Earlier Zine tests
(2021)
The zine shown below was an earlier publication created for ‘Rugby League Rituals’ named after the project.
“Rugby League Rituals” aims to pay homage to a largly overlooked and misunderstood unsung hero of British sport. The publication is a visual collection of the images depicting supporters unwavering loyalty, wit, traditions, sayings and songs that are held sacred within the northern rugby league towns and communities in which they reside.
“Rugby League Rituals” aims to pay homage to a largly overlooked and misunderstood unsung hero of British sport. The publication is a visual collection of the images depicting supporters unwavering loyalty, wit, traditions, sayings and songs that are held sacred within the northern rugby league towns and communities in which they reside.
The Publication is split into 4 unamed sections, each one sharing a different aspect of the fans. The first section consists of a playful, crude pastiche of retro sports comics often found in matchday programmes, within speech bubbles are overheard matchday insults shouted from the terraces directed at players. The second section consists of matchday rituals, with the application of a self generated typeface inspired by gothic fonts found on an existing football programme, with an additional reference to biblical text, arranged on Transclear white in a huge range of scales within the confines of a grid taken from the dimensions of the rugby pitch, with each turn of the page, a new layout and image is generated, the more the reader looks on the more that the beginning of the third section, spiking the viewers curiosity to read on, they will then see a collection of images of supporters throughout the years and their handmade signs, scarfs and other forms of merchandise in order to represent their club, arranged to scale on the page of the rugby pitch, joyful faces, and creative graphic signage with northern humour and fighting talk, this section highlights the free spirited and resiliant nature of the sport and its supporters.
The final section consists of well known chants and songs, utilising another self generated typeface that takes inspiration from the expressive typography design within 1970’s and 80’s football annuals, with cut out decoration that is consistent with the 25 metre lines and the half way lines found on the pitch, whilst also giving the type a more dynamic and expressive feel, paper stocks consist of “smoke” of GF Smith Colour plan to resemble the concrete terraces paired with peregrina classics metallic gold, Peregrina Majestic casino gold, to represent the passionate and spirited mentality of the sport and its supporters win or lose and finally, factory yellow and a flourescent green card stock to emulate a grumpy steward in flourescents on the sidelines! The Cover consists of Gmund Leather Paper in “Alabaster” to emulate the super league rugby ball, the logotype is again an ode to a biblical motif, appropriating the typesetting of a bible verse and repurposing an image from a retro rugby comic from the 60s of a pair of hands open as if ready to catch a conversion kick. the publication is ring bound with golden binding consistent with the paper stocks.
The images above consist of an early ‘Hotdog’ fold zine solely using collage.
The Final image is a hand-out created to give to participants of a shoot conducted before a Leeds Rhino’s matchday in Headingly, the Leeds fans were playing Huddersfield that day and as a result, the comic book features created used dialogue taken from overheard insults gathered solely from Leeds and Huddersfeild fans to inkeep with the proper context and appeal to the supporters that would be there during this shoot.