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Zines by Artists

Barnard Zine Library Curator Jenna Freedman created this guide to support Branden Joseph's Art History seminar at Columbia University.

Events This Spring

NYC FEMINIST ZINE FEST in squiggly rainbow letters

Logistics

photo of brown hands with chipped nail polish folding a one-page zine

Zine Content

Covers

  • color
  • construction
  • relief prints

Binding

  • staples
  • sewing
  • stab
  • materials

Graphics

  • illustrations
  • fair use/copyright
  • photographs
  • typography/handwriting
  • backgrounds

Elements

  • prose
  • art
  • poems
  • games
  • collages
  • internet content
  • metadata:
    • author
    • title
    • date
    • publication location
    • rights
  • manifestos
  • white space
  • excerpts
  • reviews

Genre

  • personal
  • political
  • art
  • literary
  • split
  • compilation
  • minicomics
  • DIY

Check out the Design Center

  • sewing
  • print making
  • paper marbling

Zine Tech

Creation

  • Adobe Scan, free (with advertising)
  • zine templates (indd, pdf, docx)
  • video of a zine making design software workshop
  • Google Drive - did you know you can change the dimensions on Google slides? Try 5.5" wide by 8.5" high if you're in the US or 148.5mm x 210mm where A4 is the standard paper size. 

Sharing

Now You!

Prompts

  • Something you really love or really hate and why
  • Syllabus for a course you could/would like to teach
  • 2024

Provisos

  • 1/4" margin
  • reproduce well on paper

Page-by-Page Suggestions

Front Cover (1)

  • Title. Optional: subtitle, issue number, your name, publication year.
  • Mind map, pie chart (or if you're a data snob another kind of chart), or other illustration of the topic.

Inside Cover (2)

  • Introduction and metadata, including rights and permissions (i.e., copyright)
  • Hint: I often write this part last, after I know what I'm introducing

(3)

  • "I remember" statements
  • Manifesto
  • Problem/argument/thesis in a nontraditional format--could be a meme

Center Left (4) & Center Right (5)

  • Use the double page to draw a comic, whether you draw comics or not. Stick figures rule!

(6)

  • "Pencil game" could be a maze, a crossword puzzle, a wordfinder, or a quiz

Inside Cover (7)

  • might continue page six or
  • 10-word literature reviews
  • quotations
  • a social media post that encapsulates your theme
  • outro

Back Cover (8)

  • Playlist
  • Reading log
  • Thank yous or no thank yous