My whole zine run got wrecked by a coffee spill at the copy shop

I was at the 24-hour Kinko's on 8th Avenue last Thursday, about to run 50 copies of my new perzine. I had the master copy on the glass, the machine was humming, and I turned to grab my bag. That's when my elbow hit my travel mug. A full cup of cold brew went right across the control panel and the master. The machine beeped and shut off. My pages were soaked. I just stood there for a minute. I ended up using paper towels to dry the master as best I could, then asked the guy at the counter if I could use the self-service printer instead. The copies came out with faint brown stains and a weird wavy texture on the edges from the wet paper. It actually gave the zine a kind of distressed, lived-in look that people ended up liking. Has anyone else had a printing disaster that accidentally improved the final thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony8831mo agoTop Commenter

That "distressed, lived-in look" you got is way better than my usual method, which is just me spilling toner on my hands and smudging every third page. I mean, at least coffee smells good.

emery181mo ago

Oh man, @anthony883, I actually love the accidental toner smudge method. It gives this random, chaotic vibe that feels more real to me. Like, my carefully distressed pages always end up looking the same, but a true coffee spill or a greasy fingerprint from turning pages while eating chips? That tells an actual story. My forced tea stains are neat, but your messy third page smudges probably have way more character.