Emailzine #01
After writing about email design on the blog for eleven years, I wanted to create something you could take offline. Attending #lazinefest inspired me to try and put together an email zine. It’s nice to make something by hand, and I like how easy-going the format is. It ended up 64 pages long, and covers variable fonts, smart invert, SVG filmstrips and flipbooks, and SVG shape morphing. There’s also a bunch of online demos to go with it. I hope you enjoy this first issue, you can get it in a couple of formats:
- Digital PDF (free)
- Handmade A5 zine, $28 incl. shipping (sorry it’s sold out).
Handmade 64 page, A5 zine covering email design
I wanted to try making the zine myself as that’s part of the fun
Digital PDF version
Digital PDF version with links etc. that you can read immediately
There’s a free digital PDF copy you can download, and check out a few demos. It comes bundled with a separate print-your-own-zine file (zip). I chose A5 format ( folded A4 sheets ), so people would have the option of printing it out themselves. A4 is a standard paper size in Europe, and what many of you will already have in your printer. It’s a little wider than US ‘letter’ when folded, but still easy to get hold of in the US. It was Julia Evans @b0rk who gave me the idea, as she makes programming zines that you can print out yourself.
Print it out on A4, fold in half and bind however you like
There’s also a cover file if you really want to get into it
Handmade print version
I wanted to experiment a bit with my own printed version. I read a lot of indie mags, and so I wondered if I could make a copy of the zine using similar materials as them. This meant trying to get hold of certain types of paper ( I didn’t know any brand names ) and printing and binding it myself. As this was my first big print project and DIY, it’s not as if I expected to make something of that same quality — with my Epson printer and Scor-Pal — I was just having fun and hoped to learn something about print design.
I ran a bunch of uncoated paper samples through my printer to see which performed well, though they’re not really intended for inkjet printing I found some I liked
Gmund Cotton New Grey 110 g ( above ) which reminded me of thick newsprint, and has a nice tactile feel to it.
I’m also using Gmund Colors 72 120 g.
Two covers, Pale Grey 270 g by Colorplan ( left ) and Old Mill Bianco 250 g by Fedrigoni ( right )
The paper I ended up using was by Gmund, Colorplan and Fedrigoni. As you can’t buy the paper to make just one zine, I have a few left over. They’re stupidly impractical, and not very cost effective when making such a small run. But as this was more in the way of a personal project, I just went with what I liked.
We 3D printed this bookbinding jig, I might need to print another one to increase my snail-like production line
Perfect bound by hand, which is a bit of a time suck and limits how many you can make
Zine fest
I think I took this photo at #lazinefest 2017, the recent 2019 one was held at the helms bakery
I also made up a newsprint version to reduce costs
Now that I’ve figured out how to make physical copies — albeit slowly — it would be great to possibly share something at a future zine event. There’s a bunch of them locally here in LA, and worldwide if you want to find one near you. I tried making a newsprint version which reduces the cost of the materials, and uses a quicker binding method. My mind’s already filled with improvements and ideas for a second issue. It helps that I now know where the buttons are in InDesign and what a pica is, so hopefully it should be a smoother process.