Today is Monday, November 16, 2020. As I have mentioned before, the end goal of my project is to have a zine that will effectively capture the stories of fieldworkers who live in the Central Valley. I have never created a zine before, so I decided to schedule an appointment with Des Alaniz, a UCSB librarian, who is very knowledgable in this particular area. She was able to answer my questions and give me a lot of valuable resources to help me get started with this process. She recommended that I do a half-page sized zine to make it easier in terms of printing and structuring. Des sent me some examples of zines from a class she has taught in the past, which was very helpful in terms letting me know how much creative freedom I have with this project. Those examples she sent me are linked below!!
Zines can include a table of contents and methodology section, which usually includes the research process. These are factors that I will definitely include once I have all of my research done and begin making my zine. We also discussed the importance my interviews and the different components in my research. Once I interview individuals, I will get a feel for the tone would like my zine to have. Knowing who my audience is also plays an important part of my process as well because I will be able to possibly tell a different story from what mainstream media tells us about fieldworkers. Hearing these stories actually come from fieldworkers themselves will create this new perspective that is often times not mentioned to the public. Another thing that really stood out to me was Des mentioning how my own personal story is a very huge aspect of this project and that it will help me make my zine more impactful. To be honest, one of my main goals was never to talk about myself a lot for this project but Des helped me realize that my experience is what will be my strength throughout this process.
Once I get started, some good websites to use for my zines are Canva and the Noun Project. Canva can help me design and format my pages, which is great considering I do not have much experience with designing zines. The Noun Project is great for logos and icons if that is something I would like to include. These websites are linked below are were given to me by Des as they are websites she uses when she creates her zines. Because my zine would be created from my own findings and experiences, Des also recommended that I get my zine licensed once it is finished. This way, I would be able to get the appropriate credit for my work if anyone ever decides to reference it.
One last important aspect that I was able to get clarification on was how to go about my zine if I wanted my Spanish speaking interviewees to get a copy of it once I'm finished creating it. Des told me that I could do a split zine to make sure everyone is able to see my final result. A split zine is essentially have a zine on one end and then half a zine on the other end when you flip it upside down. Both ends of these will meet at the center of the finished zine. I think this is such a great idea and am planning on creating one of these for my final project with one side being in English and the other being in Spanish. This way, everyone who contributed to my research findings can get to read and understand it without any barriers in the way. This is all the updates I have for now, excited to start preparing for my interviews!!
Canva: https://www.canva.com/
The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/
Licensing: https://creativecommons.org/