Q&A

Yes of course, to begin the process I opened application’s and then carefully selected the successful contributors. The next step was then to get in contact with the contributors, explain the process of Earth Spirit and provide them with the brief. I stayed in communication with all the contributors throughout their time making the work and helped them with various different things. When it was time for them to submit their finished pieces, I reviewed all the work and collated it together. Once I had received all the final submissions I began work on making the magazine itself. My next step was to create a dedicated Earth Spirit website to promote the magazine and collate the last volume and all future volumes on one platform, along with any other information relating to the publication. Then I marketed the magazine on Instagram by making posts for each of the contributors with their ‘work in progress’ images. I then got in touch with a local printer about printing the magazine. My final steps were to finish off the final layout, create an online shop for pre-orders and finally, release the magazine.

To begin finding the creatives I published an application post on Instagram, which is how a lot of people found out that they could apply for Earth Spirit. I received about 70 applications and narrowed it down to a final 19 which is more than I put in last year’s volume, but I couldn’t eliminate any more due to the quality! The next step on guiding their process was to give them the brief. The brief of Earth Spirit is about connecting with their local natural spaces and responding to that experience with their chosen medium of artwork. Throughout the 7 weeks they had to create the work, some people needed more support, other people worked on it more on their own, so it’s totally up to the artists and their individual process’ in how they respond to the brief. They all knew I was available for support, and help editing down their work.

I had 4 scheduled check-ins, where I sent out an email to all of the contributors and they were all asked to provide a little update on where they were with their process, just so I could keep track that they were making the work and help them keep on track as well. People would send mood boards or ideas, and as we got to the final stages they would send their final pieces or the process of their final pieces. A few people wanted some help with submissions in terms of editing their work and I did obviously have a role as editor to make sure everything was easily readable and palatable to an extent. Most of the editing that I did was done in communication with the artists and then the process of putting it into the magazine was all completely my own.

When I started the magazine last year this was a completely new process to me and I’m only 2 years in so I wouldn’t call myself an expert! I use InDesign to lay out the magazine, each artist gets a double page spread, potentially more pages if they provide more work. I just start by putting the artists in alphabetical order, then pulling in all of their final submission images and laying them out onto the pages. The writing tends to fit in after the images, as the artwork is the main point of the publication. Each page could take me anywhere from a few hours, to a few days because it takes a lot of tweaking to go through each section.  The process this year took me a little longer than expected, as there was a lot more work than last year. Some artists had submitted a lot of work and it took a while to think through what to present and how best to do that. It took me around 2 months to completely finish the magazine.

I think is really valuable as it’s a form of promotion for the magazine, it gets people excited. It’s a way for all of the artists to share with their friends, family and audience that they are involved in the magazine, and to get a bit more traction on the lead up to the release. It does take a lot of time but it’s definitely worth it. I created a simple layout form this year so every post was the same which was handy in making this process a bit easier. I only put in work that wasn’t in the final magazine as I didn’t want to reveal what was in the magazine before it had been released. Some of the artists had a lot more process behind the scenes that I could share, from experimentations to sketches, fabrications or text for example. Others got quite quickly to their final submission so there was less behind the scenes to share, but I still managed to create a post for everybody without revealing their final pieces.

I have definitely received some great feedback about this, a lot of people were really excited to be able to share their work and their part in Earth Spirit. There are a few contributors who have connected over social media and are potentially going to do some collaborations together in future which I think is just a beautiful example of what Earth Spirit is all about, creating community.

The website was quite simple as I had already created a website for my own personal photography practice so I followed the same layout with that. I definitely want to update the website soon, but I wanted to create a basic way for all the information to be accessible to people. That wasn’t a difficult process as it comes quite naturally to me. The printing however, was quite an overwhelming aspect of this year's magazine because I’ve never printed my work outside of a university setting before, especially with thoughts on costs and things like that. I didn’t want to use an online printer because I wanted to make sure I could have a conversation with the people who were printing the magazine. I contacted about 10 local printers, only a handful got back to me and I’ve been in communications with my chosen printers for a couple of weeks now, we are going to begin proofing the magazine in the new year.
The ‘RISE’ funding from Artswork has also supported me in the printing and other process’ because it’s allowed me to buy the proofs, promote the magazine, pay for In Design, etc.
The online shop was completely new to me. I knew that the printing process had to be done through pre-orders as I didn’t have the financial backing to print a load, without guarantee of selling. With the shop itself, I researched into different ways to sell your work online and landed on Big Cartel as it works for a lot of artists. I’ve seen people do shops through it before and it was quite a simple way to set up a basic pre-order. I then had to think about the pricing of the magazine, considering printing and shipping costs. In the end it was a lot simpler than I expected it to be, but I think new things often come with a bit of unnecessary anxiety.

I think it’s obviously quite a lot of work for one person to do by themselves. I would say the most challenging aspect was simply having to do it by myself. I had more contributors this year, most of whom I had never met and didn’t know personally which was different to last year’s magazine so everything was a bit more disconnected in a way, as we didn’t know what each other’s work process’ were like and communications differed person to person. Then the printing, publishing and selling was also different to last year because it was all new to me, and again I didn’t have any support with that. So, I’d say the most challenging aspects were either the things that were new to me or the amount of new people, and building those relationships from scratch. Any challenges were definitely worth it, and I am so grateful for everyone who has contributed, supported or worked with me in the process of this year's magazine.

I was actually thinking about this just this morning! I am really excited for the future of Earth Spirit because of the wonderful feedback I’ve received these first two years. I really wanted to see a creative magazine about our relationship with nature, and instead of waiting for someone else to do it with me or someone to do it for me, I just decided to just do it myself. This has been super motivating because it's taught me that I can make my ideas a reality. The future of it is really exciting, I’m envisioning a growing magazine with lots of different people every year, maybe we could expand outside of the UK with contributors. With funding and time, maybe 5 years down the line, I would love to have an Earth Spirit Exhibition, and maybe retreats/ residency’s for contributors to meet and work together.

It’s exciting to be at the beginning and think about where it could potentially go in the future. I’ve realised that to carry on with Earth Spirit I am going to need support in a lot of the different aspects of creating it, like the administration side, marketing, printing, publishing, funding as well, so that’s all coming in the New Year. I’m looking into getting some people to volunteer, I’ve already had a few people who have said that they are interested. The theme and premise of Earth Spirit is the most important part, everybody connecting with their local natural spaces is what it’s all about, and to inspire the readers to do the same as well. I truly believe that once we all start to reconnect with nature the world will become a better place, and I hope that Earth Spirit can be a tool for people to do so.