Tag: student work

‘Different by design’ zine issue 6

Context

The ‘I am, we are… Different by design’ is a zine created by students, published by the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. The project aims to represent a diverse set of perspectives and experiences within the School of Arts and Communication Design.

Project overview

This year’s ‘Different by design’ brief challenged us to change the format of previous years. From an early stage we knew we wanted a range of deliverables that encapsulated the current student experience. Discussing our options, we decided to leave the format flexible until after our research and content collection phase. Which we would do through a student survey sent out to students in the  School of Art and Communication Design. Understanding their struggles and showcasing them in our zines was important to connect the audience to their experiences. Zines are a great format for this because they feel close and personal. Handmade qualities, imperfections really tell a powerful story to its audience. Expanding on the previous issues, we have also promoted our issue on Instagram and have a digital copy of the issue hosted on Github, allowing further reach.

We started this project by understanding what previous years had done, the A5 booklet format needed refreshing. As a group we visited The Wellcome Collection’s ‘Zine’s Forever’ exhibition during the summer break. We were inspired by the variety and creativity showcased in the zines that we saw and wanted to change the format that previous years had used. While staying true to the fundamental principles of ‘Different by design’.

Figure 1: previous year zines booklet example.

Figure 2: London visit to the Wellcome collection Zines forever! Exhibition.

Timeline

We worked on this project for nearly a year: we had a rough schedule for what we would be doing and when with key dates like:

      • Group sessions
      • Client meetings
      • Print deadlines.

This outline serves as a way of showing how we broke down the work into stages in such a long time-frame, so that future issues have a rough sense of what the timelines look like.

June – September:

      • London trip, Ethics approval, Preliminary research, Student survey, Branding development

September – October:

      • Review responses & supplement with research
      • Begin exploring fold options for zines

October – December:

      • First drafts of each zine
      • Branding finalised
      • Pricing estimates

December – January:

      • Zines developed for feedback on return after Christmas

January – February:

      • Design iteration-feedback cycles
      • Paper stock explorations

February – March:

      • Paper sponsor finalised
      • Continued zine refinements
      • Copy-editing

March – April:

      • Last adjustments before sent to print

April – May:

      • Animation development
      • Zine folding
      • Distribution

Project direction development

We had a series of meetings over summer discussing our individual aspirations for the project using FigJam to collaborate live and discuss mood-boards together.

Figure 3: Figjam moodboards .

Student survey & themes

We split our survey into four main themes. Probing experiences related to; Mental health, Women’s health, Community & inclusion and Student finances. We felt we covered, at large, the student experience with relevant topics for different audiences.

Figure 4: Student survey.

Branding

It was important that while we had a collection of items they all felt like a part of the same set. Here is our development of brand logos.

Figures 5-6: Initial direction was for anti-ai style, we removed colour because we felt like it was too distracting, and also optimised the logo for simplicity and printing. Conceptually the outlines give a sense of ‘container’ for the zines.

Zine Packet – CMYK

C – Mental health zine

The mental health zine’s objective was to create a space where students could share their thoughts and feelings regarding their mental health and mental health services at the University. The data was then taken and created into something thought-provoking but also eye-catching for the reader. Mental health is typically spoken about in a more medicinal sense, and we really wanted this zine to feel full of creative expression and freedom. This juxtaposing approach took some experimentation to get right, with many stages of refinements.

 

Figure 7: Mental health zine moodboard. Image sources: Cosmos.

The mental health zine started looking very modular at the beginning stages. Lots of harsh shapes and each page felt quite isolated. We re-explored how we could work with this and decided to incorporate more of a flowing design system. This meant the spreads flowed seamlessly together, like a journey.

Figure 8-11: Iterations of mental health zine cover design.

Figure 12: Final spread of mental health zine. Side 1.

Figure 13: Final spread of mental health zine. Side 2.

M – Menstrual health zine

The purpose of this zine is to highlight the significant challenges that over half of the students at the University of Reading are encountering. According to Ucas.com (2026), 53% of the students at the University of Reading are female. Despite this substantial majority, there are no systems in place to provide assistance and support to individuals who menstruate.

This critical issue was highlighted in the survey that our team conducted, which revealed that many of the students studying here felt under supported and were expected to “suck it up” and cope with extreme stress and workloads while suffering from debilitating pain and fatigue, along with a combination of other symptoms making it impossible to keep up. The objective of this zine is to bring attention and recognition to the invisible pain and struggles being dealt with by menstruating students. To achieve this effectively, I chose a comic book theme to illustrate the complex story of menstrual health in an engaging and accessible way.

Figures 14 & 15 :Zine front cover and navy cover.

Figures 16 & 17: Spread one magenta and navy versions.

Figures 18 & 19: Spread two magenta and navy versions.

Figures 20 & 21: Spread three magenta and navy versions.

The fold divides this zine into two booklets. The first half, on the magenta side, shares facts and personal stories of university students. It uses peekaboo windows to subtly hint at the full illustrated dark blue comic side. Each spread corresponds to its opposite. Spread 1 shows a bedroom door leading to a woman suffering in her bedroom, unable to resume her normal activities. Spread 2 shows a bathroom window correlating to a woman attempting to get ready and care for herself. Spread 3 displays the University of Reading library, with its opposite showing a person in the library suffering through their pain.

Figures 22 & 23: Back cover magenta and navy versions.

This zine is not a fictional narrative, it represents the lived experiences and challenges faced by every menstruating individual within the educational system. The primary aim of this zine is to inspire meaningful conversation and ignite a movement for change within our university community.

Y – Community & inclusion zine

Figure 24 & 25: Zine front and back unfolded.

The community and inclusion zine aimed to highlight issues within the University of Reading in the School of Arts and Communication Design. However, the zine also celebrates the inclusion in courses and showcases work of previous students through a poster design. Working as the front cover of the zine, allowing for more engagement when viewing and opening, teasing the design as it is unfolded.

Figure 26: Poster folded.

The chosen typefaces featured in the zine, and on the poster, were designed by previous MA students of the department – who have multi-cultural backgrounds. Using this with the survey results shows both positive and negative experiences.

To keep cohesiveness throughout the zines, halftone was used in the background with the same blurb repeated on all 4 zines. This allowed for more flexibility with other elements such as type, folds and layout.

K – Finance zine

The finance zine showcases the difficulties of working while studying; inspired by the unfolding of a receipt. Supported by national statistics and observations of how student loans have changed over the last 10 years. Validating their experiences.

The receipt concept was good but I found it difficult to interweave the results of our survey into that style at such a small scale. Deciding that it could take away impact from the personal stories. Adapting this into a poster felt more natural and would give the potential for an interactive leaflet. Content on one side and the large poster on the other.

Figure 27: Early print tests.

After some feedback, we strayed away from all using Halyard as a cohesive typeface, which we had picked up from previous years. As it allowed for more creative expression, which opened up new options for the receipt concept.

Figure 28: Receipt development.

The fold of this zine went through many different iterations in consideration for how the end-user would interact with it. Through many observations of people struggling to open it which was getting in the way of the experience.

Figure 29 & 30: Developments after feedback and back panel refinements.

Packet Band

When creating the band, we experimented with what content it would include. In one of our first ideas, we considered adding a blurb however, as the back of the finance zine can be seen, we felt this was redundant. Keeping it simple helped the colours of the zines to pop.

Figure 31 & 32: Packet band front and back.

Production

We knew that hand folding the zines would take a considerable amount of time with (150 copies) we liked that it brought a handmade quality into the final packet.

Figure 33-35: Folding day photos.

Animation

Wanting to promote the collection online, we decided to create a simple animation. At first it was just the After Effects animation but we wanted to tie it back into the physical product more so we had the idea to film it in a ‘sea of zines’ (see cover image). Sound designing the entire audio, writing a simple beep intro using an online sequencer. Listen to the original here.

Figure 36: After effects screenshot.

Final zine packet

Bringing everything together we released the zines to the department and posted our Instagram reel! Hosting our zines as e-friendly versions on Github.

Figures 37-38: Final zine distribution.

Reflections

Eleanor:

On reflection, this project has been a great opportunity to work as part of a team to represent a community of students in the creative industry. With the combination of topics that were of most importance to the student body, being able to represent those who have struggled with their mental health and create something for them was really inspiring, as someone who has used the University’s services myself. I enjoyed the collaborative aspect of this Real Job and really enjoyed working with this team to curate a little pack of creative representation.

Grace: 

Overall, this project has been an amazing experience with understanding how meaningful design can be created in a fun and conceptual way. Through challenging the traditional A5 format, we were able to push beyond something plain. Being experimental throughout the process helped me build confidence in taking creative risks throughout other projects. This project has helped me to understand the importance of the power of design, especially through hearing the stories of peers and sharing them through our work to try and create a more inclusive environment. Collaborating with the team was also a rewarding aspect of the project as I learned a great deal from working with my teammates and listening to their ideas. This helped me to see different perspectives and how they strengthened the overall outcome.

Jess:

Executing this project has provided me with the opportunity to create an activist feminist zine that has the potential to bring about change within our university. It has been a unique chance to develop something entirely self-directed, free from any limitations. This project has allowed me to delve deeply into a topic I am personally passionate about and to craft a piece of work that is exceptionally complex, which I have created from beginning to end. The experience gained from this project has been invaluable, as it has taught me how to work effectively within my own time-frame, establish my own brief, and tackle a complex project centered around creativity. Additionally, it has enabled me to collaborate very successfully in a group setting while still maintaining my independence.

Aurelien:

Working on this project has been an incredibly gratifying experience, at times it has been challenging but I really feel like we ‘pushed the envelope’ forward for future years to be inspired from and iterate on top of. I also think the depth of the work is quite significant, sharing these incredibly vulnerable but important stories does a lot in building solidarity for those with similar experiences. When we started this project, I think we all had a lot of high expectations and I think that, quite remarkably, we met them! Many thanks to Rachel, our supervisor, with continual guidance and for having the ambition to do something radically different this year and Rob, our client, for always offering helpful feedback.

Creating Spreads in InDesign

Initial Thoughts On How I Would Attempt The Project

In this task, I was required to create a two page spread for a magazine, promoting the top 10 books for that month (all found on the BBC website). I took inspiration from Swiss design and its use of grid systems to structure my layout. Before I started my design, I opened up an A4 document with facing pages and a bleed of 3mm, as the entire designs purpose is to be printed. I chose to have margins with a 12mm, except for the bottom, which measured 24mm to make allowance for the page number. I chose to have 3 margins on each page, as I knew the information would need to be divided into small sections, therefore it would give me more opportunity to organise the text effectively.

My Final Design

To start with, I needed to create a clear structure through ordering and the hierarchy of text. I have also used different typefaces to separate the heading from the main content, as well as the book title, author/year, and description. This is further helped by the weight and colour of different text, the titles are in bold and I have used red to highlight features such as a really interesting sounding book. I went for a modern layout, with the content leaning more towards the left of the spread. A coffee stain, which I added due to its association with a corner table as they tend to hold books, is also used to highlight one of the summaries for extra emphasis.

Some Other Alternative Layouts

I followed the same grid-style layout for my other designs, as I wanted to see how different I could make each design look while following the same set of “rules”.

Resources That Helped Me Develop My Work

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/how-to/margins-and-columns.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/nkgnD94Js15YK8pdpJjxFK/rule-breakers-ten-novels-that-broke-the-mould

 

Designing a brand onboarding system with Bottomline Technologies

Amrita Shrilal has been involved in an exciting new collaboration with Bottomline Technologies this past year. Amrita is one of our MA Communication Design Graphic Design Pathway students graduating this week. She’s also a BA Graphic Communication (Hons) alumnus.

Bottomline focuses on transforming complex business payments and processes into simple, smart, and secure systems. They work with financial companies and institutions globally, and are widely recognised as a payment and collections enterprise. They have banking relations with global banks, UK banks and, building societies, growth banks and payment service providers.

A young woman smiling. She has long dark hair and is wearing a striped top.
Amrita Shrilal (MACD class of 2021)

Amrita has a particular passion for user interface design. To develop experience in user interface design for the financial sector, she undertook a design brief for Bottomline’s Head of UX Design (EMEA), Kellie White and, Senior UX Designer and Reading alum, Matthew Standage for her MA professional practice assignment. Dr Jeanne-Louise Moys, MACD Graphic Design and Information Design Pathway lead, supervised her project.

The brief gave Amrita the opportunity to explore approaches to designing a system that allows customers of different-sized businesses to customise the interface design, of a particular product, to match their brand needs. The challenging aspect of the brief was creating a seamless and easy process of designing elements of pages for customers with different levels of expertise on brand and webpage design. It required her to consider ways of presenting complex information and processes in a more straightforward method for end-users. Her design decisions were supported by her research into UX design, market competitors and the development of personas which helped her understand the user and business needs.

Amrita said: “I enjoyed this project as it was different from all the other UX projects I had done in the bachelor programme. It focused on Business-to-Business (B2B) rather than Business-to-Customers (B2C) which is more complex as you need to consider not just the user’s goals but different types of business capabilities and interests. I had to think about how a particular organisation could utilise or benefit from the features of the system to make their process of designing the web interface a seamless experience.”

The outcome of this project was a prototype of an interface system that allows businesses to brand themselves within Bottomline’s products. It considers different user design needs and attempts to make the process of designing interfaces straightforward to those who are not familiar with design conventions or terminology. Some of the features within the system included editing the colour scheme, text styles and button styles.

Animation showing functionality within the project
Process of uploading the brand logo and ability to view the placement of these elements in different pages.

Reflecting on the project, Amrita said: “the project was a stimulating experience as I had to think about different user perceptions of design elements. I had to constantly ask myself whether it would be easily understood by someone without any design experience. Despite that, I enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with Bottomline on an ongoing project and it helped develop my understanding of UX/UI design”.

Kellie White said: “Amrita did a fantastic job of taking a complex problem and making it simple, a difficult task to accomplish. She worked well to align to good UX process throughout, from research through to ideation and user testing. I was thrilled with the outcome, she achieved a well thought out design solution and growth in her UX skillset through the experience. Well done Amrita! We look forward to future collaboration with the Department.”

Matthew Standage added: “It was a pleasure to collaborate with Amrita and the Department on a professional practice brief. We were not only impressed with the overall quality of the outcome, but also the thorough research and design thinking that went into the process. One of the common challenges in B2B user-experience is striking the balance between complexity and flexibility. The work Amrita produced solves this problem well, using both visual and interaction design techniques to progressively disclose more advanced options to the user and provide guidance when necessary. We look forward to seeing how we can integrate her work and thinking into future product releases.”

This project is the first collaboration between Bottomline and the Department of Typography & Communication. We look forward to exploring new briefs with them for our postgraduate students to work on in the future.

We also look forward to welcoming Matthew back in January for the two-day “Branding and user experience” workshop that he leads for our MA Graphic Design and Information Design pathway students in the spring term.

Reimagining the wayfinding project during the pandemic

In spring term, our MA Communication Design students on the Information Design and Graphic Design pathways have the opportunity to undertake a wayfinding project, as one of their project choices. We usually collaborate with partners in the Reading community (for example, last year we collaborated with The Hexagon) and arrange visits to local sites. The pandemic provided an opportunity to develop new resources for teaching this project.

Wayfinding briefs provide great opportunities for strategic and creative user-centred design. Students have to consider how visual design supports decision-making and user experience of environments, as well as consider the needs and expectations of different users and stakeholders. They also require students to explore the interplay between functional problem-solving and cultural relevance and how branding and identity systems might need to work across a range of different materials and surfaces.

Wayfinding designer, and Reading alum, Joan Zalacain (http://www.zalacain.com/) leads this project. Joan says: “The importance of user-centred design is crucial to wayfinding but we also need systems that are appealing and sit harmoniously within their environment. We strive to convey this to our students as wayfinding is a growing area of international practice and our graduates need to be ready to deliver their best.”

This year, factoring in the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on mobility, we developed a new brief to ensure students did not need to conduct any site visits to undertake the project. Joan worked with architect Maciej Kozak to develop maps and models that students could work with. In professional wayfinding practice, buildings are often at the planning or development stage, so it’s realistic for wayfinding designers to work with these kinds of resources.

This year’s brief envisaged a new community arts centre for Reading. Students worked on either an indoor or an outdoor wayfinding proposal for the centre.

Photographic mockup of outdoor wayfinding sign near a flat roofed entrance to a building, with people walking towards the entrance.
Mohammed Alhadab created this photographic mockup of his proposed design for an outdoor wayfinding system.

 

Information Design Pathway student, Fred Pena came to Reading because of his particular interest in wayfinding. He said: “The wayfinding project is a good opportunity to work on different aspects of design. Having to think about strategy, information architecture, user interaction, typography, and the development and application of physical objects in a three-dimensional environment really makes it a challenging endeavour.  It’s about more than just making signage, but developing a whole system that has to be functional and visually engaging.”
An extract from Fred’s wayfinding project showing specification of typographic elements within his indoor sign system.

Siobhan Bailey (Graphic Design Pathway and returning alum from our BA programme) said: “I really enjoyed the wayfinding project as it was a completely new area of Graphic Communication that I was not able to study at undergraduate level. Coming from an art and psychology background before graphics, it was a perfect mix of the two and required a high level of critical thinking to meet user needs and solve problems. The skills I have learned throughout this project will be essential for me in terms of wanting to head into the exhibition design, events or wayfinding sectors, and in general for careers which require strategic thinking and initiative. Joan’s passion for wayfinding and user centred design really inspired me and he pushed me to achieve my absolute best at every step of submission.”

User flow diagram showing touch points in the wayfinding system
Siobhan’s synthesis of the wayfinding strategy and user journey to explain user interaction and touchpoints within the museum. This diagram demonstrates at what moment information is presented to the user and how this effects user experience.

The project also includes a range of inspiring contributions from professional designers and agencies who are part of the Department’s professional network. Thank you to May Chiang from Applied Wayfinding (London), Hayley Branston and Elena McLoughlin from Maynard (London), Anita Meier from Moniteurs (Berlin) who shared their professional insights and Reading PhD graduate, Dr Andrew McIlwraith who shared his expertise on mapping.

Evgenia Vrentzou (Graphic Design Pathway) said:  “Through the wayfinding project I learnt to have a more inclusive thinking by considering both the needs of people and the parameters of environment, in order to make an effective, creative and functional system. All the talks during the spring term were very inspiring and we gained important knowledge on how to develop our projects. Wayfinding combines both creativity and strategic thinking and is a part of design that I would like to emphasise even more in the future.”

A diagram showing the sign family relative to a human figure
This diagram shows Evgenia Vrentzou’s proposed sign family.

Evgenia also chose to explore wayfinding for her professional practice assignment. In this self-directed project, she designed a new wayfinding system for the coastal city of Heraklion. Her project built on the findings from participant studies she conducted to understand people’s mental maps of the area – a great example of how we incorporate user research into practical projects at Reading.

In his professional practice assignment, Fred extended his experience of wayfinding to consider a journey-planning app that responded to new considerations arising during the pandemic. His wellbeing and urban mobility app – Let’s Walk – focused on supporting people, who might have anxiety about going out during the pandemic but also need to get regular exercise, to identify appropriate places and routes to achieve their goals.

The wayfinding project is open to students on the MA Communication Design Graphic Design and Information Design pathways and MA Creative Enterprise Communication Design pathway. We look forward to running this successful project again with our new cohort in spring 2022.