Case Study: Mallory Gevaert

I had to do an international case study/field research. It have to be an unpublished materials. So I did a brief interview with Mallory Gevaert. Let's read what she have to say.

1. Tell us your background in fanzines and publication field.

I write a biweekly zine column for alarmpress.com reviewing various types of zines.

2. Why do you write about fanzines?

They're an interesting part of publishing that a lot of people don't seem to know about, or have a lot of misconceptions about - that they're about a really narrow range of topics, or only homemade stapled contraptions etc. And I like writing about them

3. Do you think music magazines sales can be improved by using desktop publishing plus fanzine graphics?

I think fanzine graphics or any home-made type graphics can be very eyecatching, especially on a newsstand, and done right they can still look professional and slick enough to fit with a music magazine. Plus they have that DIY/punk aesthetic that's so key to a lot of modern music.

4. What formats/design aspects of fanzines that you think can be used in music magazines to enhance the aesthetic value? (eg. Handwriting, stencil, silk-screen, cut and paste, typewriter typeface, different kinda binding)

Stencil always looks really cool, and different bindings would definitely set the magazine apart from what else is on newsstands.

5. Other suggestions in design aspect for music magazines to survive in the current download craze and weblogs era?

Just using something new and interesting that doesn't look like all the other high-gloss magazines available. Music magazines covering certain genres of music can get away with using cut-and-paste covers or handwritten titles, so why don't they?

6. What do you think is lacking in websites that make printed reading material is essential to keep on being published?

Quality photos and layout are always key when I'm reading magazines, and so many websites use templates now and tend to look very similar to each other. Also, magazines are portable, which is a big help, even with iPads and phones around now.

7. What are your favorite zines and why?

My favorite zine is probably The La La Theory by Katie Haegele, because it's all about weird quirks of language and I think that's interesting. She also digs up odd information from old textbooks and things, and the aesthetic is all very old-fashioned and nice. I also like King-Cat by John Porcellino because he just writes mini comics about things that happen in his life.

8. What are the weirdest zines you've seen/read and how does it look like?

I saw some comics that were about four pages long and the size of an index card, so those were odd.