Who are We?

A Zine is a handmade version of a magazine publication and are growing in popularity. As a brand new publication, Stalker Zine embraces this trend; celebrating up-and coming creatives working in Nottingham the Zine aims to provide a platform to showcase the wealth of talent on offer.

Two young creatives from Nottingham Trent University are the brains behind this new Zine.

Abbie Voice (left) and Sofie Holdsworth (right)

They were set a brief by the university as features below:

DEFINITIONS

Zine

(ziːn) — n: (informal) a magazine or fanzine

fan•zine

/fæn zin, fæn zin/ [fan-zeen, fan-zeen] –n a magazine or other periodical produced inexpensively by and for fans of science fiction and fantasy writing, comic books, popular music, or other specialized popular interests.

CONTEXT

Independent magazines and zines are a growth market and a recently successful example of this has been Fever Zine. Fever Zine is a popular quarterly zine based in London.

Its contents focus mainly on music, art, DIY culture, trends and e-culture, with fashion, music videos and other zines also featuring heavily. The zine was created and is edited, by British music and arts journalist Alex Zamora with design by Simon Whybray.

OBJECTIVE

You will be working in teams of 2 or 3 and are the Editorial and Design team for an Independent Publication. Your challenge is to devise a brand new stand-alone publication.

Your team is responsible for every element; written and visual.

Your publication must have a digital presence as well as the print version and it is the team’s responsibility to decide on the context, content and format, both digitally and in print and their relationship to one another.

You will need to write a Press Release and devise an innovative promotion campaign to launch the publication. You will need to consider how you will advertise, promote and market it and how you will attract customers.

As a team you will also need a written rationale (500 words approx) about your publication. Here you should outline the concept, mission statement, target demographic and the USP. This should be coherently designed in accordance with visual styling of the publication.

You are required to produce multiple copies of your publication for the zine fair. (In addition there needs to be 1 copy per individual with your portfolio for assessment)

You will be required to attend the Raw Print Zine Zine Fair on Saturday 28th May 2011 at the Hopkinson Gallery, where you will try to sell your publication. Therefore you will need to consider the price and the implications of producing a cost effective publication that can be produced in multiple copies. It will be your job (in your teams) to actually ‘man’ the stall(s) at the fair and sell your publication to the public.

Sounds exciting right? Can't wait to get started!

Abbie and Sofie - Stalker Zine xxx