The design agency recently brought out their third volume, which they had been working on throughout the pandemic. Kulavoor explains, “We have worked on zines even earlier. In 2010, we published a zine that witnessed the coming together of 12 artists. But with Everyday, we wanted to take the purpose of the format beyond art and incorporate text, too. The idea was to look at regularity from unalike perspectives. Although the theme for the series remains the same, it’s inspiring to see the varying outcomes.” The designer adds that the zine was born of the combined efforts of herself, her artist brother, Sameer Kulavoor, and writer Phalguni Desai. Every volume has a horizontal leaf running across and around the cover with “everyday” printed in different languages and scripts. The white cover sits ensconced in light green, powder pink and blue covers. And the inside pages take readers around an indulgent walkway of words and images.

Zeenat and Sameer Kulavoor

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.79%

AAP 42.62%

INC 24.59%

Submit

View All In Poll

In their latest volume, the art is meditatively integrated around shapes — circles, ovals, squares and rectangles. But mostly circles. At one point, words prod us to think how the graph followed the balloon, and the balloon followed the circle, which records a moment of action. Kulavoor draws our attention to another unique but strange feature of the book — the words are not related to the images. An uninitiated reader will notice that abstractness but wouldn’t find it confusing. The zine weaves a space for spontaneous conversations and thoughts, where readers happen to spin their own tales.

Phalguni Desai

While the first two volumes were completed in six to eight months, the third edition took two years because of the challenges of the pandemic. The agency is currently focussed on putting out at least two more volumes by the end of this year. Every edition orchestrates a collaboration between an artist and a writer. Everyday part three contains drawings by Vishwa Shroff and Katsushi Goto. The words are by Rose Van Mierlo. Since the zine series is rare and speculative, we wonder if the creation process takes the target audience into account. “That concern comes in much later. Not while working on the zine,” Kulavoor adds.   

Log on to: shop.joinpaperplanes.com (for all three volumes)
Cost: Rs 650