#noplace custom metal

[shanitadoeseverything]

The Metal Crafter: A Look Inside the Mind and Studio of Vanessa Zapirain - 2017 (photographer/editor/designer) 

Our final project for Typography 2 class in our second year at The One Academy was to create a booklet celebrating a skilled craftsperson from our area. I knew as soon as we got the brief who I would be interviewing for my book. 

Vanessa Zapirain (also known as Ness Zap), founder of NoPlace Custom Metal, is a Chinese-Spanish metal crafter from Australia who is currently based in Malaysia. We first met her through a tattoo artist friend when she was working as a piercer at his studio, and were instantly taken by her friendly personality and fascinating lifestyle. She travels a lot, and uses the experiences gained during her travels as inspiration for her work. Her intricate, handmade pieces are unique and full of character, a reflection of the person who made them. 

The First Step

To kick off the project, we visited Ness in her home/studio to take some photos and interview her about her craft. I felt it was important to get a feel for her style and personality before making any decisions on how to design the booklet. 

After spending the morning with her in her home and studio space, observing how she works and finding out what inspires her, I left with a camera full of photos and plenty of inspiration. I knew that I wanted to create a booklet that would highlight the beauty of Ness’ work and her fascinating image and personality, without too many distracting graphic elements. I decided to keep the design simple and minimal, and let the photography and her stories take centre stage. 

While designing this booklet, my main focus was to keep the layouts interesting enough to be visually appealing without distracting the reader’s attention from the content itself. I had a lot of fun arranging the elements within the book’s square format. The symmetry of it gave me the flexibility to experiment with various different layouts and play around with how best to make use of the space on each page. 

The whole time we were at her studio, we kept asking her questions after question and getting her to share her stories, so I kept that question-and-answer format in the booklet. This also allowed me to break up the text more, which made the content easier to read and also gave me more layout design options. 

There was so much to see in Ness’ studio that the photos themselves contained so much information and detail. To balance this out and keep the design from becoming too cluttered, I kept the typography simple and neat. To further emphasise the photography, I kept the rest of the design black and white, leaving the colours in the photos to stand out and take centre stage. 

I had a lot of fun working on this project from start to finish. Ness is a truly cool and inspiring person, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to her about her work and see her in her element. I still haven’t had the chance to show her the booklet in person -- I hope I get to soon!