Guide Book - Associated Visual Literacy

Research into existing travel zines will help to see how others have published their personal travel experiences and opinions on particular countries/places. Analysing the successful aspects and unsuccessful parts of the zines will be a good way to help me decide what kind of visual style I would like to aim for when designing my publication.

Berlin
The topic of this zine (as discussed in research blog post) is based on the publishers impressions of the city of Berlin. Focussing on the visual appearance of this zine, the layout is the most interesting element and has been carefully thought out so that it can help to portray the four separate sections in a successful way. This is something I could apply to my zine, In particular the small rectangle that has a word that changes throughout as the section topics change. This is an effective way of ensuring that the audience knows the focus of that particular part of the zine. 

Barcelona - Meet you outside.
This zine is a self initiated photography / editorial piece of work based on a trip to Barcelona in 2014. The authors had no plans for the trip other than street photography with the aims to capture the city in its purest form, to see the real people and not to move on the tourist trails. The zine has only a small amount of writing at the beginning and then a handful of phrases throughout, allowing the reader to have the same purely visual journey of which the designers themselves had. This is an interesting approach as when travelling, the main sense that we use to take in our surroundings and make judgements is our sight. The colour scheme represents the flag of the country, creating a strong visual identity for the zine and the topic of which it is addressing. The page layout is not consistent throughout the whole of the zine, but there is a very strong visual identity. It works better than a strict structure as that may have suggested that the project was pre determined and not as raw as it turned out to be. 

'Die Reise 
beginnt vor 
der Reise. 

Abflug. 
Ideen, aber 
kein Plan, 
was passiert.' 

This quote that is printed on a double page spread of the zine perfectly explains the purpose of the project that the zine is presenting. It is explaining that the journey start before the actual journey, saying that the thought process of establishing the intentions of the trip happens before you physically fly to a country. But then it follows by saying that its nice to have ideas, but no plans because then anything can happen. The project just develops itself.

Five Daze - Puerto Rico
This travel zine is part of a series that document the 5 days the artist spends in a particular place when travelling. This one focuses on St.Leone and the scenery of which she saw over the 5 days. The artists approach is nearly almost visual, printing the photography captured of the places and people seen. The visual identity is strong throughout and all of the photos seems to have a colour palette that compliments one another. The bright blues and greens alongside the pale pastel walls communicate the lushness and tranquility in Puerto Rico. 

Trippin' Tokyo

This guide is the world through Ryan and Ella's perspective. The guide has a target audience of 'design lovers' and it includes recommendations and personal stories of their time in Tokyo. They chose the word 'Trippin' as to then is represents the feeling they have whenever they have the chance to travel and how it is not just about the journey. The zine evolved when friends started to ask them to share their findings and itineraries on the places they have travelled and discovered. For this reason, a zine would be most appropriate for the topic of which I would like to discuss as it is based predominantly on personal thoughts and experiences. The illustrations of this zine have a consistent visual style that suits the design style within the country that it is talking about, Japan. The zine that I will produce will use more photography rather than illustrations, but it would be nice to either draw over some of the pictures or have illustrations to help with the narrative at various points throughout the zine. The idea to have the back page as a diagram of the different donuts that you can buy in Japan works well, showing the audience what to expect from the inside - pages filled with personal recommendations and discoveries. The outside visual experience is something I will need to consider to ensure that I convey exactly what it is that the zine on Vietnam will be informing the reader on. The chosen colour scheme reflects the colours of the flag for Japan. The main visuals have large areas of white and then splashes of red and yellow to instantly inform the reader on the location that this is based on. 

Conclusion:
- colour scheme
- layout can help tell the story
- look at good ways to focus attention to particular sections e.g. separate booklets
- illustrations can make something more personal 
- more visuals than writing