The Flood #5 is now available in the shop! It’s a full-color zine and visual adventure with 60 pages of creative excellence in art, design, photography, fashion, music and books that you can hold in your hands or download and watch on your screen. This is the 5th issue I’ve produced, edited, and designed with the help of several talented artists from around the world who were kind enough to share their work with me. Now I want to share with you how it’s actually made…

Once I’ve collected everyone’s work and all of the writing for the articles, I put them all together in an InDesign document. When I do this, I have to keep the final product in mind all the way through. Since I’m designing for print, I have to make sure I don’t put anything important too close to the edges or it may end up getting trimmed off when I cut them. I also have to think about how the size of the text will show up and how the colors will change to be either lighter or darker when they’re printed with actual ink.

After I’ve triple-checked everything and feel like it’s ready for print, I’ll make another InDesign document that will end up being what I send to the printer. This is the really complicated part. I have to write down a list of the pages in the order they’ll be printed so that when they’re all folded together, you’ll get a printed zine that has all of the pages in the intended order I want people to see them. When the document is complete, I upload it to the printer, and then wait about a week to receive it in the mail.

The day I receive the new zines is always such an exciting day… until I realize that the work is really just beginning! They come with white edges on every side and each issue has 15 double-sided pages. That means that there are 60 cuts that must be made before I have a finished zine. It usually takes between 5-10 minutes to do this for each issue because I have to have a very close eye to determine the best place to cut without losing any outer edge imagery or text.

Why do I even put myself through this? Because it costs twice as much for the printer to do it for me, and I pay for the printing of the zine out of pocket, without receiving any actual profit. For me, the profit is the process, the practice, and the fun of it all. Plus, I know that getting something cool in the mail is one of the most wonderful feelings a person can get.

My main weapon: this $30 paper cutter from OfficeMax. I also like to have scissors close by to trim off any tiny edges that the paper cutter misses. The saddle stitch stapler is really the best thing to use when you need to staple a zine together because you can staple it right on the fold. They are somewhat expensive as far as stapler prices go, but this thing makes my life so much easier. I’m not even sure how I’d bind them without it.

You might also see how the image on the page cuts off halfway through. These are the two images that will be in the inside of the front and back covers, so while they may not make sense together visually right now, they’ll totally make sense when I put the whole zine together…

This is what the inside of the front cover looks like when the whole zine is all together. And here is the finished product:

Throw it in an envelope, toss in a couple of other mail art goodies, slap on a mailing label, and you’ve got yourself a zine!

Preview the Issue / Get it in print ($5 + shipping) / Digital Download ($3) /
or Read More @ thefloodzine.com