BY
CRIMSON
FOSTER

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GIRLS OF POP

A collaboration with the recently founded music zine Girls of Pop, to fully articulate and realise their visual aesthetic of accessibility, creative collaborations, and elevating women in the music industry.

Girls of Pop is an independent music zine founded in late 2024 and curated by London-based graphic designer Ruby Usiskin. It’s still very early days for the zine, given they’ve only released two issues as of May 2025, meaning many are unaware of the zine, and its team is still tiny. This means the main issue is expanding the zine and establishing it as a brand among music listeners.

SOME CONTEXT FOR WHAT’S BEEN DONE (BEFORE ME)

The upcoming zine issue is underway, and with Ruby suffering from chronic illness, her vision includes establishing a larger creative team to contribute photography, writing, interviews, etc., and help curate the DIY ethos of the zine’s brand. She also hopes to increase accessibility for disabled readers.

Ruby is someone who strongly supports physical media and the tactile experience of owning art, which can be lost on social media, so she doesn’t limit the zine to just an online one. This is supported by the collage-and-scrapbook aesthetic of the first two issues of Girls of Pop. The zine’s voice is incredibly personal, informed, and focused on elevating female artists.

THE SOLUTION

Ruby wanted a set of concert photography stills and a live music review of a recent concert by indie-rock musician Freak Slug.

THE ASSETS/MOCK-UPS

9:16 Instagram Story Mock-Up is designed to reflect both intimacy and presence.

The brand identity centres on a clear psychographic profile of introspective, creatively minded 18–30-year-olds drawn to independent creators, emotional nuance, and visual storytelling. The photographs prioritise the stage's diegetic lighting to maintain an authentic atmosphere for live music. The unpolished imagery mirrors the audience’s values, favouring self-exploration and authenticity over spectacle, creating a quiet space that invites personal interpretation and emotional engagement.

The concept leans on the premise that concert photography is a form of documentary photography, thereby presenting the real-world experiences of women in music. The tight photographic compositions focus on Freak Slug’s emotions and movements, positioning the Girls of Pop brand as thoughtful, informed and creatively independent. This approach helps connect artists, audiences, and the zine's community with this lived-in feel rather than overt branding. This all demonstrates a tangible example of what contributions from Ruby’s ever-growing team will look like.

9:16 Instagram Story Mock-Up

4:5 Instagram Carousel Mock-Up designed to share snippets from the review in a scroll-friendly visual rhythm.

Ruby's design for the printed zine features collages of scraps, paper, and ribbons. This tactile style is mirrored in this mock-up of a carousel-style Instagram post. The text layout is intended to be clear and easy to read, which aligns with Ruby’s desire to increase accessibility for disabled readers.

The images are edited to mimic film photography with the grain, diffusion, and sepia tones added in post. These tactile, story-driven visuals mirror how modern brands market to younger, visually literate audiences online.

Tactile-looking carousel posts on Instagram, a platform allowing authentic communication with your audience, ensure the aesthetic cohesion of a zine celebrating and documenting women's tangibly relatable stories in music. A visual platform is a tool in the visual strategy to promote this zine's visual identity.

9:16 Instagram Story Mock-Up

The carousel was exported to Adobe Premiere Pro and keyframe-animating over an Instagram screenshot, so it appears to be scrolling.

The review presented in the carousel uses layered textures, such as photoshopped duct tape, to maintain the tactile, handmade quality of the brand.

Based on the original Girls of Pop logo, the three variants were crafted for overlaying on social media posts.

Typewriter-1950-Tech-Mono-Neg references Ruby’s roots in zine-making, adding a human element via this handwriting-like typeface. The fractured, layered composition mirrors her fragmented but resilient narrative, given her chronic illness. The love heart in the second “O” alludes to emotionality, with the light red colour palette suggesting femininity, warmth, and defiance.

THE EVALUATION

The initial response to this brief centred on a friend's novel, but logistical challenges in securing models prompted a pivot to the Girls of Pop collaboration. This redirection allowed the concert photography and live music review to be adapted to meet the assignment's criteria.

The social media rollout from Girls of Pop features the photographic assets.

Surprisingly, the Girls of Pop project aligned well with the assignment, creating a compelling case study in accessibility and creativity. The final images capture the zine's aesthetic, utilising a vivid colour palette and scrapbook-inspired DIY elements reminiscent of film photography. The cohesive colour palette fosters authenticity and personal resonance.

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The social media rollout for their upcoming zine began as this assignment wrapped up, with the Girls of Pop Instagram utilising the photographic assets as part of said rollout.

Ruby’s vision prioritised a DIY feel, guiding the aesthetic and strategy that strengthened the Girls of Pop brand.