I chose the cover as I felt it represented my theme as a whole. The presence of the domestic cat, home grown plants and furniture enclosed in this small area creates an interesting environment which I carefully composed to feature as much as possible. The use of flash emphasises these details by intensifying the colours of the image. I used a simple font for the title so as to not distract the viewer from the details of the image.

The first two pages show a continuation from the cover of the zine. I placed my images in a reverse order of what I saw in real life as I felt it created a more interesting narrative of looking into someone’s life but not revealing too much about who they are.

In contrast, the next 4 pages showcase daily life in St Helier from an inside perspective. The image of a girl hanging out sheets is composed to make the viewer become part of the situation, aided by the eye contact of the subject in the image. The photo is partnered with a softer toned colour image also featuring a washing line but viewed from an external perspective. I placed the photo of a subject washing dishes alongside an image of a hose as they shared similarities of colour with the use of saturated yellows and greens, as well as the different uses of water in regular life.

The zine continues on to take a different approach through showcasing darker topics as an underlying meaning. Abandonment and Isolation is shown in images of an empty storage  unit as well as a mattress placed by a bin due to no longer being used. Pollution is seen in images of glass bottles, lighters and broken furniture disposed off in an act of fly tipping in what was once a religious building.

I used the same image that I used for the cover as a back page however in a flipped orientation.

Using the same techniques as James Moreton, I will experiment more simplistically by using 1 or 2 images on each page that express a narrative together.

Experiment 1

Firstly, I took a balanced approach in my layout by using a proportionate amount of large images to small images. This is a safe option as it is more aesthetically pleasing when looking at as a whole.

I decided that I did not like when one image crossed across both pages but was not full size (e.g. page spread 4) as the large abundance of negative space in one corner did not appeal to me visually.

Experiment 2

I removed the empty pages in this version in favour of using more images to tell my narrative. I resized images on page spreads 3 and 5 as their colour scheme shared similarities with images on the opposing page. I also resized images on page spreads 2 and 6 to demonstrate the different perspectives between the images. For example taking a voyeuristic view in comparison to a personal one, or being up close to a subject in comparison to viewing from afar and seeing the subject as a whole.

Combining features from both of these versions, I created a final third version.

Final Version

It was not until the end that I attempted to create my front and back cover. I chose this image as it lead into the first page spread as they were both taken in the same location. I flipped the image in reverse for the back cover as the image was not landscape and I believed the colours would look weird if I was to use a different image.

Additionally, I placed another image from the same location on the first page spread to become apart of the narrative of things we leave behind.

The final version still uses the same simplicity that James Moreton shows in his zines, however I provided my own inspired style on such page spreads as 1 and 5 in order to place more images that shared similarities with what was already there.

The result was a 40+ page newspaper extract featured in the JEP, Jersey’s most popular island newspaper. The extract showed the work of over 40 students themed around our different interpretations of the future of St Helier.