Frequently Asked Questions
What is imagiro?
What's in an average issue of imagiro?
How do I become a member of imagiro?
Why is the membership limited? Why isn't imagiro public?
Is membership limited only to friends of current members?
Is imagiro only for people living in the US?
Do I have to be a complex designer in order to be an imagiro member?
Imagiro sounds fascinating! I'm sure there are great articles and diagrams in each issue. I don't want to write an article every two months, but I want to receive the magazine. How can I do that?
If I write an article and send you multiple copies of it, will you include it in imagiro and send me a copy?
What does "imagiro" mean? How do you pronounce it?
How did imagiro begin?
Are there any other origami APAs?
Who is the current editor of imagiro? What does the editor do?
The covers are cool, where do they come from?
Do imagiro members ever get together?
- What is imagiro?
- Imagiro is a publication in the amateur press alliance (APA) tradition. Every two months, each member writes an article of 2 or more pages and sends it to the editor. The editor collates the articles into pdf and sends it to all members. [back to top]
- What's in an average issue of imagiro?
- Each issue is a mixed bag of origami-related things. Some members like to put diagrams of their recent work (frequently drafts of pieces they're working on that get published more formally, later.) Other members tell stories of their recent origami activities. Some members write down their thoughts on an origami subject. Every issue is different, and every issue is fun. [back to top]
- How do I become a member of imagiro?
- We maintain a list of people wanting to join. Members occasionally drop out of imagiro, and this creates an opening. When this happens, the membership chooses a new member from the waiting list. Don't wait until you see there is an opening in the list of names. If you are interested, contact us. You may be surprised yet!
Note: to remain a member of imagiro, you must contribute an article every two months. [back to top]
- Why is the membership limited? Why isn't imagiro public?
- Imagiro is meant to be a way for a group of friends who are passionate about origami to correspond with each other. Our contributions are often personal and informal, and may contain private information or musings not intended for distribution outside the group. Often times, a member might include in his or her own contribution a reference to another member's contribution from previous issues. This is part of the charm of imagiro. By limiting the membership, we maintain this feeling of a group of friends and enable freer correspondence. [back to top]
- Is membership limited only to friends of current members?
- No, not at all. But remember that it's not a magazine, it's more like a really long, drawn-out dinner party. In print. With folding. The mix has to work well, and generally at least one current member needs to speak for a new member. [back to top]
- Is imagiro only for people living in the US?
- No! While a majority of our members live in North America, we also have several members in Europe and Asia. [back to top]
- Do I have to be a complex designer in order to be an imagiro member?
- No, you don't. The common thread among our member is not their design ability, but their passion for origami. It is true that the names of many of the current members of imagiro may be familiar to you. This is because people who are passionate about origami also tend to be active members of the origami community. We are not an "elite" group of folders. We are a group of hard-core origami fans. [back to top]
- Imagiro sounds fascinating! I'm sure there are great articles and diagrams in each issue. I don't want to write an article every two months, but I want to receive the magazine. How can I do that?
- Sorry, but you can't. In order to receive imagiro, you must contribute to imagiro, and to contribute you must be a member. In fact, part of the fun of being an imagiro member is writing articles for imagiro. That said, many contributors use the 'zine as a sounding board for new ideas, or review of draft diagrams, so many diagrams and articles that have made their debut in imagiro go on to appear in other origami publications! [back to top]
- If I write an article and send you multiple copies of it, will you include it in imagiro and send me a copy?
- We are sorry, but this is not the way that imagiro works. To receive and contribute to imagiro you must first become a member. If you are interested, drop us a line and we'll add you to our waiting list. [back to top]
- What does "imagiro" mean? How do you pronounce it?
- The name "imagiro" was coined by Tom Hull, and it is simply "origami" spelled backwards. There are many ways of pronouncing it. Some members use a soft 'g,' (im-a-jeer-o) others use a hard one (im-a-gear-o). Some members put the emphasis on the 'a' sound (imAgiro), others on the 'i' sound (imaGIro). In short, there is no "correct" way of pronouncing it! Even more unanswerable is what to call a member of the 'zine... [back to top]
- How did imagiro begin?
- In the eighties, APAs were popular in the science fiction community (this was long before the internet became a household item, and APAs were a medium for science fiction fans to share their thoughts). One science fiction fan was also an avid origami folder. She was a lone folder in her hometown in Memphis, Tennessee, and wanted to correspond with other folders. So, in 1985, she founded FOLD, the first-ever origami APA. FOLD became quite popular, and in the early nineties, had a very long waiting list. This spurred a series of email message over the origami mailing list, and as a result, a second origami-related APA, imagiro, was born. The first issue came out in December 1993, with 15 members. One of them, Janet Yelle, remain members of imagiro to this day. [back to top]
- Are there any other origami APAs?
- To our knowledge, there are none right now. The 67th and last issue of FOLD was published in 1996, and since then we have been the only origami APA around. This does not mean, of course, that you can't start one yourself. The existence of the imagiro waiting list shows there's interest - the more the merrier! [back to top]
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- Who is the current editor of imagiro? What does the editor do?
- The current editor of imagiro is Brian K. Webb. The editor receives the contributions from all the members, collates them into an pdf, creates a cover, and the file to all the members. [back to top]
- The covers are cool, where do they come from?
- The first three issues of imagiro had pretty ordinary covers; they contained little more than the magazine's title, number, and contents highlights. The first imagiro editor, Lillian Sun, had seen that FOLD covers were often decorated with a folded model, and suggested imagiro do the same. Issue 4 of imagiro had the first cover with a folded model: a Sonobe-unit star-quilt folded by Tom Hull. Since then, imagiro members have volunteered to create the cover.
Over the years imagiro has seen many different covers, most of them with folded models. Some issues have had 25 unique covers, where others had 25 identical covers. Having to fold 25 identical models might make you think that a cover model is invariably simple, bu this is not the case. Notably, one issue's cover model was the "Demon" by Jun Maekawa! Currently the covers are digital creations.
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- Do imagiro members ever get together?
- To date, there hasn't been an official meeting of all imagiro members. Since many members of imagiro live in the US, they often organize a group lunch at the OrigamiUSA New York conventions, though. [back to top]
