The Unseen

4) Making a submission and helping to compile the Unseen anthology  (~1/2 day)

I entered a cover design and it was chosen for the anthology. The theme this year is 'Submerged' so I made my design of a small paper boat on a sea because soon it too will be submerged. It works well as a kind of introduction to the contents for which most of the entries are completely underwater. The original designs I made in pencil and in two layers that work together. As this is a risograph publication, I had to make my image in two separations, blue and yellow, where they overlap creates a green. The particular colours chosen were difficult to combine into a strong green and so I had difficulty in creating the original image I had planned (a diver underwater) as I wanted semi-realistic colours but I could not make it work. Instead, I made a collage in black and white of fish in a river, however, it was far out of my usual style which is disappointing for me. Fortunately there are many opportunities to be involved in publishing projects within the University.

I volunteered to help compile the pages after printing (pictured) and fold the covers for them. This process took about an hour because there were two of us working quickly. Together we folded 100 copies ready for stapling and then selling.

Looking back at my cover design, I think I should have left the waves blue to give a strong contrast between the sea and the boat, creating a more stronger composition. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and the chance to collaborate with other artists on a book was exciting. Again, creating a physical item at the end of the process was also satisfying so I think this could be the kind of area I would like to go into, creating and publishing books, which overlaps well with the idea of selling at conventions.