In November of 2014, the Edinburgh College of Art was holding an artist book and zine fair called Book Marks @ECA as part of Bookweek Scotland. In conjunction with this event, I was asked to give a workshop over the course of one week to the MA in Illustration students on zines. The outcome of the workshop was to lead to pieces that could be displayed and sold at a table at the Book Marks @ECA event. I started the workshop with a introductory talk, some slides of which I have included below, that discussed the history and cultural contexts zines grew from and explored ways in which illustrators can use this distribution method as a way to experiment with their practice. Knowing there would be a short turnaround time from being assigned the brief to group critique to public presentation, I focused on how the students could use this project as an opportunity to reframe their existing practice and experiment with how the formal presentation and medium affected meaning within their work. After this presentation, I led a group brainstorming session to encourage engagement with the material, and provided my own archive of independent comics and zines for the students to use as references.
