Promotional Zines

Zines are a great way to promote yourself and your art and are fun to create too. There are two types of zine - the hand made collage zine and the on-line zine, designed to a template. Here Leanne of See the Woods describes how she designed the first Folksy promotional zine - Go Handmade.



"My decision to create and publish GO Handmade magazine to help spread the word of Folksy and the amazing crafters, designers and artists who sell there was one of pure impulse, much like a lot of my decisions to be honest.
Well it turns out there’s quite a lot of work involved in putting together an ezine, more than I originally anticipated but I still enjoyed every minute of it and each new challenge it brought. Surprisingly enough, finding good content for the magazine was the easy part. Then came the design and layout, what appeals to one person may leave another completely cold and a lot of different aspects had to be taken into consideration. I have a legal background so of course that aspect of putting together a magazine was always at the forefront of my mind during the whole process, ensuring that none of the content had already been produced elsewhere and above all else making sure that the content contained in the magazine was protected. With the images of designer’s creations effectively being published somewhere other than Folksy it was important to ensure that readers of the magazine understood that the images and content remained the property of the designers and could not be reproduced without their consent.
It was a lot to take on board but at the end of the day I think we managed to create a unique, interesting, article based publication which everyone seems to enjoy reading.The feedback from the magazine has been fantastic and with well over 5000 readers to date, I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next issue in August.We’ll have more makes, articles, recipes and crafts for readers to enjoy in the upcoming issues and don’t for keep to keep an eye out for the Christmas issue which will be something a bit special."
See The Woods