This year we have been asked to do a couple of workshops along side our projects. One of the ones I sighed up for was “Zines”. A Zine is a small self published work of original texts and images usually reproduced by photocopiers. Zines are an area of publishing that has boomed over the past 15 years. Zines are mainly used by illustrators to showcase their works. The Zines are more DIY than magazines as they tend to be low quality rather than high but can be both but originally they were made to be quick prints. They are more experimental and have no limitations to them. Zines tend to show works of single people or a very small group of people. They are non official publications normally based of something that others who share the same interests will buy. The concept of zines had an ancestor in the amateur press movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. 

One of the main impacts on zines happened when punk in the 1970s was becoming more popular. Punk Zines emerged from the punk subculture along with an increase in accessibility to copy machines, publishing software and home printing technologies. When Punk emerged from the united kingdom’s black subcultures and became a genre for the working class because of the economic necessity to use creative DIY methods which were used to make zines. They became vital in popularizing and spreading punk across the country and outside to places like America and Ireland. Fans created zines too, they played an important role in spreading information about different scene and bands. They would include reviews of shows and records, also interviews with the bands and letters. This worked like the internet back then and it was pre internet era. 

Within our workshop we were given a brief to complete over the two workshops. In which we had free rang to experiment with everything, style, fold, text, backgrounds and pictures. The brief said we had to create a publication using a social media thread. Using a series of messages that have been posted as replies to each other. The threads used had to respond to an image or images that we had shared on social media platforms such as, Instagram, Facebook or what’s app. The connect had to have already be shared and all we have to do is collect the images and text to place in a InDesign zine that we will be creating. The idea behind this was to present the images and text in a interesting way. To think about how we wanted the text we enclosed to be read, which can change depending on how the text is written. The idea was that it would give us an opportunity to enhance the text meaning. 

On our first workshop session we looked into what zines are and then given free reign in creating little fold up dummies. Experimenting with multiple fold and sizes of paper to work with. Once we decided what book style we wanted to use we then decided what images and threads that we would use in our zines. deciding were to place the text and images and how we want it to be read over all. By making the dummies we can get a clearer more physical feel for what we want the zine, magazine or book to look like and feel like. It is better to do this than design straight on to a screen, as the work can be lost and might not look how you want it to when you eventually print it off. In the next section we will be taking in the complete finished dummy books and building them up on InDesign to see how they look on screen, as well as on a draft paper dummy.