Idea Board

We made an ideas board compiling our inspirations and layout ideas. Our paper will have 8 pages including a pullout, double-sided poster in the middle. It will be printed on the risograph so we have to consider this when designing colours. 

We think the colour scheme will be black plus one or more other colours (the risograph can only print a two-coloured image, available colours are: black, neon pink, yellow, red and blue) but this is not a final decision.

The content will be:

-an article about the Bristol Comic and Zine Fair 

-an article about London MCM

-reviews of products bought at these conventions

-an article about upcoming True Believers

-summaries of similar upcoming events

-a DIY page on how to make a small item

-a recipe page

-a double-sided, pull-out poster

Comic Conventions

We have decided that the theme of our newspaper will be comics and art festivals as they are events that our team love to attend. I will be doing my single page on True Believers (4.2.17), a small comic festival held in Cheltenham each year as our audience (fellow students) will be able to easily attend if interested.

I am also going to make a page on other similar events happening nearby, these will include:

1. DIY Cultures (London) ~may

Showcasing zines and DIY events with an emphasis on activisim and representation of black and POC issues and stories.

2. ELCAF (East London Comics & Art Festival) ~jun

Which focuses on alternative comics as well as DIY printing opportunities. It is also held at a different location each year.

3. Bristol Comic Expo ~aug

A more mainstream convention with cosplay competitions but also a focus on small comic publishers

4. Safari Festival (London) ~aug

Run by Breakdown Press and selling a range of new wave and alternative comic art. (Will have to check whether or not this is a yearly event or one-off)

5. Leeds Zine Fair ~sept

Vending vegan food as well as a range of DIY activities at the Left Bank venue. Also has free entry.

6. Thought Bubble (Leeds) ~nov

The UK's largest event of its kind, two days including extra events around the convention (however, is the most expensive of the cons I am looking at). Showing both largely-read and alternative comics.

also: Shake Bristol

Not a convention but do organize small events in and around Bristol to do with alternative comics and zines.

Research

We ordered some sample papers from The Newspaper Club to look at colour combinations, font use and layout styles.

The bold graphics used are quite effective and give the paper a professional look. The content of the samples also gave us some good points to consider about printing with colour and how best to use font size.

I also looked at other printed editorials and zines to see examples of layout and colours. Since we have decided to use the risograph printer I took the colour restriction into account and found some similar examples.

The collected examples are on my pinterest board: Newspaper Project

Planning

Chose a group to work with and started planning our newspaper project yesterday!

I have this helpful plan and now I need to research some publications that are already available (eg. zines, newspapers, art magazines etc.)