Evaluation for fanzine (twenty one pilots)

1. EVALUATION
Alice Leeman

2. Research
For my research, the first thing I did was look at previous fanzines that other people had made. There were some I was able to look through at my college and I was also able to
find some online that were similar to my initial ideas. I was able to compare existing fanzines and decide what layouts and designs I prefer so it did help me with my initial ideas as
to what I could focus my project on. One particular fanzine I looked at was on the website ‘issuu,com’ and it was a fanzine about the band ‘twenty one pilots’. I had already had
the idea of doing my fanzine about twenty one pilots and this existing fanzine definitely swayed me to follow through with this as the fanzine was interesting and gave me plenty
of ideas. The fanzine online had concert tickets and merchandise pages related to the band which was one of my favorite pages from the fanzine. Even though I didn’t include
these sort of products in my own fanzine I will follow through with this idea for my FMP.
The issuu fanzine also included color themes from the twenty one pilot albums which was already something I had wanted to do when writing down my initial plans. I knew I
would be adding article text into my booklet so I had to do some research into what I would be writing about. I knew that I would be completing 2 pages talking about the 2 band
members so I did some research into both of their backgrounds so I could use this in my article text. Once I had done my research, I wrote down a couple of drafts so I could make
sure my article text is thought through and laid out well. I also had to do some research into each of the 4 twenty one pilot albums. I looked into the release dates, the sales of the
album, the ideology behind them, etc and put it all into texts so I had my article text ready for production.
Overall, looking into existing fanzines as part of my research was really useful for me to gather my ideas together and merge techniques and art with page layouts. Also, doing your
article text research at the start of your project is very useful because I have realized that the article text can help with ideas and how the article text and the page is going to be
relevant.
Once I had decided what I am going to be focusing on for my fanzine I had to take some time to research into the members of the band and the albums as these are subjects I will
be writing about.
Overall, looking into existing fanzines as part of my research was really useful for me to gather my ideas together and merge techniques and art with page layouts. Also, doing your
article text research at the start of your project is very useful because I have realized that the article text can help with ideas and how the article text and the page is going to be
relevant.
Experimenting with production
At the beginning of the project I started experimenting in photoshop using different tools and trying out effects I had not used before that I may use in my FMP. These edits
include making a picture look like a drawing, using the threshold tool, etc. Experimenting beforehand helped me gain more ideas on how I may want to use these edits for my
actual production and how I may want to lay out my pages. The drawing effect was in one of the fanzines I looked at for my research so this is why I decided to experiment with
this technique. Even though I liked this technique, I didn’t use this technique in my actual production because it didn’t really fit with the overall design theme of my booklet. My
booklet has more bright, neon colors included in it.
I also experimented with the slime tool which I then used in my final production work. I wanted to create a design that matches the aesthetic of the album without just taking one
from the internet. Part of the albums aesthetic is a sort of green, purple and yellow slime. I took an image from the internet of an outlined cartoon skull and then drew on the
slime on the skull using the slime tool in photoshop. Without doing the experiment beforehand, I would have found it more difficult to do the technique in my work and it would
have took up more time so I’m glad the slime tool is something I discovered while doing my research.

3. PlanningWhen planning my production work, I had to make sure I had a sketch or quick photoshop edit of how my page layouts
were going to look like. I already had a vague idea on how I wanted my pages to look like and I knew what color schemes I
would be using as they were the same colors from the existing twenty one pilot albums.
The first part of planning for me was writing out the contents that will be on each page so I had a written plan of what is
going to be included on my experiment. Having it written down first helped me have a clear visual idea as to how I will lay
out the contents onto a page.
For my first experiment I created the layout of the cover. Looking back at my experiment to my production cover, my
experiment and my final production work are quite different to how I planned. For my experiment cover I was planning on
adding lyrics faded into the background, however on my actual cover I added faded out logos into the background. I chose
to the the logos instead because it made the page look a bit more neater and having logos in the background let’s the
audience know the kind of aesthetic the band uses for their music. One thing I did keep the same is the idea of having
both the band members at the front of the cover. I knew I wanted them both on the cover as they are both make up
‘twenty one pilots’ and will be recognized by fans/people who know of them. Before I started my production I had wanted
my cover to be black and white (using the threshold tool) as I liked the look of the effect and I could’ve merged separate
photos to look like one. However from trying different photos I didn’t like how the threshold tool looked and I decided I
preferred a more colored front cover.
Experiment Production piece
One of my first experiments was planning out the layout of some of the album pages
because, even though I had visual ideas in mind, I wanted to see how my ideas would lay out
before I started on production. My experiment and my final production work are fairly similar
to how I first envisioned it. I already knew that I was going to have the slime effect hanging
from the top of the page as the slime and the colors are the main aesthetic of the ‘self titled’
album. I also kept the idea of having a skeleton skull with slime coming from the eyes and
mouth. For my experiment I used a picture I found online to have an idea of what it would
look like on the page, however for my production work I used the liquid tool in photoshop to
create the slime myself.
On the right hand side page of my experiment I used lyrics from their song ‘taxi cab’ and I also
used these lyrics for my actual production as well. I used these lyrics because I like the fact
you have to think about it when you read it to find the deeper meaning and it is also
metaphorical.
My favorite feature from my production work is the slime border and the skeleton skull along
with the slime as it makes the page stand out and it is clear that the colorful slime is the main
aesthetic of the album.

4. Aesthetic Qualities
For the background of this page I used a
crumpled-up paper overlay. I like this effect
because it fits in with the theme of tape
being used as an aesthetic of the album I am
talking about. In a lot of fonts that twenty
one pilot used for their ‘trench’ album the
text had like a tape/paper effect.
I used the tape effect in the top right corner
of the first page and bottom left corner.
Yellow tape is the main aesthetic feature of
the album so I think this effect works well on
my page.
The eagle shape with a picture inside is
one of my favorite effects as I find it a
really interesting concept. People who
may not have heard of twenty one pilots
before will get the idea that the eagle is
an aesthetic from the album. It’s an
interesting concept in my opinion as
eagles/vultures can sometimes be
associated with danger or fear.
I like how the image fills the eagle shape
as the people in the photo form a line
that fills from the body down to the tail
which fits well. If I could change
anything about the image I used in the
center I would have added a yellow tint
like I did on the background image on
the right hand side page.
On pages like my front cover and my ‘trench’
album pages I used the drawing tool to
overline around pictures in a yellow tone. I
really liked using this effect because it makes
the images stand out more and the lines fit in
with the yellow tape effect that the band uses
for their album logos. This effect is something I
feel makes my pages stand out more so I really
like this effect.
I took an image from the internet of the location where
the ‘jumpsuit’ music video was filmed which is part of
the trench album. I like this photo because the scenery is
aesthetically pleasing but also quite daunting/mysterious
which is part of the albums concept. I added a yellow
tint to the image so the image still fits in with the yellow
theme.
Cover
Trench album pages

5. Technical Qualities
Both of these fanzine covers have similar effects used, but are both very
different in their ways.
Firstly, both covers had the ideas to add in something faded into the
background. The existing cover, on the left, has a collage of images, turned
black and white, so text and logos can stand out. For my cover, I didn’t add
in images to the background but I added logos faded into the background of
my cover to add in that extra bit of effect. I do really like the effect on the
existing product however I don’t think that effect would work in the
background of my cover as I already have photo of both the band members
filling most of the page.
The cover on the existing product also used the yellow colors that I have
also used. The existing cover has the yellow confetti falling over the page
which gives a sort of 3D effect which is interesting. Seeing this effect used
on this cover, I think my cover would look even more appealing with similar
effect. The grey space in-between the text and the image could look quite
plain so maybe some confetti could make my page stand out a bit more.
The existing product and my product both made sure our text font matched
the font of the twenty one pilot album font. The diagonal like through the
o’s has always been used on each twenty one pilot album so it would make
sense to use this effect on the text, which is what I like about both of the
covers.
EXISTING COVER-ROCK SOUND ISSUE 257 MY PRODUCTION COVER

6. Technical Qualities
EXISTING PAGE-DEVON FLOHRS
MY PRODUCTION WORK
Both of these pages have some close similarities, For
example, the existing product and my product have both
used the patterns from the ‘Blurryface’ album. The
existing page has long thing rectangles across half of the
page, almost like a glitch effect, which I like. On my piece
of work, I put the patterns in a row of triangles on the left
hand side of the page. I prefer my design as it shows more
of a selection of the patterns and the albums aesthetic
through the selection of shapes.
Something I have also noticed on both of the pages that I
similar is the line through the album name. This is done on
both pages due to the title ‘Blurryface’ on the album
having a line through it. This effect is similar to how
twenty one pilots puts a diagonal line through the o’s. I
like that this simple effect has been used as it marks a
symbol on how twenty one pilot’s likes to design their
fonts. However there are some differences with the fonts
used. The fonts used on the existing product are shown in
different colors like red, black and white. I think this effect
would have gone well with my page if I expanded the
color theme a bit more.

7. Aesthetic Qualities
I like how this triangle pattern
turned out because the patterns
really stand out against the
background. The patterns give you
an insight to the albums aesthetic.
Looking back on this part of
production, I think I should have put
some of the triangle at the bottom
in a line of the page pointing to the
right for that extra bit of detail
I added an overlay of red smoke to
the left hand side page to add in that
dark/mysterious effect. I used red
smoke because the color red is the
main color theme of the ‘blurryface’
album, which the pages are about.
On the right hand side page I used a
regulr grey smoke effect. Looking
back at this I think that the right hand
side page would have looked better
with red smoke to match the red
theme.
I used the smudge tool to blur the face. I
think that this effect didn’t turn out too
bad, however I was hoping to make the face
look more distorted/glitched. I did attempt
to do a glitch effect on the face however
the effect didn’t look how I wanted it too so
I used the smudge tool as it was the closest
to how I envisioned the image. I wanted to
use this effect to match the lyric from the
song ‘stressed out’ and the album’s name,
‘Blurryface’. Overall, I am quite happy with
how the image turned out although there
could have been room for improvement to
make the image look more effective.
The small bird effect is something I really love
about this page. I edited the birds myself to make
them black and white to match the color theme of
the page. This bird effect on the page really makes
the page stand out and creates a eerie effect
which I like.

8. Time management
I am quite happy with how I managed my time while making this project. I knew I was aiming to make at least 12 pages of work, so this meant I
had to make at least 3 pages per week. For the first week I managed to make at least 2 and a half pages and finished the rest of my third page in
my own free time. Throughout the second and third week I would split my time between designing different pages. For example I might spend
one lesson designing half of a page and then the other half of the lesson designing a different page. I preferred doing this technique because
coming back to a page later on would give me a chance to think about what other features I could add to my work to make the page look better. I
also felt more renewed and ready after coming back as if you stick to creating one page for a long amount of time you might start to get bored or
lack ideas.
Throughout the 4 weeks of production, I had been absence for 1 or 2 college days, however I had made up my study time by coming into college
to study in the library on my days off college. At the end of the third week I had about 3 more pages to complete, my back cover and 2 more
album pages (one which I had already started on in the second week). During this week I did extra coursework in the student libraries so I had my
time management in place. This also meant I had more time in class to make any improvements on my work if I had time. I managed to complete
2 pages while in my study outside of class on this day.