Marcroy Smith, Posterzine
We start the week in Brighton with Marcroy Smith, founder of print champions People of Print. Their best-known publication is the fold-out Posterzine, a lovely format that presents the work of an illustrator/designer alongside a brief interview on one side and a poster on the other. There have now been 40 issues of the zine. Here he shares his working week and future plans.
Tell us about your typical Monday journey to work.
In January 2018 I left the big smoke to live by the sea in Brighton. I normally get up and have a cup of tea with two sugars and some eggs.
I cuddle Pepper the cat. Then I carry my bike down the stairs from my top floor flat and cycle down a steep hill to my Brighton studio on Jew Street, (we still have the London office but I only visit once or twice per week.) It’s a three minute journey on the way to my Brighton studio and about seven minutes on the way back home because of the steep hill.
Describe the state of your desk and what you can see in your office
I have really simple setup. I have a large black AUKEY mousemat (almost 1m long), a black Griffin elevator laptop stand, and a black Apple keyboard and mouse. I work from my 12” MacBook which I keep in black Kadet Messenger sling bag by Chrome Industries. I like black and I like being able to take my laptop anywhere with me and working in both offices where I have the same setup. I have three MacBook chargers, one in my bag for when I’m out and about, and I keep one plugged in at each of the studios.
The Brighton studio is quite large with about 15 people working from here. The London studio only fits five people at a push!
Which magazine do you first remember?
I’m not sure if it’s the first magazine I ever read, but the one that springs to mind is Kerrang!. It’s funny because on of my good friends who I met in London worked for Kerrang! I was a bit of a greebo skater kid who used to go to Rugeley Rose and Wolverhampton Planet to get my fix of punk and metal.
Which magazine matters to you the most right now?
There’s no possible way I can choose one particular magazine that matters the most to me. I find myself buying lots of magazines. Partly because they’re great but I also like to support independent publishers. I was really impressed with the new Suspira Fetish issue — it has the new work of Jasper Goodall in it who was my tutor at Brighton university. Stunning magazine and who doesn’t like kinky stuff?!
Describe your magazine in three words
Poster
Mag
Zine
After 40 issues of Posterzine, have you been able to identify a hierarchy of types of people/work that sell better than others?
I have been looking at print and selling printed matter for over 13 years. I think it’s only natural for you to figure out what works for your audience. We like to please our audience, but I also like to publish and promote work that I feel is good or important, even if I know it is something that might not be as commercial as others. I genuinely do what I do because I love it, in fact I am obsessed with print. People of Print is the result of my obsession with print.
Who buys Posterzine?
We are very lucky to have an extremely varied and global audience both online and customers who buy our printed matter. We have lots of customers who have subscribed since issue one, we have many people that buy the collectors bundles if they’ve only just found out about the publication.
We have a Mix & Match offer where people can choose any five issues for £30 with free global shipping, it’s always interesting to see which five issues people choose — I don’t think we’ve ever had the same combination ordered by different customers. We’ve seen photos of Posterzine on the walls of Starbucks HQ, Nike HQ, the Topshop office and some people have ordered the whole collection and framed them. There’s a coffee shop in Hungary that has them all framed and displayed.
It’s not very often that you can get an A1 lithograph print in two gorgeous spot colours on quality paper for just £7.99. We can only keep this price down because of the amazing support of Pressision, GFSmith and Moo. We want to make great art and design affordable to the masses and have something to read in the process.
Have you plans for any other magazine projects?
BIG plans lie ahead for Grafik magazine, it’s looking like a bi-annual subscription only model at the moment. There has also been a conversation started about publishing Print Isn’t Dead Element 005 as a fully letterpressed magazine. Call me crazy, but it will be very cool right?
What’s going to be the highlight of your week?
Le Gun issue six launch at The Dolphin on Friday. See you there!