Uncoated paper doesn't shout. It absorbs. And for a zine that wants you to feel the calm of slipping into cold city water on a summer afternoon, that quality is everything. The cover of Swimmable Cities — Issue 3 of Louisa Minter-Kemp's Nature Zine — soaks its image into the 240gsm uncoated card like ink into a thinking person's afternoon. It signals immediately: this is a contemplative read, not a glossy shout-out.
The wrap-around cover image amplifies that effect. A single photograph stretching front to back, a continuous panorama that earmarks the zine as something considered and whole before you've turned a single page.
Swimmable Cities is a study into cities around the world that have opened areas for contained and wild swimming — exploring the health benefits, the community spirit and the social infrastructure that growing cold-water swimming movements can build. It's a topic whose moment has clearly come, and the zine gives it the editorial depth it deserves.
The typography is excellent throughout. Bold display text handles the big editorial statements — "Swimming in a body of urban water can be at once an act of relaxation, rebellion or collective celebration" — while the body copy is set with enough air that even the most text-heavy spreads don't feel crowded. Articles range across Amsterdam canals, Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait and surf-battered European coastlines, with striking photography that sits comfortably alongside the prose.
It's the third issue of Nature Zine, and with each issue Louisa's editorial confidence has visibly grown. If you're working on your own public interest publication, explore our zine printing service and read our guide to choosing the right paper for zine printing.
The 240×170mm size hits a sweet spot between A5 and A4 — larger than a pocket guide but not as imposing as a full magazine. It feels like a publication designed to be sat with, not skimmed.
The combination of 240gsm uncoated cover and 120gsm uncoated inside pages creates a pleasing consistency of feel across the whole object. The softness of uncoated card means images soak in with a warm, natural quality that would have been lost on silk or gloss. The 88pp page count produces a 6mm spine — solid enough for the zine to stand on a shelf and carry its title proudly.
Perfect binding is the right call here. It gives the zine an air of permanence — something between a magazine and a paperback book — which suits the depth of its editorial content.
The wrap-around cover photograph is the single smartest design decision in this zine. A continuous image across front and back — the swimming scene stretching uninterrupted from spine to edge — makes opening the cover a small event. You've already committed before you start reading.
Inside, the typographic system does heavy lifting. Pull quotes in large display type break up long-form essays; chapter openers use bold, almost poster-scale headlines; and the body copy gives each article room to breathe. No spread feels identical.
The closing call-to-action spread — "SO FIND A SWIMMING SPOT, GRAB A FRIEND, AND JUMP IN" — is a perfect piece of editorial design. It lands as the last thing you read, and it sends you out of the zine with an instruction.
Louisa is a returning client — and we told her honestly in our first email that we'd genuinely enjoyed reading Issue 2. She came back for Issue 3 with the same spec, a test print request first, and a clear understanding of what she wanted the zine to be.
The test copy (a single digital proof for £80) let Louisa catch two small details before the full run went to press — a couple of small text changes she spotted on the cover and inside. That test print process exists precisely for this reason: better to fix before 400 copies than after.
After approval, Louisa split her delivery between Public Knowledge Books in Dagenham (130 copies for the Offprint fair in London) and her home address. Her excitement as the fair approached was palpable: "I can't wait to see it there." We had the zines on a DPD van the same day she approved.
"Yes, I have double checked everything and it's ready to go to print." — Louisa Minter-Kemp
A public interest zine with a tight distribution window and a fair to hit requires a printer that listens, moves quickly and doesn't create unnecessary friction. We ran a test copy, fed back on the inner cover hinge area, sent proof links, and got the zines to two separate delivery addresses on schedule. Our perfect bound zine printing service handles exactly this kind of project — small press, big editorial ambition, real deadline.
A wrap-around cover is worth the extra design effort. A continuous image front-to-back tells readers there's a unified vision at work before they open a single page.
Uncoated paper signals intent. If your zine is designed to be read rather than flicked through, uncoated stock communicates that. The soft, absorbent quality suits thoughtful editorial content the way a quiet room suits a good book.
Test print before the full run. A single proof copy costs little and saves a lot. Even experienced designers catch things in print that they missed on screen — particularly on covers, where trimming and hinge areas behave differently.
Split deliveries are simple to arrange. If you're distributing to multiple addresses — a fair, a shop, your own home — just let us know. We handle it as standard.
Perfect binding at 88pp reads like a book. If your content is substantial enough to warrant it, the jump from staple to perfect binding changes how readers treat the object.
