18th April 2021
Taking on the Parish Pump, in both magazine format and its online sister incarnation, is no small piece of work. Over the last month I have been engaging with a printing company who have been educating me, at rapid pace, on the multifaceted world of file formatting, paper and ink quality, colour profiles, margins and bleeds. I have also acquired state of the art desktop publishing and design software, which with the help of a rather large and unwieldy hardback tutorial book will enable the Parish Pump to provide much loved content with minimal effort when it comes to layout and publishing.
As an author myself I have always focused on the words which crowd a page, be it paper or web based; little attention until know was afforded to the environment in which my words settled. Yet, one can lose as much time coordinating the words and images, so they "look right", as was expended on imagining the text in the first place. It's also worth noting that hours can be lost arranging the page, tweaking the angle of a photo, the word wrapping of paragraphs and the hue of a title. Will anyone notice such subtle details, of course not. But, a Picasso deserves a good frame, does it not?
With Parish Council funding for the Parish Pump confirmed, the discussions with the printing company could move on to the details, such as how many pages, what type of paper, hard cover or soft, glossy or matt. Born from this, the current plan is to produce four editions per year, each of around 22 pages, full colour, a glossy magazine full of local content.
And there's that word, content. Without which, expertly crafted page design is without purpose. To that end I have reached out to community groups and individuals known for their artistic flair, seeking a core team of parishioners who will support the Parish Pump with content.
Above, a simple flat plan of 22 pages which soon filled up with ideas. The image is purely illustrative and will no doubt change as publication date approaches, but you can see, with our community groups providing updates, in combination with the best from the website and unique content specifically for the magazine, available space will soon dwindle.
My vision for the Parish Pump is a simple one, represent every aspect of our community, one we are all so proud of. The Parish Pump should look to the past as well as the future, a gentle convergence of traditional and progressive thinking. Stu and I will dip into the huge back catalogue of Parish Pumps to find the very best from the past, to republish. I also thought it would be fitting to honour the work John Harrison did by reprinting the best of the Common Man.
(Yes I did say Stu! He'll continue and assist me in the position of Honorary Editor)
Lucy Luton and Vicky Baulch have agreed to manage a recipe section, with the aim of publishing a WIG recipe book in the future, filled with parishioners' favourites.
Angela Borland is on the team, we all enjoyed immensely her prose and art work in the recent Parish Pump. Angela is thinking of having a regular page for poetry from the collection formed at annual poetry evenings over the years.
Knut Beekmann has already supplied breath-taking images of our parish (if you haven't seen them yet head to the Photo Album section of the website) and will continue to, in his own words, "....make the village look like the perfect place to live...which it is"
You can see one of Knut's amazing photographs in use below, in a mock up of a Parish Pump front cover.
Social Committee and Gardening Club will use the Parish Pump to reach every household and inform us of the amazing work they are doing for our community.
Lucy Luton is very keen to represent the farming community within the pages of the Parish Pump, an aspect of rural life many of us, myself included, have little knowledge of.
I will provide parish history content, which is already building into quite a large repository!
Above and below you will see mock up page designs for the Parish Pump.
In summary, there's still a lot to be done. I'd like the layout and formatting of the core pages to be decided by June, into which content can easily be inserted. Anyone providing content need not worry about the page design, simple text and/or some photos will soon transform into good looking spreads.
More volunteers to help and/or join the Parish Pump team are greatly encouraged to come forward. If you want to write for the Pump, provide photos, poetry, prose, art work, crosswords, quizzes, you name it we'll consider it.
In the coming weeks I'll be publishing Parish Pump contact information; details on how content can be submitted, electronically or by post.
If you are interested in joining the Parish Pump team or have any feedback to give us so far please don't hesitate to get in touch cllr.dav.baulch.wig@gmail.com
I hope you have enjoyed the update, let us know!
Cllr Dav Baulch
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