pictured. However, this was something that I knew I would want to take my time illustrating.

My next favourite was the Model Citizen which was definitely where my hands went. There’s always something so magical about a good pun, and one that really makes you think. I liked that it was an idea that I could push with colour and line and just be kind of uncomfortable about it all with.

Oh! And, just for fun, here is a 60 second speed paint of me creating the illustrations for this piece! I hope you enjoy it.

The next poster was a little more difficult for me. I didn’t have as many ideas, and more over, it felt nearly impossible to understand, or grasp my head around the concept. Tackling the problem of a withering community, a lack or care for the arts, a desperate attempt to engage in people with what they would do in a world without art-?

All of that was a lot.

It felt a lot more personal to me. There was a simple notion behind it, but at first, my mind actively pushed against that notion. Death of Art in Medicine Hat. I tried to take a positive spin on it, and while I liked that spin, I knew in my heart that it was not the right path to take for such a hard and grim situation. There was a more powerful means with which to tackle this ever-present problem.

I began to think about what I would be without art. I thought about how others may not understand just what art is–what it touches and how it feels and the impact that it makes on their lives every single day.

How empty that would feel.

How we would have nothing at all.

To hold, to create, to feel and really truly engage with ourselves.

In order to connect this idea with Medicine Hat specifically, I used the Garamond typeface. Garamond is the typeface that is officially used by Medicine Hat in the town logo and general design applications in formal usage. It’s a beautiful typeface with an elegant serif. I am particularly fond of how the lowercase r seems to flick outwards. The outlined text indicates a lack of something. A missing piece. It rests in a stark contrast with the vast emptiness of the page surrounding it, anchored only by the logo and iconography at the bottom of the poster.

There were other renditions of this poster, of course. However, this one felt the most real to me. The most meaningful.

Here are a few others though, to cap this documentation off.

When I started this project, initially I wanted to do so many things. There was an incredible surge of ideas, but nothing that felt real or tangible. I can actively say that this was, without a doubt, the second time I have come across an assignment in the past three years that completely stopped me in a way that made it hard to get over the first hurdle. The first was my final project for Design History, wherein I had to make a timeline for the periods we had covered in Design History. Much like this assignment, it was not the idea that I had, or the process I was testing or the theme of the work, but the starting process that was incredibly hard on me. 

Living with disabilities like ocpd and autism can cause stress on the mind and even the soul during the process of creation. If I cannot overcome one hurdle, it can be near impossible for me to move on from that point. It’s a simple measure of “oh just move on to something else and come back.” However, in my mind, this is so so difficult. For this particular project, the hurdle that stopped me was a combination of overthinking and underthinking. I know, right? How does that work? 

I thought big, but as I was thinking big, I kept stopping myself by thinking; “but it feels like its too much. I can make it simple and effective and that should be the mark of majesty here.” 

Work it down. Dust it off. Think again. Stop thinking. It was touch and go! Constantly starting over without actually doing any work at all. All I wanted to accomplish by the end was a tactile experience that a wide variety of people could enjoy. It was about broadening your skills, accepting yourself, and opening your soul to the process of making! I carefully considered what it was that helped me growing up, and I kept coming back to art. Drawing and painting was my only connection to the world when I had no other way to speak and convey my thoughts and emotions. I wanted that for others as well. 

There came a point where I had to boil it all down to a space where I was comfortable starting. I had narrowed it down to two ideas; A book that came with the necessary equipment to learn to bind on your own. No needles, no glue, no big scary contraptions that would make it harder to even start sketching. Just a simple method to help the user become more connected to their work before they could even start.

Or

A little box that could become a bag that would allow you to actively move around with your sketches, something that would cater more to a plein air painter. This idea was great, and I liked the concept of simply closing a lid and going, but what stopped me from pursuing this further was drying time and placement of the art tools that could impede the actual drawing process itself.

Binding. 

Bookbinding is an experience that I have learned to thoroughly enjoy over the past few years. I’ve only done it a handful of times, but it’s a process that I’ve connected with in ways that I truly did not expect to love as whole heartedly as I did. The concept was then to make a physical connection to the process of making. Binding your own sketchbook, and allowing room for the addition of more pages as you grow. 

During the early prototyping sessions for this project, I was testing using bare cardstock both a shell for the book, and as a bit of a palette as well. I came up with this idea first because I had some older prints that I had used during my process in serigraphy. I would print on cardstock and use the image as a stencil. Because the paper was so thick, it made cutting into the pieces over and over again easy and kept everything sturdy and in one piece. This was something that I showed during critique during class, however, because I was actively using this piece as a palette at the same time, I actually ripped it before I was able to take a picture. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time and realized almost immediately after that this was a really rough mistake. Because I don’t have any of my original prototypes photographed, I’ve made up for it as much as I can by documenting everything else to the extent of my abilities. 

When it comes to these projects, taking photos is always the part I struggle with the most. For my process, I like to get lost in my work, so to actively stop that process and start documentation is very difficult. Looking back, the piece of work I have documented the best was my last assignment for Applied 1, “Untitled.” There was a process that I had developed at the time where documentation was a key part of exploring the brand. For something like this, I worked very on the fly, accepting and anticipating everything as it came. 

So, how did I really start after I go over the hump of thinking too much and working too little? 

My initial steps were to create a die-cut, taking the measurements that I thought would work the best. I took an in-depth look at the readings and really considered what making a proper template was like. My initial interaction with print production was not a pleasant one and I was unable to take away from the class the proper knowledge that I would have liked to, so these readings were a great refresher for how to make and format something like a die-cut/template. 

Starting with an 11×17 document, I knew that the watercolour paper I had available was 9×12. This made it easy to figure out that the book should be 9 inches high and 6 inches wide, as when cut or folded in half, the paper would fit perfectly inside this little cranny. 

Next, I would give room for the spine, and the fold-over portion of the design at half an inch, and the flap that sits on top at roughly 2.7 inches. The hole spots are 1.5 inches in, but the end product has the holes placed an inch in, as the hole punch I own was a little bit too short to make it the whole way in. 

Creating this diecut made it easier to design the spaces that needed to be designed. I took a minimalistic and simple approach to the design and the structure, leaving an open top and bottom to showcase the insides in an organic way. 

After getting my prints ready, I was able to start assembling the pieces. 

When it came to testing the paper I had a couple of issues. At first, because I don’t always jive with numbers, I was under the impression that I would have to trim the paper to fit it in. Additionally, I was unsure if it would be better to do single page binding, which is the method I am most used to, or a double hole, single stitch style of binding. In the end, I decided on the latter. This decision was made in order to make it easier and quicker for people to bind, as well as stronger in the long run because of the hole punch options.

For the testing phases, I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour pans. These pans come in loose, full pan form and are easy to rearrange, allowing for placement options with the primary colours.

With everything tested in a way that I was happy with, I began binding and packaging the book in order to showcase what it could look like finished up.

Overall, I was really happy with the outcome. If I were to do this differently, I would have added in the one thing that I really truly forgot. Instruction. For all my talk of wanting to make it accessible and easy to parse, I had completely forgotten to add in some kind of instruction materials! If this is something I pursue in the future, that would be my first step in perfecting the product. Making some cute illustrations and thorough instructions.

Material considerations. 

When it came to choosing and showcasing the materials, my initial concept was to use paper chord so that 90% of the materials were paper of some description. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any paper chord, and the set that I had mysteriously went missing at the absolute best time! I believe this was a blessing in disguise however because I did have bamboo chord! 

Bamboo is a great alternative to paper products, producing less overall waste, easy to grow, and a lot sturdier than most materials out there, it was a perfect way bind the book, as this material was stronger than the paper chord could ever hope to be, as well as softer, allowing for less opportunity for tearing. 

A mylar sheet was used as the base for the palette section. While I found out that it is not necessarily ideal for acrylic type paints when it came to clean up, sticking to the surface to the point that even peeling it was not really an option, it was perfect for something like watercolour. The surface is easy to wipe with water, and won’t wear down even after doing so, making it a much better surface than the paper for mixing colour. 

Speaking of mixing colour!

The considerations for the palette used were thought out thoroughly. Colour is important, and it’s something that can really connect a product to those who might want to purchase it. With this product, I considered offering a range of colours, but I stuck with a soft pink, white, and brown colour scheme as for me, it simply is a marriage that is not considered often enough! I adore the warmth that something like this exudes. For me this is a successful palette choice, and one that can resonate with a wide variety of people.

I really enjoyed this process, and while I’m disappointed with how I executed my planning and processing phases, I believe that the outcome was one that I am very happy with. It is carefully considered, and leaves a lot of room for improvement and building in the future.

Total time spent: 30-40 hours, if you include the sheer amount of time spent just thinking about it.

There are a lot of super cool product and packaging designs that I’ve seen out there that have piqued my interest into the world of aesthetically pleasing packaging, as well as neat sustainable practices.

Let’s look at some of my favourites.

Makeup and cosmetics:

One of the brands that I’ve seen in stores that I’ve always loved to stop and look at, simply because of the packaging, is that of Benefit Cosmetics. While it’s not super sustainable, sure, there’s something really fun and interesting about the way that Benefit works to catch your eye in the middle of an isle that has hundreds of other cosmetics around it. Using the colourful and artistic quality of makeup to it’s advantage, Benefit always has something retro and illustrative to marvel at.

From the packaging the products come in, to the products themselves, I personally appreciate and love the style that Benefit has chose to go with.

So how about some sour packaging?

There is definitely without a doubt one particular kind of packaging that really grinds my gears. Now, there is a reason for this in some cases, depending on the style and where you are. For example, if these are being used for sterile means, or in a professional setting, totally makes sense. But otherwise? Why. Just, why?

Individually wrapped cotton buds.

Again, there are most definitely situations where this is important! Medical professionals use individually wrapped cotton swabs for a reason. But these? These are standard cotton buds. For what purpose does this exist?

Typically, these are used for makeup removal and sculpting. Even in this context, this doesn’t make sense. Time wise, if your eyeliner is drying, you’re not going to want to stop and tediously remove a bud, you want something right there so you can erase it fresh.

The brief;

Create a personal brand identity that can be applied to portfolio, your future business, or potentially both!

The hope;

To create a brand that I could identify with on a personal level, as well as one that lined up with something I would want in the future. Fun, a little bit chaotic, and full of hope.

The outcome;

For me? A success. I am happy with how this assignment turned out, overall. I do believe there are areas that I could improve on, and like Ian says, there is always room for improvement. If I put something out there that I am 100% happy with, I feel like that is the day that I may actually lose my drive and spark. There is always a way to create, recreate, and visualize. Every time I do something, the output could be, and should be, entirely something new and fun! With that being said, this iteration of the brand untitled is fun, enticing, and most importantly, feels right for the me that is here today.

So, let’s go through the process, shall we?

Phase 1 – The Briefening

From the very first day, I had an inkling of what I wanted to work on. Overall, in Design II last year, I was introduced to the idea of creating illustrations and designs for clothing/apparel and merchandise. I kind of loved the idea and it’s something that clicked with me. During that time, I had created a sweater design that I adored, and it was that sweater design that ultimately pushed me in the direction that I chose to go in.

(Picture of that sweater design here)

After that, it was time to create my initial brief and idea centred around pushing that idea forward.

Phase 2 – The Great Logo Smackdown of 2020 | Nov 1st – The Very End

During this process I found that logo design was one of those things that I had always understood was a difficult process. Sometimes it just rally clicks with you, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s something that the client clicks with, but you think is just the absolute worst iteration of what you had shown them. Other times, you might just scream internally for a few days until something comes to you and it’s better than nothing, so you accept your fate and move on to try again another day.

I think the last one is how this went for me. Most of the time I had spent that was delegated to the creation of this brand identity was spent trying to awkwardly yet excitedly navigate my way through figuring out the logo.

Above are some examples of the earlier forms that my identity took. I have always been facinated with stars, astronomy, and the connotative meanings given to stars. The relationship that stars share with personal journey, travel and growth felt so nice to me, in a way that I felt I may be able to represent. And I could! None of these options were bad options, but they weren’t necessarily the best for a logo design.

Trial and error, trial and error. The cycle started to make the logo feel redundant, where I couldn’t tell if I was doing enough, or too much. Where the shapes actually conveying anything, or where they just shapes for the sake of being ‘graphic’? It took some time. Speaking of trial and error;

Originally, I wanted to silkscreen the logo. I loved how the outcome was! However again, this logo felt like it wasn’t conveying the right message. I was sliding away from origami and towards awkward shooting stars.

Phase 3; Taking a break | Nov 10th (ish)

It was around this week that I needed to take a brain break. Working on one thing repeatedly was getting me nowhere but going in circles. Sometimes, it is the best step to remove yourself from what you are working on in a way that still relates, but can be valuable towards the end goal. This break led me in a direction that I think was incredibly beneficial to not only my mental health, but the successful last push that I needed to find the soul of the identity.

Business cards!

But how, pray tell, did you get to the business card part of the assignment without first completing the logo!!!? I hear us both cry. Let me answer.

The longer I thought about how I wanted to represent the brand, the more I thought about ways that I could give customers and clients something that they could hold on to. An interesting piece of ephemera that would hopefully incline them to learn something, or do something that went beyond simply wearing a shirt or a hat. I admit I wasn’t sure how to go about this, and I don’t think I necessarily met that criteria with what I came up with, but I do know that it was thinking about this action that spurred on the revelation that I had. Something tangible. Something hand made. Something interesting and colourful that was tactile and interactive yet fit with the overall image of — Origami!!

Now, this idea wasn’t bad, and the execution wasn’t bad, but what it was–was not what I was looking for. The form is too elongated, and was a lot larger than it should be. It gave the appearance of a folded sweater, which was cool, but it might not have been… enough.

Closer. This had more of a shirt or sweater feel to it. It felt a little bit more complete, but the overall shape was large and bulky. I wasn’t quite sold just yet, so, I tried to make another. And another–

Getting there, but the form was still too rectangular. On this one, I played with the idea of it folding open. Something that would follow me in to the next few phases.

After this, I wanted to see if I could get the same effect with a single sheet of origami paper cut in half. Perhaps it would be a little bit easier and–oh. No.. Not really. Same elongation, but I loved how the design played on the back and front of the shirt. It was nice, the way the branch folded up and extended to the yellow of the leaves. I quite liked that part of it.

This left me with one last attempt that I would stick to like a gentle glue.

Oh. That! That one is perfect! It could not be any more the perfect size and shape! I was enamoured. There was just one more touch to make. An elevated human touch of just handwriting everything on the inside of this little guy.

And it was with this that I was inspired by to complete my finalized logo. The cranes on this particular piece of design was enough to really get me going.

For my grid, I used a 1×1 method of mapping out what I wanted. Initially, the crane image was inspired by the cranes on the origami. Talk about eyeballing a design. It was from the height of the crane that I took the height of the letter. And when it came to the lettering, I was also heavily inspired by the practice of creating the origami shirt. I loved the process, and wanted to create something that I could use to reflect and substitute the way that paper looks when it is folded.

Phase 4 ; Get Griding! | Nov 30 – Dec 7

Phase 5; Nearing Completion.

Putting all of this together was a blast. During this class, I felt like I learned a lot about myself. I am a self driven learner, despite feeling like I learn the best in a classroom setting. I know that I thrive the best when I can have discussions with those around me about the work I can do, however if I must, I can work under my own influence. I learned that it is okay to pace yourself when given the chance, and that it is okay to prioritize certain things. I learned to be kind to myself. When designing, it is good to put a piece of yourself and your style into your work, but knowing when to let go is a key skill. I reaffirmed with this identity that I know who I am and what I stand for, and I know now that it is important to me to stand on my own two feet, but to take advice and love the advice and critiques that I am given, as they are outside perspectives that can give thoughtful, loving and intelligent, well thought out reasons for further exploration.

And I love that for myself, and for my peers. Thank you for everything.

Time spent | 5.5 weeks total.

Amount spent | $80

• Sweater
• Ink for printing
• Adobe subscription

Brand Analysis | UNIQLO

what

Typeface

• D-Din. Bold. Sans-serif.

Colours

• Red and white.

Logo

• Pictured above. There is a Japanese logo and an English logo.

Construction of advertisement

• Event like construction + web advertisement

WHY

Uniqlo has approached the construction of their logo in a way that I feel reflects the brands identity as both primarily a Japanese and secondarily an international brand. The name itself is derived from English words and translated into the Japanese phonetic alphabet Katakana. “Uniq(c)lo” = “Unique Clothing.” The general construction being in a square, for me, calls back to the sheets that we would use in class to learn to write in Hiragana / katakana. Additionally, the square format lends itself well to the shapes of the lettering. One touch that I enjoy is that the Japanese characters and English letters are both read in the same sequence. Typically in Japanese, one would read from right to left, however the placement of the letters here is left to right, the same way we would read in the latin alphabet.

The use of the D-Din typeface, in this context, promotes sturdiness and bold strokes. I find that in the English logo specifically, the placement of the Q speaks to a certain kinetic energy as well, as the tail dips below the baseline and engages the viewer, prompting movement of the eye. The Japanese has the same affect of leading the eye by heavily italicizing the character ‘ku.’ (ク) [Phonetically taking the same place as ‘q’.]

Aside from these visuals, the colours used; red and white, are deeply connected to the identity of Japan. White and red being the colours that are used on the flag. These colours are symbolically connected also to purity and power.

Majorly, the difference between the colours of Uniqlo and the colours on the flag are a deeper red closer to crimson. The choice to go for a vibrant red in the logo is a great choice! This is eye catching and leads the eye right to the lettering and whatever surface it is pasted onto. Speaking of ‘whatever surface (a logo) it is pasted onto,’ you can’t have a brand that identifies as unique without actually being unique, so what makes this stand out?

In their marketing endeavours, Uniqlo has opted to push the envelope in some really fun and exciting ways. Their advertising and branding is very forward, in both the fashion sense and the ‘look at me’ sense, but in a way it is also practical, despite occasionally being a slight bit gimmicky. Let’s look at two of my personal favourites.

Have you ever been stuck in an airport late at night? The stores have already long since closed, and you’re catching the red eye flight out of Tokyo, but it’s the middle of winter and you left your jacket on the last flight by accident, unable to return to your plane and retrieve your lost items. But hark! What lies beyond the horizon!?

That’s right. One of Uniqlo’s campaigns allowed them to install clothing vending machines inside of different airports.

Another successful campaign for Uniqlo in the USA had Uniqlo bring their clothing to the public by throwing a “block-party.” In the streets at a close proximity to the store, Uniqlo employees set up blocks where they hung clothing items on clothes lines, and invited people to come and check them out. Games, artist portraits and photo ops were also available, and the mini party would draw customers into the local shop to purchase some of their own Uniqlo clothing.

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12 h | 0$

Phase 1 | Briefing | week 1

After meeting with the client and getting our assigned groups, a group was created on instagram for us to be able to directly chat and discuss ideas. From Friday to Sunday I took it upon myself to write up the brief that we would be sending to the client and starting our discussion with. I’ve written a brief before, but I felt the parameters of this were a little narrow, since our group got a little bit stuck on gender neutrality and how we wanted to progress forward with the ideas that we had been able to generate in that amount of time. I added a few design elements that were subtle but that I hoped would at the minimum, generate a conversational flow. Namely, having the red period and dividers in place between text.

Phase 2 | Discussion | week 1

During the discussion phase, I was bogged with very few ideas, so I, personally, worked on helping flesh out the ideas that others put forward as well as prompted some discussion. My role became focused on leading discussion and input! It was a fun experience that reminded me quite of bit of coordinating the design gallery for second years.

During this phase, I also suggested we work with illustration because it was my primary strong suite and I knew that I could help a lot more with something like drawing as opposed to photography.

Phase 3 | Illustration and ideation | week 2

My final job was to work on one of the illustrations posed by Kade in regards to placing these menstruation products into places where they “didn’t belong”, so to speak. Adjacent to the urinals in a public mens washroom. On the side, I did do some abstracted work for fun that I had intended to pitch, however it never got used!

Phase 4 | Finished product

At this point, the discussion led to layout, which was left to Kira and Lauren. Kira took my illustration, and the phrase that I had chosen “Period’s are not a ‘girl problem’. Help prevent the spill.” was used in the creation of the finished product.

If I could add more to it, I would add another tampon, and an open pad to really drive home what these products are. Other than exposure and publicity, my personal driving point behind my illustration was to promote discussion around the discomfort of periods and what women live through every month. Many times I have sat on the receiving end of being told that what my body does naturally is disgusting. It makes cis men uncomfortable, and it’s something that the tend to not want to talk about. Hush hush. I wanted to confront men by bringing this to a space that is inherently theirs and push the envelope just enough to make them see.

Total cost | 10$ (ish) | Printing. Tea. Paper.

Time spent | 36 hours

10/5 | 30h

It’s not uncommon for me to start a project thinking that I know what I want to do, and drastically change my mind half way through a project. Normally this is something that I tend to have a lot of fun with. I let my creative process take me wherever it wants to take me at whatever time it decides is the best time to switch gears. In this case, it wasn’t so much a change of direction but a change of pace. I decided that with the amount of pages I had allotted to the zine, as well as my own knowledge on the subject of Dungeons&Dragons not being as in depth as it would like to be, that I would focus on the one part of the process that I actually knew very very well.

Character creation.

This decision still falls within the spectrum of what I had originally been wanting to do. My goal was still to teach the basics and rules of something related to D&D, I had just slowed the pace down to the very beginning of the D&D process.

One thing that I did to spruce up the zine was create little illustrations.

Initially, I had wanted to print these pages on the tea stained paper that I had made. However, running it through my printer a second time caused a very casual meltdown of my printer that refused to print for a solid two days until I took the thing apart. Additionally, the pages I wanted to print on were a little too large for her to handle, so I resorted to printing in town after scanning the stained paper in.

Sending it off to printing seemed to be an ordeal, however, as for some reason my files were shifted in the process of preparing to ship. I still have no idea how this happened, considering I took extra care in making sure there were no hyphens or widows in my working file.

Let’s take a look at some of my pages and find some of the mistakes that were made during the printing process.

Let’s look at two pages side by side in my working file versus the pdf that was sent back.

It is entirely possible that I sent the wrong file off to the printer and didn’t find out until it was too late. Understandable. Could definitely be my fault. But that doesn’t make me less disappointed in the outcome. By the end of the year I would like to have the zine re-printed, and make sure that it is in perfect condition. Printed on that cool tea stained paper I wanted to work with in the first place.

My follow up post will be images of the finished, printed zine. Hopefully in the near future, there will be images of an updated version!

9/25 | 10 h

For the pages of the book, I want to give them the feeling and texture of an old map. Doing this requires me to learn how to stain paper! I’m not sure if I should stain after or before printing, but I’ve decided to attempt the staining process first to see if it’s something I can even accomplish easily.

I’ve never stained paper before, so I looked up a simple wikihow article on how the process. It didn’t seem too difficult at first, but I find that the process I took make the paper a little bit lighter than I would have liked it to be.

https://www.wikihow.com/Age-Paper-Using-Tea

09/16 | 6h

Determining the layout is always part of the project that I tend to have a lot of fun with. In this case, when coming up with the shape and size of my zine, I wanted to pay careful attention to how I could draw relation to the dice box that I shared in my first post. The intent here is to play on the square form of the initial shape, but when it is open, it turns into an elongated rectangle. The dimensions of the zine are 8 x 9 inches when closed, and 8 x 18 when open.

The extra inch here will be used for binding, though I am also playing with the idea of making the zine 8 x 10, just for extra emphasis on the length.

The content is, as always, subject to change! But so far, this is the basic order of what I would like the zine to cover.

• What is Critical Role Productions.
• What is the purpose / direction of this zine.
• What is D&D.
• The roles of the players and the roles of the dungeon master.
• The rolls of the dice. What does each dice mean? Why is it used?
• The rules of the game.
• Game and player etiquette!
• Creating your character and how to set up the sheets.
• Not pictured; resources for learning.