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Loud on Paper Library Guide

This guide provides information on the Fall 2022 event, zines, and how to make a zine.

Brainstorming Ideas

Brainstorming

Now that you have your supplies and know how to make a zine, it's time to begin creating! What should you include in your zine? Anything that's important to you. Be as creative as you want!

If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, this list of 51 Ideas for Your Next Zine might help you feel inspired.

As you're thinking of ideas, you may want to keep a few things in mind:

  • What type of zine are you interested in making?
  • How big do you want each page of your zine to be (e.g., mini, half-page, full page)? How many pages will there be?
  • Do you want to work together as a group, or assign pages to individual group members?

Questions to Consider

Below are some questions that can also help you brainstorm ideas for your zine:

  • What do you want the Purdue community today to know about your organization and its members? What do you want future Boilermakers to know about your organization and its members?
  • What are some important values to your organization? How do you express those values?
  • How do social identities (i.e. race, gender, ethnicity, national origin/citizenship, religion, etc.) shape your organization and its members?
  • Which current events (local, regional, national, global) have impacted your organization and its members? How so?
  • How does your organization today compare with previous years? You might search for your organization in the Purdue Archives digitized collection of The Purdue Exponent (1889-2017). What about your organization has changed? What do you think is still the same?
  • Which social justice or other political issues are important to your organization and its members? What do you want people to know about this issue?
  • Which songs, television shows, artists, films, books, etc. are your favorites? What do you want others to know about these pieces of pop culture?
  • Are there specific cultural traditions (e.g. food, music, dance, holidays, etc.) that are important to your organization and its members? What would you want others in the Purdue community to understand about these traditions?

Zines, Art, & Activism

Mimi Thi Nguyen, zine artist and Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, discusses how she uses zine-making and art to express her political ideas and to support social justice movements. Check out her zine Evolution of a Race Riot #1 for more inspiration!