NON

NON was the outcome of my final major project at university. We were set a brief that was based around social injustice, I had to come up with something that I wanted to do that was based around designing for change. I wanted to create something that I didn’t necessarily know much about so I could learn about an issue that I wasn’t connected too so my personal opinion wasn’t effecting the message that I was putting across. When I first started this project I wanted to create something that would relate to fashion as I wanted to base my FMP around this before we were told that it was going to be about social injustices.  I started by looking at genre norms within fashion as I thought that this was a really interesting topic to look into as I would be able to speak to many individuals who were either non-binary, trans or an individual who doesn’t want to conform to normal gendered clothing stereotypes. I interviewed several individuals and went to a couple of support groups to get to understand my target audience and to see what their thoughts and feelings about fashion. After doing a lot of research for this project I reflected and thought about what I had discovered and that was the lack of things out there for non-binary individuals, I then decided that my concept was going to be a platform for non-binary individuals.  After coming up with a concept I started to create designs I look at things like non-binary colours and symbols to ensure that I would be respecting the non-binary community at the same time as giving them a platform. I have been hugely interested in book spa magazines ever since I was younger and I thought something that would be really cool would be to create a zine that consisted of short stories from non-binary individuals, photography created and of non-binary individuals. I was able to get in contact with some creative individuals via Instagram and they were able to share some content with me to feature within the zine. I was also able to get some short stories from non-binary individuals on how their experience has been and what they feel about their identity. The great part about this is that other individuals who are going through the same kind of thing will be able to read this zine and be inspired and feel like they are a part of something, part of a community. For this zine I also conducted a photoshoot which was of non-binary individuals and their allies which was great, it also gave me a way to do some creative direction which was really rewarding because the shots came out perfectly. Due to timings and prices of this project, this was more of a conceptual idea however I decided to get the NON Zine printed so that I would be able to give one to all the individuals who contributed to this project. Throughout this project, I was sharing my creative processes with my peers and lecturers and the individuals who helped me when it came to my ideas and decision making. Creating something that is more than just designing to look good was really rewarding and made for a much interesting bunch of outcomes. The links below are the documents I created for this project, link one is the complete process from start to finish, its shows every through and decision I had and made and what outcomes that gave me. The next is a short overviewed of what NON is all about and what the brand entails. Thirdly is the NON Zine itself.  Project Process Book: https://issuu.com/charkjohnstone/docs/non-fmpprojectbook A-Z of the NON brand: https://issuu.com/charkjohnstone/docs/nonbrand-az NON Zine: https://issuu.com/charkjohnstone/docs/non_zine_nobleed