Four zines for 40 years of Paper Magazine, designed by Callum Abbott

Recently, Paper magazine celebrated its 40th anniversary. A key figure in New York’s independent publishing scene, the widely loved magazine has spent the past four decades covering the latest in fashion, art, pop culture, music and more, as well as having some of the biggest stars grace its front cover (including that infamous Kim K shoot). So, what better way to celebrate its legacy than returning to the first ever format the publication saw: a 16-page fold-out zine. But surely, such a significant birthday doesn’t just call for one zine? No, it calls for four – one to mark every decade of the magazine’s existence.

The four zines were designed by Callum Abbott, a Scottish-born, New York-based graphic designer and art director. Previously, Callum has worked at Dazed and Pitchfork, where he focused heavily on digital design and illustration work, but now, since moving to predominantly working with Pioneer Works – a nonprofit cultural arts centre in Brooklyn – Callum has found himself working a lot more with print; books, posters, flyers and more. On the shift, Callum says: “I’m enjoying the challenge of building whole systems and I really like making typography the star of the show.” What’s more, before this zine project, Callum had worked with Paper on some type design for its digital covers as well as having always been a fan about its “vision”, and so when editor-in-chief Justin Moran reached out, Callum “jumped on board with basically no questions asked”.

As a whole, the project can be defined as one of balance. With any print project of this scale, Callum’s keen to impress how much of a team effort it was, with the styling, casting, editorial and Sarah Pardini’s “incredible” images, and so Callum was intent on creating a design system that complemented other visual aspects, rather than overshadowing them. “Having one photographer shoot all four covers really speaks to the power of her images, and we wanted the design to work alongside these images to make a whole package that is singular and bold,” says Callum. The other balance to find was between honouring the visual legacy of Paper, while still leaving enough “room” to offer something new and exciting.

The original zine was made on Xerox machines, which encapsulates what Callum describes as the “scrappy and innovative spirit” that still defines Paper today. One of the biggest challenges, however, was honouring the black-and-white, cut-and-paste effect of the issue, while still allowing Sarah’s colour images to shine. Callum says that, in the end, they leant slightly into the cut-out effect but overall decided to leave Sarah’s images mainly untouched. Instead, the main means by which they captured the legacy and DIY feeling and legacy was by borrowing visual icons – like the iconic star motif – and through typography.

Each of the four zines – which feature Halsey, Doechii, The Dare and NLE Choppa – was given its own typeface, inspired by the woodblock ones of the original issue (then paired with a few others to ensure a level of modernity). When it came to the structure and layout of the type, Callum let it “run wild” with each of the artist interviews informing the composition. “This variation kept things feeling dynamic and not overly systematic or formulaic,” says Callum. The introduction headlines for each spread have become one of Callum’s favourite parts of the zines, especially when taking into account the large format of the publications. “The actual page is so physically large too that the design felt momentous, like an announcement to the world that Paper is back and thriving,” says Callum.

The overall approach helped to achieve one of Callum’s core aims, for the zines not to simply be a “another glossy fashion editorial”. At the launch party, he was pleased to see people interacting with the zine – even in ways you may not traditionally expect. “It was amazing to see so many people reading the zine, collaging it on the walls, using it as a coaster, ripping out the images, posing with it for pictures: this is exactly what we wanted,” says Callum. “The design is bold and thoughtful, but not self-serious – we didn’t want this to be a precious coffee table magazine, it was to be rough around the edges, experimental and fun, which I think we achieved.”