For this project we were given the task of creating a 'Fanzine' or a 'Zine', on the topic of our choice. Fanzines are typically made to surround a specific piece of media, and hold a plethora of information about said media. In the zine, we needed to include items from a list of criteria, but majority of the project was up for interpretation. The project came about because they were motioned in a book we were reading in the class.
Reflection
The 21st century skill that I feel best applies to the Fanzine Project is the self-directional skill. From the get go, we were given very loose guidelines for the basis of the project. While work samples of fanzines were provided to us for guidance, the project was left almost entirely up to interpretation. We were permitted to choose the topic for our fanzine, the layout, what we included, and more. The requirements simply gave us a series of topics or material we had to include, but freedom was given beyond that. It gave us the freedom to create something we were passionate about, making this project quite enjoyable. As for what went well in the process of putting my zine together, I’d say finding material to include was rather easy. I have several friends who play the video game I used as the basis for my project. With their assistance, finding a variety of media to put together was quite easy. Not to mention the fact that I had created my own works that related to my zine topic in the past as a hobby. As well as that, I’d like to believe that formatting the fanzine went well. Due to my knowledge of my own abilities, I opted to do all the formatting via photoshop, and simply print the end product. This allowed for the zine to be in full color, and the pages to be occupied. Overall, I’m happy with the end product. As per usual, if I could do this project all over again I would have worked on my time management. Getting the zine done on time wasn’t necessarily an issue, but I feel I could have done better if I didn’t wait until the last minute to get everything done. In relation to that, I wish I could have provided more original content in the zine rather than taking other people’s works and including that. For what it’s worth, I am happy to bring attention to creators but, this was supposed to be a project I created. Not a hodgepodge of other people’s creations.