Swamp Rag Issue #1

SWFL Underground Arts & Culture

The Swamp Rag is Love your Rebellion’s arts & culture newspaper made by artists, musicians, and writers. Its mission is to help readers stay connected to subculture in the SWFL area, support print media, and get off the internet. Our paper is distributed by local businesses and sponsors, and totally free to take. I directed the art style for this pioneer issue, creating all graphics, illustrations and typography layouts within.

When we set out to create a DIY newspaper, the first thing the team did was take inspiration from old publications. We loved the look and feel of vintage tabloids and newspapers, with perhaps a modern punk twist. With this in mind, I paired an imposing sans serif and a lovey yet crummy old serif as an homage to the classic print newspaper.

With assistance from Michelle Caraway, LYR’s Creative Director, we created a broadsheet template and set a word count for each pre-planned section to provide our contributors with a helpful guide.  I designed and rearranged this template accordingly.  The final newspaper features two articles, an opinion piece, reviews, event highlights, local advertisements, an astrology section, an advice column, and much more. 

Every piece is a contribution from someone in the community, serving as a wonderful means of expression that connects people. If you can’t tell, I just LOVE this project.

My favorite section of this issue was our full-page Ascendant Astrology column. I aimed to create imagery for the twelve zodiac signs, each positioned above its horoscope. On this page, we included a QR code that directs readers to a site where they can discover their astro chart. My ascendant is in Virgo; what about you?