This is our prediction: the world is so flooded with information, so contaminated by convenience and accessability, that in the next few years we're going to see a tightening up. We won't go as far as to say there'll be a wide-spread anti-digital movement but increasingly the breaking stuff, the underground stuff is going to be happening off line.

Zines are really the epitome of what we're talking about here. If you don't know, a zine is pronounced zeen and takes its name from the tail end of magazine. Zines have been around for ages too but they've certainly started to become a lot cooler in the last four or five years. Merge began as a zine back in 2006, when editor Owen Lindsay produced One Inch Punch.

These little books, these zines spring up in the most interesting of places around town and are (when they're at their best) lovingly designed and hand-crafted, photocopied books of whimsy. Of course you get some shit ones with the good, but that's kind of the point.

This B&W zine is a good example of what I'm talking about. Although not entirely sure, we think this zine came from a store in Melbourne called The Heist. What caught our eye was the use of, in-trend language, Japanese on the cover (the translation was suitably dull). The zine proceeds as conversation where design and illustration mix and match to produce this visual glitch-type poetry. Reading it was a unique, physical experience and knowing that we have number 446 of 500 gives it an exclusivity which online will never possess.

If you're looking to get more information about zines, where to find them or how to make them... or even how to propperly say the word... drop into the Merge Office between 3pm and 6pm Mon - Fri. Merge is currently hosting the Format Collective (of the FORMAT FESTIVAL) and they run a little workshop which features all sorts of zine-related information. 23 Peel Street, Adelaide.