WHAT IS A ZINE?
A 'Zine' takes it's name from it's larger cousin the 'MagaZINE'. Zine's are usually, however a free publication and don't generally belong to a commercial enterprise or business. Usually developed to share ideas and interests of a particular movement, artist or creative theme the Zine is often hand made via collage techniques and then photocopied to reproduce the content. Copies traditionally number in the hundred's, but have been known to be so popular that thousands have been re-produced.
Having being around since the 1920's, when they were initially created and distributed by Sci-Fi Fans; made to share and discuss various ideas and opinions within the scene Zines became a quick and easy way for fringe sub cultures to share their views and interests via free and easy to access channels of people.
During the 1950's Zines were created by fans of artists, poets and writers to share work and ideas brought about by the avant-garde movement. In particular fan's of the iconic artist Dada, known as. 'Dadaists' developed these to share work of the famous artist.
The now infamous 'Punk' movement of the 1970's fuelled by free speech and revolution of the teenage demographic used the easy 'do it yourself' methods of producing zines content to spread messages and ideas throughout the underground population and music scenes.
The 1980's bought about 'Fact Sheet Five' a small organisation that catalogued and reviewed a wide variety of Zines. Subscribers to 'Fact Sheet Five' could then subscribe to receive zines based on their interests and hobbies from a whole range locations.
With the advent of the home computer, and self publication companies such as Kinkos the Zine died down until the early 90's where it saw a resurgence powered by the feminist punk movement, 'Riot Grlll'.
And now of course we find ourselves living in the 21st century where the internet has taken the place of many traditional and non-traditional forms of publication including books, magazines and of course zines.
EXAMPLE ZINES
Shown below are a few examples of zines created throughout history by various movements and cultural ideals.
WHY AM I MAKING A ZINE?
For the longest time i've wanted to publish my work for other's to see, I just for whatever reasons didn't get around to it yet. Ideally i'd love to have an exhibition, but there's no point in doing that unless people at least know your name. And so here I find myself putting together a Zine. A small publication that can include a variety of my images to give a broader idea about the kind of work I produce. Not only that but I can use it to show my work to those who probably would never look... people on public transport, those in libraries reading literature in the romantic fiction section, and of course those interested in this kind of thing.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN ZINE
Time for the good bit! So how do you go about making your own self published Zine? Here's a few simple steps.
1. Decide on a topic or area of interest that your Zine will be about. It can be a specific subject like my own or it can be more varied and contain content from various contributors or sources.
2. Next you'll need to gather the images and text content your Zine will contain. This is where you'll need to decide how you wish to produce your zine, digitally or by hand. Digitally you can use screen shots or copy and paste content as you go from a notes app or digital pin-board (such as Pinterest) etc. In person you'll have to cut out text and images from existing publications or write it up using an analogue keyboard or even the handwritten method.
3. Now you have your content you can either develop it on a computer using free apps such as Google Docs or your can develop it by hand using the traditional method of collage (cut and paste IRL). Either way you need to make the content fit within A5 size pages over either 6, 12 or 18 sides. (See below for a size guide)
4. Once you've laid out your content make sure you like the flow, that it makes sense and more importantly that it specific and relevant to the subject of your Zine (remember you have limited space to get your point across). If you don't like what you see you can re-design it digitally very quickly and the beauty of collage is you can just cut it up and start again!
5. Your penultimate step in Zine creation is the reproduction method you choose to use. If you're going the more traditional method you can find a black and white photo copier at your place of work or local library and simply hit the button! If you want something a little more professional looking you can use an online print company such as Helloprint to order your own fully assembled copies. Personally i prefer the traditional method, i feel it adds a certain rawness to the whole thing.
6. Finally you'll need to distribute your Zine. The whole point of this method is that it enables you to place content in the hands of those who wouldn't generally see it. I'd recommend you think about the target market that is opposite to that of your content (if you wish to bring it to new people) or if you wish to engage an existing audience then you'll probably already know the right places to distribute.
ZINE SIZE GUIDE
A zine traditionally is made up of folded A4 sheets to be folded into a final document size of A5. For this reason you'll need to choose an even number of pages to work with. Personally I'd suggest 6, 12 or 16 sides which translates as:
2 x A4 Sheets (6 Sides of A5)
3 x A4 Sheets (12 Sides of A5)
4 x Sheets (16 Sides of A5)
Remember when you fold your pages down the centre the content effectively becomes distributed in an jumbled manner through the pages. So for examples pages 1 and 2 are not on the same A4 sheet. What you'll need to do is this. Start with your folded pages all together. Layout your content as you would like it to be read i.e. in the correct order through the pages. Then when you pull you pages apart to photocopy them when they're stapled together the content will read correctly.
Here's a quick image guide to help you out. Use this if your creating your Zine digitally or by hand.
ZINE LAYOUT GUIDE
When copying your sheets here's how they should be laid out:
Back and Front = Same Sheet Page 9 & 2 = Same Sheet Page 7 & 4 = Same Sheet
Page 5 & 6 = Same Sheet (Centre Fold) Page 3 & 8 = Same Sheet Page 1 & 10 = Same Sheet
HINTS & TIPS
1. The most important tip I can give you is to have fun when you're making your Zine, it's supposed to be about creating something exciting that people will want to read and look at. You'll achieve this better if you feel this way when you're making it.
2. Use high quality images to start with. The better the image quality of the original, the better the re-production quality will be when you make copies. The same goes for text too.
3. Keep it short. Try to limit yourself to the suggest number of pages. Anything more starts to become a book and people will be less inclined to pick it up.
4. Try not to use too many design rules. Break the rules of boundary and straight lines, if you wish to of course.
5. When re-producing your Zine work out the costings from various methods/ suppliers. They can vary a lot in price.
6. Share your Zine in places where there are a lot of people. There's no point in sharing it where there's only a couple of people a day who are going to see it. You want to share your content with new people, that's the whole point.
7. Finally don't forget to add some kind of contact info. This could be an email a website or even just an action such as, 'read this book' etc. If you can get people to engage after they read your Zine, then you're more likely to grow your audience.