STUDIO BRIEF 2// Freethinker Zine InDesign

I started this zine layout with a simple 6x7 grid, this will allow me to fit three columns of 8point text across a page or two columns of 10point without ruining the number of words per line. I planned on having the text justified left so this grid size to column width ratio was important to get right first time.

The cover design started as a hypnotic spiral. I thought that the sceptics magazine may be viewing the cults practices as brainwashing or 'hypnotic' to easily persuaded individuals, this could be a regular feature within the larger magazine so could be a uniform background patter for the pull-out zine.

The title, which I have applied over the top of the cover spiral, is a visual mash up including the cults logo and text. I have made sure that the words 'Servatology' and 'Cult' are the clearest on the cover. One thing I am concerned about is that the logo may look to much like a 'G' rather than the 'C' it is suppose to represent here. The problem here is that without the prior knowledge of the cults logo its context here will not be understood fully. Luckily the word 'Gult' doesn't really have a meaning in the English language and 'Cult' is quite recognisable so hopefully it will still be read like the later. Unfortunately 'Gult' is a derogatory term for a group of people from a certain Provence of India, but the link is so tenuous that this shouldn't really matter.

I wanted the zine to really stand out amongst the pages of the larger freethinker magazine, for this reason I have chosen yellow for the cover (and possibly inside stock also). Yellow also looks great with black and is a sign for danger; people should find the cult dangerous or disturbing.

The copy of this text is below; it introduces the core beliefs of the Cult and its god Servo. It begins to analyse the cult however more of that will come later into the zine. The aim here was to write a good amount of content that can really expand the story behind the cult. I also introduce the readers to the Cult leader here and set up a whole physiological back story for him, involving a mental breakdown. This description also goes to some lengths to link the cult to an analogy of consumerism and even capitalism.  

Hello, and Welcome to this Church Of Servatology special edition of the freethinker.

     This article will introduce the secretive Church of Servatology to many of our readers for the first time. The few who have read about the cult before may have heard reports that the organisation has been pushing for recruitment in the last few months, coinciding with the release of a ‘handbook’ that has made an appearance in many city centres over the busy Easter shopping period. It is during this period that the writers at the freethinker were graced with our very own copy of said handbook and we have been fascinated and terrified by the Church Of Servatology ever since.
    First things first; the core belief of the Cult is that  any advertisement that is presented to us through screen based media is a perfect vision of heaven. This could be anything from a whitewashed toothpaste ad on ITV to an annoying Diet Coke pop-up at the start of a YouTube video; if it’s commercial advertisement and it’s on a screen then it’s Gods vision of heaven. The Servatologists, or the ‘Saved’ as they like to call themselves, believe that it is their God, ‘Servō’ who beams these messages onto your screens, and that these messages are his commandments on how to live a perfect and holy life. The idea is that the more you consume, the more ‘perfect’ you become in Servōs’ eye’s. From here on in the Cult’s beliefs are only subtly different from most other religious dogma. If a Servatologist follows Gods commands he will go to Heaven, revealingly called the ‘Realm of Eternal Satisfaction’ by members and a bad Servatologist is sent to their very own hell; the ‘Land of Aberration’. ‘Aberration’ meaning any deviation from the normal, it sounds like quite a nice place in our eyes...
    The Cult has been steadily growing for a number of years now since it’s creation in the early 80s by Ron Bernays, an intern of Edward Bernays during the 60s, who had his name legally changed towards the end of the PR legends life. It has been theorised by many that the creation of the Church of Servatology and subsequent name change was a perverted way for Ron to honour a dieing Edward Bernays life legacy. The theory has traction as Edward worked his whole life to further the goals of mass-consumerism; it is entirely possible that the whole Cult is a massive public relations experiment that grew from a single mans twisted desire to best his friend and mentor. 
    In this respect the Cult works as a analogy for consumerism in  modern society, it applies the dogma of an Abrahamic religions jealous God to modern societies desire to consume. The cult re-enforces the wishes of corporations on the consumer and takes advantage of the weakest in society in a threatening and malevolent way. We have found that the few in the top echelons of the Cult find themselves the rich minority (lets call them the Church of Servatologies 1%), whilst the mass ranks of followers are finding it harder and harder to keep up with the commands of their God as he orders them to buy more and more consumer goods every hour of every day. Many regular Servatologists have been forced into bankruptcy by their belief in Servatology, whilst the higher powers reap in profits from the Servatology Counselling Scheme, a particularly revealing course that the Church runs to indoctrinate new members. New members must subscribe to these courses if they want to go to the Realm of Eternal Satisfaction when they die. The Courses cost around £9,500 and members will require three to become full ‘Level 3’ members. Money is also harvested from the followers through the sale of cult-branded items; baseball hats, hoodies, shirts, badges, iPhone cases and cosmetics to name but a few. Here the Cult is seen to become its own meta-brand, perpetuating its own belief system to further its own profits as well as consumer industry profits as a whole. 

This page compares the Church of Servatology to Scientology and Raelism. It introduces core beliefs as well as some facts about how the churches handle themselves as businesses and organisations. The first aim of this page was to desensitise the reader to how mental these cults beliefs can get, by explaining the beliefs of Scientology and Raelism, Servatologies understanding on how the world works is almost believable in comparison. The page also tackles the costing and sizes of the cults in some bar charts that sit on the right. This compares the cults sizes, some would argue that Scientology is much larger, the US Governments estimation is 60,000, whilst the church itself says around 6 Million, although this is anyone who has ever shown a basic interest or bought a DVD or book. The content Explains as follows:

Servatology:
Ron Bernays
Born 1945 as John Utah. Worked in PR and marketing before founding Servatology in 1983.

Believes that any on-screen advisement is a direct commandment, from a God called ‘Servō’, on how to live a full and holy life. That the more consumer goods a person buys, the more moral said person becomes.
Fun Fact: Some naughty Servatologists will be punished and tormented in hell by facebook rape.


Scientology:
L. Ron Hubbard
Born 1911. Was a prominent science fiction writer before founding Scientology in 1954.

Believes humans are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. That a persons soul lives on another planet before travelling to earth as part of a reincarnation process.
Fun Fact: This church runs hotels and a cruise ship aimed at giving Scientologists a “spiritual break” in return for vast amounts of money.


Raëlism
Raël
Born 1946 as Claude Vorilhon. Was a sports car journalist until his ‘abduction’ in 1973. Founded the Raëlian Movement in ‘74.

Believes that humans were created by aliens called the Elohim. Previous religious prophets such as Jesus and Buddah were also aliens sent to spread a message of peace so that Earth is safe enough for the aliens eventual return to the planet.
Fun Fact: Linked to a fraudulent human cloning service called Clonaid.

This Page explains the locations of the Servatology Locations. All of the locations are shared by major shopping centres. I did this to fully link the Cult into consumerist culture. The Zine keeps distance from whether the Cult is actually run by the corporations that operate these centres but it is suggested at the start of the article. The layout is very simple with the map on the left and details on the right. I did consider and plan to have the map span both pages, however in practice I was worried that the numbers around northern England would be eaten by the centre of the page fold. Also there is a few too many locations to have them floating around the map. This layout neatens up the design and allows for a larger amount of information and a non-dominating map .

Part of my idea to create a successful cult and link it to consumerism was to have it have a strong visual identity; for it to become its own brand. If I had a bit more time I could have produced a few of these items in real life, however producing them in photoshop is fine for what I need them for here. As well as building an identity I have used the items to expand on the story of Servatology, and a few of the theories surrounding it. Items like the hat and badge present the cult as entirely a brand, however items like the toothpaste remind the reader that the cult strives for the 'perfect body' look that advertisement portrays. The box is there to link the cult to a global manufacture and supply chain, bringing topics like globalisation into the lore behind the Cult.

This page of the handbook uses many of the arguments from my Essay and things I have learnt about panopticism and the gaze to analyse the cults current and old logo. The useful thing here is that I got to bring back the old logo to give a bit more history to the cult. The body copy explains the psychology behind using an all seeing eye, a power button and the result of combining the two before moving on to the old logo.

Servatology strives to build a strong brand identity so that it can gain a foothold in the religious marketplace as well as the consumer one. It is this that lead the church to develop the ‘power eye’ logo in 1985. A much simplified version of the original ‘watching eye’.

The human eye brings with it a plethora of connotation and mysticism. In the context of religion the Eye, or Gods Eye is seen as a symbol of a higher powers everlasting vigilance or gaze. It is this panoptic gaze which ensures the masses believe they are being watched by God, which allows the religious elite to retain a large amount of power and control over the population. Servatology employs the use of the gazing eye for exactly this reason; it is to remind the churches followers that Servō, their God, is always watching them. Conversely the eye symbol can also take the role of the average Servatologists gaze whilst watching one of Servōs’ screen based sermons during the advert break.

Like the eye, the power button, also takes a double meaning in the make-up of the Servatology logo. Firstly it’s a power button, something that a good Servatologist will use only twice a day; once upon waking up to watch advertisement on TV or internet, and once  again before leaving the house to purchase the days selected consumer goods. The power symbol could also contain connotations of institutional power, or the power of a God or religious organisation over the individual. This is true in the case of Servatology where the individual must submit to the power of ‘Servō’ with blind faith in his wisdom and commands as well as having faith in the churches officials and practices.   

When the eye and power symbols are combined we get the Servatologist power eye symbol. This is used as the one and only symbol for the church to avoid any brand identity crisis amongst followers or any prospective recruits. The combination of the two symbols sends a very powerful message; that you are always being watched and the thing that is watching you is powerful as well as technologically advanced. The churches decision to use a symbol from the digital age is deliberate. The intention is that potential followers will see this religion as a more modern alternative to classic or traditional religion and more in-fitting with their current lifestyle and habits. 

The Church of Servatologies first logo was an altogether more terrifying design. It was used for a short time from 1983-85, when Ron Bernays probably decided the cult needed a more down to earth, slightly less obvious, visual identity. The same principle applied with the gazing eye symbolism however in this logo the eye is forced open with biceps. This act of forcing the eye open was a reference to the followers orders to watch on-screen advertisement all day. The logo also nods towards Jeremy Benthams  proposed panopticon in its ring of cells circling the central eye. In this context the eye takes on the role of Servō, the God, and the cells become the followers being watched over and gazed upon for eternity. The Latin inscribed around the circumference translates to “ The Greatest Good, For the Greatest Number”, a slight contradiction to the cults practices in reality, although perhaps not in their own minds.  

This pages purpose is to link the cult handbook to the article, I thought that by giving the pictogram and a short explanation here a reader may be more inclined to read the Cult Handbook. The page also gives me an opportunity to display the pictogram as a set, and see how they work together to explain slightly complex concepts.

The purpose of the recently surfaced handbook was to teach the public the 14 Tenets of the Church of Servatology. Accompanying the written Tenets are 14 illustrative pictogram depicting the messages to the reader. The pictogram are possibly used to further ingrain the message into the mind of the reader, and with the use of imagery the reader will spend longer thinking and reading over the booklet, ingesting its content.  The Handbook introduces the British public to some rather unusual concepts and rather ridiculous ideas, however it is aimed at converting the most vulnerable amongst us. It Covers the usual notions of religious doctrine like life and death, heaven and hell as well as general rules. There are also a few more specific and outlandish claims, like the fast food served in heaven and the facebook rape hell stories, we aren’t convinced.

The final page introduced the cult hierarchy to the reader. This page lists how the cult is built. The hierarchy itself is based on a mix between the catholic church and Scientology. I wrote about this earlier in another post detailing how the hierarchy works. Here a few things have changed. For example the different levels are now just levels of membership and the Alderman operate as priests. A new tier of 'Watchers' takes the spot the Alderman used to fill. This is all explained in the booklet.

The back cover is a sort of opinion poster that turns the cult logo up to its switch position and asks the reader to turn it off. The idea here sums up the rest of the zine, that by criticising the cult in a realistic way the idea of its existence becomes more realistic.