Learn to Design a Digital Zine using Affinity Publisher

Course Description + Introduction

Zines, you’ve heard of them and if you are a part of the creative community or just enjoy reading in general, you’ve probably been exposed to one at some point in your life. Zines are, at their very essence, are independently created and published magazines that tell niche stories for niche audiences. Historically, they have been the platform that the counterculture used to freely share ideas. From the perzines of the 1930s to the underground punk rock zines of the 80s and the feminist manifestos of the 90s, zines have influenced creative culture and society as a whole for decades. They disseminate the voice of people under oppressive rule, they inspire people to take a stand through their art and they have a unique way of building community. This month, we are going to talk about zines and their latest rendition the digital zine and how you can utilize the concept as a form of self expression or promotion for your creative work. Whether you are an artist and illustrator looking to showcase your work, a designer who wants to create a unique portfolio or someone with a bigger creative idea wanting to bring it to life on pages with a team of fellow creatives, this class is for you. I’ve done a lot of creative work over the last 15 years - but some of my most memorable experiences were during my time publishing my indie zine: Halfstack Magazine. What started off as a fashion project, launched into a 6 year self directed creative journey showcasing the best of Indie Chicago creatives in fashion, art and music. I did this alongside some of my most creative and inspiring friends that included photographers, artists, writers, graphic designers, stylists, makeup artists fashion specialists and so many more.

Hello everyone! If this your first class with me, welcome! If you are a returning student, welcome back! I am Jen and I will be guiding you through this creative course. I’m a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and educator based out of the midwest and I run Bella + Sophia Creative studio.

In today’s class, we are going to be learning about and designing our own digital zine! I published the indie Creative Chicago focused zine Halfstack for 6 years and today I am going to share more about that journey, offer some insights on designing and creating for zines and show you how you can make your own zine using affinity publisher and the online platform Issuu.

What the class is about

In this class, we will creating a digital zine that features personal work. This can be used as a portfolio piece and a great item to use when pitching. I will walk you through the process of designing and launching a digital zine using Affinity Publisher and the online platform Issuu.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of designing, though - I will share more about zines, the history of zines and the evolution into digital zines. I will share my personal zine story and utilize the indie zine I launched: Halfstack as a case study. I’ll offer insights on collaboration as I worked with what started as a 3 people team that evolved into working with over 20 creatives over 6 years. We will review the importance of having a concept and inspiration focus to guide the creative decisions you make. Then, we will talk about creative direction and designing your zine right before we jump into layout design in Affinity Publisher.

Even if you are not familiar with Affinity publisher, I will make sure you feel comfortable working in the software and walk you step by step through the process of laying out your pages. I will touch a bit on using mockups to display your art work, typography and concepts behind grid design. Then, I will walk you through the process of uploading your zine to Issuu.

Who the class is geared toward

This class is geared towards anyone interested in learning how to use Affinity Publisher to design their own digital zine. Whether you are a beginner or pro, this course will go through all the steps necessary to launch your zine online so you can showcase your work to the world in a fun and creative format.

Tools needed

Computer

Affinity Publisher

4 Visuals pieces of art work (can be illustrative, digital design, surface pattern design, photography etc - what ever you want to feature. Each with a paragraph descriptions.)

1 Headshot and

An artist statement (basically a bio about yourself and your work)

Mockup Resources

Creative Market

DesignCuts

Freepik

An overview of the class project

Project overview - Can do on your own or you can work with a team if you have a group of creative friends willing to work with you. Since not everyone will have access to people who could Help launch this project - we will assume that you are concepting, photographing or creating mock-ups and laying out your zine on your own.

For the class project, we will design a digital zine portfolio - if you are a designer or artist - the easiest topic will be to showcase showcase your work and share information on a topic you are knowledgeable on. I would suggest the following, but you are not limited to this list:

4 visual projects with titles and at least 1 paragraph for each project, explaining the inspiration and the process work that went into the creation of the visual pieces. You will also want to include a bio page featuring an image of yourself, an artist statement and contact/social media links.

Your zine should include the following:

Cover page

4 or more interior pages

Back cover

This will create about 10 pages in total.

Once you complete your zine, you can upload it to issuu and then you you can submit the link to view it to the course project gallery to share with your fellow classmates and myself.

Make sure to download the RESOURCES file so you can utilize the project template I created with you in the course.