Zoom Magazine

ZOOM MAGAZINE is a platform for the youths of Nairobi. It is designed, written and founded by us, Usanii Lab, a collective of young creatives from the Eastlands of Nairobi.
We are currently in the process of making the magazine. This includes doing research, content gathering (i.e writing articles, interviewing actors, footballers, dj's, politicians and other interesting people from Nairobi) as well as designing it. The project is a first of its kind and promises to be a landmark in Kenyan creativity.

The project is a magazine, created by youths, for youths. Our target group consists of young Nairobians between 18 and 25 years, this is also the age of our editorial and design team. The main goal of the project is to use the magazine as a platform to showcase talents as well to address social youth issues and to entertain. The creative collective aims to develop the magazine from the initial ideas phase to the execution of the final product with the intention of creating widespread knowledge of it throughout Nairobi. There are not many printed magazines published in Kenya, especially not for young adults.
Zoom magazine will be the first of its kind written in our own language. It will be partly in English and partly in Sheng. Sheng is a Nairobian youth language based on Swahili, mixed together with English, Luo, Kikuyu and other Kenyan languages.

The support of this project will enable and inspire our individual creative growth. We have an abundance of ideas, but the only barrier preventing these ideas from being realized is the lack of funds. Nairobi is a harsh environment but also full of potential. Zoom magazine is a start for us. It will therefore inspire us to enhance our creative skills and push us a step closer to realizing our full potential.

We will use the money to cover printing costs of the magazine, as well as to acquire equipment which will help us in developing it. Printing costs in Kenya are much higher than in most of the European countries, we are still negotiating with different print shops, but the printing costs will be approximately 1200 Euro for 1000 magazines in color. We will also use a portion of the funds to host a launch event for Zoom magazine here in Nairobi.