Report part c zine project

- Depression causes negative, sorrow feels to people, lead to emotional problems and self-harm, sometimes suicidal.. Semiotics & Genre Signs: Black dog - a metaphor for depression issue

Student: Tran Ha Chi

ID: GDH17558 Class: GDH0701 Subject: Visual Narratives

Every picture

tells a story

Report part C: My zine evaluation

Zine Project

Statement of Intent template

WORKING TITLE – BLACK DOG

SOCIAL ISSUE AND STORY

1 What social issue have you selected?

- Depression

2 Why?

- Because it a dangerous mental-illness that can occur to everyone, especially

young ages

3 What is the problems?

- Depression causes negative, sorrow feels to people, lead to emotional

problems and self-harm, sometimes suicidal

4 What is the solution?

- The empathy and love can ease the wound caused by depression

5 How are you going to make this an interesting story for a young adult age

group?

- Depression is one of the most related issues among young age group But it

would be more common if being combined with the study or working

problems

6 When, where and how would you distribute your Zine?

- Online mostly I will share them on Internet so that more people can know

about it

Zine Project

WHAT METHOD AND TECHNIQUES ARE YOU GOING TO USE?

1 Style Creepy, illustration

2 Layout/composition Pictures combining with typography

3 Colors Mostly black and white, some red and yellow

4 Typography Handwritten with thick brushed lines to be more creepy

5 Methods and techniques Drawing

Semiotics & Genre

Signs: Black dog - a metaphor for depression

issue among depressed people

Symbols: Black dog, pills, heart healed, cups,

tests

Genres: short comic

Metaphor: Black dog for depression

Subtext: Show the dangerous and serious of

depression problem

Moodboard

Story analysis

Characters: The girl and the Black dog

Concept: The girl telling her story about how she get depressed and get through it

Content: The story started with the Black dog showed up The girl remembered the day she met her black dog – when she was scolded for bad grades She revealed that she was forced to be a good daughter, well-studying and that made her exhausted and then depressed Day by day, she get worse, started self harming while her Black dog getting bigger and scarier One day, she got enough and suicided But her mother saved her and helped her get over it

The girl got through depression but she knew that one day, it may comeback

But it would be fine, as long as she still be loved

The work produced

I came up with the idea of using black dog icon as a metaphor for

depression – which I was inspired after researched on the Internet and asked

my friends who had been through depression I also researched for the causes

of depression and found out that was because of the hopes families set on

the patients were too big They feel stressed and exhausted This situation keep

on for a long time and become “depressed” I found that if I can combine 2

issues into 1 in my Zines, it would be really great

At first, I decided to do my Zines on computer But then, my instructors gave

me feedback I listened to them and made it again by hands This time, the

feedbacks for my zines was better but still have some problem I had to

improve So I take feedbacks from my friends and my target audiences once

again, fix it and finished my Zines

Feedbacks

I took feedbacks from my instructors and my friends, my target audiences also

They gave me a lot of comments, which they liked and didn’t like about my Zines

Everyone have different opinions about my Zines But most of them didn’t like

my type style and illustrations, since it was hard to read My style and colors took positive feedbacks, but need to improve to be more scary And also my hand-drawing and layouts had to be more careful

A good thing I have received that my target audiences, those has overcome depression and those who facing up with it liked my Zines They said they appreciated me for made a Zines like that so people can know about depression a little bit more, about what they have to face up with

Relationships

In my Zines, I used visual references from my friends who had been

suffering with depression and myself also I talked to them and try to

understand how they feel I also put some of my problems I was facing up

with into my Zines My target audiences are teens to young adult, often from

16-25, the age that can be stressed easily because the pressure of having

achievements So I decided to bring that issue into my zine as well

I researched on the Internet, listened to my instructors about the layout and

the strokes, how to express my true feels toward audiences… So that when

the audiences read my zines, they can understand more

I made my Zine all by hand with white crayon in order to show the

confusion and sad, sorrow feels in my Zine., since with crayon, the grooves can

be created naturally

With the colors, I used mostly black and white to show the depth and the

dark side of this mental illness, added some red and yellow to highlight and

balance the colors in my Zine

Areas

The good thing about my Zines was probably the story line I spend so much time to researched about the story to bring them as close with audiences as possible I used short, simple sentences to approach people more easily I also put my image and illustrations into the center to attract attention

I took a lot of feedbacks about the colors, typography, drawing skills or layouts I read them and fix them to be better I also gain more knowledge about arrange layouts, typography… and colors My Zines is not perfect, but

in some way I still like it and proud of myself for having it done, learn new things and can help more people to know about the depression

Plans

Everything I put into my Zines were taken from what happened around my real life Because of that, the expressions are really important I realized that I should learn how to express the feels through illustrations better

I am still weak in arranged layouts, color coordination, theories and also drawing I am planning to learn drawing to improve it

Also, about my design, sometimes they can be “too much” and not focused I

am learning the way to simplify them but not to ruin my first idea

Time management is also a big problem for me I am trying to improve that