There's a particular kind of confidence in a project that does very little to shout and everything to hold your attention. Mono Frames is one of those. The first in a planned series of monographic showcases from FRAMES Magazine — the international quarterly photography publication — this A5 staple-bound zine brings together the work of photographer Adrian Hill in a format that feels precisely considered. The khaki green uncoated cover mirrors the tonal palette of the image it frames. Spine-stapled so that every double-page spread opens completely flat. Printed full colour throughout, yet the images themselves carry the quiet, granular quality of something made by hand.
The photographs inside have what we'd describe as an Impressionist sensibility — soft focus, deliberate grain, muted tones punctuated by rare, striking colour. Lowry-esque in their composition. These are landscapes that hint and suggest rather than declare. Getting them to hold that quality in print required the right paper. We chose 120gsm uncoated for the text pages — a stock that absorbs ink differently to coated alternatives, preserving the atmospheric, grain-textured feel that makes Hill's images so distinctive.
Mono Frames is published by FRAMES, an international photography magazine founded and edited by Tomasz Trzebiatowski. Built as a quarterly publication dedicated to the art of photography, FRAMES launched this series as a format for presenting individual photographers in depth — each issue a monographic portrait of a single artist.
Adrian Hill's work is largely coastal and rural, often northern English in its geography and distinctly romantic in its approach. Soft focus is his signature — not as an accident, but as a deliberate technique refined over years, back-engineered from early digital mistakes until the mistake became the method.
This zine collects landscapes, figures in space, and quiet moments of British life. The interview text — written by W. Scott Olsen — sits alongside the images in a clean two-column layout, giving the booklet a publication quality that lifts it beyond a simple portfolio. At 44 pages of inside content, the format is compact enough to read cover to cover, substantial enough to feel like a proper object.
The decision to use uncoated stock throughout was not arbitrary. Hill's photographs carry a distinctive grain — a deliberate, almost painterly texture that sits in the shadows and mid-tones of every image. On a coated or silk sheet, that grain would sharpen and harden. On uncoated, it breathes. The 120gsm weight gives the inside pages enough substance to feel considered without adding unnecessary bulk to a compact A5 booklet.
The 200gsm uncoated cover holds the khaki green tone beautifully — a colour that was almost certainly chosen to echo the muted, earthy palette of the cover image itself. It's a small but intelligent design decision: the cover doesn't frame the photography from the outside, it participates in it. Adrian Hill's handwritten signature sits over the cover image, reinforcing the sense that this is an artist's object rather than a commercial product.
Staple binding was the right structural choice here. It allows every double-page spread to open completely flat — important for a photography publication where images regularly bleed across both pages. A perfect-bound zine of this page count would present a spine-gutter problem; saddle stitching eliminates it entirely. You can explore more about zine printing sizes and binding options and understanding wire stitching for zine binding in our resource guides.
Look closely at the sequencing of images inside and you notice a real editorial intelligence. The edit moves between subjects — coastal flats, sand dunes, canal bridges, industrial buildings, winter fields — but holds a consistent tonal mood throughout. There is a deliberate rhythm: wider establishing images balanced against closer, more intimate scenes. The near-monochromatic palette is interrupted only rarely by a flash of colour, which makes those moments land with much more force.
The grain in Hill's photographs is not noise in the pejorative sense. It is texture — the visual equivalent of the roughness you might feel on the surface of an uncoated page. The marriage between the image processing style and the paper stock is almost conceptually complete. You could print these photographs on silk and they would lose something essential. On uncoated, the grain of the ink and the grain of the photograph become the same thing.
The typography inside is restrained and well-considered. The interview text is set in a clean serif at a comfortable size, with generous margins that give the pages room. Nothing competes with the photographs. The layout knows its job is to support the images, not to express itself.
Tomasz came to us initially exploring options for a more ambitious hardback monograph series. After several Zoom calls, the conversation evolved. A sample pack arrived in Switzerland. Tomasz held the paper. He looked at existing zine projects in our portfolio, including a title called So Young that caught his eye. The format shifted: more accessible, more economical, quicker to produce and distribute.
The first copy was ordered as a proof of concept — a single printed sample to check layout, feel and colour reproduction before committing to a print run. When Tomasz approved the proof, he noted that the on-screen PDF had appeared "a little pale" compared to the physical sample — a common observation and a reminder that screen colour profiles rarely match print output. The physical result was exactly what he'd hoped for. 350 copies were ordered and dispatched to Newsstand in Kent for international fulfilment to FRAMES subscribers.
Our team walked Tomasz through file set-up, greyscale conversion workflow in InDesign, and the nuances of exporting print-ready PDFs. That kind of account-managed guidance is central to how we work. You can read more about our approach on the Ex Why Zed print journey page.
Choose your stock to match the mood of the photography. High-contrast, grain-rich, atmospheric images often print better on uncoated paper. Silk and gloss stocks sharpen everything — which suits clean, vibrant commercial photography but can fight against work that relies on subtlety and texture.
Staple binding is the right choice for flat-opening spreads. If your edit includes double-page compositions or bleed images that cross the gutter, saddle stitching means those images open completely flat. Perfect binding creates a gutter that steals millimetres from either side of a centred composition.
A5 is a serious format for a photography publication. It reads as intentional rather than budget-driven. It fits on a shelf next to magazines. It can be sold, gifted and kept.
Use the cover as part of the editorial. The khaki green here wasn't arbitrary — it came from the palette of the cover image. Thinking about your cover colour as a visual extension of the photography inside, rather than a neutral frame around it, produces something more cohesive.
Pre-sell before you commit to print quantities. FRAMES ran a pre-order phase before confirming their print run — smart practice for a first-in-series publication.
If you're planning your own photography zine or artist monograph, our zine printing service and our photobook printing page are good starting points.
