Andrew Brozyna publishes his memoir and information zines as AJB Design. Andrew is an illustrator, letterer, and book designer and uses all of those skills in creating his zines. To create his zines, he illustrates his initial work by hand with markers and brush pens, types up the text and then combines everything in Adobe InDesign before printing and stapling.
When did you start making zines … and why?
In high school in the early 1990s I made a couple zines. They were funny stories about pop culture (poking fun of TV show characters mostly). I got into making them because an older friend in art class had a zine. So, twenty years later I was really interested to see that hand-made physical books have made such a comeback.
Why do you make zines?
I like drawing, and I like telling stories, so zines are a nice way to combine the two.
What are your current zines about?
Paris 1995 is my zine about when I went to France as a 16 year old. Last summer I found my old diary. The zine combines my old journal entries with recent commentary and illustrations.
Star Wars Quotes is a collection quotes from the Star Wars movies that I hand-lettered (illustrated in artful ways instead of using a font).
Book Stores is a collection of drawings of ten bookstore buildings that I’ve been doing for the past few years.
Read Like a Cat Sleeps is a short biography of Althea Warren who was the head librarian of the LA Public Library during the 1930s and 40s.
What is your favorite part of making zines?
My favorite part about zines is how they let me tell a good story to beyond my circle of friends.
What do you like about your local zine community?
The zine community is fantastic. Everyone is so supportive and genuinely interested in what other zine-makers are doing.
Connect with AJB Design
- ajbdesign.com
- Twitter: @AJB_Design
- Instagram: @ajbrozyna