Cait Danielle - OMEN

OMEN is an independent zine created by Cait Danielle, an artist and friend of mine. The zine combines poetry and film photography to create an impactful and personal art zine. I love the layout design Danielle chose, as well as the unique features they chose to include, such as freehand textboxes around each stanza on the first page and textured backgrounds used to frame some of the photographs.

I really love the way this is done, as it brings a homemade feeling into the piece, which is really important in zine culture. This feeling is also present on the second page, where Danielle has written one line "you are not so small & sad" over and over, like a mantra. The words are thick and doubled over each other in a way that creates a sense of disorder and panic, as if they were written as a reminder from the artist to the reader. I love the mirrored composition and contrast between the two pages in this spread, as it creates a sense of structure among the panic of Danielle's mantra.

Another thing I love about this zine is the use of full bleed photographs. The zine itself is only A5, so full bleed photos take advantage of the limited space, and the lack of border means the viewer feels immersed in the image.

I particularly like the use of full bleed in the middle image above, and I love the photograph itself. I think Danielle has made some successful choices about which poems go where in the zine, as this image of a cross sits next to a poem about religion and Danielle's personal experiences with religion. I think this might be my favourite page regarding aesthetic, as the overcast sky and dark shrubbery frame the church roof and create a sort of gradient from darkest tones at the bottom to lightest at the top. I quite like the grain too, as it reminds the viewer of the 35mm film that these shots were taken on. The poetry is sophisticated and personal, yet still relatable to viewers with similar experiences.

One of my favourite features in 'OMEN' is this delicate flame sitting in a gap in the page. It reminds me of the flowers pressed into Blossom's zine 'Grow', and this technique of freeform shapes among text is an idea I'd love to explore when it comes to making my own zine. I really like how the flame sits on the deep black background and I like that this black is used for the background of the next page too, although I think the two pieces of imagery could have been more directly linked to each other and to the poem.

How am I taking this artist into consideration for my own work?

I want to achieve the same level of consideration for every element of the zine, from the text and the way it sits on the page to the image framing and use of full bleed. I really enjoyed noticing the subtle links between the writing and the images, so I want to do this with my work too, although I think it will be harder because my theme of grandparents will be obvious through the images and text. I'd love to look into layouts more, see what's typical in this kind of zine, and see what I would like to keep and change. There's no narrative in 'OMEN', which isn't a good or bad thing. I do like the idea of having no narrative, as I tend to struggle with them, but I think it would be best if I had one in my own zine.