What is a zine?
A zine is a publication designed for a very limited target audience, and usually distributed on a small scale, as well. They are cheap to produce, and are often spread by hand through the relevant community; for example, a punk zine might be available at punk performances, and a poetry zine would be featured at poetry readings. The term itself is short for “magazine,” suggesting a collection of varied written and visual work distributed to readers at a relatively low cost. A zine is often viewed as a news organ of an underground or cliquish community, and azine's readership often has an inclusive sense of pride at being part of the movement the zinerelates to.
The idea of distributing writing and pamphlets which are cheaply reproduced to make them readily available is an old one, but zine culture really began to explode in the 1970s, when numerous members of the punk scene started to create zines, or fanzines. A fanzine is a zinewhich communicates information about a group or movement to its fans, and it might contain things like upcoming tour dates, interviews, album reviews, and other material which would be of interest to fans of a group or cultural movement.
Examples of zines;
I love the simple shapes used on the front of this zine but it's hard to interpret what the image on the front actually is. I see it as a telephone because of the 10 circles that could represent number of a telephone and the blue could be the headset placed on the red phone base. However when accompanied with the words shield it throws a spanner in the works and I don't really understand the reference between type and image. A lot of zines seem to have images on the front that are really hard to interpret or recognise.
I really like the way this zine has been made, it,s just one big sheet of paper which is then folded up into a zine, this could be useful because i wouldn't have to spend money on getting pages printed and I could save time on binding. I also love the design of the zine the way it has used the single bright orange as a contrast against the greyscale images.
There's so many amazing features on this zine, firstly there's the binding, clean and simple with a high contrasting blue thread. Then there's the front cover, the way they've created layers with the smaller flap but still having the designs match up. By printing onto 2 separate stocks it also creates a contrast and directs ones eyes towards 'new york city' before anything else.
This is another simple zine cover with minimum information. It's hard to fully understand what this zine is about, this could be a positive though because it could cause intrigue and lure people in to reading more. So far from the research I have noticed that zines never seem to use full colour photos they're usually greyscale or tints and they're never printed onto true white stock.
I love the idea of a folding zine, especially one that can be unfolded to reveal a massive print on the reverse. I particularly like the stock the designer has used because it's off white it gives it more of an indiivdual hand crafted look.
There's not much information given from this photo but one thing I really like from this image is that the zine comes in a package to protect it. I was thinking I could do something along these lines but obviously make it more interesting and relevant by adding designs to it and making it look less commercial.
I really like the use of applying a coloured tint to the images especially on the off white stock, it makes it look a lot less boring and commercial even with the black body copy. However I really don't like the way the photos have been laid out using the photomontage technique.
This is a very modernist looking zine, I particularly like the use of greyscale with a bold contrasting colour. Again i'm slightly unsure about the photomontage though, I prefer photos to be neatly aligned and positioned in a grid system.
This is similar to how I want the front of my zine to look like, it's simple but conveys adequate information that is needed to be put out there. The styling is very modernist and i'm particularly fond of the lack of colour and the layout of type in to a grid like format, it's very Swiss in style.
Again I like how they've used an off white stock and tinted photos to, however i'm not a huge fan of the type used it's barely readable when in the same colour as the photo. I think the photo should be the same colour tint but the type black just so that there's a contrast making it more readable. Other than that the tones on the photos are amazing, they add real depth when on that stock.
From looking at zines I have learnt some valuable information that will assist me when creating my very own zine;
- Never use a full colour photo, use either greyscale or tint.
- Stay away from true white stock, only use if necessary. Always try and use an off white stick because it adds more depth and texture to the zine, it's generally hard to work with massive seas of white and it can look to formal and corporate if white stock is used.
