Click HERE to view the full art-directed zine taken from Gabby’s original.
Once you’ve taken a look at it, come back here.
This is a very small version of all the pages together, to refer to if you’d like while you read my notes.
NOTES.
The narrative that started speaking to me in this zine was one of walking into the office – a very curated, clean space. I see the office represented graphically with the hard frames, clean edges, flat colours, contained imagery on white. It is quantifiable, processable information in your little mortal brain.
Here this takes the form of the first three spreads being highly curated – high contrast shapes, taken out of their environment, and put on a pedestal for the zine reader to view and take in.
On pages 6-9 there is experimentation with full bleed – pages 7 and 8 both have elements that hit the very edges of the page. To me this represents starting to get a grip on the true atmosphere, realising something is wrong, a loss of control.
Pages 10-11 feature a full-bleed double page spread which is clearly sinister. You realise suddenly you are in danger, the demon is watching you – perhaps this illustrates the moment where the lava hits the window behind him and your focus changes. You see that you really are in hell.
The second half of the zine is mixed. You are greeted in turn with highly atmospheric, full bleed images, or slightly-curated images in frames. I vividly see you sitting in the office, unsure of where to look, trying to keep a hold on your sanity – but becoming overwhelmed as the images of hell in the window behind you seep through.
Of course, that’s just my reading of it! It’s funny how in the first zine I was sure I was a guardian angel sitting at the table, but Gabby’s zine is that bit more sinister and personal. Now I’m sure it’s my soul on the line.
For fun, I think I’m going to make a little form based on my creative writing from earlier.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 