We recently teamed up with hate zine for an in-depth conversation with founder Luisa Le Voguer, celebrating ten years of the project and exploring what it takes to keep an independent, grassroots publication alive.
hate zine began in 2015 when Luisa, then a writer, and her friend Scarlett Carlos Clarke, a photographer, were working unpaid for established magazines. “If we’re not getting paid for this work, we might as well do it for ourselves,” Luisa explained. The zine became a space for contributors to publish with minimal editing, tackling big, open-ended themes like death, love, mental health, and the environment.
Over the years, hate zine has evolved into a multi-platform project with roots in South London’s music scene, regular zine fairs, and a thriving Instagram presence. It has stayed true to its founding principles—community over hierarchy, ethics over easy sponsorship, and the enduring value of print in a digital world.
For our Creative Opps cohort, Luisa’s journey offers practical lessons on starting small, finding your voice, and making work that matters without compromising your values. Below are some of the key takeaways from the session—insights that speak directly to anyone building a creative career outside traditional industry structures.
Key Insights from the Conversation
- Start small and keep it accessible Luisa emphasised that you don’t need a design degree or expensive software to start: “If you have a pen and a piece of paper, you can make a zine.” Her favourite entry point for new makers is a single folded sheet that can be photocopied and shared widely. “It doesn’t have to be high-production to be powerful. You can take it to a zine fair, share it with people, and suddenly you’re part of a community.” This low-cost approach keeps zine-making open to anyone who wants to participate.
- Build community over hierarchy One of the founding principles of hate zine was to create a space where emerging artists could collaborate without navigating the gatekeeping of traditional publishing. “I always wanted it to be a space where people bring each other up together,” Luisa explained. In practice, that has meant running launch events with live music, organising charity fundraisers, and giving contributors creative freedom. “Traditional publishing is so gate-kept. We wanted to level the playing field and make something where everyone could be part of it.”
- Protect your values in partnerships Funding is a constant challenge, but Luisa is clear about her boundaries: “I’m never doing any corporate-type stuff.” She avoids partnerships with brands whose politics or practices don’t align with the zine’s ethos, even if it means turning down money. “If you work with a brand that doesn’t share your values, they could be using you to art-wash their own image. I’d rather work with independent festivals and grassroots orgs that share our politics.” For her, sustainability must never come at the cost of integrity.
- Champion print as a lasting medium In an era of disappearing online archives, Luisa sees print as more than a creative choice—it’s a safeguard. “Print is really important… you can’t take it away,” she said, referencing the sudden loss of content from outlets like Vice and gal-dem. “With a zine, you have something tangible that can’t just be deleted. It’s also free from algorithms—your work gets into people’s hands, not buried in a feed.”
- Use social media as a tool, but know its limits Luisa didn’t even want an Instagram account at first. “We were kind of doing this almost rejecting this kind of technology,” she said. But over time, particularly during lockdown, it became the main way hate zine reached people. The account now has over 200,000 followers, but Luisa sees the trade-offs clearly: “I think Instagram and social media can be a really good platform and a tool… but it’s also draining. It’s basically become a job.” She described it as “my own personal social media addiction” because running the account means she’s constantly online. While Instagram helps find contributors, share callouts, and connect with other makers, she stressed the importance of not letting it replace real-world community and print culture.
- Be realistic about budgets and funding Luisa was transparent about what it takes to fund a new issue. “If you’ve got 30 to 40 contributors and you want to pay them £100 each, that’s nearly £3,000 straight away,” she said. Add printing costs—“the cheapest I found for 500 zines was £900”—and other expenses, and she estimates a full-scale hate zine issue needs around £5,000. For smaller runs, she suggested folding single-page zines or producing risograph newspapers for as little as £300–£500, proving that you can start small and scale up as funding grows.
- Value existing creative work Luisa rejects the idea that all contributions must be original commissions. “Art doesn’t lose its value because someone else published it,” she explained. If a piece fits the theme of an issue, she’s happy to republish it. This flexibility not only respects contributors’ time and energy but also widens the pool of work available for inclusion. “The point is to share voices, not demand exclusivity—especially when resources are limited.”
Connect with Hate Zine
Instagram: @hate.zine Website: hatezine.com