chloelouisebyrne

[chloelouisebyrne]

Harvard References

https://www.festivalinsights.com/2017/03/event-welfare-the-drugs-tent/

https://www.readingfestival.com/live-blog/welfare-tent-support

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/08/testing-drugs-festivals-lifesaver-study

https://www.hbo.com/euphoria

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840196/

https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/supermodels-ditch-partying-diet-of-booze-drugs-and-cigs/

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/oct/14/why-moschinos-pill-themed-collection-is-causing-outrage

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/06/british-parliament-cocaine-toilets/

https://909originals.com/2018/09/10/we-cant-get-enough-of-these-dayglo-fake-rave-flyers/

https://www.alexleoshko.com/lost-footage-of-terence-donovans-90s-rave-culture-to-be-featured-terence-donovan/

[chloelouisebyrne]

Magazine Inspiration

Generation Z have created a safe space for all subjects taboo with older generations, we have come a long way in terms of feminism, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights but I think that we still have a long way to go in regards to those topics and a lot of other things. 

During my research I found a lot of narcotic related zines that spoke about similar topics and shed light on important subjects and were just generally good vibe magazines that used their platform to create positive perspectives. 

Illegal magazine is a company that speaks honestly about drugs and encourages safe drug use. They want to promote harm reduction and create a safe space for addicts to use without putting themselves or others in too much danger. They fund this from a percentage of the magazines profits. 

I wanted my magazine to follow this in the way of promoting safer use of drugs and identifying the pros and cons of using. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

What I would have done differently after seeing my final print

I am overall really happy with how my zine came out after it’s final print, I am glad that I chose the newspaper club to print my work and would definitely use their services again.

If I were to change it in any way, I would probably try a different size of zone as I do feel it’s quite large, I would also test out the text against my background with a practice print beforehand as I feel that the text can be quite difficult to read against it but I am happy I chose to use colourful text rather than black or white. I would also potentially shift some of the layout too just to make it flow a bit nicer as I had the rearrange the pages to print anyway but I don’t think I am entirely happy with the way I’ve laid them out.

[chloelouisebyrne]

The Printing Process

I spent a while debating how and where to print my zine, I wanted it to communicate the topic well and wanted my images to still look good. I wanted to make sure that the images blurriness and illusiveness was still just as prominent when I printed it. I didn't want to print it for them to come out too crisp and too ‘sleek’, I wanted it to still have the confused and shaky aspect to it. 

I chose to print it with the newspaper club to replicate an older and less modernised zine, I wanted to carry the concept of 90′s raves down to the print style. I knew that I needed to give myself at least two weeks to allow my zine to print and luckily the newspaper club lists that they will take 1-5 days, in the end I only had to wait 2 full days for it to arrive which was great because it gave me plenty of time to print it elsewhere if I was unhappy. 

I am really happy with how it turned out, I think that the text reads okay on its background but I think, had I of changed the opacity of the relief print on photoshop, it would've looked better and slightly clearer, I think that is the only downfall to using the relief print as my background. 

When I decided to print 

I decided to print my magazine at 20 pages, I had all of the information that I wanted to include and didn't want to over do it with too much information and didn't want to drag out the point I was trying to put across, I think that it gets to a point where you've explained everything that you can and you need to stop before it gets too repetitive. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

My Final Evaluation

Overall I really enjoyed this project, it has been my favourite one of the year, I think there was so much creative freedom within it and I really felt like I took advantage of this especially with my project topic. It was so important to me from the start to create something that I had witnessed first hand and something that I was passionate about, I know its such a controversial topic but I do think its such an important and overlooked conversation that needs to be normalised which is why I felt it was appropriate to use this project to voice my angle on it. I needed to take this opportunity to promote safe and sensible drug use too, I've seen so many people get overly involved in drugs and it has transformed their lives awfully, I fear that if we don't begin to bring attention to this a lot more it will only escalate further and fatality tolls will only become larger, its a statistic that definitely needs to change drastically. I really hope that this project has portrayed my views clearly, it was difficult to not become bias and I think that in some aspects I may have, I just hope that I have justified both arguments clearly, its such a complex issue so it is hard not to go back and forth. 

I feel a lot more confident in using photoshop, illustrator and indesign after creating my zine, a lot more confident than I felt in previous projects, I spent a lot of time just finding my feet with it and deciding what tools I preferred using and what tools were most efficient for my work, photoshop and illustrator have became almost second nature to me and I've thoroughly enjoyed using them. Creative cloud has allowed me to create work that I am proud to hand in. 

If I were to start this project from scratch, I would've done some things differently for definite. I think I would’ve made my vision for my topic a lot crisper and clearer from the beginning as I think my vision changed a little bit throughout and it was hard for me to be consistent due to lack of direction at times. I didn't want to promote drugs obviously but I did want to educate about the more positive side of things, it was difficult to achieve this without sounding like pro drugs. I would’ve also given myself more time to work on illustrator as I think I could've done a lot better with my text, I'm really pleased with the titles and title pages themselves but wish I could’ve created my own font for the entirety of my magazine. I am more than happy with my image pages as they are exactly what I aimed to create, I wanted bright images with illusive effects and to add my illustrations in for a playful and youthful aspect, I am happy that I was able to incorporate my illustrative skills into my work as well. 

This project gave me a lot of creative freedom and I'm really pleased with the final product, I am glad that I chose my topic and I am looking forward to working with Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign in the future. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

My Final Pages and Zine layout

Overall I am pleased with my zine layout, I didn't want the images to crowd all of the pages, I wanted them to make their own statement alongside the text, I chose to do every other page an image page with one double page spread. For my text pages I chose to use my relief print as a background in order to have depth to it and I also used blue and pink colouring on the text so that it would stand out and be readable against the smudged and b&w background, I am happy with how it looks against the background, digitally and printed. 

I think that my zine flows cohesively and works well together, I'm really glad that I didn't include images on every page as I think this would've been far too much  due to the images themselves being edited and illusive. 

In order to print my zine I had to change my layout slightly which kind of disturbed the way that the images sat but I didn't give myself enough time to edit them to fit differently, I think that this is something I would take into consideration next time. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

Faux Flyers inspiration

Faux Flyers are flyers created and inspired by 90′s rave flyers, they encapsulate the details even down to the cartoon motifs and dayglo paper. They are really fun and exciting graphics and I wanted to challenge myself to do something similar, I knew that I wouldn't be able to create the cartoon motifs but tried to use the bright background contrasted withe the solid black text and illustrations. On my front and back pages I chose to use a pink similar to the neon light highlights throughout my images and then placed my solid text that I created in Illustrator over the top as well as my mushroom image. I would've loved to of created more and challenged myself in Illustrator more by creating some of my own cartoons but I wanted to prioritise my time to the text and information in my zine instead, I think that if I used Illustrator again for my own font, I would dedicate a lot more time to it so that I could get more creative because even though I am pleased with my final result, I could definitely experiment more. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

My Front and Back page development

I created my font on illustrator and then introduced some drawings into the page too so that I could see how they would look against the text, I really liked the way they sat but I didn't want too much to take place on these pages as they're just meant to be simple pages to introduce and end my zine.

I added in these clouds to create the kind of fairy esc imagery that is associated with magic mushrooms and MDMA, I thought it would be nice to see what this could bring to the page but when I put it onto my pink background I didn't really like it, it became too much and I worked really hard on perfecting the text for this page so I wanted that and my illustrations to be the main focus. 

Once again, I wanted the back page to be simple and clean cut, I used the two N’s from the beginning of each word and then incorporated the mushroom but to a smaller scale, I wanted the front and back page to be similar but not the same. I then put both of my illustrator designs onto a pink background on photoshop and then finalised them on InDesign.

[chloelouisebyrne]

How I created my own font on Illustrator

I’ve used illustrator previously but couldn't really get to grips with it the first time, I really struggled to use the pen tool when using it in my last project but this time I tried to loosen up with my technique to achieve a a bit of a untidy and comic like font, I started by writing my cover page title because I wanted the rest of the magazine to follow this font. 

I wrote out the title and then changed the sizes of specific letters and then collectively moved the writing by using the group tool and then opened new documents so that I could create the titles for each page, I copy and pasted the letters I already had and then created the ones that I needed to match with the title font so that they all coincided with one another and flowed nicely through the pages. It took a few attempts for some letters but once I got into the flow of it, it was really simple, I would say it probably took about 3 hours overall to create all of the titles due to resizing each letter individually. 

I wanted the font to be blocky and resemble classic bubble writing but with a clearer edge to it, I was hugely inspired by the text on the ‘faux flyers’ as they use blocky and black type and create fun and quirky fonts, I think that I have been able to achieve a similar look to this but the font could be a bit more cohesive. 

I am really pleased with how they all turned out, I think in future, if I had given myself more time I would've created some more fonts and had more options to play with but It was quite a late idea in the process for me, I was originally going to use the fonts on indesign but I wanted to give my project more depth and make it more personal to what I thought would appeal to my readers. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

How I combined my illustrations and relief prints with my images.

I scanned my images onto my computer so that I could digitally combine them with my images, I used photoshop to do this as I thought that it was the most efficient way of editing them into my photos. I tried to choose images that sat well with the illustrations, I didn't want them to look out of place or make the pages look busy so I chose to edit them with the eraser tool and get rid of any excess around the drawing.

Due to my images being really colourful and distorted, I didn't want to make it too heavy on the eyes, I wanted it to be an easy and fun read so I tried not to use too many drawings on one page, I kept it really simple so that it could mostly be about the writing and the importance and context of my magazine mostly comes from the writing and the surveys. 

I wanted my pages to replicate a collage effect without being too busy and overworked, I wanted to mismatch the messiness of the drawings with the clean cuts of the images, I took inspiration from the piece above but didn’t wanted to create my image digitally whereas I feel that some pieces of this were combined physically and digitally.

[chloelouisebyrne]

My illustrations and relief prints.

For my illustrations I decided to find some images of drug related items, including a cannabis leaf, a lollipop, a pill packet and a classic baggie. I chose to create these drawings in my favourite medias and favourite style of illustration, I created a continuous line black outline with my fine liner and then created the detail with my marker pens and white highlighter pencil. I have used this form of illustration in previous project and really like the way that it turned out. I thought that the messiness of the continuous line drawings and brightness of the marker detail tied in really well with my images too as I feel that the bright colours and strobe lights are such an important part of rave culture and the rave scene altogether. I am really happy with my drawings, my favourite ones are the baggie filled with MDMA ‘happy pills’, the MDMA pill packet and the lollipop, I think that they're a really fun take on the drug as the pills usually have really random designs on them and I thought I would just play into that concept. 

For my relief prints I simply used oil pastels and a packet of ibuprofen and just experimented with different colours, pressures and different sides of the packet itself until I found a version that I liked. I loved trying out different colour oil pastels with this but I think my favourite is the black as I wanted this design to fulfil the text pages in my zine so I didn't want it to be too excited and also wanted it to contrast with the bright and colourful images on the opposite pages, I wanted this to represent the dark side of drug use and misuse whilst the bright and fun images to communicate the euphoric side to drugs when they're used correctly and safely. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

Further image exploration on photoshop

In this image I wanted to use the patchwork tool on photoshop to replicate the neon light sign in multiples to create a hallucinating effect, similar to what you would feel whilst tripping on a dose of MDMA or cannabis, I wanted the zine to follow a trippy and illustrative aesthetic. I wasn't very happy with how this image turned out, I felt like it looked too busy and over crowded and just looked messy overall, I decided to continue playing with the image still continuing with the patchwork tool but using smaller sections and less of them, I am much happier with the second image and I would like to use it in my final project.

[chloelouisebyrne]

Original photoshop edits

I began experimenting with my images that I had taken at recent raves as well as messing around with screenshots from videos, I decided that I wanted my zine to have a playful and fun aspect to it with the colouring especially, raves are bright and colourful places and tend to be a positive place too. I chose some portrait images and some general pictures that I took at raves that focused on the lighting, DJ or the crowds of people. I used photoshop to create illusive images, I wanted them to be almost blurry and visually a bit distorted to mimic the feeling of being ‘high’ to create that euphoric visual you experience when on drugs. I played around with different tools on photoshop and I played around with the pen tool just to get some playful ideas down but I didn't really like the effect that it had, I feel that it made the images too child like and that's definitely not what I was trying to achieve, especially with such a corrupting topic. I don't really like any of the images including the pen tool edits but I thought that I would include them on my blog to show where I started with them and then I can compare them to where they end up.

I really like the above image of me and James and I like the concept of the angel and devil doodles but I just don't think it communicates what I want to achieve with my magazine and I just think it would stick out too much amongst my other images. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

My Personal Brief

Chloe Byrne 

Fashion and Textiles Foundation 

Fashion Business and Promotion 

The Drug scene and Rave Culture 

My aim is to analyse the statistics, opinions and facts regarding recreational drug use and form my own argument on why we should promote safer drug use rather than eradicating drugs altogether. I aim to not be bias and speak from both sides in order to educate and inform rather than rebel. 

I believe that we will never erase drugs, nothing will deter people from taking them if they want to take them so I feel that education on recreational drugs should be a necessity during school and life generally. As human beings we are wired to avoid danger and uncomfortable conversations but with the statistics rising and rising quickly I think It’s imperative that we become more aware of what is going on. I do not want to use this project to promote recreational drug use and I want to argue for both sides. I have seen a lot of people very close to me have their lives torn apart by drug abuse that I think its important for people to understand the damage that lack of knowledge can have, I also believe that if recreational drugs were legalised and available to purchase or be prescribed through pharmacies we would be able to monitor and control them more effectively. I am also aware that America suffer with a massive pharmaceutical drug crisis with the opioid epidemic so even legal drugs are dangerous. It is a difficult topic to not take sides on but I hope that I will be able to give justified arguments for both. 

My Objectives 

I will create a well thought out and communicated blog. 

I will form an argument that is not bias and highlights the importance of drug related education. 

I will become more confident in using creative cloud applications: Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. 

I will create a cohesive zine that I am confident about. 

I will use images that I have taken. 

I will use Illustrator to create my own font. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

Terrence Donovan and the lost images.

Recently, images and work have surfaced that were taken by Donovan have been discovered after sitting in a drawer in Wolverhampton for the past 25 years. They have been displayed to the public for the first time ever. 

The images were taken shortly before his death, the snaps were taken of rave goers amongst Que Club in Birmingham, a concert venue honored by everyone from David Bowie and Blur to Daft Punk and Run-DMC. He turned his focus to the dance and rave culture in January 1996, his son who was studying at University of Birmingham at the time was DJ’ing at Que Club, the scene was out of his comfort zone but sources explained that he found the building and experience itself really intriguing. The images are said to picture the variety of subcultures in the raves as well as demonstrating the intimacy of the dancefloor and the closeness of people who have never met but are embracing the music together. It is said to portray that feeling of being a part of something much bigger than yourself, the feeling of togetherness. The collection highlights a significant and important time in Birminghams clubbing scene. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

Drugs and Politics.

I think it goes without saying that the government are extremely hypocritical in every which way so seeing Boris Johnson attempt to enforce new drug laws whilst traces of cocaine are found in the parliament toilets comes as no surprise at all. The headlines come as he decides to take a crackdown on UK drug users, all 12 bathrooms in parliament were tested for traces for cocaine and 11 came back positive for traces of cocaine, including the bathrooms closest to Patel’s and Johnson’s offices, it has also been stated that cannabis has been used openly in the vicinity. 

Johnson admitted to using Cocaine and Cannabis back in 2008 but has now strictly changed his views on drugs altogether and has explicitly said that he does not want his children to do any drugs. Johnsons new plan consists of more officers being sent onto the streets to tackle crime, and drug users will be encouraged to visit rehabilitation facilities. Offenders may also have their passports and driver’s licenses taken away, the public were deeply offended by this and actually found it laughable considering the knowledge of the cocaine buzz in parliament. Its hard to take this seriously after hearing about what goes on behind closed doors. 

[chloelouisebyrne]

Initial images and rave photography