Throwback to my early days of DIY layout design for Tangzine, a music and culture zine that my brother Matt and I published and handed out at indie-rock shows in the mid 90s, when zines were king and the internet was just a novelty. I was mainly responsible for the DIY layout design and contributed original photos and poetry. My brother was the editor-in-chief and wrote most of the content, which included album, show, book, and zine reviews, original stories, travel logs, and articles on pop culture.
In the early days, we would print articles on my dad’s Macintosh and cut and paste content by hand onto pages and then make copies on my dad’s photo copier at work. By the end of print publication in 2001, 5,000 copies were being printed for each issue with 300 subscribers. Over time, friends and fellow writers and creatives were recruited to help contribute content, but my brother was the main driving force throughout. After printing ended, Tangzine transitioned to digital, and my brother still updates the page to this day at tangzine.com A lot of the past issues have been lost, but I found Issue No. 7, featuring our younger brother Dave Ralph on the cover, posing for a Polaroid at the dentist office.