Zine reasearch

We had to do two briefs for this project and as their were not many Art direction based projects I decided to do two projects for the same competition. The other brief that stood out to me was creating a zine, 'A four to eight page brochure covering the area of diversity and individuality beauty and body ideals. Content must offer a unique take on the subject of individuality.' I really liked the idea of this concept for people particularly women to read something that make them not feel so insecure about them selves. However I had never really heard of a zine before so I had to research a bit into it and see where I can find them to get an idea of the layout and the content in them. 

the definition of a zine, 'An inexpensively produced, self-published, underground publication'.

here are some example of Zine shops and libraries that I found on the Internet, they are usually smaller than an A4 sheet of paper, usual about A5 or smaller. 

I went to the northern quarter to purchase my first zine and went to Magma which has all sort of publications. However they did not have many zine, they had two. The one that caught my eye was the photographic one called 'Black ski mask' It had an intriguing cover and the content was random and bizarre but I though it looked really interesting. The feature that I really like about this zine was the fact that in encouraged the readers to submit some of their own work whether it be photograph, design, writing and illustration. 

There is even a zine in Manchester that is a group of previous students from Manchester school of art. 'OWT creative is a multidisciplinary design collective based in Manchester. We work through print, web, film, bookbinding, curation, branding and art direction.We do a lot, but don't mistake us for a jack of all trades. Starting life as an experiment in publishing with the OWT zine we now pride ourselves on initiating collaborations and challenging the status quo of how an agency should work: constantly working on self-initiated projects and events alongside our conventional client briefs. Our diverse range of abilities and extended network allow us to create solutions to any problem.' I thing they have done up to 12 different issues. The content of the zine is a mix media of different areas in art. They content is random but the layout is very well done. The element that really stands out with this zine is the branding. They have it on every issue. It is simple but stands out, branding is very key to keep publication going. 

Here are some other examples of photographic zine, both of them mainly feature women. The one just below is 'Girls on Film' which photographers can send in their own images in to feature. It was also started up in Liverpool and has books sold with their work in shops like urban outfitters. The one below that is an LA based zine called 'All things ordinary'. Both of these zine have quite a voyeuristic feel with their photographs as if the reader is viewing a moment that is private. They also have a vintage feel to the images as if they have been taken with a disposable camera.