Description: 36 page zine

Edition: 500 in 3 colors

Media: Color Xerox. Saddle stitched book

Size: 7.5″ x 9.25  inches

Act of Giving? Mailed free to every incoming student for the 2025-26 academic year.

Year: 2025

Collaborators: Sarah Senk & Amy Parsons

PDF download: here

Notes:

Freshman readers for our common read program at @calmaritime (now @calpoly following a chaotic merger). I got the opportunity to transform our first year text program in the form of a limited edition magazine, complete with graphics, ads, comic, interstitial drawings, and other nonsense.

The design was modelled off my all time favorite magazine @newyorkermag. Friends and family know my love of zines and print media and it was so fun to elevate this list of required reading into something beautiful and compelling. For example, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is literally the most frequently assigned text in university education. How can we make it fresh?

With no budget for a separate artist, I designed and directed all the visuals—combining generative AI, layered filters, and deliberate composition. Some sections evolved into explicit AI experiments—meta-jokes and provocations that echo a Socratic “what is real?” thread, questioning authorship, authenticity, and the boundaries between human and machine-made imagery.

Collect all three covers!

Special thanks to the Teagle Foundation and the Cornerstone Learning for Living Initiative and Development