2. Fanzine
This is my favorite piece of work, I worked really hard on this and
concentrated thoroughly to make sure my product and writing
copy was of a professional standard. If I was to choose between the
product and the writing copy I would say the product because it is
more realistic and is the one I worked the hardest on. I have
written articles like this as I am a Liverpool blogger so it was fairly
easy to write in this style, although I still made improvements as
some of the paragraphs were jumping around.
I tended to slip into a tangent where I wrote solely for my
audience if I was to put my article on social media and
therefore forgot who it was being marked by and in
hindsight some of it wasn’t understandable to my peers.
From a product point of view I didn’t have to write lengthy
paragraphs so it was easier to put my audience into
images and phrases.
After putting this article on social media, I got
some incredible feedback, some stating that this
is their favorite article of mine and that it was the
best article they had read of anyone’s. it also
allowed my followers to create discussions for
themselves e.g. what was the biggest reason for
the failing of last season.
After getting feedback of my article, it was
well structured and although my peers don’t
like football as much as me they found it
humorous and interesting.
Product wise, this is the strongest
thing I have created on in Design as I
followed the structure to some
existing Liverpool fanzines and then
threw my own article, pictures, font
and phrases into it. I think that the
different fonts running through the
page are the strongest point of the
fanzine as it doesn’t look dull and
shows me some versatility.
I decided to go with a big
phrase on the cover as it
draws attention to the centre
of the page, there I can
include the main story and it
already has the attention of
the reader.
3. Time management: For the writing
side of things we had a week or so
to write up and plan. I managed this
well as it didn’t take me long to
think of a ‘story’ and all the other
paragraphs I wanted to include. This
writing was similar to what I have
done before so my first draft was
finished quite quickly, this was a
good thing because then I could
improve and get feedback which
could develop it even further as it
wasn’t really a piece that made
sense to others. Part of the reasons
why I think this was a speedy written
piece is because it was informal and
I could write in a chatty manner,
which was easier for me, it made
sense to me and I knew exactly what
I wanted to write about because I
knew it all. In the product part we
had a week and a bit to create the
layouts, this took me the majority of
the full week because I couldn’t find
a design that worked to suit my
ideas and what would compliment
the article. Looking back at my
research into fan fics I found that
following a similar structure sped up
my design work and I was able to
find good fonts and work at a
quicker pace to insert pictures.
Sometimes I spend too long mulling
over what wording I should use
when it doesn’t really matter that
much, that slows me down
sometimes.
Throughout the writing of my
work I didn’t really review how
I was getting along until the
end of each draft. I kept re
reading the paragraphs to
make sure what I was saying
made sense and that I was
being factually correct and
witty – which was my aim. I
don’t think not reviewing my
work has had any impact on
my overall fanzine piece
because I feel that this is my
best work and I had enough
peer and tutor feedback to
concentrate on this piece. I half
did an assessment on how I
could make sure that it stayed
in the same tense and that I
was always keeping in the
same tone – e.g. it couldn’t go
really serious in the middle and
then end with a joke. Product
wise I kept putting my fanzine
into a preview so that I could
check how it looked without
the boxes, this was easier
reviewing my work as I could
see what worked and what
didn’t and then correct the
sizes of boxes. My assessment
during production was quite
critical but also I was getting
frustrated that nothing was
working until I found my style
and planned the pictures and
design.
From a technical standpoint I
haven’t done anything different
to anything I have done before.
I created a similar article when
doing the Page Layout unit
alongside recipe cards and after
reminding myself of the tools it
was easy to create. On
Photoshop it was more of the
same too, I have resized images
before. Using the images for
my fanzine were sourced from
the internet, and weren’t
particularly that high quality
even though they were resized
to the box size. Despite not
having outstanding technical
qualities, I think that this piece
of mine is close to professional
standard and would sell if it
was sold at a football game.
One of the existing pieces of
work that I can compare mine
to is the Liverpool Way it is one
of the best selling Liverpool
fanzine’s and acquires design
work as well as jokes and witty
articles. I haven’t copied this
but feel like my style of writing
and design work is definitely on
par and I don’t think I could do
anymore to it to make it better,
except maybe add a higher
quality image and fill up the
blank space around the
masthead, although I like it like
that.
This was the first out of the many
articles I wrote and I think this
came with the most creative
competencies. Creatively I got to
explore the language between
football fans more and
implement that in my work, I also
got to use my tone and style in
my work which I never get the
chance to do in class. More the
language side than the article
itself is what I found more
creatively interesting as that’s
what makes it easier to write.
From the written work I think
that my creative ability has been
good as I have been informal and
formal and used different
audiences to inspire my work.
Productively this has been my
most creative piece as I have
been working more in Photoshop
and making sure that my work
there was the best to go on the
fanzine. I also got to design most
of the fanzine with the color
scheme which mainly involved
the color red, black and yellow as
these are the colors for the kits.
Deciding on the fonts was also a
creative factor as I had to see
what looked right and what style
of font would also appeal on a
sport magazine/fanzine. Luckily
these created a good flow and
didn’t look odd for the different
titles.
4. Interview
This part of the
writing copy for me
was one I got on
with pretty quickly.
I felt that this part
e.g. getting the
answers was fairly
easy as I knew a lot
of people through
Twitter and
Facebook that
were Liverpool fans
and could answer
my questionnaire.
Social media was
my biggest
influence in getting
detailed and
personal responses
because I knew
that I would get
some responses
quickly and then
choose the best
ones.
I have previous experience of writing up an interview but this
has been different by having multiple answers and by asking a
numerous amount of people through a survey. Although it was
easy collecting the answers, the layout was a struggle as I didn’t
want it to run over two pages like a story or previous tasks. I
also had too many answers to put underneath the questions
and had to shorten this part. I also found it simple to put an
introductory paragraph by looking at existing examples from my
Liverpool magazine.
This is something I didn’t put on social media so I couldn’t get any
feedback from there. From peers though I got the comments that it was
a good simple question and answer and that I could improve it by
extending the answers and setting the questions within the paragraphs
instead of it being so structured.
I decided to set the interview around recent events and it was the perfect
opportunity as Gerrard had retired from the England squad this summer.
The questions were primarily aimed at Liverpool fans specifically rather
than football fans in general, so maybe my questions should have been
more open and a mixture of responses would have made the interview
better in trying out different ways to write it. I pictured my interview going
in a Liverpool magazine like the one I researched from rather than a
normal sports/football magazine and I don’t think that this is a bad thing
that I got carried away although I could have changed my audience, it felt
better carrying on writing for the same audience and carrying a similar
manner to the fanzine because I know so many Liverpool fans.
5. For my time management for this
writing task I don’t think I did as well
as I did on the last one because I
didn’t get time to complete a
second draft. I had a week to
complete this task, I also waited out
the week for all the answers to
come through on twitter, facebook
and survey monkey which distracted
me from paying attention to the
answers I already had and making
something out of them. When I had
finished the introductory paragraph
it was hard to find a way where I
could include the best answers and
fit it all onto one page, it was harder
than it sounded. As I didn’t really
plan this task it required more
thought, there isn’t many reasons
why I didn’t get this finished on time
– maybe I thought it would be easy
like the last task and decided to
pace myself more. I think I should
have made time for a second draft
because I think it could have pushed
my grade up more and made it a bit
easier for myself to let the writing
flow. The interview isn’t very long
which makes it harder to write
about and I spaced myself out too
much which has then had a bad
impact on the finished article. I slow
myself down too much when I think
that I have an easy task ahead which
isn’t the case and that also impacts
my work. This is one thing I will take
into consideration for my next task.
I constantly kept
reviewing this task
throughout and thought
this was the best thing to
do as it was totally
different to the fanzine
entry. I didn’t do this to
the last task and I think I
was right to asses this
one during the write up
because I needed to
make sure that I was
doing it right and that I
was getting it to the
proper standard. This was
also my opportunity to sit
and think about the
things that worked and
the things that didn’t.
Although the primary
research was
straightforward, I had to
review that I was also
sticking to the brief and
get on with the task even
though I was struggling. I
wasn’t the only one
assessing my work as my
peers were telling me
things along the way of
how to put a tone to the
writing in and to look at
the fanzine to see if there
was anything I could
include regarding the
questions and the
paragraphs in between.
I didn’t use any images in this piece
of work so that is something I can’t
comment on. From a writing
technical side I think that I have
produced good work but not one
that is professional. The technical
bits of writing that I think let me
down is the way I approached the
questions as I wasn’t open enough
and I didn’t take the time to arrange
the questions. I think that one way
to improve this is by looking at the
questions again and thinking about
how I could re word them and make
sure that they fit a different
audience, I could then change the
paragraphs to make it suitable for
other magazines. If I could compare
it to the researched products I
would say that it is not up to that
standard and I don’t think I have
worked as hard or pushed myself as
much as I did in the fanzine task and
I could have developed this further
by adding images and extended
answers in bigger paragraphs. Some
of the answers I got from the
questions were quite short so I still
think that it was the questions that
were the let down on the way that I
wrote this out. I also wouldn’t want
to contradict myself in this part by
saying that the research part was a
breeze whilst the rest wasn’t but
that is the truth and the research
side of things was better than my
writing this time.
I think that the only way my
creativity was shown was by
throwing myself into the research
and getting responses from all
corners of the internet. I think I
also had to be creative when
putting myself into a journalists
shoes and not being the fanzine
type again. In this written task I
haven’t been as creative as
previous, as I have stuck to one
style I have liked – mainly
because the production and the
written work alongside it was
some of my strongest work and
the one I was best pleased with.
This was a good chance for me to
get creative and properly equal
with existing products to match
up with their standards the whole
way through. My favorite
question was the criticise one as I
got so many different responses
and ones that were opinionated
too. If I hadn’t been bad at
planning out this interview I could
have included more answers and
taken the time to develop them
to see what different formats the
interview could have taken. I
think that my wording has pretty
much stayed the same too
although I have got a bit more
formal it would have been easier
to stick to the same register all
the way through.
6. ObituaryAlthough writing this was quite morbid I
actually enjoyed writing this from a
different point of view. Although it was
weird to picture writing about Gerrard
being dead it was interesting to explore
the different styles in which obituary’s
were written – example Gary Speed’s
obituary. I also got to talk about Gerrard’s
life story and re research the bits of his life
that were the most significant and how I
could portray them without being the
‘crazy fan’. In some parts it was quite hard
trying to not make the paragraphs jump
around as there was so much that I
wanted to say that didn’t follow each
paragraph correctly. In a weird way it also
made you appreciate why you like your
celebrity and why you chose to write
about them because you couldn’t imagine
them being gone. Alongside the fanzine
this has to be my second favorite piece,
especially in the formal way that I wrote it,
I used a lot of big words to try and big it
up, although some of it wasn’t that
necessary.
It was hard not to elaborate on certain points of
his career as I didn’t want to dip out of the
professional style I was using. I tried to not make
the article jumpy and tried to talk about his life
events in order although the main points of his
career are at the beginning whereas the points
where he first started at the club etc are towards
the end. I think that this was a good way of doing
it because the best parts of his career are what
people talk about first.
This was also one of the hardest
things to write because it was writing
in the past tense and it has to
describe something when that
person is still alive. But also it was
good to highlight some parts of his
early career that some people may
have forgotten, like the early trials
and how he almost didn’t join
Liverpool. I decided to use some big
words as I thought that if I was to be
formal the bigger words will fill that
space and it is also nicer to use words
like that to compliment someone or
appreciate them. In hindsight I don’t
think I have done too bad with this
piece, I made a joke that it would be
emotional writing this – it wasn’t. I
also added a quote at the bottom, it
was a legit quote but I just had to
change the odd word to make it
sound like he had passed.
7. For this particular task I
didn’t get it completed in
the time frame, perhaps I
was being too lazy and
relaxed about it, thinking I
could get it done quickly. It
was quite a short task and
compared to the others it
shouldn’t have been so
hard to complete in the
time that we had. After
reading Gary Speed’s
obituary it seemed pretty
straight forward in the way
his career was talked about
and the length of
paragraphs there were. It
helped me by looking at a
similar football obituary to
understand how to make
the importance of
someone sound so
professional, I got the first
few paragraphs written
quite quickly as there was
a lot to be said especially
as I was focusing on recent
parts and the best parts of
his career. It was also easy
to get off to a quick start
because I know so much
about him, although then
trying to find bits to put in
afterwards was a slow
process as there was so
much to cram in.
This was a piece that I
didn’t review on and I
don’t have a reason why
I just didn’t asses what
were my good points
throughout the article
and the bad ones too I
got on with it. As I knew
what I was working with
and had researched this
well this was my quick
start. I think that I
should have reviewed
my piece towards the
end because that’s
when I was struggling to
think of ways I could
carry on the same flow.
If I had assessed my
previous projects I think
that they would have
been better with
another draft and that
they would be more
professional. If I’m
honest the only only
reviewed on was the
fanzine because I was so
passionate in getting
that right and the others
I wasn’t so convinced
about. Comparing this
to my interview I think
that this is much better
as maybe I am back in
my writing comfort
zone.
For this obituary I haven’t
used any new tools but for
writing I feel that I was in
my comfort zone as I like
writing in big paragraphs
and also one person or
subject rather than
numerous things at one
time. The existing work I
used to help me with this
obituary is former
footballer Gary Speed. In
ways he had a lot in
common with Gerrard
career wise and the things
that he achieved. As his life
was based around football
this made it easier to
compare the two people –
especially as I didn’t follow
Speed in his career. If I was
to compare my obituary to
the one written on The
Guardian I would say that
mine was similar because of
the layout but I have
included all the moments
that an obituary would
have. Although I am not a
proper journalist I still feel
like this is a professional
standard and my writing
has got better over this
project.
I don’t feel like I have been creative with this piece
because it isn’t one I could experiment with the
language or the register. I think the most of my
creative ability has come from how to put the best
parts of Gerrard’s career into the right sentences
and not write from a fan perspective. I also think
that the first three paragraphs show my good
creative ability, as they were my introductory
paragraphs and didn’t really relate to any significant
points until the middle of the article. The quote
that I used was in the present tense and I had to
make it sound like it was a memorial quote which
did have to show off my creative skills as I had to
change some of the words around but not make up
a quote – which was fairly simple to do. The main
creative ability that I think showed in this obituary
are in the main paragraphs as they carry the same
level of professionalism and also I had to think of
sentence starters for each paragraph to not be
repetitive. Not being repetitive was also quite hard
i.e. not starting a new line with he or Gerrard. You
have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and
forget that you are a fan or that you know the
celebrity really well because you are just talking
about the career highlights – celebrating that
persons life.
8. Tabloid
The tabloid article was another tricky one to write because you don’t know
whether you’re going to be too informal or formal. Writing for an audience of a
social grade C you can’t use some of the words you did for previous tasks as you
have to keep the language simple. I used the same quotes from Gerrard, Ian
Ayre and Brendan Rodgers from the promotional article as I was writing about
the same thing.
It was important to get
the who what where and
how in the beginning as
that is what a regular
tabloid starts their stories
off with. Considering this
is for sport it was tricky
to find a good tabloid
that I could focus on
especially as I didn’t have
the copy with me. A lot
of tabloid sport readers
will be familiar with who
Gerrard is because he is
talked about a lot in
newspapers so I could
include phrases like ‘Kop
Skipper’ and his surname
rather than his full name.
I did look at tabloid
articles online where
Gerrard has signed
previous contracts and
this was a help in what to
base my introductory
paragraph on and how to
word the other
paragraphs around it.
The tabloid article is also quite short and
there is not a double spread unless it is a
really big story or a preview of a game. I think
that this is a decent amount of writing if it
was to appear in a tabloid. Apart from it
being tricky in the formal register it was easy
to work out what to write about as the most
important bits were at the beginning. I didn’t
ramble on as the whole article makes sense I
think that it was better to have a quote in the
middle because it breaks the article up and is
a different tone to the rest of the tabloid.
Once I had started writing it was easy to sit
into the register and just freely write, I also
tried to be humorous as it is not a serious
issue and also I feel comfortable writing like
that as that’s just how my writing works. I
tried not to rush into the quotes too because
they wouldn’t be meaningful without the
right paragraphs and a line or two between
them keeps a keen structure and doesn’t go
off into a tangent which I normally do. Some
of Gerrard’s past career highlights are also
included as it is important to remember why
he has signed the contract and to elaborate
on some of the points helps keep the article
growing and also you can get more said.
Adding an extra bit near the end is what
keeps people reading as they are getting two
stories in one and get more background
information although it is only a short bit of
it. I didn’t jump paragraphs in this one which I
was afraid of doing before because I knew I
had to keep it in an order and I was looking
back at the researched tabloids to make sure
I was doing it right.
9. My time management for this
writing task wasn’t great again
because I also felt lazy on this
one and because we were
coming to the end of the
writing tasks as ever I thought it
would be easy – nor is this
justifiable for the lack of effort.
Although some of the
paragraphs were easy to write
up I wasted my time re reading
them rather than finding a way I
could get the extra paragraphs
to a right length and or include
the right information. The time
management throughout this
project has gone up and down –
when the research was done up
until the writing tasks I was
getting things handed in on
time and was wanting to add
more, whereas this time it has
taken me longer to find certain
words to include and write out
of my comfort zone at certain
times. I aimed to complete the
work in the shortest time as
possible so I could get another
draft in and improve it to the
standard of some of my other
work, I still compare others to
my fanzine as I feel the standard
has dropped. I can say that I
have been writing out of my
comfort zone but this project
was supposed to do that
although I haven’t improved.
As I mentioned earlier I kept re
reading parts of the article which
slowed me down and although I did
review throughout it happened to
slow me down which I see as a bad
thing. Reviewing my work seem to
have become a problem towards
the end of the project, I wasn’t
becoming bored with the writing
tasks I was wanting to improve it
there and then rather then at the
end and work towards a second
draft. In a way this work was similar
to the fanzine as you could include
some informal language and picking
out this part is where I think you
can asses the work I have
produced. As I had used the quotes
previously it wasn’t necessary to
review myself on these – there
wasn’t much reviewing on this so it
is hard to comment. To make it
better I would have reviewed this
with my tutor for a second draft
and also looked at my other work
for a comparison- I think this would
have helped early on by comparing
previous work as then I would have
made this a lot better and chosen
better quotes or paragraphs. The
audience review also kept me going
because I had to remember who I
was writing for and about who this
is where I think it was acceptable to
add in the slight humor as tabloids
are never normally serious at the
best of times.
The technical aspects of my work include
the main body of the text because this is
also where most of my creative ability fits
in. To use existing products in comparison I
would use the story in The Mirror when it
was written about Gerrard signing his
previous contract extension. As it was a
web version there wasn’t much on the
article itself and only about three
paragraphs to compare to the one I
produced. I think because I was writing for
a different audience and a different setting
i.e. not the website that I had to include
more and expand on some of the things to
fill the space that would be in a newspaper.
The quotes that I used were from the
Mirror’s website article so that is a similar
comparison to make, a major difference is
the layout the small details could include
the way that the paragraphs are laid out or
that there is no pictures. For this particular
writing task I wanted to focus on the print
rather than worrying about a picture. I
didn’t space my paragraphs out in this one
because I wanted to see what it would look
like in a standard tabloid/newspaper style. I
also created a layout to go alongside this
particular piece, as I thought it would be
fitting with the way the article is written.
For my product I didn’t do anything
different technical wise than I have before
so its hard to comment, I used a lot of
different fonts to the fanzine although I
think one or two were the same. I don’t
think I will be able to replicate what I did
with the fanzine as I pretty channeled
everything into that.
I am going to concentrate
on my product for the
creative ability. I followed a
similar layout to The
Mirror’s front page with
the positioning of the
masthead and so on. As I
am focusing on Steven
Gerrard I decided to make
the tabloid cover all
Liverpool related with a
side story to former player
Luis Suarez who I wrote a
little about in my fanzine
entry. Again, with the color
scheme I wasn’t totally
imaginative because I used
the colors of the kits, red,
black and yellow – it is a
style I feel comfortable
using and one that works
on anything e.g. my
fanzine cover. Some of my
creative ability also comes
from the fonts, I thought
that I could use the fonts
to compliment the story
like a Broadway font to
show off the ‘Dazzling New
Contract’. I also went into
Photoshop to create some
of the side stories like
putting a caption on an
image. The image quality
was better after saving it
as a JPEG.
10.
11. Promotional I wrote this piece when Liverpool
were actually on the cusp of
offering Gerrard a new contract. I
was back to writing in a formal
manner and I was enjoying it
actually I think this was also
because I was using quotes
alongside it. I have seen so much of
this type of writing as footballers
are signing contracts all the time so
I have a pretty good idea. Also with
this being sports related it was
easier to find quotes and find
things to talk about especially as
Gerrard has been at the club for so
long. It was also quite simple to
make the first two paragraphs up
because the who what where how
and why, were written straight
away. I think that the quotes were
also a major part of how the whole
piece came together because it
breaks the text up without being a
pull quote. I also think that the
ending looks like it has been cut
short as it just finishes talking
about the Premier League trophy. I
guess this could also be classed as
a good thing because it leaves a
cliffhanger as to will he/won’t he
get the Premier League before this
contract runs out. The article also
goes in reverse order because the
beginning of his career is at the end
this was mainly to put all the
important information first – this is
what existing work is like.
This was an article I sent to my
peers on social media and they
loved it again. Although this was
different to the fanzine the
feedback was much the same
many hoping that the contract was
real. None the less it was still nice
to get some more positive
feedback i.e. “your writing is very
professional.” My wording is also
similar to the obituary – I used the
online thesaurus to look at
potential words as I didn’t want to
be informal but then use words
that people wouldn’t understand. I
also got told that this was a good
solid piece of work and from my
own point of view I could see this
as if it was an actual journalist
piece. For a promotional piece I
think its important to include as
much of the celebrity as possible
and show the emotion of what the
album/contract means to them. A
lot of people refer to him as just
Gerrard so it was appropriate to
use that throughout the majority
of the paragraphs. I was also
taught not to use surnames if you
haven’t already introduced the
person so I made sure that every
‘character’ was listed. The quotes
are recycled from last year and
they were fitting because it was
the same instance signing the
contract.
12. For the time that we had for
this I managed it well and
got the article written on
time and didn’t feel like I
needed to do a second
draft. I’m thinking that
because I knew what I was
writing about and had the
structure in my head I felt
more relaxed at getting this
one right and or better than
the previous ones. The only
major factor that was the
difference between the
others is that I knew for
certain what I was writing
about and what bits you
should and shouldn’t do like
ramble on. It is also better
to write all the important
stuff at the beginning as you
have everything you want
to say there and then and
then you can continue with
the paragraphs you feel fit
in properly. Also with this it
was a case of short and
sweet paragraphs to get a
message across and this
didn’t take much time as I
had already done something
similar with the tabloid
article. I connect with a lot
of Liverpool fans and I felt
like I was writing for them
so it was kind of important
to understand and portray
the emotion from the
quotes of Gerrard.
This work was a review in
progress, it sounds stupid but I
was unsure whether to act as the
club because I was writing on their
behalf which I didn’t really want to
do or used to doing. Despite that,
after each paragraph I kept
checking what I said was what I
wanted and that it made sense, I
didn’t check that my other
paragraphs made sense in the
fanzine because they made sense
to me but not if I was to present it
to other people. I said before that
this was another work that I was
proud of because I have
researched it previously – before
this project and this helped a lot
because I could compare it during.
I wasn’t comparing it to what
Liverpool F.C had written but what
I had written when a player had
signed a contract so that I could be
critical of myself and then put it on
social media where people can be
critical of me. It was
straightforward to write after all
the blogging I had done however I
also needed a review from my
tutor which helped boost my
confidence along the way to
create a good piece of work. I
think that because I had produced
good work before it had spurred
me on to keep up the standard
outside and in the project. With
the fanzine it was something to
compare it to as sometimes your
first work can be good or bad.
For the technical side of things I don’t think
that much has changed from my previous
work and because it has a more formal
register it is easier to look alongside my
obituary to see if there is any difference
within the way it is written. I also don’t
think that there was a big thought process
into this writing as some of the paragraphs
were similar to what I had written in the
tabloid and I sort of copied that style to
this one which reminded me of how to
keep the paragraphs flowing and have
them in an order because you can’t have
them jumping around when there is
something as important as a press release.
I did add a picture to this press release and
added it as it would appear on a website
mainly from what I’ve seen on the
Liverpool website. This was quite simple to
do as I just added some shading and
blurring in Photoshop, as there isn’t pages
of information it would have looked silly
having a picture somewhere in the middle
as it just flows through nicely with the
short paragraphs. For the image I really
wanted to emphasize the You’ll Never
Walk Alone as it speaks a lot of words to
people and because the so called contract
would appeal and speak to a lot of people
it made sense to have the Liverpool motto
included and it also includes the fans.
The creative part of this work has to
be the work on Photoshop as I
didn’t really do anything impressive.
I chose the gates to show the
message as you walk through the
gates to enter the ground it is a
poignant message that most
Liverpool fans use in their daily lives
and the audience obviously wants
to be a major part of everything to
do with the club and the player that
has been there the longest. This
project as a whole has been about
creative writing and overall I feel
like this hasn’t been my most
creative piece because I have
written like this over and over so it
sunk in that there was a same
strategy to writing and how you
could use the audience to inspire
your work and make it better time
and time again. As I didn’t do a
second draft this is the raw product
and I am happy with it, not because
it is extravagant in creative terms
but because it shows off that I can
do a range of writing in different
registers and when improved, my
work definitely improves and you
can see a difference. Sometimes it
takes me once or twice to get
something I’m happy with and there
is sometimes a time where the
simple things like changing a few
paragraphs around can make the
reading different too, I did this in
the fanzine and it made the
feedback better from my peers and
so on which made me feel better
about the next task.
13. Fanzine – Finished Product
For this task I set out to achieve something that
would connect with the fans and be myself so that
it would have the feel and look of an actual
fanzine. As I have said throughout this has been my
favorite piece to make because I could write as me
not someone acting and not someone pretending
to be a journalist. My intentions were to create
something that was unique and would excite the
fans, make them laugh but highlight certain points,
because this was something I wanted to put on
social media and get a good reaction from there
too as well as being happy with it myself. I would
say that my product is better than my writing
because the design work is something that you
look at first and then decide if you want to read
what’s inside. The specific details that I like about
the product are the fonts, I think that they work
well with the theme of the fanzine i.e. edgy. The
fonts also don’t clash and work with the color
scheme, some of the fonts also represent what
each of the parts are saying, the fonts are used for
different purposes and readers will pay attention
because it’s not all just one tone. I wanted to
emulate that this was all about Liverpool through
the years and celebrating how great the club still is,
this is why I used a picture of Gerrard from 2008
and the club badge from around the 1970’s which
was fitting with my written work because you want
the design work to lead you on and remind you
why you support the club.
The audience for the fanzine was
the fans of your chosen celebrity.
I had connected with these fans
before on social media so I felt
that I had a stage set for me. To
feel included in your audience
you have to be part of the
audience, from social media
people see me as the most
humorous person and therefore if
I channel that my writing will
compliment my personality. You
also have to not pretend to be
someone you are not, if people
read your words as if you are
chatting to them normally 9
times out of 10 they will sit and
read it. The audience has been a
major influence in this because in
sport without the fans there is
nothing. With the context in what
I am writing in you have to fully
understand your audience and
makes sure that comes across in
your design work too, this was
similar in Critical Approaches, if
you didn’t know what your
audience liked and disliked there
was no point in writing/making
your product.
Most of the content for the fanzine includes
moderately long paragraphs filled with puns
and the odd joke. The fanzine also also has a
mix of my personality and facts to make it
accurate. The stock image I used was from the
BBC Sport website, I decided to only use the
one picture because I didn’t feel there was a
need to have many images dotted around. I
decided to use an image where Gerrard was
playing because the majority of what I talk
about is him in play. The picture of Gerrard
also has a look of frustration and or
determination you can take it how you want
to. There was a few issues in finding the right
picture because some websites took you off
to different articles or the picture was too
blurry to use, when running out of time on the
fanzine it became a struggle because I needed
something that would break up the text –
although the tone of the writing was relaxed,
there was also a lot in the paragraphs and you
would need a breather. There are a lot of
different styles in my work and some of them
represent my personality where others test
my journalist skills like the obituary and
tabloid. I have always compared my fanzine
piece to the rest of my work because I felt
that it included the majority of my writing
skills but also I had to set it out like a
journalist would so there was a mix.
14. Comparing my fanzine with an
original product I would have to
look at all the sports fanzines,
some of the fanzines that I
looked at are from the 80’s in
the significant times for football,
as these date back it is harder to
compare the writing. I wouldn’t
say my writing is eccentric but it
is quite crazy and I had to tame
myself in terms of remembering
my audience and who else was
reading it. I did forget about the
professional practice part as I
was in my zone, much like if I
was writing for my blog,
because it wasn’t anyone from
the sporting world reading it I
wrote things that other people
wouldn’t understand, in a way I
was being quite selfish because I
thought of myself as only I
would be re reading this and not
tutors or peers. I have used
some writing skills as I have had
to amend my language and
compromise having to take
some paragraphs out, one of the
main writing skills for this piece
was having control, otherwise I
would have written way over
the limit, by changing
paragraphs around and cutting
some out I could see clearly
what I was writing and whether
what I was going to write would
work or get boring, probably the
For the production part I had to use
In Design again, I had to transfer
the skills I has used before for the
page layout unit, some of which I
had forgotten. Once I had learnt
the art of inserting pictures again
and resizing in Photoshop the more
layouts I tried the faster I got. Some
of the production was a little
frustrating because I couldn’t find a
layout that suited my work and it
was annoying me that I had to flick
between the two software’s to
finally achieve getting the picture
to the box size. When writing the
height and width and putting it in
Photoshop, the measurements kept
changing and the picture went way
out of proportion to the extent of
being blurry which didn’t feel right
going into my product. With the
fanzine cover I think that choosing
the right fonts also helped
compliment the design work. As
the color scheme was
predominantly red it was easy to do
the masthead and having a tabloid
beside me to compare the style
also helped. Mostly some of the
skills were just getting things into
place and getting the right sizes
which did take some patience
because you either moved it too far
or too close. Those aren’t big skills
but ones that require the effort to
make sure it is right.
The improvements that I think need to be made for the fanzine is
firstly the writing, hindsight is a good thing and realizing upon
that, that maybe I should have written it a bit smoother because
it does come across a little jumpy and random in the way I start
it. To improve this I think having a more specific introduction
would have been appropriate - to also explain how the article is
written so people can get a feel of my input before they read it.
Online articles that have fan inputs don’t tend to mellow their
way round things like I do although if I had just said it how is
then the article would have been written in merely a few
sentences so to compare to existing articles I think I did the right
thing in setting it out longer but for my own improvements that
is one of the priorities. On the design side of the fanzine there is
a lot of white space especially on the masthead, as you can only
fill it with so much it was hard not to over crowd it too as I
already had the badge and price on there. For an improvement I
would maybe add a faded picture of Gerrard into the background
to fill the space, on one of the fanzines that I researched it had a
banner of former players faded into the background which
looked really effective alongside the bold writing and the main
body. In comparison to this and my own work I think that I
should have paid more attention to the ones that I researched to
further outdo myself and make the design work better than
some of the professional longstanding fanzines. The other
improvement I would make is at the time I thought I was being
funny however reading it now makes me cringe because even
though the facts are in there, there are some things that needed
not to be said because it’s not really professional nor does it
make the article any better. For improvements on this I would
make sure that I re read what I say and take time to question
whether I should actually put that in, I think I wrote like this
based on my audience on social media and what they know is
my personality however this piece was about the fans so that’s
what I opted for. These are quite minor improvements to be
made but they could end up really boosting my end grade and or
definitely copying professional standard.
15. Interview – Finished Product
My intentions from the
start of this was to create a
simple question and
answer that could be
printed in the side of a
sports magazine like a
quick read rather than
over one big page. From
the answers that I
collected I wanted to put
the most detailed ones in
to elucidate the fans which
is what the interview
purpose was. I also wanted
to make this one more
professional so I could
show my writing skills
more clearly and get a
head start for the articles
ahead. I was expecting to
achieve a longer interview
with more answers to each
question but it was found
to be easier just having a
few which also broke it
down more which wasn’t a
bad move.
The audience for this piece
again is the fans and other
football fans if the interview was
to be put in a sports magazine.
It was fairly straightforward to
write for the audience because I
could be more formal which was
better in creating a flow in the
piece rather than trying to be
humorous. I think that I couldn’t
be too specific with the
audience in this one because it
was a structured question and
answer which seems quite bog
standard however when you
delve into the audience properly
there will be people my age and
older that would be reading the
interview so in that respect I
don’t see the harm in doing it
like that. The audience wasn’t
the main vocal point in this one
as I just wanted to concentrate
on the improvements from the
fanzine i.e. having a proper
introduction. Sometimes the
audience can have a big
influence on your work and
other times you have to keep
them in your mind but focus on
the writing first.
