Reflection

Reflecting on the two zines that I have completed, I noticed a lack of theme or interesting ideas behind them. The ideas that are there are very visual and don't have a strong justification. I wanted something stronger that I could tie all the elements together with. 

Reaching out to my tutor, I explained about the lack of strong ideas and how I wanted my zines to have a tactile 'retro' feel to them. He asked me to ask myself why I am drawn to this particular look. 

In the past as well as currently I have always preferred old examples of design and have been drawn to books about 'design in the 70s' or '60s packaging' over examples of contemporary design. I have, in the past, based an entire art project around a vintage magazine on 'How To Draw Birds' because I loved the tactile qualities of the publication: the thick and aged yellow paper stock, the typefaces that were used and the old images all inspired me. For a period of time I frequently visited antique shops and charity shops to browse the books and magazines. There was one charity shop that had an entire box of used vintage post cards - it was incredibly inspiring. I also found a bookshop that was selling vintage Beano comics for 50p each - these fuelled my collages for months. Luckily, I also find inspiration online: I enjoy looking through archives that I find interesting and my favourite is Sainsbury's Packaging Archive which for some reason I absolutely love. I also like to follow Instagram accounts like @Labeltime which posts amazing vintage labels and @vintage_packaging_collector. I would not say that I love 'vintage' or 'retro' design - I am just inspired by simple things like the design on an old bag of sugar or old bus tickets and receipts. I don't know a lot about the history of graphic design but as Ben said in his email, graphic design had clearer aims and objectives within the modernist period and I think this is what I like - like design for packaging. 

I know for a fact this ties in with why I like Mike McQuade. I read that he has a digital file of thousands of pieces of vintage collage material that he goes to to make his digital work. I am incredibly jealous, and want to start making my own now. Similarly, I have boxes and boxes of old magazines and receipts and random things I've found and kept. However, this does not get used a lot anymore as my work has shifted from physical to digital. The reason I started keeping things in these boxes was because of the research that I did in to Joseph Cornell - a 1950s collage artist who kept all of his source material in alphabetised cabinet files. Because this was very much a fine art thing for me, I haven't been able to translate it into my graphic design work. Looking at Mike McQuade's work, however, makes me realise that it is possible. 

I feel a similar connection to Palefroi and Kate Gibbs work. It's less of an aesthetic connection but more down to the process of screen printing. I think that I love screen printing so much because it create a physical outcome. I love print and things that can be kept and cherished: postcards, books, posters etc. even the little things like receipts and tickets. These things that have a tactile quality are so much more appealing to me than digital design. 

Expanding this Nostalgia theme gave me the idea to think about how I could implement it using an object. Instead of zines, the design could be done through something that is nostalgic to me. For some reason, I thought about all of the VHS tapes I had when I was younger - these give me the same sense of nostalgia that the modernist design I previously mentioned does. I thought about having five box sets of five and then designing the box covers also as well as the edges of the tape which often had an image printed across all of them. I would love to do this, however, I am restricted to mockups due to being at home. I am going to see how it looks and also continue to make the zines as they could slot inside the tape covers.