The Flourish Editorial is a group who meet every week on a Wednesday to produce a monthly magazine which features things such as member’s poetry, stories, updates, reviews, social events & more. Members use a software called Canva which is very user friendly and new members can get help to learn how to use it.
We try to include lots of updates about what members have been up to in Flourish House and outside it, for example experiences at our allotment, or film reviews. One reader and contributor said “I like reading the articles that people put in. You get to know a bit more about other members through their work, their paintings, etc.”
At the end of the month the magazine is shared by email to members and printed and shared down at reception, we try to make it as interesting and colourful as possible. A fun activity each month is designing a cover. These can be created totally on Canva, using photos taken by members, designed by hand, or a combination of all this, like the recent June edition! The cover designer said about being part of the editorial team: “You get to know what’s going on in the whole place. You get to catch up. You’re learning new things, like this [mandala art for the June cover].”
The Flourish Editorial Planning Meeting helps us to plan what articles we’d like to feature and what information we need to gather or what pictures to use. We plan storylines for our ongoing cartoons and make up quizzes and word searches for readers to enjoy. The Flourish Times is all about collaboration and creating pieces of work together. For example, one keen artist regularly illustrates stories or non-fiction pieces written by others, as well as illustrating Bob Ratchett, our ongoing cartoon series about a rat that gets in all kinds of trouble, and can even travel in time.
“I like illustrating Bob Ratchett. Right now I’m drawing Saint Mungo [for a history piece written by another member]. That’s a nice challenge for me. We discuss the article and Morag [staff member] points out bits that could be good for illustrating. Should it be in colour or black an white? We talk about concept ideas.”
