Mother Nature BTS

You may have seen the odd snap of our traffic light system when zine making.

Pink - Content missing

Orange - Page elements missing

Yellow - Layout needs finalising

Green - Done

Recently we have been blurring the yellow stage to more accurately represent where the page is at. In an attempt to clarify our own system for ourselves we've added an extra step, when we are happy with content, page elements and layout but there is still something not quite right the page/spread goes through CFS (Colours, Fonts and Spacing (we are slightly amused that this is the particular abbreviation that developed as we both suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so it is super weird to hear CFS in a different context)). CFS is a lengthy and meticulous stage but has helped us perfect spreads and really make everything sing.

Here's a quick example of what we mean. We take it in turns to change all the fonts and colours that haven't been locked in, until we land on the right choice. Black Heart is much better at this part but everything is a team effort at Zanna.

How do we know when a page is perfect? Well that brings us to the final new addition to our traffic light system, purple for joy. We will keep editing a page until it brings us joy. Sometimes this has meant completely scrapping a green page and starting from scratch, but it is worth it in the end. We think this method made Zanna Zine - Words particularly great and hopefully Zanna Zine - Mother Nature will be just as good!