For this project, I designed the visual and typographic layout of a zine focused on a topic of my own choice. I chose to cover some of the fashions of numerous Alternative subcultures, focusing on their origins and their characteristics. I have always been interested in Alternative fashion and music, spanning from goth to punk and everything in between, and wanted to play with the unique aesthetics of each while keeping a consistent design throughout the zine. I wanted to choose a topic that was both informative as well as visually interesting. Given zines' origins in alternative cultures as well, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to bend the rules of formal design and layout that I'm used to.

Throughout each spread, each subculture featured has motifs and accessories unique to what is commonly seen and associated with it. Spray paint for punk, lace for goth, stickers and tape for emo, etc. Each spread is meant to represent its respective subject while remaining coherent to the overall design theme of the zine.

The most important choice I believe I made in this zine was to have all photographs in black and white, with only the colors of the outfits visible. Given the visually busy nature of this topic, I wanted to balance that out by isolating the subject, making it greyscale, and leaving pops of color within each outfit. This brings focus to each outfit while emphasizing the important details, without being visually overwhelming. Alternative aesthetics are known for their emphasis on the color black / dark colors, but also for their pairings with bright colors. This overall black and greyscale theme allowed the bright colors to have the same amount of focus, working together.

For the brick background present here, I isolated the central painted part of the wall as a transparent layer, turned it greyscale, and adjusted the brightness and contrast until each pixel was solid white. I selected color selected the darkest parts of the image and deleted those pixels, leaving transparent and semitransparent areas where the black of the page shows through. Edges of the brick also extend into the space of the page. I wanted it to mesh with the spread, rather than be a rigid square on the page. To emphasize that active presence, I had each person's image end past the lower edge of the brick to appear that they are standing in front of it.

For the spreads of the subcultures of goth, I wanted them to have the same overall layout to tie them together as connected subsections of one overall term. For this reason I also used a different brick background unique to these sections, to differentiate them from the rest of the main topics that use the original brick background. I used the same process of coloring and deletion to create this background, but used custom spray paint Photoshop brushes set to erase to soften the edges. In addition to unique accents and motifs, each spread has its own respective heading typeface that reflects its respective subject. Keeping this in mind, I kept the same typeface for the main Goth spread consistent throughout the rest of the goth spreads to further connect them to the same section.

This spread called for 2 central images, and although my initial plan was to have the brick background for both, I decided to instead keep and alter the original background of the photo with various texture effects. This was to maintain visual interest without repetition, as well as emphasize the difference between the two photos: the first one shows the fashion of grunge, and the second one is to represent the music roots in grunge. I chose the background texture to emphasize this, as it looks like written lyrics. The guitar pick I used as one of the accents is the same type that Kurt Cobain, considered the Godfather of Grunge, used.

When choosing photos, I made a point to look for some that depict alternative people in group shots smiling and having fun - alt fashion is very diverse and a stereotype is brooding edginess, and sometimes even seen as threatening, so I wanted to show a different side than what people tend to expect.

1. Photo Editing

I began with the original image, and used subject select to select the person separate from the background. I then used the lasso tool to add or remove certain parts in order to clean up the selection. Once I have the selection I need, I press Ctrl+J to copy and paste the selection into a separate layer with the background removed.

On the selection layer, I add a Black & White layer mask above it and set it as a clipping mask, so that it only applies to the selection I need. I then take the brush tool set to black and fill in the sections that I want to remove the greyscale mask from - in this case, the colored segments of each outfit. I repeated this process for every photo.

2. Background editing

I began with the original photograph, and used color select to select the darkest parts of the image. I deleted those, then used color select again to select the bluest parts of the image to separate out the central square. Once I have it selected, I hit Ctrl-Shift-I to invert the selection, so that I'm now selecting everything other than the square I want. I hit delete, which erases everything and leaves the square I want remaining. I then create an exposure layer mask to turn it all to white, then on top of that, a black and white layer mask to neutralize any remaining colors that are not within the greyscale gamut. The black layer beneath it is just to let me see what I have and is not in the final image.

Overall, I have learned so much about printing multipage documents with this project, which greatly helps me as I have only two or three prior experiences with it. I feel that I've also sharpened my abilities in photo editing, especially in copy layout thanks to my now-deepened understanding of the grid. It was a good challenge to learn to design an overarching theme that is consistent but not repetitive.