512stew—18 Perspectives on Austin’s Culture, is a visual zine published by 18 Design Juniors at the UT Austin. The 300-page book is the construction of a narrative through each students’ explorations of Austin’s cultures is displayed through photography, hand illustrations, and text. Each student was responsible for communicating a specific relationship to Austin through each chapter, and a dust jacket that doubles as a dual sided poster.

The class ran a fundraise campaign through IndieGoGo to raise the printing cost of the books, limited edition dust jackets, bookmarks, and throw a book launch party to celebrate their achievement.

512stew was an opportunity to take mass amounts of information from our surroundings and generate content that is understood by a wide audience. Each student defined a culture in Austin. We researched it, experienced it, and were called to synthesize it into an engaging story to be expressed through the medium of editorial design. Through the process of developing our design abilities exploring the city, each student gained a deeper understanding of the principles of visual communication and the experience of the publication process.

Challenges always arise in collaborative projects. One of our biggest challenges came in finding a means of publication. Through the work of a delegated production team, we were able to launch an Indiegogo campaign for $5000. The support we received was beyond expectation. We received $700 more than expected, allowing us to produce more copies of the book at a higher quality, putting our work into the hands of family, friends, staff, faculty, and libraries.

The project brief prompted each student to begin by defining either a super or sub culture observed in Austin. Because each student picked a different subject to explore, many different viewpoints of the city are displayed in the book. The topic include an exploration of public parks and natural wildlife preserved in the city; the culture created in coffee shops; an interior design based on uniquely “Austin” architecture; the accessibility of public transportation and one student’s journey around town via bus.; the iconic movies filmed here and where in the city specific scenes took place; the movement of specific races as the city grows and the gentrification of the East side of the city. Each section looks to reveal an intimate relationship with the city. The section called “Religion Is” was inspired by a students direct relationship with religion and how her own Christianity shaped her life. She identified different religions in Austin and wanted to learn and grow in her own faith by experiencing that of others. Another section, “Figure 1” took inspiration from a one thing a professor said in a regenerative architecture class. A correlation between the effect of human on earth and its slow deterioration like that of the human body was explored in a city that claims to be extremely eco-conscious. Because it was a semester long collaborative project, 512stew brings together a look at Austin unlike any other.

Through this process we have developed our design abilities and furthered our understanding of the principles of visual communication, and the experience of the publication process. We found that designers must act in many differing roles at the same time, from initial project planning (publisher), to content generating (author), to curating (editor), to designing and finally to disseminating (marketer).

Furthermore the jobs of Publisher, Chief Editor, Art Director, PR manager, et al., were delegated. The decision was made to explore crowd-funding in order to raise a fund for publish a book, and this larger budget allowed for a larger audience to receive the publication.

Each student went through a brainstorming period to determine what material was going to be explored as well as how we intended to communicate it. By hanging up inspiration in the studio we were able to work with each other to both keep a unique look to our section and remain cohesive in our ideas. From there, we all had our own process of research and discovery. There were a lot of trips out into the city, taking photographs, sketching our surroundings. Students interviewed friends, neighbors, strangers and peers in order to fully understand the topic they chose to explore. Several students experienced new places or people in the city first hand in order to relay information in the book more accurately.

As designers, we seek to be active cultural producers and the conduits through which messages are transmitted. And as conductors of communication, it is our responsibility to generate content and disseminate it to a widespread audience. 512stew shares our explorations of the different facets of Austin and celebrates Austin’s unique character.