THEORY INTO PRACTISE - A Visual Response

Research into metal culture:

This research will help with the content for my zine/book. I basically researched the truths/origins of the social codes within metal culture and I'm much more confident in what my zine will actually be about now. It will be more factual/informative than my previous mock-up so I'm currently aiming to create a 'guide'  to metal culture. 

THEORY INTO PRACTISE - A Visual Response

Further Zine development:

Although I like the aesthetic of this rough zine design, I think the content is driven by my own opinions too much. I need to include more facts and information about the subject so that it doesn't stray too far from my original starting point which was the essay. 

As I begin to inform myself more on the subject matter, I think the purpose of this zine will change slightly. Originally I had planned for it to be a satirical depiction of the way 'Metal heads' resist conforming to mainstream cultural codes but end up conforming to another particular cultural code. This hasn't really changed but I think that instead I'll be focusing more on what the cultural codes within metal culture are and some background of the culture. Perhaps this zine will become more informative rather than satirical? - The tone of the illustrations can either make it seem quite heavy and factual or interesting with a bit of humor. I am hoping to create the latter and I think that by drawing in a similar style to picture above, I can achieve this. 

Things to consider:

• CONTENT - research metal culture - what are the different 'codes'?
• Research history of metal culture and how it has evolved
• FORMAT - will the zine need more pages than a hotdog booklet?

THEORY INTO PRACTISE - A Visual Response

Pecha Kucha feedback & evaluation

http://issuu.com/sophiehargreaves/docs/pecha_kucha_presentation

Not sure how I could have improved on the clarity of delivery. I actually felt as though my presentation was well organised - it began with a brief overview of the essay, I explained which bits of information I had explored & in as much detail as possible, what I was going to do next. I obviously didn't communicate everything as clearly as I had thought. This could be due to:

• it being quite early on in the development of the project (judging by other people's presentation and their lack of development work too)
• I was incredibly nervous which could have affected my delivery (I get extremely anxious about presentations and I was the last to present)
• I had some technical issues - in the future I will just use the college macs to make sure my files don't get corrupted somehow

I found the feedback really helpful because it not only verified to me that I had a fairly good project planned, but it also brought some other potential ideas and issues I could come across. Talking about my ideas also helped to clarify what I was actually exploring - I'm really looking at how metal is a genre/sub culture that rejects association with the mainstream and is all about non-conformity. However, I think that although this subculture doesn't conform to the 'mainstream', it still conforms to the codes within that subculture.

Currently, I am calling my zine 'How to spot a Metalhead' and I will be illustrating all the different cultural /social codes associated with metal subculture. As suggested in my peer feedback, I could create more zines for other subcultures. 

The development of my illustrations will be really important because I don't want to mock these subcultures, it is just supposed to be humorous but not offensive.  

THEORY INTO PRACTISE - A Visual Response

I've chosen to make a hotdog fold zine because I think it's the most appropriate for the tone of voice I want to create.

I will have six pages and front & back covers to illustrate. I want this zine to be short and easy to read - any longer and I think the content could get boring.

This is my first rough to see what kind of compositions I could work with and how the page order could look.

I need to swap a few pages round, possibly even change the content of some. I am not sure about what sort of aesthetic I want to create yet but I'm going to try something similar to Kristyna Baczynski's work and this piece I produced for Visual Language.

THEORY INTO PRACTICE - A Visual Response

Researching Zines

What format would be most suitable?

What kind of colour palette should I set myself? Monochrome, two colour plus stock?

I like the idea of printing onto coloured stock and then just using one colour for the illustrations. Would this be suitable for my topic though?

I am unsure whether or not to screen print. It would be a good way to produce lots at the same time and would encourage me to think about the colour more.

After looking at all these differen't examples, I realise now that I've got to consider all sorts of things like colour palette; number of pages; what stock it will be printed on; the colour of the stock and printing methods.  I've also noticed that not all of these zines have full page illustrations - is this something I could consider or does the page look a bit too empty? I am still edging towards using a hotdog fold for the booklet/zine - since there will only be 6 pages plus the covers, I could do more than one. 

THEORY INTO PRACTICE - A Visual Response

At this point I was still really stuck in what direction my project was going in. I still didn't know what I was trying to say.

I thought about using elements of metal bands lives/background as visual material to create a pattern with, as pattern designing is something I'm quite interested in. However, this quite quickly lost appeal to me and I thought that it would end up being pretty repetitive. I knew that if I was going to create work I was proud of (one of my goals this semester), I'd have to be really interested and invested in an idea.

Out of nowhere, I had a bit of an epiphany. I hadn't thought much about this module because I felt I had so much other work to think about but as I gradually got my teeth into everything, I had more space to think about this. Previously I hadn't realised how my workload and stress levels affected the quality of my ideas and work. 

The idea is to use all the information I have gathered about the metal genre and metal heads and create some kind of zine. I re-did my mind maps so they were much more clear and to organize my ideas:

I'm surprised it took me so long to come up with this idea. Upon reflection, it seems like the logical thing to do after writing a semiotic analysis of metal album covers. I've already got most of the information I need so I'm going to translate it into a little illustrated zine. 

My initial thoughts on creating a zine:

• It needs to be short & humorous
• Contemplating using illustrator to for the line-work (similar to my Visual Language piece)
• I need to look at other illustrators work similar to this idea - what kind of layout should I use? Should I use a limited colour palette? What kind of drawing style is appropriate? 
• How will I physically make it? I am currently thinking a hotdog book will be suitable

Although I haven't made much of a visual progression so far, I think in terms of ideas I've finally got something solid to work with and have more confidence about the upcoming pecha kucha presentation. 

THEORY INTO PRACTICE - A Visual Response

As I began to look deeper into metal culture, I found that a lot of the symbolism used could be considered quite dark - with themes such as death and association with the devil. One could assume that the darker symbolism is to keep it away from mainstream culture as some 'metal heads' see this culture as an escapism from every-day life.

I explored different symbols of death and read about different gods of death from various ancient cultures. This is an area I may return to later on because it really interested me, but it was veering away from my original subject.

Metal culture is centered around the music scene and metal heads often wear band patches and merchandise to show their interest and support of the music. 

Although I churned out a lot of drawings of symbolism and generally things related to metal culture, I still didn't really know what I was trying to say. How was I trying to portray this culture and the people who indulge in it or will this be a project about symbolism in different cultures?

I want to show a contrast between 'metal heads' and mainstream culture and explore why people turn to the metal culture for their escapism of the conformity of every-day life.