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.
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.
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.