2. Brainstorming
Potential subjects-Issues in and surrounding sports
Athletes not having the support when it comes to their mental health
Social Media
Abuse
Fans on game days and chants
Stress and pressure
3. Sports-Mental Health
The dark side of social media and the impact it has on sports, players.. And how it all
becomes too much for athletes and slowly affects mental health and can possibly
begin to take a negative affect on their career and force them into extended breaks or
even force them into early retirement.
Online social media abuse has come more and more into the public limelight and has
become more and more of an issue with racism in pretty much every sport now..
A strong example is how football players of colour instantly suffer racial abuse after a
game they didn’t perform or cost the team the game.. The best recent example of this
was after England’s devastating Euro 2020 final loss on penalties to Italy in where
Marcus Rashford, Jaden Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed their penalties in the
shootout
Podcast
Racism
Girls sexualising players and the impact on how they view themselves
Endless criticism after tiny mistakes
Mental health impacts
Does all that slowly begin to take a hold of players and does taking extended breaks
and even the thought of retirement begin to creep into minds
What help are they given from clubs and coaches
Do families become affected by this
4. Fanzine
A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a
particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest
Fanzines in football fans were extremely popular and many teams would have a fanzine.
Manchester United and Arsenal were the main two premier league teams that had
fanzines.. In 2014, one of Manchester United’s biggest and most established fanzine
creator Andy Mitten was interviewed about fanzines and how the moving times and
social media was impacting fanzines and said they won’t be around much longer as times
move along..
5. Fanzine-Research
Fanzine Audience
• Fanzines are normally aimed at the audience of age group that enjoys what they create but also can understand it
• The producers try to find ways to make the fanzine enjoyable that anyone who picks it up can understand it but also see the
funny side of it without getting offended by anything inside it.
• The reasons to make it in that way helps out with people
7. Existing Product
The Gooner is the Arsenal fanzine which in recent times has been asking for fans to reach out and save the fanzine from
going out of business. The audience is again aimed at majority Arsenal fans but like blowing bubbles every football can
read it and see how the fans of that club see their own club and its performances. The tone of Gooner is very much like
Arsenal fan Tv is on YouTube, rather aggressive but when things are going in the favour of the club the tone becomes
positive to celebrate the performances of the team. The Gooner is created using images of the players during a game..
Looking at the middle image of current Arsenal Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that is taken from his debut game in
2017 and that is using the face of the club to grab the attention of fans who want to pick the Gooner up and read about
the best news about the team or the game that has just past.
For me I like how the Gooner is set up and presented because its again a simple yet affective presentation because they
haven’t tried to overcomplicate it and for a simple design of just player with text it grabs the eye and you instantly want
to pick it up and slowly read through that particular edition of Gooner.
9. Existing Product
Blowing bubbles is the name of this fanzine all about West Ham United and this edition released in November 2016. I choose to
use Blowing Bubbles because for my research I wanted to use something that shows the good in football and shows how
football should be with fans talking about their club but with only respect toward club and players. This is also showing real life
and how fans view their club during the good and the bad.
I love how blowing bubbles is set out and presented the front cover is simple and clear and you instantly know what’s coming
up during the fanzine. Sometimes just having a simple front cover draws you in more and that’s the case with blowing bubbles I
saw the simple image of Sir Bobby Moore and straight away my eyes were locked on and I wanted to go into more detail reading
it. The cover also adds in a charity set up to try help real life issues like cancer because Moore sadly passed away due to cancer
and since then the Bobby Moore trust has been working hard to fund money and to help put more research into finding a
cancer cure, this also caught my eye and people always want to try and help others and advertising such a good cause should
grab the attention. Throughout blowing bubbles the theme is kept the same with all pages using the lovely Maroon colour that
has become so famous as the colours of West Ham throughout the history of the club, the maroon theme keeps each page
looking nice and making sure there is a theme throughout.
The page layout is again rather simple with two images then the text surrounding the images. This is a basic layout and the text
is the a basic font but it’s a clear and understandable font. The page tends to have a headline in a bigger font, subheading in a
slightly smaller font so the text drops the size again which each font remains easy to read. I find the simple layouts the better
because it becomes a lot clearer and the text is always easy to read and blowing bubbles shows this because the simple cover
caught my eye and looking into more after deciding I wanted to use a football fanzine to show the good side of fanbases and
how true fans will support the team through the tough to the end absolute highs of winning.
Blowing bubbles is of course aimed at West Ham fans but the way its created is in a way every football fan can read and still
enjoy even if they don’t support or follow this is a good idea to try include when it comes to creating my idea because if you can
manage to grab the attention of every fan you are then covering every base. The tone is very chilled and calm meaning
everything is easier to read and everything looks so clear.
10. Interview practise
Question 1- Why do you support Liverpool
A: Grandad born in Liverpool, didn’t have the easiest time growing up so used football as the way out,
dad followed this is a bad up bringing then just following in the family line
Both dad and Grandad had rough times growing up so having the support of Liverpool and having
football to help
Alfie didn’t quite have that but did still have that confidence in following them in supporting the same
team
Q2. Did supporting Liverpool get you into football or were you already into football?
A: Started age 4 to now, Club had a massive influence. Shirts, games been on in the background
growing up to now watching games weekly
Started supporting in 2007 after learning some more about the game
Dad played a major role in playing football showing videos and bringing Liverpool into the family
11. Interview Practise
• Q3. Better atmosphere at anfield?
A: Champions league night. Liverpool 4-0 Barca
Q4. More influence on the team? Mo Salah or Van Dijk
A: Virgil
Q5. Dream 5 a side Liverpool team
Alisson, Sami Hyypiä, Alan Hansen, Steven Gerrard, King Kenny
Q6. Your thoughts on FSG
Over the years been good, giving the manager the money, he needs, not splashing out on players they don’t need, youth
Understands fan not agreeing with FSG not giving the money to compete with Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United
Little gems
Academy playing a major role. Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot
Good promising young players coming through
Jurgen Klopp has a major role in the youth development of players at Liverpool. His style of coaching homegrown talent
12. Interview Practise
Q7. Can the squad stay competitive?
Yes, with the young players gaining experience
Curtis Jones favourite young player
Nat Phillips- Massively impressed with how he stepped up and filled in during the club’s injury crisis
Future Van Dijk
Q8. One player to steal their ability
Van Dijk
Q9. Predictions for the season
Domestic cups- Youth development and progression stronger as they go further
Premier League and Champions League important
8th champions league over a 2nd title in England
50-50 to fans wanting the league over Europe
Q10. Could Liverpool learn from City
No, Liverpool have the better team overall City just have the squad depth
13. Interview Practise
Q11. All time top 3 Liverpool games
Liverpool 4-0 Barca (2019)
Liverpool Vs Norwich (Luis Suarez-2012-2014)
Liverpool Vs City (Champions league, Quarter Final 1st and 2nd leg 2018 5-1)
City game proved Liverpool dominating in Europe
City are dominating English domestic football with winning 4 of the last 8 titles and winning the domestic cups in recent years
While Liverpool haven’t won a domestic cup since 2012 under Kenny Dalglish
Q12. Who should follow Klopp?
Steven Gerrard after more time at Rangers
Club Legend and a legacy there
Best premier league midfielder
Role model growing up
Leadership
Do you forgive the slip in 2014?
Yes, wasn’t his fault, team playing too high... needed a 1V1
Q13. One player you’d bring back
Striker
Ian Rush, Fernando Torres or Kenny Dalglish, Put them in between Salah and Mane, More clinical
14. Reflections
What was it like been interviewed?
Getting interviewed is a process which straight away can come across stressful and put
worry into you. For me been interviewed about a topic that I felt super strong and more
relaxed than I would with something that I didn’t understand straight away.
I feel like going first in the pair allowed me to set my own tone of voice up by talking
strongly about my topic and really pushing the point across early and slowly build up my
confidence so I can then have a foundation and when it came to becoming the interviewer
I felt calm and relaxed meaning my tone of voice was relaxed I wasn’t rushing the questions
and once the answer to that question that been given I still felt good and relaxed enough
to try ask more little questions to try get a more in depth answer meaning I had learnt
more about the process of interviewing but also how asking more little questions that help
extend the answer can help provide you with more depth.
This also allowed me to see a different side of been interviewed because over the summer
I had been applying for jobs and finally getting interviews and experiencing how nervous I
was and how I could tell my voice became shakey and I would speed up how I was talking
in order to get it done as quick as possible and get back to my normal way of going through
the day.
16. Production experiments analysis
For my experiments I wanted to try different skills on photoshop as print is one of my two preferred and
favored choice of media creation.
I began using an image of Liverpool players celebrating a win in a penalty shoot out because I wanted to try
keep the interview and experiments linked together. So I had a look at some photoshop skills but
remembered last year I had edited the color scheme to make something flip into darker colors so changed
the image into a rather dark image with light background and then just the outline of the players.
My second experiments was changing the logo of the Jacksonville Jaguars from a white background and
boring same old logo into something different and more colorful so I began messing about with the color
scheme and contrast and ended up making an all blue logo. I wanted to try make the logo stand out a bit
more so I tried to add in the original colors of the team badge but it took way that affect of creating
something different in every way.
My third experiment I wanted to try something completely new and test my skills more. I began my
searching the internet for a base image to use and change the picture style, color scheme but doing that
while adding in some new effects to try and test new skills and try to keep advancing my photoshop skills.
I hope that all these old and new skills can lead me when it comes to creating my product and I really show
that even though I am still new to using the software and still learning as I go I have learnt quickly and can
really take my work to new levels and push myself in order to get a better outcome and final product.
