Autumn Schreiber Creative

Category: Uncategorized

  • making a zine in InDesign

    making a zine in InDesign

    Hey yall, I’m back! Before jumping into the software I decided to look for a tutorial. I found this one and it was pretty straightforward. If you’re looking for a tutorial on how to make a zine by hand check out this video from brattyxbre.

    Getting Started

    Form a plan. Or don’t, but that’s what I’m doing.

    • Find a topic
    • Make a rough draft
    • Gather images/digital scrapbook stuff (paper textures, tape, etc)
    • Design
    • Print!

    So first up is finding inspiration. Right now I’ve been really into musicians Chapell Roan and Ethel Cain. I’d be a shell of myself without Spotify. My zine will be called music on my mind to reflect my current song infatuations.

    Now that I have my topic, I split my pages up.

    • Cover
    • Intro Page
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Back
    Here’s the rough sketched out page design layout!

    Designing

    The hardest part is next. I followed this tutorial to figure out my layout in the software. From there I found corresponding fonts and scrapbook-like elements. The colors, elements, and fonts corresponded with the main picture and the vibe of the artist. I got most of my fonts and elements from Adobe Fonts and Adobe Stock Images.

    The Final Product

    Initially, I had the layout similar to the video tutorial. However I ran into issues figuring out how to print it. More on that below.

    Printing

    Printing is a different beast entirely. At first, I printed my facing pages as spreads. But I thought I’d be smart and print them doublesided to save on paper. However, my double sided pages didn’t face the same way and one side was up and the other was flipped. To save my remaining sanity I brought the pages into a 8.5″ x 11″ document (split into 8). This allowed me to save on paper and simply fold and cut to make a zine without needing binding. For some reason, I still ended up with a white border after printing. I used the school’s printers but will try UPS next time.

    This is how I folded my mini zine!

    Thoughts

    If I were to do this again (hopefully soon!) I would change a couple of things.

    • Font Unity
      • I used a lot of fonts to try to adhere to the featured artist, but doing so made it hard to read and overall not uniform
    • Readability
      • I’d change the font size to be legible, it was hard to tell before printing
    • Printing Process
      • I ran into patchy ink printing so I’d find another way to print next time
    • Layout
      • Instead of doing multiple facing pages, I’d stick to a 8.5 x 11″ split into 8 sections. The simplified layout doesn’t make my head hurt as much and would save money on printing if I decide to sell/print multiple.

    What would you make a zine about? Have you made one before? Let me know below 🙂

  • trying sticker design

    In an effort to stay in Illustrator, I messed around with the idea of making stickers. Usually if I wanted to buy stickers, I’d scour Etsy or Redbubble. But sometimes the stickers I want aren’t there, hence me trying this out. For some reason, I decided to build off of my tattoo idea from this previous post.

    Gathering Resources

    I started looking up youtube videos and came across two semi helpful ones. (video 1 and video 2)

    After getting some insight on how to merge shapes, etc. in Illustrator I dug out my original sketch.

    Designing

    Then I started designing, keeping the lyric in mind as well as typical interstate signage references. I wanted to keep my sign looking accurate as possible. I discovered that the font (Highway Gothic) was created by the United States Federal Highway Administration for all road signage.

    Here’s my first draft, not too shabby. But not the right font.

    I really wanted the sticker to feel more fun than just a white and green sign. I think adding the additional lyric “I can’t leave it be” in graffiti type font helps elevate it, adding variety.

    Currently I’m rocking with either of these two designs. I think I like the sticker without the extra rectangle at the top right. I can’t decide on the graffiti font, but the texture of the bottom one seems to catch my eye. I like the idea of the state number crest, but it might be too much. Let me know your thoughts!

  • playing around with tattoo design ideas

    One thing about me is that I like tattoos! I only have one, but as soon as I have some money saved up I’m gonna get some fresh ink. I love music, so most of my ideas for tattoos come from meaningful song lyrics. My approach to designing tattoos always starts with a sketch. Sometimes my sister and I bounce ideas off of each other.

    Here’s some rough sketches for a potential tattoo. My sister loves Matt Maltese’s song Oldest Trick in the Book, so I wanted to come up with something to reference that.

    I’ve really only ever messed around with tattoo design and haven’t gotten anything of my own design inked.

    Some cool resources I found for tattoo design are as follows: