Paul Askew is the editor of Ferment magazine, which he runs alongside designer Sarah Plant as well as publisher and designer James Weiner.
Ferment is a new quarterly publication that combines creative writing with new illustration which they put together in a tabloid size zine, printed for them by the awesome folks at The Newspaper Club. We caught up with Paul to ask him a few questions...
What are you currently up to? Are there any exciting projects ongoing?
Currently putting together the second issue, the theme of which is 'A Single Letter' which has so far given us a wide variety of written submissions. We've just been working out which pieces to send to which illustrators for them to use as inspiration.
Who or what inspires you?
The zine came about in the first place by a Sharp'ner event held by D&AD that Sarah and James went to. They saw talks by people passionate about the zine culture, people like Feverzine and Teal Triggs. This day was what inspired them to come up with the idea for Ferment.
What’s your best project/work to date?
We are all incredibly proud of our first issue, Naked.
Anything new going on? Or in the pipeline?
Aside from the second issue, we've been asked by a couple of different organisers about curating some spoken word aspects of local events. These are still in the early planning and discussion stages so nothing is confirmed as yet, but it's an honour to be considered for such a thing at such an early stage in our zine's life.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do?
The usual. Listen to some music, watch some tele or a dvd, write, stroke cats, hang out with my lady friend, go to gigs and events, drink with mates, the everyday stuff that brings those little pleasures in life.
Finally, what tips or advice could you give to other creatives, just starting out?
Writers:- Don't be afraid of writing something bad. Remember you can always improve on it with a redraft. Sometimes it's just important to get the idea down and see where it goes from there. And if you don't use it immediately, keep it anyway. It may spark off something months or years down the line.
Zine-ers:- Just do it. Sometimes if you've got an idea, the hardest thing can be to trust it and go with it. And if it turns out to not work, don't let that put you off trying again. If you are an illustrator or writer and would like to contribute to the next issue of Ferment email with a couple of examples of your work to: office@fermentzine.com
You can also join our mailing list and find out more about us at: www.fermentzine.com or follow us on Twitter @fermentzine.
