The document provides details about the planning and research conducted for a punk fanzine project. It discusses audience research targeting males aged 16-25 from working class backgrounds. Content research explored definitions of punk subculture and topics like goth music and politics. Factual research examined layouts and content of past punkzines. Planning included mind maps, outlines, and a pagination layout. Technical qualities of the finished fanzine included edited photos, designed page layouts, and aesthetic elements fitting each subculture's style.
2. Audience Research
I did some very in depth research into my audience that really paid off when making my primary audience, my
target audience was as follows Male
⢠Aged 16-25
⢠Any sexuality
⢠General education
⢠The social grades and class I will target are C2 Skilled working class, D Working class, E Those at the lowest
levels of subsistence.
⢠Lower income, around 30,000 a year maximum
I decided on the age based on my research on the ages of most people that identify as punk as this would be my
primary audience, I also crossed this over with research I did on the ages of magazine consumers as well as seeing
the most common age of people that identified as alternative in my survey, my average answer came out at around
16-25 so thatâs what I went with. After doing research on sexuality in an around the alternative punk scene it
became very apparent that punks and alternative people are advocates for free expression including sexuality
meaning there would be no specific rule when it came to sexuality and my audience, they could be anything and
there is no lielyhood1 sexuality would be more popular than another, for this reason I decided there is no need for
an answer other than any. While doing that same research I found a lot of information on gender, this information
told me there where no clear indications that there was 1 gender more present than the other so I decided there
would be no point targeting my fanzine at a specific gender, especially considering among punks, gender rolls are
very different and most punks ignore gender roles all together. My education research was more of a class research
than anything, by finding out the class most punks fall into is working class I could understand most of them have a
basic education level. Again the social grades are C2 D and E, this gave me some good information on the style I
should write, pricing, word to picture ratios etc. overall this research was very in depth and told me a lot of
information I didn't know or even think about, especially the research on class and how I needed to change my
writing style to appeal more to my primary audience. I also created a secondary audience profile based off the
information had gathered together throughout all my research, my secondary audience was created by finding out
the secondary audience for age and class which was working class people that are older, between 40 and 60, from
most of my research there was hints that since I am making a punk fanzine then a good audience will be the original
consumers of punkzines back in the 70s who could buy mine for nostalgia.
3. Content research
I added a few slides onto my audience research where I had done some
content research in preparation for writing in my fanzine, I looked up some
official definitions of what being punk is and some real definitions by real
punks, this was to help me get a better understanding of how to write like a
punk and see their ideologies from their perspective rather than reading what
someone has written on Wikipedia. It then did some research on the
subculture I knew the least about which was goths, since I didnât have much
knowledge I started with some research on stereotypes to see which where
true and which weren't, what I found out was what I expected that most goth
stereotypes are like insults to them and they are a lot more complex, I then
did some research on the things I found to be the most interesting, their
politics, religion and music, these taught me a lot and I used this information
in my final product. My final piece of research on my content was on the top
10 emo bands based on followers and just general popularity through time,
this was very useful and I put all of into my final product. This research was
very helpful and made my work easier during production, I wish I had done
more content research if I had the time.
4. Factual research
My factual research was on punkzines and what was good to put inside them, I did this
to get an idea of common things found in them, common layouts and what can go on
each page, what I found out was quite a lot, primarily that there is no set pattern and
that is what makes them good and appealing, so my research basically sent me in the
other direction of thinking what can I do that others haven't or not many people have
rather than looking for what I can copy. My research taught me that anything fits as
well, for example I read one punkzine where the majority of the content was just a
comic about a woman being harassed by men, a feminist comic was something I didn't
expect to see especially one so long, but then I realized punk ideologies are about left
wing views, feminism, free expression, ant establishment etc. so it made a lot of sense
for this to be in a punkzine really, the next thing I saw where character profile cards
talking about the different kinds of alt people you can see in bars or live shows, these
where obviously written by alternative people and made jokes about themselves not
taking themselves too seriously, I thought this was entertaining and actually good to
read whereas some magazines write jokes about their readers which are just plain
insults, this was a funny take and was enjoyable to read and made me want to include
some light hearted comedy myself.
5. Planning
Content, I made a mind map where I decided some content I could include in my
fanzine, I started with the base idea I would have a different page for each
subculture, these being goth, punk, emo, grunge, scene and metalhead. I decided
I would look into 1 thing for each subculture, for example goths would be
clothing, emos would be music etc. this idea is similar to what I actually went with
in the end but helped me decide how many pages I would make which pages I
could include things like my interview in. my next page I made a detailed outline
of what would be on every page, my ideas where good and I wrote them down in
a way I understood when I reread it before I made a pagination. This just helped
me for the pagination which is what I copied for my actual fanzine so my end
design was really all based on what I wrote and I am happy with the way my
content was spread across the pages. The next thing I made was a front-
coverination (even though I'm not sure if that is a real thing) I found some front
covers of other fanzines online I was a fan of and then took parts from those and
wrote about how my cover would look based on the ideas I borrowed from other
some other covers. I came up with an idea in my head and I've ended up making
exactly what I pictured even if I didn't write it exactly how I imagined it still helped
me when making the front cover as this is something I usually spend a lot of time
on thinking about.
6. Planning pagination
The rest of my slides are my pagination, this was the most helpful out of all of my
planning, this is because I struggle to think of anything when im staring at a blank
Photoshop document and find it hard to make anything good, this was apparent from
one of my last projects I made without a pagination, when making it on paper it is
easy to try different methods and styles until something looks good. When drawing it
up I decided it would be a good idea to add more to each subcultures page as I had
more room than I thought, I then decided that I would also give 1 page a double page
spread and a second1 a double page spread but with an additional page after, this was
the only thing I changed when actually creating, I took away the third page so I just
had 2 double page spreads this helped as the layout flowed better and there wasnât
too many pages on 1 thing meaning I could add a page I wanted to before which was
some song recommendations. Anotherthing I changed was my last page, in my
pagination I put content onmy back page but later realised I should leave it blank or
make it something more simplistic. The best past about my planing was that it helped
me decide which subcultures would get pictures and which wouldn't, it also helped
me get an estimate of how many pictures I would need overall. This was very useful
and made me more active when finding people in public to ask to be in my fanzine.
7. Time Management
My time management was okay, I never made a plan, I just had dates in my mind
or in my notes of when I needed to start things like production and this evaluation
so I made sure to gather pictures and research before production and then tried
to finish my fanzine in the week we where given, this was very difficult however
even though we had been doing work that seemed like it should have been
production for weeks before, for example taking pictures writing articles, even
though I had these things done before, 2 and a half days isn't a lot of time to make
12 pages with pictures and articles, so I just finished on time but then came into
some issues when trying to lay out the pages the right way to print and had some
issues with text boxes I couldn't solve at home for this reason I went a little over
on the production time. I think making a timetable would have been a waste of
time especially considering gathering pictures for me and my production was too
much of a gamble on who I found in public and how well and fast I preform on
Photoshop with only little experience. I wouldnât have been able to estimate how
much time I would need on each thing and it would have been added stress and
time consumption, I am happy with my time management overall.
8. Technical Qualities
My magazine has a lot of technical qualities I am very proud of, from the editing on my
photos to the layouts and work I did on Photoshop, I am going to dissect the technical
qualities page by page so it is easier to follow. My font cover has a few good technical
qualities, the one I am most proud of is the lines going across the front diagonally which
have the pages and what's on them, I did this by drawing lines with the line tool,
copying and pasting them to make sure they where all the same size and then flipped
the top half and copied it on the bottom, this makes it look like lines are coming from
the top right and also the bottom left. This looks good as it left a good amount of space
at the top and bottom, on the top I put the title of my magazine followed by a quote by
Kurt Cobain that fit in with my theme, the fonts I used on the front are all hand selected
off dafont.com and work great with the theme I wanted, at the bottom I added issue 1
as its something that is needed on my cover. Aesthetically all of it works well, I have a et
color palette of black, white, blue and red. All of these colors contrast each other
making them stand out and give it the aesthetic I am wanting. The main picture behind
my lines is a collection of old punk, band, record labels logos all on a piece of lines
paper, this gives it the impression it was made by hand which is common in punk
fanzines.
9. Qualities
My first page has less technical qualities but more aesthetic, it is an intro to
what is alt, the technical qualities would be the cut and stick letters in the
words, in the title "what is altâ the A and the T are bot cutout from magazines
and stuck on, the second a is also a anarchy symbol I made on Photoshop. I
also drew some small logos and symbols around my writing and cut and stuck
an eye. These didnât scan in so well but you can still see enough of them.
Aesthetically this page looks very good to me, I wrote in red and the
background is black, this is a good contrast and ensures the writing stands
out, I put the writing on a slant and wrapped it around the edge of the page,
this is one of my more simple pages and it still looks good so I am happy with
it compared to big fanzines.
My seconds page is a timeline of alt subcultures throughout history, this
timeline was made with the pen tool and took quite a lot of work to make
while leaving enough bends and turns to add the dates and cultures in their
blocks. I added small symbols related each subculture around in the free
space, some of these needed a bit of editing to remove backgrounds or cut
inner pieces out of them, I did all of this with the magic wand and eraser. I
also color coordinated each time ground to a different color.
10. Qualities
My next 2 pages 3-4 are on goth culture and clothing, the technical qualities are primarily in my
photos, I took some of them and I think they came out well, for editing I added some effects to
try and make them less harsh and blend in more with the color pallet going on. The picture on
the top right was too bright originally and was hard to make darker while also trying not to lose
the whole image. I ended up playing around with the levels, hue and saturation and end up with
something that blended in well. At the top of my page I have 3 boxes all the same size, one for
clothing one for culture and straight down the middle I have the goth box, while writing this I had
to add a space in the middle because otherwise it wouldn't have worked and the word would be
missing some from the middle after printing. I also chose to make the word goth a different color
that I actually got from taking the color from another image I took. This makes it stand out as the
title more then the other 2. I also added a last minute change where I changed the color of the
text on the right side from purple to white, I did this so t blended with the white in the images
surrounding it, I think this works well and even though it means not all the text is the same color I
think it looks good and also helps make it clear that each page covers a different topic.
Aesthetically I think this page fits the culture I was talking about, popular goth colors are shown
in the top right, I use colors very close to these throughout the page. I also like the font I chose
for this page as it adds gothic symbols to the characters, for example the G has an inverted cross
coming from it. This Is a common gothic symbol and just works well in general.
11. Qualities
My next 2 pages and on emo music and fashion. Starting with aesthetic
qualities I used a typical emo color scheme of red and black. I added some
band profiles giving some info on popular emo bands, these look good and
was an easy way to slip in some pictures of bands and have a good reason to
use them. I started with a top 10 emo bands list, this was made by me based
off of many lists I looked and and listeners on Spotify. The pictures on the
right took s lot of editing to fit in, the bottom right picture was taken by me
but originally the girl on the right was stood too far away and the image
looked out of place, I had to edit it down and move other the third girl, it is
noticeable if you look hard enough but I think it was done well. I also added
some filters to make it fit in and look darker. The image above also taken by
me was also way too bright as it was taken on a sunny day outside, I fixed this
by adding a lot of film grain. My third picture only needed a bit of a color
overlay to make it fit in. the technical qualities of these pages are found in my
layout, and fonts used. I picked multiple fonts that fit the the aesthetic and
also just look good and are easy to read.
12. Qualities
My next page has a lot of technical and aesthetic qualities, the technical ones
are in my editing, pictures, affects etc. I started by placing some images in a
nice layout that looks as though the pictures are real and stacked on top and
around each other. I added some holes in the pictures and put some safety
pins through the holes so it looks like they are all pinned together. I added
some text into a custom text box so that it looks like it is written on the
bottom of the shoe on the main picture, this page is about punk so it is a
description about punk culture and ideologies. I then added a badge that is
commonly worn by punks that says Nazi punks f*ck off, this badge has text
written over it explaining that racist punks aren't real punks, I wanted to
address this as it is an issue that the media likes to take out of context and
this subculture gets bad press because of it. Aesthetically this page looks
great and fits the theme, I wrote âpunkâ at the top left and put the P in green
as its on a black background and the rest of the word was in black on the
white background. I added some nails in the top of the big picture, that mixed
with the pins and the layout of the pictures all look like it was made by hand
and fit the punk aesthetic perfectly. All of the images I took fit a similar color
scheme too.
13. Qualities
My next page has the least technical and aesthetic qualities. It is a list of band and song
recommendations. I chose a good font and made the layout easy to read.
My next page was similar to the last and consisted of an interview, I wrote my questions in white
and the answers in red, I also spelled the title wrong which hopefully wont be noticeable.
My last proper page was split into 2, I made it on InDesign and it was the most technically
challenging to make page, I started by splitting the page with a diagonal line, I got a background
supposed to be used on phones and copied it over and over to make a background big enough for
the top half. I edited an image and made some text and a title, I made the colors of everything
work together and then added some sticker hearts and scanned it all in, this gave it a very bright
and eye-catching look and completely captured the aesthetic the way I wanted to. Since the page
was split I had to write the title down the side, the title of the page is âother subculturesâ since
the diagonal line makes on side of the page smaller and one bigger it worked perfectly that the
word âotherâ fit into the small side and âsubculturesâ into the big side, I made the word other
pink so it fit into its theme box and subcultures green so it fit into the other box. On the bottom
side of the page I had my cyber goth subculture page, I started by finding a cyber goth wallpaper
and luckily this one was big enough and fit, I had to use the scissors to cut it down and continue
the diagonal look. Once that was done I copied the layout but reversed so I had a picture, a text
box and a title but this time the picture was n the left and the text on the right. Both of these
boxes follow strict color schemes and contrast each other perfectly. I am most happy with this
page out of all of my pages and I think the work I put into it shows and I feel it looks very
professional.
14. Qualities
My back page consists of lots of pictures I have
cut out of magazines, I stuck them all over the
back to give it a more home made feel and then
scanned it in. I think aesthetically it looks very
crazy and unusual and that was what I was going
for.
15. Audience Appeal
⢠My target audience was alt people, this audience would definitely like what I
have made as they will be able to see subcultures they either fit into in a good
light for once and also learn about other cultures they maybe didnât know about
⢠People who are alt that read this will also see my opinion and compare it to their
own, if our opinions are similar they will take my word on the other cultures, this
is good because I got most of my information from alt people so it is a good
opinion
⢠I think the pictures would appeal to my target audience as the models I used are
the same ages as my target audience and it will be nice to see fellow alternative
people in these current times
⢠From my questionnaire I found people wanted some hand made factors and also
some interesting facts, I feel like I included both of these
23. Feedback 1
⢠What did you like about the product?
⢠I love the layouts, I think theyâre really inventive and
creative. It adds another dimension to you fanzine and
makes it really engaging. I like the backgrounds and the
layering with the images, theyâre super colourful and
stylised and make a great addition to your product.
⢠What improvements could have been made to the
product?
⢠To improve I would add more of your own drawings to give
it more of a âhomemadeâ feel to it. I would maybe change
some fonts/font colours to make it easier to read.
24. Feedback 2
⢠What did you like about the product?
⢠The actual content was pretty accurate, the
composition was very nice especially on the
double page spreads
⢠What improvements could have been made to
the product?
⢠Try avoid massive blocks of text and try spread
them out a bit with some graphics just to break it
up a bit
25. Feedback 3
⢠What did you like about the product?
⢠-Visually intriguing
⢠-Placement of assets done in an aesthetically pleasing manner
⢠-visual elements perfectly capture punk/ goth aesthetic
⢠What improvements could have been made to the product?
⢠text can be sometimes hard to view/read due to colouring (for
example page 4 and 6)
⢠Can sometimes be visually busy ie interview and scene kids page
26. Peer Feedback Summary
⢠What do you agree with from your peer
feedback? I agree with most of it, I should have
added more images and broken text up better
rather than having blocks
⢠What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback? The only thing I disagree with is that it
is too visually busy as that was what I was going
for and I think it is still easy to follow
What were the strengths of your research? How did your research help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your research? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
What were the strengths of your planning? How did your planning help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your planning? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
Did you manage your time well? Did you complete your project on time or would your products have improved with additional time?
What would you have done if you had more time to produce your work?
Compare your work to similar existing products and discuss the similarities and differences
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page alongside an existing product
Use text boxes and arrows
How have you appealed to your target audience? What specific bits of content would appeal to your target audience.
Refer to your findings from your questionnaire.
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page and analyse them
Use text boxes and arrows
What changes would you make to your product based upon your peer feedback and why?