CURRENTLY. We are on an international tour to share the story of the Art & Copy Zine Club, the Cojournal that started it, and the history of Design Kompany’s efforts to link, and interlink, new and different others through design and expressive creative projects. Zines are a way. We are touring: Austin, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, Taipei, and Phnom Penh for the summer and early fall. Next spring we will go to Sapporo and Kobe.
WHAT ARE ZINES? Zines are mini magazines. There are tons of places to look on the internet about them but I might suggest starting with NiceZines.com.
‘WHY WOULD I WANT TO MAKE A ‘ZINE?‘ There are so many reasons. for some of us, it was to figure out our own ideas about what we wanted to say to the world. Making and figuring things out through making is a way to find that. It’s really fun, too. You can clarify your thoughts to yourself. You can write with others. You can get feedback from a real human being, or a group that you work out things together with.
Our Art & Copy International Zine Club and the more advanced publishing team at DESK really wants to see you find your way to expressive, honest, and genuine artmaking. Which is hard to pull off in an era of fakeness, everywhere. And now AI, genericness, banality and the eerie distraction that stops us from being here, being together, getting emotional about things that yes, we can get emotional about, because we’re human and there’s no need to turn ourselves into perfect, masked robotic beings who do not have things to say and passion around those things. Some people don’t like seeing us make, co-make, publish, share, and try new things. So what, though. I’m still going to invite people to try these things with me. One out of a hundred say yes, and off we go.
WHAT IT ISN’T. This is a space and a conversation. Primarily those are the main things. It’s not a ‘productivity’-oriented finish-line style experience. Personally, I think there’s too much of that.
Getting to done on a book now can be a one-day project, with AI. But does that really help you, personally, work out what you even think, or mean, or feel, or wish to say? Who wants to read another AI book, or something that feels like yet another vanity project on the internet? What if the process itself is the goal, the working things out, the arriving at insights, the figuring out how to figure it out?
That’s what Design Kompany has always been a place for, for our past clients in past iterations of this studio. At the end of the day, trying new things with new people in new situations and circumstances is a way of helping you uncover something… new. In a world that lauds ‘innovation’ on paper but scoffs or is terrified by anything new and different, it’s hard to find safe space to fail or experiment. Sometimes though, that space is exactly what we need to write or think or make our way towards the very thing that we are becoming, next. Let’s go get it.
Do you make zines or think about making them?
DK might be able to help you make time and space to get to ‘done’ on that.
TRY ZINES – BEGINNERS – ART & COPY ZINE CLUB. If you’re new to zines, you can try this with us. In a small community. Art & Copy Zine Club has been going for a year, through Kismuth Books. You can find some pictures in our gallery, on the ‘Art & Copy Zines’ section of that site.
As we move into Year 2 of this project, I’d like to bring more of the design side of things back and help others who are writing and trying new things write more and differently, and explore the new methods that for many years clients of Design Kompany got to enjoy.
I know these are outdated, now, but in the old days we have enjoyed the conversations immensely and I’ve kept some of the client testimonials. They’re here. My personal projects have also gained some reviews, and those are at my personal site, see http://dipikakohli.com/rv.
This is our way of making space for you and others to discover and co-discover, in very small circles. For fun. Learning. Sharing and making time for what matters… being in spaces that feel right, just right. For each of us.
The participation fee for Art & Copy Zine Club is USD 15/week (12+ weeks rate) if you are in Cambodia, and it’s adjusted for parity if you’re outside of Cambodia.
TRY ZINES – ADVANCED – DESK. If you’ve got more experience, ask our team how to participate in co-making DESK. It’s by invitation to be part of it but you are most welcome to connect and ask me about it. The best way would be via my LinkedIn page, Dipika Kohli.
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