Summon
Process
The zines were created to unite the themes of witchcraft and queer existence. Both of these topics are counter culture to the mainstream and also have been considered taboo subjects. The intention of the zines was to create pocket spell books that reassured and empowered though their content.
Whilst Pride is rightly associated with bright, rainbow celebrations of human love, I wanted this zine to act as a visual juxtaposition to the established visuals associated with queer love. The content was about acts of rebellion and resistance after all. To celebrate and centre the wisdom in the quotes selected I focussed on framing them with an asymmetric grid layout that balanced white space with type hierarchy and bold graphics.
OUTCOME
The art direction is restricted to a primal palette of red and black, with red being a highly emotive colour of not only love, but anger, blood and rage. This further played into the idea that love is not a two dimensional, Hollywood-esque romantic flatline, but a vibrant kaleidoscope of human experiences.
Image choices centred around mythology inspired Renaissance and Baroque art to give a sense of retelling familiar narratives or looking at familiar scenes with new perspectives. Images were treated in Photoshop to create high contrasting shadows and Risoprint look with added grain and texture.
Typography choices include a modern blackletter inspired font in JAF Lapture. The various weights enabled me to use the font through body text, pull quotes and for titles within the zine. I wanted to use a blackletter-esque choice to bring in echoes of rewriting the established, as blackletter fonts draw connotations of tradition, impact and elegance. They also work well in this project as it ties into the visual language of 1950s horror movies and the occult.
In order to really lean into the counter cultural narrative that unites witchcraft and queer love, I chose to use a title type that was visually distinctive. Siege Engine by Spear Head Media Ireland is a heavily distorted display font designed originally for heavy metal and punk aesthetics.This not only tied the project to its roots in ‘alternative culture’ but the manuscript calligraphy echoes of the letterforms played into the idea of the zines being miniature spell books for activism wonderfully.
I paired these decorative font choices with the monotype Hack. This feels utilitarian compared to the display fonts used on the cover and the refined blackletter of the zines content. For this reason it acts as navigation on the covers and ties into my own personal branding.
