Zine Q&A

After the last long post, I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Here are some of the questions I received via Instagram, Threads, and Discord. If you have any follow-ups, feel free to drop them in the comments!

1. Adam loved the zine! How long did it take you to decide on the subject for your first zine?

   Thank you! Well, it was actually quite quick. I have been working on the events project for over a year and when taking a moment to review progress so far, my work from Carnival just stood out. I guess the other way to look at it was that I didn’t have the idea to create a zine and then to pick the topic, it was the topic that created the idea of a zine.
   

2. How did you find sequencing and what went through your mind in the process?

   LOVED the sequencing. The two things to consider were the general flow of the zine and then how the images are placed.
   
   The flow was essentially from day to evening, from peaceful to party to sketchy. It was an obvious flow for me, but the placement of the images was really fun. This section is where the most time was spent, trying different combinations of pairings, spacing of double-pagers, positions of images on the page and potential black “breather” pages. How things are placed can really give the zine a different feel.
   
   Some ideas that ran through my mind (and made it into the zine) were: (a) side-by-side images needed to have some connection to each other (b) consider potential connections that carry through to a following page (c) which images look better double paged but how does that impact having pages in multiples of four (d) gutter impact on double page spreads, which resulted in most not being dead centre (e) a blank breathing page to give an image some space to breathe.
   

3. Did you have a theme for the zine and did it change as you created your sequence?

   I guess my theme was in and around the Carnival, not the parade itself. This is essentially the same approach I have taken with the rest of my broader “events” project. The sequencing made no impact really.
   

4. Did you send early drafts to anyone for feedback, if so, did you feel any changes suggested would benefit or difer your zine and did you use them?

   Oh, for sure! I mentioned it in my previous blog post, but this was critical to how the zine ended up. Of course, not all feedback was actioned, but a lot was, which included adding in some images I had previously discounted, new image pairings I hadn’t previously considered. It also confirmed some of the ideas I had. I can confidently say without feedback the zine wouldn’t have been as good.
   

5. Did you have a hard time deciding on which paper to print on?

   This was a tough one! I did a few test prints on different types of paper and different thickness. I found the silk looked better on some of the higher contrast images but overall, it wasn’t necessary and I preferred the feel to the uncoated. It also suited the content better. On the paper thickness front, I went thicker in one test print and found the zine didn’t close properly, so I took it down to 150 gsm and it was just right.
   
   All my test and final printing was with Mixam so I’m not sure if it would be the exact same answer elsewhere.
   

6. How did you know when it was finished and ready for publishing? Was it easy to stop tweaking and overthinking, to step away once done?

   That’s the million-dollar question! I have a bit of a “fail fast and learn” approach to life so I didn’t have too many issues with overthinking. I did put A LOT of thought into the sequencing, but I didn’t find it overthinking as such, it’s a very important part of the process. I think as this was also a bit of a testing the printing water moment, it also helped stop overthinking. If this was a book, then I think I would be at much higher risk of overthinking.
   

7. If you could start over making your first zine, what would you do differently?
   Surprisingly, not much! Maybe I would just get on with things earlier. That said, the delay actually aligned my timeline with Josh’s zine, which turned out to be a blessing.
   
   I think I would probably spend less time sequencing 6x4 printed images and just playing around on the laptop. I use Lightroom CC but I know Lightroom Classic allows you to mock up a zine inside the program, which would work out better than using PowerPoint, so I would probably investigate using that.
   
   I have to say “surprisingly, not much” is mainly thanks to being able to stand on the shoulders of giants. All the content that is out there online and from other people I’ve spoken to in person have been a massive help and helped me avoid mistakes upfront.
   

8. Now that you have made your first zine, how long do you think it will be before you start your own cult?

   Haha, is that what everyone else is doing? I’m not sure I’m charismatic enough nor hold any unorthodox beliefs, unless you consider believing Arsenal will win the quadruple* this year. On the topic of zines though, I think it will be a while until my next one. From later this month, I’m going to be focusing much more on the Arsenal project but I’m a long way off on that one.
   

9. How many pints went into making the zine?

   If I added the cost of those to the total cost of the zine, this whole exercise is probably a loss-making activity. But a good one.

Please do let me know in the comments if you have any other questions! I do still have an extremely limited number of zines available, so if you would like to grab a copy, you can find it here.

*Quadruple = Most Red Cards, Most riduculous red cards, Longest time taking throw-ins, Best merchandise