15/05/11 - Self-initiated 2

Having got pretty far with designing this…as the front and back cover of my magazine about Japan (based on sushi grass and to be screen-printed in glaze on black paper and so very subtle):

… I’ve been getting everything printed and I’ve decided to change to this image below for the covers because it totally sums up much of what I want to say. It’s a very ordinary style of Japanese house which I photographed on a very rainy day in a convex traffic mirror. The distortion of the ordinary is really key to what the magazine is about and the road signs in English and Japanese pointing out tourist sites really fit with that. The text will be broken and split betweeen the front and back cover just as in my earlier desgins (but set down the fore-edge) – screen-printed in silver ink.

I’ve struggled a bit to get the print effect I wanted but am happy I’ve cracked it now. Even though Rathna thought it would be fine to put a magazine made on photocopy paper in as a final piece, I was unhappy about it because an element of what I’m doing is to point up the dichotomy of refined and trashy and also because I wanted the magazine to feel more interesting when you hold it.

So, I photocopied all the images for the magazine in the newsagents on a bit of a rubbish photocopier (grainy a bit speckled, variable toner etc) and then got the pages printed (in two different printers which had a different quality of print) on the poster paper I bought (see earlier post). So the photocopied quality is still there but the paper feels more sophisticated and a bit more substantial and interesting as it’s matte on one side and a little bit glossy on the other. Phew! big problem solved after a lot of running round printers who would not print on my paper.