COP2: final publication

This is the final collection of images I chose to make my zine with. Asides from the title on the cover and artist names I changed my mind and changed the text to a font rather than lettering, really just because it was clearer to read. I think it still looks ok with this combination because it is simple.

The book itself was printed on to coloured paper in grayscale ink. As well as fitting the 'lo-fi' aesthetic I was going for, it also served practical reasons. Although this is really only a zine I've made as part of the submission to OUIL501 I wanted to treat it like it would be a zine that would be printed and handed out for free/ minimal price to people wanting to learn about art/ teach others about it. In fact, I do plan on printing more for myself to use in that way.

The washes of ink were planned for the cover and inside end pages but not so much for the illustrated pages. I found when putting it together that many of the illustrations didn't fit to the A5 portrait format so well and had too much space around them, which could have been avoided with planning but I think I managed to balance it out a bit with the extra washes. I worry it may look too distracting though, or maybe worse in this context, pretentious and off putting!

Following feedback in peer reviews from people who had seen the images pretty much completed but not in the context of the printed book I hope it has retained the humour and clearness that they had commented on. I added some more contextual text to the end of the zine, and I'm glad I did because once put together I don't really feel that the images said enough by themselves. The character had his own little narrative throughout the book and whilst I'm not fond of having to back up visual ideas with explanatory text it just makes it more accessible I think, which was the point of the zine.

 I also made a belly band with further text, which was less about the content of the book but explanatory of the context of what I want it to live in- to be shared and encourage.

I kept the sticker visually simple and tried to make it funny too. I didn't want them to be a massive focus, more of a thing to crack a small smile at the end.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the zine, visually and content wise. However I have doubts about how much the message I wanted to make gets across, and wonder if something with a little heavier text wise could still be un-intimidating but also thought provoking.