2. Summarize key characteristics of
exiting products
During my research I already knew what style I was looking for when finding examples of existing products,
and what context those products came from. The look of the first rock fanzines in the 70s and 80s were in
some part for the appearance, but also out of necessity, as they were being made by individuals, rather than
a large printing company that had access to all the latest available technology in magazine production. The
appearance of those fanzines was very home made and rough around the edges due to the lack of proper
machinery, and only really having access to other print materials, typewriters and glue. They were made by
taking images from other places like newspapers and flyers, writing up articles and gluing everything together
on a piece of paper to be copied. Color printing wasn’t a widely available option when they first started to
appear so everything was done in black and white, and images would come through grainy and with distorted
levels, making them hard to see and understand. Many elements of fanzines would be done by hand, as fonts
weren’t an option so if the creator wanted a thick blocky title it would be done in pen. Illustrations would be
hand drawn as well as some text if a typewriter wasn’t around.
All of this was done due to the lack of representation of rock and punk music in mainstream media, so these
fanzines were made in defiance of society viewing the culture as something not worth covering. If you
wanted there to be any form of print that would covered the genre, you had to make it yourself.
3. Summarize key characteristics of
exiting products
Typography – In the examples that I looked at during my research, all the text was either done on typewriter,
hand written or made using letters from other print materials and glue. Generally it depended on what the
text would be used for that would choose which of the three types of text would be most appropriate.
Typewriters were the only widely available way to write in a set font and became a massive part of creating
fanzines. The layout was typically done in columns as that was the standard for magazines and newspapers at
the time, although there were examples where text was done in large paragraph blocks. It allowed the
creators to have a standard font and size to use throughout the fanzine, although it wasn’t perfect as once
mistakes are made they would have to be kept, and ink often times didn’t come out in a consistent tone, with
some text being much fainter at the end of a column and much more difficult to read.
“Ransom Note” style meant using clippings of individual letters from newspaper headlines to create your own
masthead, having no access to any fonts that stood out more than typewriters. This was usually only done for
mastheads and headlines to make sure that the title of the page was clear and eye-catching, as well as a way
to rebel by using the very newspapers that won’t allow rock and punk on to their pages, to make your own
publication about it.
Hand written text was used pretty generously in places were typewriters wouldn’t be the best option, usually
to add a personal touch or to add a comment/annotation. It did also give the opportunity for different fonts
as there weren’t any constrictions to the appearance.
4. Summarize key characteristics of
exiting products
Images – without any way to edit images, what the creators had available to them was what would go into
the product. The image that they had were either taken from newspapers, flyers or posters that other
individuals had made, photographs that they had taken or any relevant print product. This meant that they
didn’t have a choice in the composition or quality of the image.
The images that came from newspapers were typically used to make a political statement within the product
that was relevant in some way to the specific topic of that issue. The papers weren’t including anything that
covered the topics in these products, but they would about either the monarchy or the house of parliament,
images that could then be changed to give anti-establishment message with techniques such as placing a
black bar across the eyes that would typically be used to find the identity of a criminal, over the face of a well
known member of the royal family or politician.
Photograph had no way to be edited, no where to be professionally taken and not taken with a good quality
camera as they weren’t really available to the public, which meant whatever quality the picture was is what
would get included. This meant that pictures that were blurred, taken from odd angles or had a grain over
them were very common and became a part of the style one would expect.
Another element is drawings, where there was nothing readily available to be put into the fanzine and meant
that the creators artists skill, or sometimes lack there of, had to do in place of a professional image.
5. Examples of Key
Characteristics in my Work
Obviously the biggest difference between my work and the original fanzines that were being made in
the 1970s is that I have access to editing software and any images that I want, as well as the ability to
use different fonts and effects. Despite this I have tried to get the same style and aesthetic that one
would expect from my examples.
I tried to make sure that I included the Ransom Note Style throughout my work, choosing to make all
of my headings with newspaper clippings. This took some time going through issues of the Metro
and finding headings that had the correct sizes letters and fonts that would be best suited to my
needs. I found which letters came together to make the headings for each of my pages in the way I
wanted them to look and glued them down together so that I would be able to scan them so that
they were ready to put into Photoshop.
With my front cover I did experiment with using color on the bands logo in the middle of the page, as
I know that some of the original fanzines would be able to have color pages as their covers and then
black & white throughout the content. I came to the conclusion that the color didn’t suit the rest of
the cover and I had really liked what I’d made, feeling that it wasn’t worth redesigning the entire
page just to include color that wasn’t necessarily a common feature in my existing products. I used
different newspaper clippings to layer the page and added shadows that although wouldn’t have
been possible before, gave the page more depth. I tried to use as much relevant imagery to the band
in subtle ways other than the logo, such as adding grey lyrics behind the logo and using the
drummers art as the background, as well as some other small details from their branding and latest
album.
6. Examples of Key
Characteristics in my Work
I knew I wanted to include at least one page that was entirely dedicated to either lyrics or a piece of
writing that was relevant to the band and decided that the backside of the cover next to the contents
page would be well suited for that job, as it also meant that the later layout of the double page
spreads would be much easier. I chose a poem by Alan Watts that has reappeared throughout the
bands career as an inspiration to their lives and is featured on their second studio album. It didn’t
take long for me to realize that working with black and white for the first time wouldn’t be as easy as
first expected, as white and black text can easily disappear into the different tones of grey in the
background. My solution to this was adding a light grey glow around the text as that it would have a
bit more of a solid and contrasting background. The background of the two pages is made from
newspaper rips I scanned in, the drummers art work as well as different variations of paint splatters I
did to give the pages some texture to avoid solid colors. I spoke about fanzines using high profile
political figures in their images and wanted to keep some of that in my work, adding a recognizable
picture from an article slamming Boris Johnson for his governmental choices to the background of
one the pages. As I included in the previous slide I wanted to keep a running theme for newspaper
clippings as headings and that also included the contents page. I was going to do the same for the
actual list of content but realized that it would require much more space than I had on the A5 page,
as well as wanting to avoid reusing the exact same layout of letters. This was the first page I made and
it made some of the challenges of this project much clearer to me than I had expected before.
