Zine topic

I read an article about zine making on rookiemag.com because I’m struggling to think of a workable idea for my zine. The article spoke about how zines usually have a controversial or niche theme which is not commonly found in mainstream media. Zines have a lot of power as they can spread messages and ideas by bypassing mainstream media. I think I have been too caught up in thinking of an amazing argument or concept to put forward with my zine and I think this has been what is holding me back from getting a topic sorted and getting started with it. Instead of taking this route, I think I just want to make a book of good drawings around a certain theme as this aligns with the work I have done over summer well. 

After deciding on this, I was reminded of some work I saw over summer which really interested me. It was a story of a man who’s grandfather had passed away and left behind a shed full of tools and bits and bobs. Lee John Phillips took inspiration from this and set about drawing every single item (over 100,000) in the shed. I thought this was a really heartwarming story of using drawing to remember something or someone and the drawings are so clean and crisp and arranged so neatly on the pages, they really conveyed the idea of the shed being absolutely full of things.

This summer has been one of the best I can remember so I want to use my zine as a way of remembering some of my experiences. This is quite a personal topic and I am concerned that other people won’t connect with my book if I make it too much about me so I think I will narrow it down to my travels in Hungary, Austria and Czech Republic as these fit into a theme of european countries. Similar to the sketchbook about the shed, I am going to focus on objects (and architectural features) and fill the pages with things that trigger memories for me and things that I found interesting or beautiful. I have plenty of my own photographs to work from which is good because I will feel at the end that this zine is 100% mine. 

I may use some drawings that I already have in my sketchbook but I will need to do a lot more drawing from photographs for this. At the moment, I am imagining this zine emulating a well organised sketchbook/journal with so many details packed into it that you notice something new every time you look through it. 

I think I desperately need some feedback on this brief and soon because I need to get an idea straight in my head before continuing. The group crit for the summer brief at the very beginning of the semester wasn't really beneficial to me because my comments sheet got lost underneath someones sketchbook so I barely got any written feedback. This was disappointing because I normally take a lot away from these sessions and the suggestions make me think about potential directions.