2. Did your work turn out as you imagined?
My fanzine did actually meet my expectations and turned out exactly how I imagined. I have
included a healthy amount of writing to justify the piece as a fanzine and I have tried to add plenty
of colour to hold the reader’s interest. I have been successful when spanning over a range of
subjects because I have managed to cover the most important areas and bring an even divide of
good and bad. In doing this, I have ensured that my piece isn’t a holiday brochure nor a charity
advert and is purely just informative.
I would have liked for my piece to have had a bit more writing because it does look on the plain
side. Although the photographs do compliment the lack of writing, I don’t think this would allow the
book to blossom as a success in the hands of keen factual readers. Ideally, I would have also liked to
have referenced a lot more sources such as charities working with the ocean and maybe even
completed a case study which would help me justify the information as official. The design isn’t one
hundred percent either because there isn’t a consistent font colour and in a lot of cases, I had to
outline the font for it to actually show.
3. Is the fanzine appropriate for your target
audience?
I believe I have achieved a decent fanzine as it includes consistency, in most areas, and is
informative. Of course, the main focus of a fanzine is to teach the reader something new and I do
think I have managed to do this. However, I really would have liked to focus my fanzine on a wide
audience but I don’t think it quite meets those standards.
Firstly, I haven’t written as much text as I would have liked, which I mentioned previously. An official
fanzine would have to meet certain expectations including lots of information so that reader’s are
getting their moneys worth. Quite a bit of information in there is general knowledge and I would
have liked it all to be obscure facts which weren’t learnt in school, for example. Secondly, I haven’t
used my own pictures, which is something I would have liked to do to show off the professionalism
of the fanzine. That, however, would be very unrealistic as most of the photographs have been
taken underwater, with professional cameras and all around the world. Finally, the book would have
been more suited to a wider audience if I had chosen to discuss more pressing issues but like I said
before, this is purely informative and should not be seen as an appeal. Therefore I think the
audience lies within people between ages 10 to 15 or there about.
4. To what standard is the content?
The inside of the book does include a lot of professional photographs taken by various
photographers (most of whom I couldn't find). Each picture has been selected carefully seen as
though it is seemingly hard to find portrait images of the ocean and each one has been made to fill
an A5 page. I have made sure to find the best quality pictures so that they don’t turn out fuzzy when
they are stretched to fit the page. However, they are not mine and they have all come from the
internet. If I were to publish this book, I would have to reference all the photographers (which
would probably be close to impossible) otherwise it just looks like I have stolen loads of random
photos.
The font is a bit messy in areas. I have took extra care to make sure I have only used black and white
text because using multiple different colours would have messed up the consistency and just looked
untidy. I have used the same font throughout to make it look clean and formal. If I had changed the
font or even made a few pages different then it would probably look very childish.
5. What styles have been used?
I have used Photoshop to get the best outcome. It came in especially handy for my infographic since
I used a lot of shapes and some of them were made from actual existing animals which had to be
recoloured into a silhouette. I also needed Photoshop for other things like white boxes for text. I
wouldn’t have been able to achieve the same effect on a Microsoft Office program because they
aren’t specifically catered to design.
I have also gone for quite an interesting and varied design with the photographs that I have used.
Although there is no defined setting, there is a range of interesting pictures followed up with text on
each page. Of course, it's not uniform and that is generally what people prefer to see. However, I
think it is more captivating to use images that work well and relate with the article on a more
detailed level.
6. What skills have been put to use?
I have used my previously acquired skills to complete 12 full pages. This skill has come from my
development of using Photoshop over time and learning new things. Although it hasn't all been
applied to my Fanzine, and although my Fanzine doesn’t reflect a great deal of techniques, it is all
there and I have managed to get every last detail perfect because I know how to properly use
Photoshop. For example, the little things like recolouring the text and making it stand out by using
special effects to apply a drop shadow. There were also other things like changing the levels of each
picture to get a lighter or darker/warmer or colder photograph and just adding some life to it.
Most of my skills are shown within my double page infographic which is neatly presented on evenly
spread levels, between 0 to 10,000 meters under. I achieved this by using the measurement tool
and dividing the page into 10 different areas. This way, I could Mark the infographic out like a ruler
in itself.
There were times when I had to use tools such as the stamp tool to recreate a section of an image
to make it larger. For example, if I wanted the sand to extend further, I would almost clone a section
and make it look as though it was always part of the image.
7. How have your skills developed?
I have learnt how to do things in an easier way than what I originally knew. There are certain skills I had
already acquired, however, I didn’t know there were more efficient ways of achieving them.
Going back to the infographic page again, because that’s where most of my skills come into work, the
gradient was made in a way I didn’t know it could be made. Using the sfx tool, I went onto the gradient
thinking I would be able to get a simple white to black gradient. However, I found that you can actually
change the colours at each end of the scale. You can also move the scale around to create an even
balance between light and dark or mostly dark/light, still with the fade so that the colours blend together.
You can also toggle with the positioning so that the blend of the gradient is vertical, horizontal or
anywhere inbetween. It made more sense for me to choose the horizontal effect so that the infographic
would be light at the top and dark at the bottom (to represent the depth).
I also learnt how to give the text some depth and allow it to stand out against certain pictures. All of my
pages either use white or black text and because sometimes the photograph wouldn’t cooperate with
either. So using the sfx again, I applied either a white or black drop shadow so that text was readable.
I feel like I didn’t really put my skills to use as much as I would have liked because when I look again, the
fanzine is very basic and anyone with basic knowledge of Photoshop would be able to achieve the same
outcome.
8. Are there any areas for improvement?
Yes, there are always going to be things I look at that will make me wish I had done everything
different. In fact, when I look at the finishing result, I am pleased but I also wish I went for
something simple so that I could have taken a more presentable approach as opposed to just using
photographs and hoping it would all correlate.
I do think that I could have written a lot more as well. Although I did choose a healthy variety of
topics to cover (including good and bad), I feel as though I didn’t write enough for each one and
didn’t manage to establish my point in as much detail as I would have liked. I even had planned to
incorporate work that charities had done for the ocean, however, I completely forgot and missed
out that part.
I liked the front cover and how it worked over onto the back but I think I could have been more
creative. The colours and the title went really well together and I wouldn’t have wanted too much
colour anyway. However, I think the whale is quite deceiving. This is because I don’t have anything
written on whales. And yes, it is clear that the title doesn’t say 'whales' but 'the ocean' but whales
are quite a pivotal subject to cover if the fanzine is about the ocean and I failed to do so.
