Hot pink hits you first. Then chrome, polished until it throws the sky straight back, and an outlined, swirling masthead with pure 60s and 70s styling, fading from blue into pink as it arcs over two riders leaning through a mountain bend. Hot Chops Volume 2 is Mickael Vandermaesen’s self-published chopper zine, and it is as much about the paintwork, the springer forks and the custom builds as it is about riding them.
Mickael has captured his crew superbly. It looks like great fun, kicking engines into life and heading out along dusty mountain roads. Every print decision on this zine had the same aim, to keep that chrome and candy paint as bright on paper as it looks in the sun. Here is how each one was made.
A5, Because It Rides in a Saddlebag
Mickael calls it a magazine, we call it a zine, and at A5 with a square spine it sits happily between the two. It slips into a leather jacket or a saddlebag, yet holds its own on a shelf.
A portrait page and a long, low motorcycle are natural rivals, and Mickael turns that into a feature. Several spreads are laid out sideways, so you rotate the zine to take in a whole chopper, nose to tail. It is a small physical moment that slows the reader down and puts the machine centre stage. Shooting wide yourself? Try the same trick before you reach for a bigger format.
Silk Inside, Because Chrome Needs a Coating
Chrome is unforgiving on the wrong stock. Uncoated paper drinks ink into its fibres, and mirror-bright highlights sink into flat grey. The finish here had to be coated to mirror the gleam and colour of the bikes, so the inside pages run on 130gsm silk. Its smooth surface holds ink up on top, so polished exhausts glint and paintwork stays rich.
You can see the payoff on almost every spread. A burnt orange border frames copper pinstriping and chrome springer forks. The masthead repeats in waves across a deep navy panel beside a chromed engine. One custom tank appears eight times in a pop art grid of colourways, each version sharp and distinct. Our guide to getting strong CMYK colour on zine covers is useful reading if your palette is this loud.
White Frames the Bikes Burst Out Of
Mickael never allows a page to idle. Graphic elements arrive every few spreads for extra emphasis. A run of black railings slices across a group shot of the crew and carries on over the white page. A monochrome engine study gets scribbled over with hot pink doodled faces. Full bleed road shots race across the gutter, then the pace drops for close details of hand painted tanks.
The move we love most: photographs held in white frames, with part of the picture bursting out of them. A chopper’s long front fork and wheel punch past the border onto bare paper, as if the bike is rolling off the page. It made us grin every time. It costs nothing to print and you could borrow it tomorrow: let a wheel, an arm or a skateboard spill over a frame and a still image starts to move.
A 7mm Glued Spine, Matt on the Outside
Glued square, the zine is perfect bound, and the light silk inside keeps its spine to a manageable, neat 7mm instead of swelling into a brick. It still carries HOT CHOPS 2 in clear type, so the volumes line up on a shelf like a set.
Outside, a 300gsm silk board wears a matt laminate. That film calms the glare off that pink border and shrugs off fingerprints and pocket wear, while the coated board beneath keeps the photograph rich. On the back, the mountain road keeps going, with a smaller version of the title carrying Mickael’s byline. A matt outside with silk inside gives you two surfaces in one zine, soft to hold and bright to read.
A Quick Tune-Up on the Files
Mickael got in touch from France with his layout finished. He accepted our quote the same morning and had his files with us by lunchtime. Our checks then picked up three things. The first PDFs carried printer’s colour bars in the bleed area, where crop marks alone are enough. The re-export arrived without bleed. And the cover spread was set at 320mm wide, when an A5 wrap around a 7mm spine needs to measure 303 x 210mm.
We explained each fix, Mickael resupplied, and everything went through cleanly to an online proof, his sign-off and shipping to France. That cover maths trips up a lot of first issues, so our guide to building a cover wrap around a glued spine walks through it, and this explainer on adding bleed to every edge covers the rest.
Same Papers Again for Volume 2
Within weeks of the first delivery Mickael asked for a second batch of Volume 1. When Volume 2 was ready, he wanted to “do the same thing like the first one with same papers etc”, which is about the best spec sheet a printer can receive. He signed off that email with a line we have kept:
“Happy to create again together !!”
Mickael, Hot Chops
A month or so later he asked for two copies of Volume 1 for his personal archive. If chrome, candy paint or any subject that craves colour fills your own pages, start a zine with us and we will match the stock to it.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
Product cataloguesA5, 28 pages, stapled£166for 100