I've been wanting to create a series of zines for FEAT. sock co. for a while now. I thought it would be such a fun and unique present to you, our online customers... something short and cute to hopefully brighten up your day just that extra little bit. Our colourful and quirky socks alone should do the job, but I'd long been thinking it would be nice to squeeze every bit of juicy joy out of the process of unwrapping your online order!
For those of you who might not know, a zine is a small, self-published work that is reproduced in small batches, usually via photocopier. A zine is sort of like a mini magazine, hence the name, and is made up of a combination of text and images along a decided theme/story-line... or it could just be totally random, depending on the whim and fancy of it's creator.
For FEAT. sock co.'s zine/s, I knew I wanted them to be fun, possibly a little silly even, and I knew I wanted them to be simple enough for us to print on my black-and-white HP printer at our studio. My little HP is mainly used to print out invoices and boring old administration documents, so I was excited to use it for something brand new (and far more exciting). The enthusiasm for the challenge was certainly there, but whenever I wanted to sink my teeth into the project, time just ran away from me.
Then Maggie Gelderblom came along! Yay! We had the joy of welcoming a fantastic intern into our studio for two weeks in July. Maggie is a final year Information Design student at the University of Pretoria and, judging by her wonderful portfolio, I had an inkling she would rise to the challenge and do an incredible job of it. And she did! The result of Maggie's hard work (and wrestling with our very basic printer) is this adorable little zine entitled 'How to make your cats think you're one of them'. I won't give away too much of what is enclosed inside, as this is exclusively for the lucky customers who receive a copy with their next online order, but here are just a few tiny sneak peeks below.
We printed only 50 copies (to keep it limited-edition and special) all on varieties of pastel-coloured cartridge paper. To top it off, Maggie went the extra mile when she realised she could add some extra pop-open details by printing the pages double-sided. She spent hours cutting out little frames and windows... it's so interactive and cute and is bound to make you smile! If you'd like to get your hands on one of these zines simply place an order through our online store. But act fast because, like I said, there are only 50 copies to give away! The added bonus is that we are still running our 'Winter Warmers' Discount, where a 20% discount will automatically be added to your cart at check-out. Funky, affordable socks AND a free zine... what's not to love?!
After these 50 zines have run out we are hoping to continue added interactive items to our online orders, so keep your eyes open for what's next.
If you're looking for a fun project to get stuck into we encourage you to create your own zine. It's such a fun creative outlet, and there are so many folding tutorials online. Below is one we used as inspiration for our folded zine. All you need is one sheet of A4 paper and your inborn creativity. Have fun!
Ok... maybe I'm blabbing about zines now but I don't care. On a recent trip to Melbourne I visited this incredible zine store called 'Sticky Institute'. The store can be found in Degraves Subway, Melbourne. It's quite small and modest; if you blink you might miss it. But once you're inside it's such a treat! Below are some snaps I took while I was there. I spent a silly amount of money on zines, but they've brought me such joy that I feel it's all worth it!
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