Allesandra Mostyn came in and gave us a short talk about her experience with zine fairs. She began as an MMU student on what is now the graphic design course and now runs the Manchester Print Fairs!
She actually produces her own publication, The Mill Press, which she produces with her sister. The Mill Press is a quarterly journal that explores intrigue and ambiguity. They also create and publish artist books, collections of short
stories, photographic prints, poster design and hand made greeting cards
using found objects.
As a result, she sold her publication a fairs such as The Alternative Press Fair, London. At these kind of events, there were groups such aLeeds Print Co-op called Footprint. Footprint are a company that print zines for you, you send them what you want them to print, what material, quantity etc and they do it all for you! At this Press Fair though, they created a "Make a Zine in a day" workshop for people. It seems that this interaction is key in an effective and enjoyable Print/zine fair. Something we should take into consideration when setting up our space at the fair.
However, after a bad experience at a small zine fair in Trof, Manchester she decided to create her own print fair in 2011. She aimed for it to be the opposite of that fair, to be full of atmosphere, people, interest, creativity and a sense of enjoyment. The first one was held at Night and day, Oldham Street and was full of 12 sellers.
However, after considering the venue properly after the print fair happened, Mostyn changed to 2022NQ as Night and Day lacked the light needed. The previous two to date have carried on at 2022NQ. (Perhaps a good sign that the site choice chosen was a good one!) The move to 2022 further allowed more sellers as there was more space. Additionally, being in the heart of the Northern Quarter made it easy for people to access, especially those interested in zines/prints.
Having visited the 2013 print fair, I was very much impressed by the use of the restricted space. It was efficient and a creative, friendly atmosphere was evident. Even the small things such as bunting added to its originality and enjoyability.
Mostyn further discussed the business aspects of zine/print fairs. For example how to price your publications, how to display and creating 'talking points' in order to create/add interest your table and make it "special". Additionally, the use of social media seems evident in creating a buzz around our print fair, therefore tweeting, using blogs and facebook rather than just posters.
In conclusion, I found this short talk useful for the zine fair. It gave us important points for how to display and set up our table. Something we hadn't quite thought about yet.
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