In March 2018 Co-relate creative practitioners Jessica Rose and Daisy Kelly-Granger collaborated with architect and graphic designer Jon Spencer to develop and lead a workshop with young people as part of the Margate Bookie and Prince’s Trust Poetry Journey in Margate. Jess, Daisy and Jon worked with participants to co-produce a zine for publication including the poems they had written on their Poetry Journey, teaching young people new skills in work planning, zine making, illustration and aesthetic design.

“The best part of the day was getting to be practically creative whilst making our zine pieces”.

Why a zine?

A zine is a type of small Do It Yourself (DIY) publication that can be traced back as far as the 1700s, with a number of revivals in the 20th century, particularly during the era of punk culture. Advancements in copy technology and machines made it easy to distribute these lo-fi collections of punk writing and thinking, and the zine played a huge part in the spread of punk subculture in the UK.

Co-relate was keen to publish the young people's work, encourage them to think about the publishing process and to develop a unique marketing tool for the upcoming Spring Bookie.

The process

Once we had met the young people at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, Daisy demonstrated the process she followed when she created a zine to accompany a musical performance. As a music and mixed media artist, Daisy found creating a sixteen page A6 zine to be an innovative way to put together illustrations, paintings and poems that correlated with the narrative of her show. During our workshop, Daisy showed examples of the original paintings and drawings that were scanned and then digitally adapted and edited.

The group attending the workshop then looked at and discussed various formats, explained by Jon, with some interesting fold-out options that would give the option of having a poster on one side. The participants considered the pros and cons of each design format and settled on a booklet design. We went as a group to Jon’s studio, ShopFront Margate, where participants were invited to pick and choose from a variety of craft materials and processes.

“The best part of the day was being in a creative environment with others and using a type writer”.

Making the zine

Over the next four hours an incredibly warm and creative environment developed, as everyone in the room worked away on creating the pages that they would contribute to the zine. Participants were enthusiastic and encouraging, and with BBC Radio 6 bubbling away in the background no one really wanted the session to end. The young people explored a number of new techniques and practices, including using a typewriter, illustration using ink pens, and photographing handwriting on lined paper. We ended the session by scanning and viewing each person’s work, along with a statement form each person about how they felt after the session. We were very pleased to hear the words ‘motivated!’ and ‘inspired!’ come up more than once.

The post production process of completing the zine involves minor cropping and editing of the scanned images, and the inclusion of the Margate Bookie programme, plus copy relating to the supporting collaborators. Daisy and Jon have been looking at the best way to display the work made by the young people, however have found that what has been produced looks best with very little process applied. What is so great about a zine is that they are highly accessible and easy to make, and part of the appeal is their homemade and DIY aesthetic. We feel happy to have heard from the group participants that they would all consider making their own zine, and that they learned new skills over the course of the day.

“[I feel I] have more potential to do more creative activities and build on my portfolio to show my illustrations to people”.

Find out more about our work with Margate Bookie.