Somesuch Stories 8 visually grapples with the many interpretations of ‘tension’

Each issue of Somesuch Stories comes aligned to a single-word theme. Since 2016, when the journal was first published, there’s been ‘flux’, ‘bone’, ‘action’, ‘redemption’, and now, for its eighth issue it’s landed on ‘tension’. As you may have noticed, each of the chosen words holds the potential for diversity of interpretation – each can mean something vastly different from one person to the next. This is something that’s also always represented in the submissions throughout its pages, which this time round includes writing from Rita Bullwinkel, Caleb Femi and Toby Lloyd, as well as art from Elio Mercer, Elsa Rouy and a photo cover story from Laura McCluskey. But how do you go about capturing such a range of perspectives in the journal’s overall design? The answer: to lean into this very sense of unpredictability.

“Tension can sometimes be quiet, ominous and lurking under the surface, sometimes blunt, violent or explosive,” says Thomas Coombes, co-founder of Guest Editions and art director and designer of issue eight. “The key for me was the mystery or the question mark, the idea that something was going to happen but we don’t know what.” There were numerous ways throughout the design that Thomas hinted at toward this feeling of tension “some subtle, some more overt”; like limiting the palette to black, white and red; tightening the margins and spacing between text, creating a sense of claustrophobia; and removing a white space or beat between stories, to create the feeling of each piece “clashing into the next”. Thomas says: “Suze [Suze Olbrich, Somesuch Stories editor] wanted more volatility, for a sense of vibration or activity throughout the issue.”

But perhaps the main way this idea of volatility was achieved was the typographic title pages, which are a result of Thomas purposely pushing himself beyond the point he would usually stop at. On these title pages, typography isn’t used merely for its primary function – it becomes a means of image making, creating pattern and movement. On some, titles and names are layered multiple times on top of one another; in another the letters seem to cascade from one one corner, building up at the bottom. One page sees the title repeated in a seemingly everlasting circle, and in some, dots and lines obscure the words completely. This is because Thomas and the team decided that legibility wasn’t of primary importance – pushing the design to “the point of breaking”, as well as creating a sense of “disruption” “pace”, however, was. The atmosphere of severity and chaos was also helped by the choice of typeface, Dinamo’s Laica in italic cut, full of sharp edges, points and angles.

The issue’s cover image is taken from Laura McCluskey’s commissioned photo story, Anatomy of a Soap Bubble. Laura and Thomas worked closely on developing the idea and story together, having collaborated previously when Guest Editions published a photobook of Laura’s work. One of the first possible concepts that came to Thomas was the potential to explore “underlying” forms of tension, and how they permeate our everyday: “The constant pursuit of improvement, progression, success, with a constant fear that it will all fall apart.” On top of this, Thomas was also investigating examples of tension in physics and he came across a diagram – The Anatomy of a Bubble – which “explained that the presence of soap in the water of a bubble, allowed for a greater surface tension and so the bubble to grow,” says Thomas. “Of course only to a point, before it pops and disappears.”

Much of Laura’s work uses movement to tell stories, and so she began to think of ways the body could be used to translate these simultaneous ideas of everyday tension and physicality tension with the human form. At the time of the project, Laura had also recently seen Marina Abramović’s retrospective at the RA and was drawn to the performance artist’s video installations made in collaboration with the German artist Ulay – Rest Energy –in which the pair face each other holding a bow and arrow between them then leaning back, to a point at which Laura views of “total vulnerability”. It was this idea of “trust and connection” that provided the first creative blueprint for the shoot, and to help it come to life they worked with the choreographer and movement director Caterina Danzico and the set designer Tara Holmes to bring in materials and props that could be “stretched to their limits”. Much like the rest of the publication. colours were kept to neutrals combined with a single bold graphic red.

Together, Laura and Tom created a scale of tension from one to ten, listing ways each point could be visually expressed via the dancers and props; like a leap of faith or rising from the floor without your hands. From this came the seed for the cover image – a balloon being pushed to its physical limits, moments before rupture. “We’ve recently discovered this is a phobia, and I think it’s that feeling of unease that we wanted to visually express,” says Laura. Finally, the image finally came about from a shoot “entirely wrestling with a latex red balloon”, says Tom. Simple yet visceral, it’s the perfect visual summary for the brilliant selection of art and writing that lies within, that pulls and plays with your emotions and perspectives.

Somesuch Stories 8 has dedicated exhibition showing at Have a Butchers gallery in Dalston until 24 October, open 11am-5pm.

You can grab a copy of issue eight here.