VANCOUVER SPECIAL ZINE


2024
zine 
community  
photoshop 
 Zine centred on the land and its community. Inspired by the iconic 'Vancouver Special' houses found around East Van, it serves as an ironic response to the current housing crisis—much like the one that prompted the introduction of these houses in the 1970s. The project combines Photoshop manipulation techniques with found imagery collages to convey its message through a visual narrative.


stage 1. 
field research
The prompt for this project was to focus it on our community. While taking a walk for inspiration, I realized that my neighbourhood was full of ‘Vancouver Special’ houses all around, so I knew that was the topic.

stage 2.
brainstorming
the concept
The new challenge was—what about these houses? What did they represent? Why were they there? 
How should they be depicted? This required extensive brainstorming, concept development, and 
at least 3–4 themed versions.




stage 3.
retrieving imagery
After landing on the right concept, the new inspiration was 70s catalogues. From furniture, home good 
and toys, I wanted to mimic the layout, graphic elements and materiality of the paper.



stage 4.
collage and
layout creation
Now the zine was more about putting together collages rather than layouts on InDesign, so I shifted 
my focus and worked to adjust appearance of the imagery, curate content and create a narrative 
around the zine.



stage 5.  
printing and binding

The materiality of the zine's paper was essential to me, so I took on the production myself. I sourced a thin, cream-toned paper from a local supply store and printed 12 copies of my black-and-white zine on a home printer. After assembling the books, I added handwritten notes to the copies that would be distributed to ‘Vancouver Special’ homes in my community.



stage 6.
distribution

I distributed my zine in two ways. I left around four copies at Lucky’s, a local comic store in Vancouver. 
The remaining eight copies were placed in the mailboxes of the houses featured in my zine, each accompanied by a note explaining my project.




final outcomes