Irregular Magazine Re-Design

A zine is usually reproduced via copier on cheap paper.  Zines are either the product of a single person, or of a very small group and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation, though in the age of the internet they’ve become webzines, downloadable digital magazines.

A fanzine (a combination of fan created and a zine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fans of a particular cultural interest (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was first coined in an October 1940 Sci-Fi fiction magazine by Russ Chauvenet and was popularized with the Sci-Fi fan community, and entered in to the Oxford Dictionary in 1949.

A webzine or e-zine is basically a magazine distributed on the World Wide Web, these are generally digital files such as PDF which readers can either download or read on-line.

Zines were very popular amongst music fans and became a popular way to write a bout bands and the music scene, these would tend to be very niche. Most were produced at home via a copier machine and then hand stapled together.

Within the gaming community the 1980’s saw a massive growth in zines which were dedicated to very specific  games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Once the internet took hold this gave people the opportunity to publish to a far bigger audience. This led to people moving from publishing zines to setting up web sites, this became even more so when blogs became popular.

Now its possible to produce a professional looking webzine using quite easy to use desk top publishing software. I use Adobe InDesign, mainly because I use this in my work place. There are cheaper and simpler software out there such as Microsoft Publisher or Serif PagePlus both of which are possible to produce a professional looking product.