Passing Pattern - 10 Questions

Passing Pattern is an exciting independent magazine based in Chicago that takes a local approach to covering soccer culture while simultaneously fostering an appreciation for the global game. I had the opportunity to sit down with the magazine’s creator, Alex Tsanov, to discuss the vision and goals behind his project.

1. What does football mean to you?

The greatest the greatest role that Footy plays in my life now is it serves as like a connection to other people and it brings me closer to my friends and the people around me I yeah I guess uh the communal aspect of uh of the sport has brought the most value to me my life

2. What is a passing pattern, specifically? How does it relate to your work and the ideas behind this publication?

you have the passing pattern the actual technical aspect of it and and it the idea that resonates with me is like it's uh the repetition of these patterns it's like creating a rhythm it's like you're getting - so you invest yourself so much in understanding the fundamentals of something but also uh I'm interested in the design and in the jerseys and all that so there's a double entandre which is like you see a pattern of a kit passing you by on the street and you're like oh damn what Jersey is that 

3. What is Riso Printing?

uh risograph printing is one that is it resonates with like a particular subculture in art and print making like the zine culture and stuff like that - it's better than like I if I want to make extra little prints or posters or whatever I'd rather do Rizo than like inkjet it just add extra quality to it um it's easy enough to produce a ublication and do like what other people are doing but I want to provide a bit of extra value for the people that buy into passing pattern you know a little bit of extra something they could take home with them 

4. Can you talk a little about Spudnik Press? (Not to be confused with Sputnik Coffee—which, by the way, isn’t bad.) or maybe Newspaper Press?

Spudnick is dope shout out Spudnik they're a Chicago based uh print making Cooperative I was a fellow there in like 2022 and that was my introduction with them - uh I had just come out of undergraded I wanted to find a place that I can keep printing so I applied for their fellowship program worked there for a year really but since then really I've been um working and hanging out with the people there really good people 

5. You’ve listed a few inspirations, and I know Mundial magazine is a key one for me as well as When Saturday Comes, though I do google some of the more obscure British slang like "Bobs your uncle" ... Can you talk a bit about your inspirations a little?

I'm a big fan of Bruno Manari this is one of his books that I have it is called we circle triangle so it's just a very thorough exploration how uh how these fundamental forms are represented throughout media and are really cool - but he has a really he has another book called design as art that really influenced my uh thinking as a designer - you know as a designer are you merely someone who is there to fulfill a need or can you have some authorship 

6. What are your favorite kits to collect? Do you have specific teams, leagues, or regions you focus on?

I look at the design itself you know if it's enticing for me uh there are certain clubs I stay away from because I mean I'm a Chelsea fan - least um you know I can't.. I can appreciate like a good United kit I'm also Bulgarian so I love Berbatov and he has only played for club that I hate so I -  I can never get first so yeah for me it's matter of like is is the design good is it considered you know what year is it from uh also like the significance of that period in time is also important for me - like I'd rather buy a kit from a successful season than one that wasn't so because I like the narrative behind it like it you know the kids itself themselves don't exist in isolation there's a lot of history in each shirt and that's an important part of if I'm going to spend $100 on a kid I better get one that has a good story behind it

7. Zizou was a great choice for Issue 1. Personally, I admire how he has maintained his presence across generations—he’s even defeated two generations of the Le Pen family. Why do you find him personally inspiring?

what can I say about Zidane that hasn't already been said - came up with this this idea for these like little cutout guys uh that kind of stand up on their own first it was Maradona and I was like okay I have to like come up with some other ones and then there was Ronaldo was the other and then I remember looking at a a poster where it was a series of six photos of Zidane scoring that Vol in the Champions League semi-final against so the poster was like six photos and each photo was at a different moment of the volley and I saw that and I'm like I'm just going to put Z on in there it's not deeper it's not deeper than that like i' rather just make a decision and move on to the next thing and not every decision has to be like super deep and I have to spend a week if I do that if I don't just pick something I'll just sit there for ages

8. You also seem to have a deep appreciation for Brazil’s football heroes—Socrates, Ronaldo—but you also included Passarella. Is your goal to provide a broader, global perspective on the game?

so yeah I'm trying to have a more Global uh reach or coverage both historically and I don't want to write about that people already know about it's not that interesting find things are more compelling and things that I'm learning about as I'm writing about them you know that's more interesting for me

9. I first discovered Passing Pattern when I saw a poster for Issue 2 near Milwaukee & Division last September. The Brandi Chastain '99 World Cup celebration was an iconic moment—what are your thoughts on its significance?

I think it's pretty objective that that is like the Pinnacle moment for wom's football in the US with everything I do I want there to be ties between everything that I'm uh highlighting so if I'm going to be writing about Cole and her role uh in trying to elevate women's in Chicago as well as her history as a as a player herself I wanted to use that moment as a connection between the article and the rest of the and some of the other material that I'm producing so I want there to be ties between everything in the same way I'm trying to feature like foot football players from around the world and different cultures and all that I it's not all about men I wanted to take the moment and create something that shows appreciation towards the women that play this sport as well

10. You've been a longtime collaborator with my friend Macja at Crossbar. Your recent projects seem to address important societal issues. Can you talk more about that?

oh man I think that project symbolizes maybe where I want to go with my career as a whole that as a designer and you know where I see myself being in a couple of years but the the important thing about that project is like we make too many jerseys too many of them are ugly and there's a lot of waste there's a lot of not just with footy but do we produce a lot of waste a lot of do we make just goes to landfills or goes to burn piles or whatever so is there a way that we can encourage members of the community the individual to shift their perspective uh not just in terms of like how they consume like you know maybe we don't need to buy a new jersey all the time so the whole point of the campaign is like trying to encourage people from a local level to reconsider their relationship to buying in general but also what about the stuff that we already have like is there is there a way that we can save the the garment we have before they just go straight into the bin or or elsewhere um but what I would like to do would be something along the lines of like hosting uh workshops where Macjaca stand up in front of a room of people and talk about some upcycling practices have a room full of sewing machines where everybody can come with their own kits or with materials provided by us they can repair them they can customize them they can make them their own and start thinking about applying those practices to everything else the rest of their life

    Bonus: When can we expect Issue 3?

issue number three I'm planning for this summer so late June early July is what I'm looking at yeah - expect another launch party expect some more Rizo prints expect um a new writer and maybe a deviation from newspapers maybe it won't be a newspaper this time