Project: Library

This was quite a quick turnover project so I feel like I'm somewhat lacking in sketchbook stuff for this. I had a run of 6 events in November '16 and was just really tired, and the sessions for this ran on Fridays, when I was at work.

The brief was to create either a record of or an entry for a library, or do our own collection. We were supposed to pick a library but I set my heart on Salford Zine Library. I've always loved zines, there's soemthing very intimate about them and I own quite a lot.

The library houses thousands of zines but I was particularly interested in one of their most dedicated ziners, Emma Falconer, whose perzine series "Fanzine Ynfytyn" is really interesting: off the wall in design and yet so personal. The things she writes about and collects clippings from remind me of conversations I used to have with my mum: I read a lot about random stuff and love dumb facts but the only person who would listen to them was my mum. It takes some kind of courage to think they're worth collecting into a series of zines.

I decided I wanted to do a perzine of my own- I tend to do zines aimed at an audience of sorts, instead of just about my own thoughts- and thought a collage-style zine about my favorite books (a library in itself) that I could sent to Salford Zine Library to become part of the collection really completed the cycle.

The front is a self-portrait, the whole think is digitally collaged with either photos or my own illustrations and some personal reflections. I also designed a number of patterns for use as backgrounds, such as the books and the mushrooms.

This is a lot easier to read if you download the PDF from my Gumroad.

Overall this was a relatively successful project. It makes for a pretty cool zine and it one of the more effective uses of my own art style this year. Some pages have soe dead space and I made a few mistakes, particularly with scanning images from hardback books, plus I feel some of it is too neat or lacks the edge Falconer's zines do.