Alone in New York
Alone in NYC is a zine written and designed for a project that challenged us to use image and typography together to tell a visual story. I chose to tell the story of a girl who daydreams about moving to New York City, imagining the person she could become and the life she could create for herself. As the story unfolds, New York becomes more than a place she dreams about. It represents the possibility of choosing her own direction and becoming the person she wants to be. Please read more below.
2026
Editorial, OCAD Project
Project Notes
Problem
The challenge was to build a narrative through the relationship between image and typography. I wanted the design to capture the feeling of being inside a daydream while creating a clear emotional progression throughout the zine.
The story centres on a girl imagining a life in New York before she has ever experienced it. I was interested in the romanticized version of the city that exists in her imagination and how that imagined world could shape the visual language of the zine.
Process
I developed the visual direction around the idea of New York as a dreamlike “what if” space. I used a limited palette of blues throughout the zine to create visual cohesion while giving the city a sense of unreality, reflecting how it exists in the girl’s imagination.
The imagery moves between recognizable New York scenes, crowds, silhouettes, and moments of solitude. I used these contrasts to build the city as both an expansive, energetic place and an intimate space for the girl to imagine herself in.
For the typography, I chose a typewriter-inspired treatment to give the writing a personal and nostalgic quality, as though the story had been written by the girl herself. I carried this feeling into the physicality of the zine through texture, repetition, and subtle imperfections, giving the pages a handmade quality.
I integrated the typography and imagery throughout the layouts, using scale, placement, and pacing to move the story forward visually. The final line, “maybe it’s time I choose you New York City,” becomes the turning point, revealing that choosing New York is ultimately about choosing the direction she wants for herself.
Result
The final zine turns an internal daydream into a tangible visual narrative, using the relationship between image and typography to make the girl’s imagined world feel personal and immersive. The result is a story that moves beyond simply depicting a place, using design to communicate a character’s emotional perspective and the moment she begins to see her imagined future as something she could actually choose.
Credits
Production
Image Treatment & Editing: Natasha Lewis
Writing: Natasha Lewis
Source Photography: Eduardo Ramos, Ryoji Iwata, Yura Forrat, Iviana Camacho
