Feast – The Guardian Supplement

As the Feast is a supplement to a newspaper, and mine is a fanzine, I cannot fully compare the two, as they are aimed at different markets. However, there are some comparisons I can make between them.

Comparing the flatplan from the ‘Feast’ Supplement from The Guardian with my own, I feel that Feast is laid out much better. I have been very rigid with the way I have laid out my images, only crossing the central gutter twice with the double page spreads, whereas Feast seems to flow much better. Another thing which Feast achieves better than my fanzine, in terms of flow, is the section with the six cakes over two-and-a-half spreads. By going into half a spread; visually; it becomes uncomfortable, and it subtly coerses the reader to continue to the next segment. I think the one spread which matches is pages two and three, which uses a single page bleed, accompanied with a drop caption and type.

Feast uses forty-five images, while I only use twenty-three. I feel though, looking at it this way, that it would not have worked so well if I had used any more, or any less.

Model Confirmation

This did take twenty five emails, and a frantic phone call on the Saturday before the shoot to double check that I had confirmed a model, but it turns out that contacting DAM Model Management proved fruitful.

From the list of models I was given, the model who I chose, Kyle, was unable to make the shoot. The second model I chose, Matt, who was confirmed for a few days, but the agency made a point of being able to cover a small expenses fee, which by this point, I was willing to provide if it meant I would have a better chance of finding a model. I set myself a limit of £20, but made the first offer of £10. I was asked to consider another newer model, Daniel, as Matt had been busy shooting in the recent past. I confirmed Daniel as my model, and eventually offered £20 in travel expenses. I passed on the details for the shoot – when and where to meet, what to wear etc, as well as my phone number. I didn’t hear back from Hassan after sending those details, but a quick phone call on Saturday morning confirmed everything was all set.

I feel more settled about this shoot now, but I can’t felt but think I’ve spent most of my energy (and stress) on the process of finding and booking a model, rather than the shoot itself. I have enough time to run through the lighting setups mentally, as well as familiarise myself further with the five images I have planned.

Type over Image

Thinking about one of the requirements for the brief, in which I need to have type over an image, I wanted to go further than just have a quote centred over an image like I have done earlier in the fanzine.

I had originally intended to use this design element in one of the double page spreads, however, this did not work with the image I had chosen to use on the one spread I did have. However, now that plans have changed and I have removed one of the sections, I had enough space for a second double page spread, which I can now use to have type over the image. The images below show my thought process thus far, with the final image acting as the overlay I am most leaning towards currently.

Throughout this fanzine, I have used the ‘justify all lines’ alignment for text, and I wanted to have something quite bold for this overlay, so I chose the Futura Bold typeface,  and increased the font size so that it would fill the upper half of the guides. However, the ‘a’ in ‘wharf’ slightly overlaps the centre of the spread. I tried to correct this by moving the edges of the text box to the initial margins, yet the problem persisted. Instead, I tried using some left and right orientations, while also spacing each letter out. My thinking was that, as there are two double-page spreads in a row, I would be able to adopt the same style on the different image, just switching the side of the page the type was located.

However, the type moves down onto a third line. So, I removed the spaces from the type, which left me with this. I chose to reduce the opacity so as not to detract from the images themselves, while leaving enough space for any other type I may wish to add.

Arnos Grove

As the images I shot of Greenwich Town Hall proved to be unsuccessful for my fanzine, I decided to venture out to Arnos Grove Station for the remaining image.

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Armed with only wide lenses (Sigma 10-20mm and a Samyang 24mm), I had trouble focussing in on any particular details of the station building itself, however I am pleased with these images, and the way they have come out after they were processed through Capture One.

In the context of the fanzine, the image I chose works even better. When compared to the other images, it gives a sense of the style, while also leaving enough details out to want to draw people further into the fanzine. One image, however, has me questioning this decision. I am torn as to whether I should use the image above, or use image 3, which gives a wider sense of place, but also potentially gives too much away.

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Image 2 doesn’t give enough information away; while I am not happy with the composition of image 4, with the bus stop pillar being cut off at the bottom of the image.

Issues with Finding Models

I have hit a few problems in finding models for MONO.

Still wishing to stick with NII agency I have been continually following up asking for my two models’ availability for January 31st; the last non-automated email I received from Campbell Addy from Nii being 12/12/17, asking me for a few examples of my portraiture work, and mentioning that he was still waiting to hear from the models whom I had chosen.

Still planning to keep my options open, however, I have also contacted Select Agency, BMA Modelling, NEV Models, as well as Base Models; asking if they have any male models available for testing on January 31st.

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I heard from a friend of mine who had also contacted Nii, saying that Nii were looking for photographers of a higher standard to offer models to; so I can only assume that this is the reason they stopped emailing me a month ago.

However, since then, I asked on the Ravensbourne Digital Photography Facebook group for more suggestions for agencies I could contact. I received several new suggestions, as well as being put in contact with an agent from DAM Models. He seemed much more forthcoming in offering models that may be available.

I am hoping this will actually lead somewhere, unlike the other agencies I have contacted.

Fanzine Printing

QUOTES

I have been recently been gathering quotes for print costs for this fanzine. I planned on finding local printers, ideally in Greenwich; and fortunately, there are many to be found.

I first contacted a company called Rival Colour. The first problem I had with this company was the fact they did not allow single print runs. I was only able to get a quote for a batch of 50 or 100.

When asked for a quote, for 50 copies (24 A4 pages, 300gsm cover, 170gsm inside pages, saddle-stitched, with a proof), I ended up with a cost of over £200. Which is far too high.

The second company I contacted, SBS Printing, seemed immediately more welcoming simply for the fact they were based at Greenwich University. When asked for a quote with the same specifications, they returned with something much more reasonable, which makes me far more inclined to use them to print this fanzine.

When asked about being able to print a 22-page fanzine, they mentioned only being able to print in increments of four, so either 20 or 24 pages. I will have to add two more pages somewhere, most likely as a double page spread. They also provide their own specifications for printing.

SCATTERPROOF

Using what I have shot so far, I created a scatterproof PDF with my lightest, darkest, and most detailed images. This proof was printed on 100gsm paper, which, while lighter than the actual paper for the fanzine, still gives a good idea of what to expect from the printer.

The image of the Tate Modern is the image I was expecting to come out worst, however, all of the detail in the shadows, and in the brickwork still remains when viewed close up, and at a distance. The remaining images also retain shadow and highlight detail, with the colours matching fairly closely to when they are viewed on screen. I was expecting there to be some difference in colour, as the images aren’t being viewed with a backlight through a screen. However, there aren’t really any major issues with colour balance. The faint blue hue in the right-hand image is only as a result of me taking a photograph of the proof, rather than a printing error.

Fanzine Update

After having shot some more content for the contemporary spreads of the fanzine, I went ahead and began to write the body text and arrange the images on the page to see how they could fit. My original intention was to begin the body text about a quarter of the way up the page, across four columns. However, this led to there being too much negative space on the page above the text, as well as on the page previous.

I decided to move all of the text over to the left-hand page, and created png cutouts of two images I had shot, so I could experiment with the text wrap feature. I originally had trouble figuring out how to properly align the type, but eventually found that I needed to change the contour option setting to ‘detect edges’. I feel this had worked quite well. In the screenshot above, I set the top offset to 8mm away from the image, after finding that setting it to 11mm made the type look lost (and also removed a good section of what I had written), and setting it to 5mm left me with too much space after the type.

11mm

5mm

I wanted to create a heading for this spread which fit my whole ‘designed’ idea. Originally, I had intended to create a drop shadow effect by duplicating the header, and each time reducing the opacity; however, this just resulted in me giving myself a headache.

This didn’t really work well with the page layout, either, detracting attention away from the imagery and body. Instead, I opted to, as the title suggests, go for something more contemporary. The page is fairly minimal when it came to design elements, so I felt the title didn’t need to be so flashy. I decided to space the title across two columns (including the spaces between them), and added a ten-degree skew; this created what I feel to be quite a slick and modern feel to the title, which matches the architectural style being written about in this section.

I also decided to remove the Postmodern section of the fanzine, because, as an architectural style, it is not something that is so prevalent in the city.

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After receiving a printing quote, I have found out that I need to reintroduce two pages in order for SBS Printing to be able to print the fanzine.

Type: Serif or Sans Serif?

Serif and sans serif fonts both have their advantages and disadvantages. Visually, a serif font can be distinguished from a sans-serif font by the small lines which trail from the edges of letters, known as serifs. These make it easier for the brain to process each letter faster and thus be able to read sentences faster as a result; as there is a greater distinction between each letter.

Because of this, serif fonts are better for printed text and legibility, while Serif fonts are better suited to the screen and for emphasis (or for small text).

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Since I have started to write and insert the copy for the fanzine, I have been having trouble on deciding on a suitable font to use. I am currently using Athelas, a serif font, for the copy, which works well as the body, but when the size is increased, and made bold and italicised for the drop quote, it looks horrible. I need to make sure all drop quotes are in Futura from now on.

 

For any other type which has been used, I have used Futura, a sans serif font. It is much cleaner in comparison to Athelas and creates a contemporary feel.

Booking Models

I first began searching for modelling agencies back in October, long before the shoot dates were ever announced. A friend of mine mentioned that I should look into Nii Agency; the second time this agency had some up as the founder, Campbell, had featured in a video shared on Aula. I emailed them, and they sent me a pack with the models that were on their roster that needed testing. I couldn’t act upon this because I didn’t know when the shoot would be, so I was only able to give vague details, which weren’t useful.

However, after finding out that the shoot for MONO would take place on January 31st, I emailed Nii again, and they were able to send through another pack with new faces (there were at least fifty models on there, so I wasn’t going to have a hard time when it came to choice.)

I liaised with Matias, who I am sharing the studio space with, and potentially sharing models with in a worse case scenario, the model had chosen, as I wanted to make sure we had a variety of models to ensure our images would be as different as possible. I decided to choose two models, for variety, and in case one of them doesn’t show up.

Flatplan Update

I have removed one movement – Georgian, and combined Neo-Futurism into Contemporary. This has allowed me to spread out the remaining movements onto larger spreads, making the rest of the fanzine look less compact.