DESIGN
How to make a zine from concept to design.
Amrit Pal Singh is a renowned Indian visual artist known for his toy-like 3D illustrations and nostalgic visual storytelling. In his latest creative project of building his own merchandise store, Amrit shows how he creates zines with Adobe Creative Cloud and how zines can go beyond self-expression and become part of a larger product and brand experience.
This article explores how Amrit brings his Toy Zines to life using Adobe Creative Cloud—from early concept and artwork preparation to custom packaging and final print. It offers a closer look at his creative workflow across apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, and outlines the steps that help him turn personal art into professional, collectible pieces. It also includes practical tips for beginners who want to create zines of their own.
What are toy zines?
“Zines are small, self-published booklets that often explore personal themes or niche creative interests, in a simple, often handmade format,” says Amrit. His toy zines put a playful spin on this tradition. Designed with his signature 3D style, they showcase illustrations from different collections, each one packaged with care and crafted as a tangible art object.
His toy zines are part of a broader creative project that includes art prints, collectibles, and other merchandise like toy scopes, jigsaw puzzles, and label pins, all designed with the same playful 3D aesthetic. They allow fans to own a piece of his illustrated world in a format that is intimate, affordable, and beautifully designed.
How to make a zine: From moodboard to final print.
While there are many ways to create zines, for Amrit, it begins with a moodboard. This first step helps him define the tone, visual style, and emotional feel of the project before he moves into design.
From there, he follows a clear and flexible process to bring each zine to life—from concept to printed piece.
1. Build a moodboard to set the tone.
The process begins by creating a digital moodboard that captures the nostalgic, playful energy he wants his zine to reflect. This visual reference sets the direction for everything that follows including colours, character design, typography, and layout style. The moodboard acts as both creative foundation and quality benchmark throughout the process.
2. Prepare artwork.
With the concept in place, Amrit moves on to refining his illustrations. He adjusts colours, cleans up details with Adobe Photoshop, and prepares files for layout using non-destructive edits. Every layer remains editable, giving him the freedom to return later and make changes without starting from scratch.
3. Design cover and packaging.
After designing the artwork, zine covers and packaging must be created. Working with scalable vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator, Amrit explores dielines and folding styles to ensure the design fits both visually and physically. This stage blends creativity and precision, with the flexibility to revise design elements at any point.
4. Lay out the zine.
To assemble the zine, Amrit uses Adobe InDesign to place images, add text, and arrange content into spreads that feel cohesive and balanced. With complete control over layout and spacing, he builds a flow that feels cohesive and easy to navigate.
“Earlier I did this bit in Illustrator, but after I got an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, I shifted to InDesign and it’s been a game changer,” says Amrit. InDesign gives him access to powerful layout tools built specifically for publishing, allowing him to fine-tune spacing, manage multi-page documents, and design with greater precision and ease, a tool he could tap into through his Creative Cloud subscription.
5. Export and print.
Once satisfied with the design, Amrit exports the files and send it off to the printer.
Throughout the process, Amrit manages all his creative assets, colours, and templates through Creative Cloud, allowing him to move seamlessly between apps and maintain a consistent brand language across every piece.
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Tips for first-time zine makers.
If you are just starting out with zines, here are a few tips to help you stay focused, build creative momentum, and enjoy the process.
Start with a moodboard.
Before you design anything, get clear on the tone and style you want your zine to reflect. Use Adobe Firefly moodboard maker to generate visual prompts, explore textures, or experiment with colour palettes. A strong moodboard will guide your choices and keep your visuals consistent throughout your project.
Use or customise templates in InDesign.
Starting with an InDesign template can save time, especially when printing folded zines. You can customise layout grids, paper sizes, and master pages to match your preferred format, while keeping paragraph and character styles consistent.
Use Creative Cloud Libraries to stay organised.
As your project grows, so will the number of assets you have. Save your fonts, colours, logos, and design elements in Creative Cloud Libraries. This helps maintain consistency across your zine and across future zines or related projects like other merchandise, prints, or digital downloads.
Test print early.
Even if your final version will be digital, it helps to test-print a draft early. This lets you check legibility, pacing, and page order. If you are planning a folded booklet, print double-sided and assemble it by hand to catch any layout issues before the final export.
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Turning passion into products.
Amrit’s approach offers a clear roadmap for how digital artists can move into independent publishing and merchandise. Starting with a concept and ending with a finished product that fans can buy, his process is both creative and practical.
Whether he is designing a sticker sheet, building a product mockup, or printing a limited-edition booklet, Amrit’s use of Creative Cloud shows how these apps support independent creators with structure, versatility, and consistency.
Building a brand with consistency and nostalgia.
What makes Amrit’s toy zines special is not just the art, but how they are positioned as collectible products. He designs custom covers for each zine and includes extras like stickers and inserts, giving every copy a handmade, personal feel.
This level of detail is made possible through Adobe’s tools, which allow him to maintain high design quality while working independently. By storing his brand colours, typography, and packaging templates in Creative Cloud Libraries, he ensures each zine feels part of the same visual universe.
Amrit’s brand is built around nostalgia and playfulness, and his zines reflect this ethos both in style and in experience. They are designed to be held, shared, and treasured, just like the toys and stories that inspire them.
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How Adobe products can fuel your creative process.
For Amrit, Adobe Creative Cloud is more than a toolkit. From initial concept to final product, the apps work together to support his process, help him stay organised, and bring a consistent level of quality to everything he creates.
Seamless workflow across apps.
Amrit builds his Toy Zines using a connected, multi-app workflow. He prepares and retouches illustrations in Photoshop, creates vector-based covers and packaging in Illustrator, and assembles the full zine layout in InDesign. Because these apps are designed to work together, he can move between them fluidly, without losing resolution or spending time on file conversions. This seamless integration helps him focus more on the creative process and less on technical steps.
Visual consistency across projects.
Maintaining a consistent visual identity is important across Amrit’s zines, merch, and packaging. He uses Creative Cloud Libraries to store his core design elements including brand colours, type styles, logos, and icons. This makes it easy to apply the same visual language across multiple projects, whether he is launching a new zine collection, updating existing product lines or creating other merchandise.
Flexible apps to support multiple iterations.
Design often involves refining layouts, testing different visual directions, or swapping out content mid-way through a project. By working non-destructively across Adobe apps, Amrit can make changes at any stage, whether he is adjusting colour treatments, reworking spreads, or updating packaging, without having to start over. This flexibility allows him to keep evolving the design while staying in control of the final outcome.
Tools that scale with your creativity.
Toy zines are just one part of Amrit’s growing merchandise store, which also features toy scopes, jigsaw puzzles, label pins, and other collectibles, unified by his signature 3D style and attention to detail. As his creative projects expand, Adobe Creative Cloud supports every stage, from moodboarding to final production, within one connected platform.
“I use Adobe Creative Cloud subscription as it makes my life much easier. Everything latest and greatest by Adobe is at your fingertips.” says Amrit.
Confidence with genuine Adobe products.
Using genuine Adobe Creative Cloud apps ensures Amrit’s tools are always secure, stable, and up to date. With access to the latest features, including powerful AI tools like Generative Fill in Photoshop, he can experiment, iterate, and bring ideas to life faster than ever. Genuine products also provide reliable performance and seamless integration across apps, helping Amrit stay focused on his creativity without interruptions.
Whether he is planning on building a new collection in the future or revisiting an older piece, Adobe Creative Cloud gives him access to the tools he needs to reliably keep creating at a high level, across formats, platforms, and product types.
Expand your editing workflow with other Creative Cloud apps.
In addition to Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, Adobe Creative Cloud offers a few more apps that can support and streamline your design and creation process:
- Adobe Lightroom: Edit and colour-grade any photographs or scanned artwork to maintain a consistent visual tone throughout your layout.
- Adobe Express: Design social graphics, promo posts, or zine covers quickly with easy-to-customise templates.
- Adobe Firefly: Use prompts to create experimental backgrounds, textures, or type ideas using simple AI-powered prompts.
- Adobe Acrobat: Review your exported zine layout, share for feedback, or prepare PDFs for online distribution.
Together, these apps support your design process from first sketch to final share. All of which are available through the Adobe Creative Cloud Pro plan, which offers flexible pricing for students, freelancers, and small teams.
Frequently asked questions.
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