This blog post was written by Digital Program Intern, Caroline Ver Planck about the Digital Media Mentoring Program (DMP) workshop on Poetry ‘Zines (web magazines) where mentors and mentees learned about the role of typography in creating their own poetry ‘zines.
In anticipation of the Poetry ‘Zine workshop, I spent most of my intern hours mastering my skills at typography games. By the end of the week I had become an expert at the kerning game, Kern Type (on a side note, I still am working on not failing at “I Shot the Serif”). Along with playing some fun games, I helped figure out just what activities, projects and free-writes were going to unfold at the second DMP workshop of the year.
The day of the workshop arrived and after many attempts at maneuvering my way through the photo-shoot maze occurring right outside the computer labs at the New School, I found the DMP staff and began setting up. This was my favorite workshop so far. (I know there have only been two!) Typography is so important and can enhance your writing and take it to the next level. Plus, I love poetry.
The mentors and mentees began trickling in and the poetry writing commenced! After enjoying some morning snacks, we settled into the computer labs and began with opening lines. Everyone started by describing different places. Using the five senses, the girls described places where they felt uncomfortable, powerful, confusing, free and unknown. I was impressed with how descriptive, unique and in depth everyone’s responses were.
Next everyone examined three different poems. We looked at these poems specifically in attempt to dissect the way the authors used the concept of place in their writing. What is the place that’s being described in this poem? How did you know? Was it obvious where they were? What is the importance of this place?
After discussing other people’s poems, it was now the mentors and mentees turn to write their own! These poems would be used in their pair ‘zines. Each poem was supposed to have the driving element of place. Everyone began collaborating and writing three poems.
Then the girls all enjoyed lunch and broke back up to learn about typography, ‘zines and how to combine both with the poetry they had written in the morning from our New School facilitators. From resolution to lorem ipsum, the facilitators broke down all of the complicated typography vocabulary. The girls followed along on tutorials that were made on my favorite site, Canva! The tutorial solidified the importance of typography when uploading digital content.
The day concluded with the mentors and mentees creating their very own ‘zines. They paired the place poems they had written earlier with some cool graphic designs to make really awesome and unique ‘zines.
So while I’m still not an expert at all typography games, I can now spend my intern hours browsing 32 new ‘zines!