Chloe Wang

This is my final zine!

ASK ME ANYTHING REFLECTION & FINALE

I HAVE STRUGGLED….like really struggled with this task. Working with an aesthetic so unfamiliar to me was something that I didn’t really put into consideration when choosing the infamous Comic Sans as my subject for this assessment. I have no doubt that everyone has been in some sort of design rut trying to replicate their subject’s aesthetic in their zine, but if only I could call Vincent Connare and Comic Sans and ask what do I make my zine look like?

What I’ve learnt throughout this iteration process is that there really is no exact formula and impression. Like beauty, the aesthetic is in the eye in the beholder and this is the way I chose to interpret my subject.

Working right to the crunch time, a few days out from submission has enabled me to make critical design decisions and work to a strict timeline, instead of fiddling around and trying new things.

I wouldn’t look at my zine and say WOW that is really nice, but I think that’s the point. It’s not supposed to be pretty or elegant, but I hope you can see and appreciate the design thinking applied in my iterations.

I have explored with vibrant colours, allocating a certain hue to each of my five questions and paired these with collage knick knacks and scrapbook features to enhance my ugly-childish aesthetic.  

I also adopted a sarcastic and witty tone in my Comic Sans responses, in the hope of emphasising the subject as an actual person rather than just a typeface.

Despite the challenges I’ve faced with this assessment, I truly believe that I have grown as a designer and learnt to step out of my comfort zone. Not every client is going to want you to create something that matches your own style and aesthetic, so it’s important to adopt other styles in order to learn and be versatile in the industry!  

Here are design concepts I did in Illustrator. This one here I thought I could include on my pages, but looking back it did not fit with the zine at all. The colour pink is too bright, and I wanted to old-fashion aesthetic. 

I used these two images here for my front and back cover as I wanted to incorporate the yarn ball but also show that contrast. Front cover would have young Anni Albers and the back would have the much older Anni. 

Here I was experimenting with what font I would use for the front cover. Looking back, I am glad I did this, but what I should have done first before experimenting with the font is an experiment with the colours of the front cover.  I thought purple, blue and red were pleasant colours for the front cover. You will see later how the front cover completely changed.

As we have been slowly going through the history of design week by week, I thought it was particularly relevant to my grandpa’s old stamp collection that he gave me and I have been continuing for him. This little book has stamps from all over the world from about 1890-2000, and it is really interesting to look at what design motifs and styles went in and out of fashion over the years. 

1.       So, being that your name is the water dress, it would be logical to assume that you’ve been inspired by the water but, I want to know are there any other elements around water that have inspired your creation?

Yeah. Iris grew up next to the water and has always been fascinated by how just being there was so liberating for her. Nature has always been a big influence in Iris’s work and there are unfathomably many things to explore around it. For instance, the properties that identify with water in its different states, its calming and unbounded nature when in fluid-structure, the color, texture, movement, energy, even to the way light refracts on water. She wanted to create all these elements to form a tangible collection, it challenges her to create something as uncontrollable as water to control her design process.

I was created during a collaboration between Iris and Benthem Crouwel Architects. His design for a new extension to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum earned its nickname, “bathtub”. To live up to the name, and to represent the museum, Iris created me to mimic a splash of water, like when someone is doused in water. I symbolize the incomprehensible magic of the human body and how water is manifested in all its states.

2.       Since your debut there has been a lot of talk both within the fashion world and the outside world where people who would not have otherwise explored high fashion. How do you think going viral has impacted the fashion industry?

Ever since the collection became a huge hit, people started imitating my design and I was recreated by so many different designers who all interprets it in their own different ways. They started realizing that fashion has become a lot more extensive and that it is important to incorporate elements of art, science, philosophy, sculpture, computer technology, engineering, and architecture. The interest in wearable technology and 3D printing has increased exponentially and Iris has been labelled as the pioneer of utilizing 3D printing in fashion. Iris’s pieces grabbed the attention of icons like Björk and Lady Gaga, which then popularize Iris’s designs and bring fame to her brand.

People started following Iris’s unique vision and design approach to create designs that we have never seen before while making use of 3D printers as another creative tool, a canvas for creative expression. Like Jenny Wu, an architect that launched her own 3D-printed jewelry company or Danit Peleg, a fashion design student who launched the first fashion collection 3D-printed at home.

3.       Iris has been producing numerous new collections over the years, if you could be one other dress which dress would it be? And why?

It was always a dream of hers to create a fully transparent water dress using 3D printer. But at the time I was made, it was impossible because the technology was still limited. So she tried to find other ways and opted for another design. She finally finished all her hard work and it was in the magnetic moon collection that she was able to showcase it. To get there, the process wasn’t easy. It took 81 hours just for the printing and that was followed by another 8 hours of polishing and finishing work.

The outcome was a dress that almost looks like an ice sculpture. It was the first ever fully transparent 3D printed dress and I’ve always wanted that title to be mine. Iris also described this achievement as one of the happiest moments in her life. So if I could be one other dress, it would undoubtedly be the ice dress.

4.       I see that there has been a project where you were evolved into a new dress. For this remake, you were worn by Daphne Guinness. How does that make you feel? Can you tell me more about the experience?

Daphne Guinness has always been famous for her love of couture and extravagant style. To be worn by someone so stunning like her was such an honor. Her warm personality made this project so much more enjoyable and it didn’t take long for all of us to bond together.

Not only is she beautiful outside, her personality also shines through. Being raised as a socialite and an heiress, it is easy to be caught up in a world of luxury and glamour. But Daphne never forgets to give back, she has set up The Isabella Blow Foundation to support aspiring art and fashion students and also facilitating further research into mental health. She also raised money for Womankind, a charity that believes in improving the life standards of women in developing countries. Overall, this was such a great opportunity for everyone to gather and make art while learning from one another.

5.       You’ve obviously being constructed using techniques that are not commonly used in the average atelier. What are some of the unique or unexpected techniques that have been used to create yourself?

WIP Draft Zine Pages

Boy have I underestimated the time and effort that goes into making a zine. Even though the four pages I’ve managed to do so far look quite simple with sole collaging and text, they have been challenging to do. This is because it has been hard finding a balance between not being a perfectionist & trying to keep that rough and quick aesthetic of a zine, and the need to make sure my designs are reflecting the rebellious, random and playful aesthetic of the Dada movement. Having constraints on the zine due to the brief has meant I have had to rearrange layouts again and again and restart pages. 

What I have decided to do is to attach my collages and text onto the page with blu tack, as I found that even if I thought a page was all done, later I would likely rearrange it again. This has given me more flexibility that would usually be offered if I were to do it digitally. 

I have made some changes to my cover design from my last post, as I received feedback from my teacher that it wasn’t fully reflective of Dada with its softer aesthetic, and that I should try position it to appear more rebellious and limit pushing.

I’m planning to stick my designs onto new fresh pages a few days before submission as the final zine, as this will also allow me to make some refinements. 

Some refinements I’ve already got in mind are:

Front cover:

Changing the title type to look more unconventional, some letters could side at 90 degrees, each letter typeface could be different

Changing the underlined colour on the text behind the title to either be blue or red, as over time I have established a primary coloured palette to the zine which the orange doesn’t adhere to

Page 1:

Changing the interview question typeface to be like the cursive one on page 4, as I found that having a stylistic contrast between the interviewer voice and interviewee voice was more effective in separating them

Changing the outline around the man to be with markers as that will look more neat. Perhaps I could changing it to zigzagging lines to make the composition more playful

The German-Namibian designer Siedentopf was inspired from people wearing homemade masks on social networks during coronavirus epidemic. His project ‘How to survive a deadly global virus’ offers a series of surprising portraits of models wearing a different mask. Shoes, vegetables or underwear… the artist uses everyday objects as a mask. I’m very impressed by how much a pandemic virus could inspire artists and designers and use that as part of their work.