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17 - 26 of November, 2008

Location: Gliptotheque-Gallery IV

Street: Medvedgradska 2

City: Zagreb, Croatia


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Rafaela Dražić (Croatia)

Thomas Keeley (USA)

Deborah Sengl ( Austria)

Damien Poulain (England)

Hector de Gregorio (Spain)

Sarah Maple (England)

John Fekner (USA)

Slang International (Germany)

Delaware (Japan)

Oliver Bishop (England)



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UnTroduction


Unzine is a monthly magazine for the expression of the minority opinion distributed via the Internet in the PDF format, bringing articles dealing with various subjects usually ignored by the mainstream media.

It is intended for the civil society and the urban culture, as well as anyone else who might find it interesting.

It has been created with the intention of compensating for the diminishing presence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the public sphere, caused by the changes on the Croatian media scene.
At the beginning of the 21st century, this scene has gotten progressively more closed off for the subject matter that was covered in the 1990s not only by the so-called alternative-culture publications, but mainstream media as well. At present, most of the Croatian print media are owned by the international publishing corporations whose operation is guided by the profit margins.

The financing of publications which dealt with subjects vital to the functioning of the public sphere during the nineties has been reduced. So has the target audience for such publications. The medium which presents itself as a logical solution in this situation is the Internet, while the appropriate publication genre through which minority opinion in society could be expressed is the so called webzine.

- Rafaela Dražić


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What You See Is Not What You Get


The content is produced by the author in her spare time, and it mainly consists of texts regarding the social scene and NGOs, various artistic and activist events and pieces of news Rafaela believes do not get visibility through other media. Or, alternatively, the author believes the media which cover such news to be non-representative or attractive to the younger audience she speaks to. She therefore presents those news pieces through the aesthetic which is closer to the target audience and sometimes flirts with behavior that questions the readability itself.
However, we should not confuse readability with communicability, especially when it comes to Rafaela. While most designers consider content to be almost a necessary evil and the text simply a gray tone which takes up space, with self-initiated work mostly as another means of self-promotion, she comes up with various ways of attracting new readers to the content she considers to be important.

- Dejan Dragosavac Ruta


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Uncommercial is not uncool


There are obstacles to this, but small budgets and print runs are not one of them. The majority of interesting culturally valuable graphic design has been since the beginning of the Twentieth Century done by people with no money but lots of passion and a desire to change the world. If you care you will do work outside in addition to your commercial clients. Why bother?
Because design has the huge potential to be a reflection and also an instigator of change through popular culture. At its best it can summarise the cultural or political thoughts of a society, it can make a society feel confident stop them looking back and have belief in 'now'

And that brings us on to Unzine designed or often 'curated' by Rafaela Drazic. This is one of those rare 'fantastic' projects. A designer (even better a woman in a male dominated world) working with honesty not separating their beliefs and thoughts from their 'job'- using there own very strong visual personal vocabulary to say something interesting, to create discussion and question.

Since first issue Unzine it hasn't stood still, unlike many projects which people start themselves full of energy and good intentions it didn¹t died under the weary schedule of 'work' , Rafaela Drazic has broadened the scope of it to collaborate with others and feature an a wide range of other artists works.

I hope that for those that are feeling weary of design that it will make see feel that it is possible to do work that challenges people and tells the truth as you see it. And to those who know very little about design, it shows that it is not just a commercial activity but can play a vital role in culture and society.

- Jonathan Barnbrook