Tag: zine

Comics & Zines

Fifth Year of Architecture School: A Zine

Elizabeth Clapp

Hello everyone! After moving three times this summer, doing an internship, then starting a new job (spoiler?), I can finally present to you- my last comic about architecture school.

In case you’re new around these parts (welcome!) or want a refresher, you can read these zines in order: 2019 (first year), 2020 (second year), 2021 (third year), and 2022 (fourth year). If you’re interested in obtaining a physical copy, read my blurb at the end for more info!

Without further ado…

I knew this was coming, but after making these for the past four years, it’s weird to finally be at the last one. Whenever I finish one of these, I think of all the things I can improve on for the next year, and know that I will have that opportunity to improve. But now, it feels more final. Like as soon as I export all these pages, I am putting this five year chunk of my life in a frozen time capsule. I was never purposefully procrastinating this summer (I did get swept up in life… and the Tears of the Kingdom release), but part of me was scared to complete this, because once it’s done… it is done. But I gave myself the goal of finishing the comic by the end of September, so that it what I have managed to do, and then I gave myself a day to write all this out and reread everything.

I am planning to compile these five years of comics into a physical edition! For MoCCA fest, I handmade (folding and stapling) about ten copies, and needless to say, that was very time-consuming. I’ll be looking into printing companies and that kind of thing, so if anyone has any advice/suggestions, feel free to send them my way. I have some ideas for things I’d like to correct and improve in the physical edition while sprinkling in some ~bonus content~. I hope you’ll consider getting a physical copy once I’m able to sort everything out. Seeing things printed and holding a physical item is so satisfying. If you are interested in getting a physical copy, please consider filling out this interest form — it’s not an official preorder or anything, it’s just so I can gauge if I should start by printing 5 copies or 50 copies. I appreciate it!

Of course I can’t end this post without thanking everyone for their support and interest in my comics. When I first started I didn’t know if I would make one each year, but I’m glad I kept up with it, and it morphed into something I looked forward to— documenting both my school experiences and my art (improving? I’d like to think). While this project is over, I hope to keep making things in the future and you can always find me over on instagram (@elcapp).

Behind the Scenes!

I also wanted to include some Behind-the-Scenes here, for those curious.

I have a hectic method of making my pages… I sketch things in my sketchbook (or post-it notes, or whatever paper I have lying around). In InDesign I arrange the panel sizes, then create each frame as a new canvas in FireAlpaca (at this point I should probably be using Photoshop? but old habits die hard). I then type out all of the words to make sure they are large enough to be legible, then get to drawing and lettering. I’m using my ~7 year old Microsoft surface computer which is touch-screen, so I have really given my right pointer finger a workout. Unfortunately the computer is having battery issues now, meaning it would crash in the middle of drawing quite often, but autosaves were a savior. Once the panel is done, I label it all nicely and pop it into InDesign. Then repeat!

I wish I could say I wrote out every single word and planned every panel before starting, but in reality I jump around based on the ideas I already have, and then fill in the gaps as I go. This year I kept track of when I completed pages (did not necessarily plan them in this order), and also the panel layouts just to make sure I had a variety.

What’s Next?

Now that this series is over and I’m not in school (I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about the comic potential of going to grad school, hah, but alas), I think I’m going to take a little break from the autobiographical stuff. I’ve had a fiction story floating around in my head since 2016, and I think it is time to at least try to give it some love. It’s the kind of story where I told myself I’d make it once I’m better (at writing, at art- if I were to make it a comic), but at this point I think it is my avenue to “get better”. I’ll return back to autobio things, but for now I hope you have enjoyed my series about architecture school.

Thanks for reading!

five years of webcam photos
Comics & Zines

Third Year of Architecture School: A Zine

Elizabeth Clapp

Hello once again! This is a lil comic to encapsulate my third year of architecture school. It’s optional but if you’d like to read in order, here is my 2020 Second Year of Architecture School zine, 2019 First Year of Architecture School zine, and prior to that I tested the waters with my 2018 Senior Year (of high school) zine.

Now for some reflection on both the zine and the school year:

  • I used the same workflow as last year- sketching page by page, taking photos when needed (I bypassed the scanner this year), arranging the panels on InDesign, making canvases on FireAlpaca to fit in those panels, and then drawing and importing back into InDesign.
  • For some reason my computer, which has always been touch screen but also has a pen, finally allowed me to draw with my finger for the first time. I think it must have been the program that updated. So I ditched the pen this year and just used my finger. Is that I good or bad thing, I’m not sure, but it brought me back to my public-school-issued-iPad roots.
  • Due to the lack of physical pin-ups, I tried something new with the cover which instead features a collage of a few Miro boards.

Third year Design was a good progression from the first two years. We brought in more consideration of the community we were serving (through designing multigenerational housing and a community center) and the environment (transformation into a flood shelter). We also played around with different concepts and materials, though I’m definitely missing the space and resources that I have in the studio. Consultants for façade, MEP, and structure came in after midterms and provided us feedback which brought our buildings closer and closer to reality. The inclusion of consultants was really informative but it could be rough at times balancing the required systems and design progression.

The third year is the end of the ‘core’ curriculum in which all of our classes kind of work on top of or alongside one another (for instance Building Services has us integrate things like fire sprinklers, calculate the number of light fixtures, that type of thing into our building which we were creating in Design class. Construction Documents has us redraw our Rhino file from Design into Revit. The list goes on). I haven’t heard much about the next two years (beyond the Rome study abroad program) and how design will be.

As it stands, I’m supposed to be in person for the Fall, still with some online classes, and once again living in the dorms. Vaccinations are required and I’m hopeful that we can remain in person. There is such a stark contrast between New York (where my school just lifted the mask requirement for outdoor spaces) and the things I’m seeing down here in South Carolina (which has never once had a state-issued mask mandate and now it’s banned to require masks).

I’m looking forward to being in the city again, and seeing fellow classmates for the first time in over a year. It’s very weird to think it’s been so long and all of the upperclassmen I knew have now graduated (minus the fifth year architecture people).

As always thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments or on Instagram!

Comics & Zines

Senior Year: A Zine

Elizabeth Clapp

Hello everyone!

Since Instagram only allows up to 10 photos and it didn’t like my image ratio, I had to find another way to post this online. So I made this ‘blog’, which can now become my dumping ground for more long-form content.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy my Google Slides rendition of this lil project that encapsulates the last few months of my senior year.

There’s an auto-advance timer on it for a minute (I couldn’t take it off) so just an FYI.

Here’s the Online Version from above if the Google Slides above doesn’t work for you. And if, for some reason, you have the desire to print this, here’s a Printable Version (it’s meant to be double sided & it took me forever to figure it out).

I hoped you enjoyed it, and if ya did let me know in either the comments below or on instagram (@elclapp), I’m genuinely curious.

Thanks for reading!

 

P.S. There’s another post on this blog already if you’d like to read it, it’s more ‘blog-like’