DESCRIPTION SSIPACA: Infographic UFO Zine CLIENT Self-promotion DATE July – August 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Vanessa Lam PRINT CREDITS JEJ Print, Inc TYPE CREDITS ITC Caslon Univers (get it?)

QUANTITY PRODUCED 1,000 PRODUCTION TIME 1 Day DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 8 in × 10.5 in PAGE COUNT 48 PRINT METHOD Offset PAPER STOCK Newsprint NUMBER OF COLORS 1 (black) BINDING Saddle-stitch

I have a guilty pleasure to confess: It is watching any TV show, no matter how sensationalist or far-fetched, about UFOs, people abducted by UFOs, UFO sightings, UFO cover-ups. You-FO-name-it and I will watch it. And most likely I will believe whatever they are selling, even if it's looniness. So I was pretty ecstatic when I received Vanessa Lam's Society for Scientific Inquiry of Paranormal Atmospheric and Cosmic Anomalies infographic zine, printed in black ink — just one strong rub away from ending on your fingers and then your white shirt — on cheap newsprint paper, full of crazy facts, stories and clippings. To boot, Vanessa also did some infographic charts that would make any alien proud. More from Vanessa:

Society for Scientific Inquiry of Paranormal Atmospheric and Cosmic Anomalies (SSIPACA) came about through researching the vast databases available on the internet regarding UFO sightings, abductions, and conspiracies. I found it intriguing that despite all this information we are still none the wiser in terms of where we stand in the universe. This zine is half objective scientific data, half tongue in cheek absurdities. I was inspired by scientific journals, a 1960s Carl Sagan book, and loony conspiracy theories. I decided to print the zine when a few people expressed interest in owning one, and was pleasantly surprised by the relative quickness and painlessness of the whole production procedure. Newsprint made sense as the format of choice as I wanted the zine to look worn, dirty and uneven — the book was first printed out on a laser printer, crumpled, xeroxed, scanned back into the computer then printed onto newsprint. Unpredictable irregularities and glitches I think add to the spirit of the notion of an unknown universe, and I was happy to embrace them.

On of the glitches I noticed — not sure if it was on purpose or not — is that all the fl ligatures were abducted! Leaving the words like "flying" simply "ying." Cue Twilight Zone theme. For a mere $5.00 you can buy this zine at Vanessa's site.

Hot Damn. Love this piece. Very subtle and intelligent...beginning with, "You are here. They are there." ...Perhaps my favorite part.

Great work.

Amazing! I always love the use of newsprint in a creative way. Genius guys, cheers.

Fantastic!

And perfect timing. I am working on a print project and am planning on limiting myself to b&w and printing it on newsprint. Style will be quite different, but wow, this is inspiring!

Thanks for all the great posts!

Glossy 'zines be damned!

This piece is awesome. I think the black and white palette is grossly under-rated. I love a good one color publication. The process this bad boy went through to get it's character was very nice too.

Great job.

WOW, I love black and white and this is an awesome example. Good work!

Great use of negative space and contrast

Awesome work! Love it.

awesome piece! so good.

Great black and white piece. I'm amazed with the manual process done to achieve the photocopied zine look. Well done!

Lovely work! Well done.

This is fantastic.

Hot damn, that's a good looking mag.

It feels very X-files in its understated, yet scratchy design aesthetic. And I want a copy!

I am going to get myself a copy too! This is so well done!

Great work! The Univers joke it's about the font being secretely used or just playing with the content?