High school project idea · Design & Creative Arts
Create a small publication with a strong enough point of view to survive beyond one scroll.
Research, write, design, produce, and distribute a limited-edition zine that reflects a community, question, or cultural theme.
Why this project matters
Research, write, design, produce, and distribute a limited-edition zine that reflects a community, question, or cultural theme. This project feels different from a school assignment because the student serves readers connected to a specific place, identity, interest, or issue, creates something visible, tests it honestly, responds to feedback, and explains the decisions behind the final result.
What you will create
Use these deliverables as milestones for Make a Zine People Keep. Adapt the details to your interests, available time, and real-world opportunities.
Research editorial premise, contributor voice, visual language, sequencing, rights, print constraints, distribution, and reader experience. Document the needs, constraints, credible sources, and perspectives of readers connected to a specific place, identity, interest, or issue.
Turn the evidence into a focused plan for the printed or digital zine edition, including success criteria, ethical boundaries, scope, and a realistic path to completion.
Create the first complete version of the printed or digital zine edition. Include an editorial statement, content plan, original writing or art, complete page system, cover, production files, distribution plan, and edition archive.
share a prototype with target readers, observe where they pause or lose interest, then distribute a small final edition and collect reactions Record what happened, what failed, what users or reviewers said, and which changes you made.
Publish the final printed or digital zine edition with a portfolio-ready case study showing the challenge, evidence, process, revisions, results, limits, and next version.
Make the work stronger
For Make a Zine People Keep, use these checkpoints to protect the quality of the work without turning the project into a performance for admissions.
Skills you can build
College application value
Can demonstrate initiative, curiosity, reflection, and growth through the student’s choices, response to setbacks, work with readers connected to a specific place, identity, interest, or issue, and development of Editorial Design, Art Direction, and Print Production.
The goal of Make a Zine People Keep is not to manufacture an impressive activity. Do real work, keep evidence of the process, and reflect honestly on what changed.
Related college majors
Use Make a Zine People Keep as a clue, then open a related major guide to compare coursework, career directions, reality checks, and other ways to test the field.
Make a Zine People Keep is an original Compass educational starting point designed around real work, visible evidence, feedback, and reflection. It is not an admissions guarantee.