spring 2020
NORTHWESTERN POP-UP ZINE
pop-up zine/lakefill live noun
päp-ˌəp/ˈzēn/
definition:
pop-up magazine focuses on bringing immersive, unique storytelling to audiences through a live general magazine. pop-up zine nu, or lakefill live, is our attempt to bring this experience to our campus.
skills:
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illustration (procreate)
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animation
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art direction
Password is portfolio
Lakefill Mag, or Northwestern Pop-Up Zine is Northwestern's off-shoot of California Sunday's Pop-up Magazine. In light of the recent pandemic, it was impossible to have a live storyteller, but we wanted to translate the magic and whimsy of the live show to the digital world - so we turned to art! Check out some of the stories I art-directed, illustrated and animated:
the art of peeling difficult fruit
This story is a personal essay about coming out to an Asian family. The storyteller, Rikki, beautifully explains her experience through memories of her parents peeling fruit - something most asian kids understand to mean as an expression of love.
Since this is a story that is extremely personal and emotional, simply animating it through Illustrator and After Effects did not feel like enough. I wanted all of the animations to feel special - therefore each and every frame of the animations are hand-drawn. For the animations of fruit-peeling, I found YouTube how-to videos for each fruit, spliced up the footage into individual frames as a reference, and then painted over them in Procreate.
My favorite part of this project was translating all the little details from real-life into illustration - the sticker on the orange, or the intricate webbing of the inside of a mangosteen. I also paid special attention to the color schemes of each section. The story starts with Rikki describing a familial love learned through watching her parents - I used serene and cool-toned colors. As Rikki falls in love for the first time, the color palette turns warmer and more passionate.
Here is the whole video:
homecoming
This story is about the historic Pullman Neighborhood at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Chicago. Since our audience was going to be watching from all around the world, we wanted to provide a little geographical context to where the Pullman Neighborhood would be. I illustrated this map and added landmarks that I believed that most tourists or Northwestern students would recognize.
Since this entire story was reported during social distancing, the interviews were all Zoom recordings. I wanted to find a way to blend in these videos while capturing the feeling of that moment - having almost all of your important conversations over Zoom rather than in person, so I designed these desktops backgrounds.
Here is the whole video:
You can watch the entire lakefill live show here (the password is portfolio).
