ENG 120 and 201: The World of Zines, Zine Making and Self-Publishing

An "analog" zine is created by writing, drawing, collaging, and gluing or taping images onto pages of paper. For this assignment, you start with two pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper and fold them in half. Now you have a booklet format to work on. Your "paper" zine is designed for reading offline. It's a tangible thing that you "self-publish"  on a photocopy machine. Technology may be used in the creation of the paper zine, for example, you might print out photos or images you find online, but the zine itself is an object that exists offline, IRL.

Don't panic when you look at photos of zines and start thinking, I can't do that! 

I can't do that either! but we can! Students are not expected to suddenly be highly skilled graphic designers! Zines can be very simple: your own writing; images collected from the Internet, your own photos, magazines, old books, newspapers, etc. cut and pasted into collages; and photographs. Art and design students may be comfortable making more sophisticated zines, but anyone--including those of us who can't draw very well--can make a zine!

Your zine will be made from 2 pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper,  in landscape orientation,  folded in half. This means 2 covers and 6 pages of content.

You'll be making your print/paper zine about an historical subject or event before the year 2000, so here are a few places to browse for ideas:

Here's a link to the Zinn Education Project, based on the approach to history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States, which the Library owns. This is a site of lesson plans for teachers, but it is also a great place to find an idea for your zine. The Project emphasizse the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history.

Here's a list of many print books the library owns about different alternative histories.

OR even just do some Google searches, i.e., "little known American history" and look for legitimate, well known sources like Time magazine or Smithsonian. 

When it comes to putting images and words together, think about these basic principles of design. This chart is basic but useful:

 chart created by Patrick Butler, who has allowed educational use of his charts. Click on chart for a crisper image and a second chart about the elements of design.

Here's a link to an article about the basic principles of composition in art and design. It's good! Even if you just skim it and look at the images. The article is part of a larger series Learning to Look, about visual literacy.