The student created a 12-page fanzine about summer 2021 music as their factual project. They researched fanzines and magazines to understand the differences in style and format. Surveys of their target audience of teenagers informed the design and content. Throughout production, the student improved ideas for layouts and images. An interview with a music photographer was included. Challenges included defining the topic and technical issues, which were overcome. The student felt accomplished completing their first fanzine and improving Photoshop skills through hands-on learning. Feedback helped refine the idea. Overall the project was rated well and effectively appealed to the target audience.

1. Factual Evaluation
TOBY JACKSON

2. What was the theme of your project
and what attracted you to it?
The theme of this project was to create a factual project, a fanzine or a documentary, I chose a
fanzine and we did it about a topic we are interested in, I decided to do my theme as a summer
2021 music fanzine. I did this because it is a specific time period and also recent too, so it could
appeal to my primary age demographic target audience, teenagers. I was interested in this
project because I could use Photoshop to create something interesting.

3. What research did you undertake and
how did it help develop your project?
I did a lot of research for this project because I haven't made a fanzine before, even though I've
made magazines in my first year of the course, I did research on the difference between the two,
including the characteristics and styles of a fanzine. I researched a lot of existing products
including several front covers, back covers, contents pages and inside pages for a fanzine so I
knew how they're layed out and to come up with ideas for mine. I also did interview practice too
which helped me for my fanzine by coming up with good questions for my interview. I did
research on my audience too by making a google form survey and sent it to people that are
my primary age demographic target audience so I knew what they would like about my fanzine,
and this helped develop my project because I took these opinions on board for when I created
mine to appeal to my target audience more. Including examples of what they prefer looking at,
images or text, and what makes a front cover appealing etc, and questions related to my theme
too including questions about their favourite music genre, etc. I also did experiments too for a
front cover, contents page and inside double page spread too, and this helped me develop my
project a lot because it helped me come up with my design for those pages, and what hand
drawings I wanted to do, and what colour scheme etc.

4. How did you develop and improve your
ideas throughout the project?
Throughout my project and my production, I came up with new ideas on how I should lay out my
project and images I should use, how my titles should look like etc. I edited my text and my titles
by adding in level and emboss editing, strokes etc.

5. What was the outcome of the
project/task?
The outcome of this project was a fanzine with 12 pages. Another good outcome was it helped
me develop more skills on Photoshop relating to fanzine / magazine pages, and with my
research it helped me come up with ideas for it and what detail I need to add.

6. How did you feel about the project
before you started?
I wasn't sure what a fanzine was before I started, which means I had to do a lot of research for it
to educate myself on it, I also didn't know what idea to do as I changed it several times, after
feedback too I made my idea more specific to the time period of just summer.

7. What do you think about your project
development and how did it help you to refine
your idea?
During my production while I was creating my fanzine I came up with new ideas like images I
should use, and other ways to layout my work etc

8. Did you collaborate on your project or
engage contributors, etc?
I had an interview with a music photographer, I asked the questions and they answered so I
wrote them on one of my double page spreads

9. How did you feel when the project
was completed and why?
I felt accomplished because I had learned a new topic about fanzines and improved my skills in
photoshop

10. What were the good points about the project/task and what
did you learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if
possible]
One good points about the project is I learned what a fanzine is and the styles and
characteristics of them and how they're made and how they compare to official published
magazines. Another good point is I improved my skills on Adobe Photoshop and developed my
knowledge. I also improved my research skills on existing products and analysing them with
more detail. These will all help me in future projects and my FMP.

11. What challenges did you face and how did
you respond to them? Try and think of at least
3...
One challenge I faced was coming up with ideas for this fanzine and making it more specific. I had
several ideas on my research, but I didn't know which one to do, after doing my experiments and
making a front cover, and I got feedback for my proposal and came up with a more specific idea.
Another challenge was technical problems sometimes with Photoshop crashing or saving work
etc, but I managed to fix my work. Also, a challenge was time management throughout the
project because I had to work at home to finish some parts of the written work to get it all
finished before the deadline.

12. How would you rate the final piece? [think
along the lines of poor, satisfactory, good or
excellent...justify your rating]
I would rate the final piece well because I am happy with my fanzine and the work I did with it. I
think I did well with the layout, information, colours etc and even sticking to the traditional
fanzine theme with drawings

13. How did you design apeal to your
target audience?
It appealed to my target audience because I did a survey during the audience research and
asked questions like, what makes a good front cover? What music related topics would you
prefer to read about? Etc. I found out what my target audience likes because they did this
survey, so it helped me appeal them in my final product

14. What personal attributes could you develop
to ensure you are working at a professional
level?
I could focus on my time management, add more detail to my work and be more motivated