Half-Year Goals: Part 1

Classes have begun, and therefore my third semester. I’ve already made the decision to switch some classes around, so I’ll be in this program for another two semesters. All the better to stay on top of projects, both educational and personal, and not lose my mind.

For personal projects, I’ve already begun looking at printers for zines. I could go the old school route, but I hate the idea of using my Canon imageCLASS motherfucker MF47dw to print entire zines, especially since it chokes on paper after 10 or so pages. And it prints only black and white. It’s more suited for quick prints and minimalist mockups.

I’ll make the space for a higher quality printer, but for now, I’ll spend the money to have the zines professionally printed, starting first with dummies. I’d rather pay a small fee to see how a 24-page mockup looks and feels than spend a year writing and designing a 200+-page volume, only to discover the whole thing is wonked to hell. And if I don’t decide to keep the dummy, I can give it away as an advertisement for the finished work.

So my goal for the first half of this year is to complete 24-page dummies for two zines.

A screenshot of Affinity Publisher. On the left is a sidebar featuring double-page spreads, and on the right is the workspace.

This is one of them, the fantasy Eximirene. There isn’t a lot to look at right now, but I’m fiddling with the layout before I start writing and drawing. I might go the extra mile and make my own custom font for the headers—maybe even the body text if I’m gluttonous for pain so daring. If I’m going for a medieval-inspired feel, I might as well go an additional mile and do 16th-century-style illustrations throughout.

The second zine is a rather personal project. This particular idea has been wandering through my mind for the past ten years. The idea of touring the mind as though it were a house isn’t an original concept, but it does give me a novel method to work out some old obsessions about failures, lost chances, and connections that haunt my memories.

And I can dedicate a “room” to tarot readings and other mystical explorations—or just use the tarot to express myself. Or admit what I never could say out loud.

The Nine of Swords tarot card against a green-tinted starry background. The accompanying text reads: I never made any bold moves. I never reached out. Because I was afraid that I'd imagined everything. That what I saw, heard, sensed from you was all in my head. I'd rather sit here and wait for an answer that may never come than reach out and make myself look like a fool. So I sit here, waiting for you to prove me wrong in my fears, to prove me right in my hopes. I still hope. And I still fear.

This could end up being a graphically intensive project, but easily my most expressive one… and maybe one where I allow myself to be the most vulnerable.