sabela1 zine
Overview: Sabela1 is a multi-part printed zine I created as my senior capstone project. Our assignment was to develop a piece that showcased the skills we’d gained through the New Media & Digital Design major. I used it as an opportunity to bring together my interests in typography, editorial design, and styling. The result is a hybrid between a personal diary and a fashion magazine: a time capsule that captures both my creative identity and this particular stage of my life.
Process: The concept for Sabela1 evolved constantly, and I changed direction countless times. Throughout this process, there were a few key decisions that shaped the final product into something I felt proud of.
While I had initially planned to use self-portraits as the covers of each installment, I ended up using photos from a styled shoot with a different model. I ultimately decided that I wanted my styling and layout choices to stand on their own, and for the contents of the zine to tell a story about me without relying on my image.
I had started with the idea of a clean, minimal aesthetic, but as I developed the content of the zine, I saw a disconnect between my personal, colloquial writing and the austerity of the style I had wanted to use. I went with a more scrapbook- inspired aesthetic to give the project a warm and approachable feel, truer to my intentions.
The zine’s name, Sabela1, is a reference to my school email account that will soon be deleted. It felt like a small but meaningful part of my identity during my time at Fordham that I wanted to hang onto. The title’s font pairing- a combination of Gothic and Varisty type- was an ode to collegiate styles that I’ve always loved, but rarely see together.
