Our Design Process:
After picking the manifesto that we wanted to base our final project on, we dove straight into researching the document and the Riot Grrrl Movement. From there, we were able to get a good sense of what message we needed to get across and, after a discussion with the class, decided the best audience to hear that message was a specific group of fathers. This audience would take our message and feel motivated to enact change for their daughters. In our research, we found that during the Riot Grrrl Movement, zines were a common thing that the group would use to make their voices heard. We thought it was a perfect parallel that we again used a zine to communicate our message that tied in the Riot Grrrl Manifesto. Although we had minimal sketches to start formulating the format and content of our zine, the strongest ideas came fast and the format took shape. We explored various folding techniques alongside content design and landed on one that utilized multiple different surfaces of the paper in sections while also staying aware of how a person would open it at first interaction. After the folding format was decided and explored, Rhi took on doing the graphic elements as well as the manifesto side of the zine while I designed the layout and wrote all of the text. Alongside that, we created a color palette and chose the typefaces that would give our zine a grunge feeling while also staying true to what our audience of fathers would gravitate towards. For a more grunge feel that included textures, ‘X’s, and arrows, I experimented with rolling ink on paper that Rhi then took into photoshop. We used these elements throughout our piece. After our zine format and information was done, we got feedback on how to improve it through class critique, revised it and then fine tuned everything until it was a finalized zine. We then had it printed so that it was a physical working zine that people could flip through. As an 18x24 sized paper, opened fully, it works as not only a small zine but also as a poster that has two sides.
As a part of the final project, we also created a promotional piece that would act in tandem with our zine. Our idea for this part didn’t come until we were finished with the zine but after a discussion with Megan and the class, we decided an effective piece would be a collection of buttons. These would hypothetically be presented alongside the zine at the place of distribution. This part of the project went pretty fast for us compared to the zine. We chose to do three different button concepts with a handful for color variations. The buttons targeted both fathers and their daughters which was effective in tying back to the manifesto and the message of our zine. While we wanted to make physical buttons to be packaged alongside our physical zine, the school’s button maker wasn’t working properly and had limited supplies. However, we did create mockups of both the zine and buttons that could be presented together. Lastly, Rhi made a gif of the zine opening so that a viewer could still see how it would open even without having a physical copy in their hand.