My new designs.

NearHi · 09-15-2015, 02:56 PM

A musical theatre company here in Phoenix hired me to do another season of graphics for them. This time, they wanted all of their shows on one cover, so I made 4 banners that we can use on the cover, and can also be easily resized for Facebook and postcards and the like.

They're playing some patriotic music and such, so they wanted something "American." I went with our colors, stripes and went for a rustic, park bench kind of look.

Obligatory Christmas show.

A show of music from Broadway musicals and transitions to the bluesy jazzy goodness of BB King. I wanted to create an art deco feel for this one.

They are doing a show about national parks. So they'll have picnic style music and some other things like Route 66 and Purple Mountains Majesty, so celebrate the founding of National Parks. This one I'm proud of the most.

Jesterfoot · 09-15-2015, 10:55 PM

1) I like this best, though the scratchy texture on the 4th row is too stretched out, and the stripes at the end doesn't align correctly
2) I don't like this one, too blurry and uninspiring. Christmas is suposed to be magical, should have a dark sky with bright moonlight snow, and glowing lights
3) Looks dated, but I'm sure you were going for that.
4) 2nd best, I love everything excep the font. The text at the bottom is also little hard to read against the texture.

Dungeon Snake · 09-15-2015, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesterfoot

1) I like this best, though the scratchy texture on the 4th row is too stretched out, and the stripes at the end doesn't align correctly
2) I don't like this one, too blurry and uninspiring. Christmas is suposed to be magical, should have a dark sky with bright moonlight snow, and glowing lights
3) Looks dated, but I'm sure you were going for that.
4) 2nd best, I love everything excep the font. The text at the bottom is also little hard to read against the texture.

i pretty much agree with jester.

1. best one
2. like jesterfoot said, doesn't really make me stoked for christmas. it kinda reminds me of the recession. not very holly jolly. it might help if i knew more about the play, is it like the standard Night Before Christmas poem? cuz i would go more classic
3. this one is ok
4. yeah i like the artwork a lot, but that diagonal splash text has got to go. it just looks awkward. maybe try to integrate it with the background. and yeah, the bottom text is borderline unreadable

sorry if i'm being harsh, just giving my 2 cents

Bobby Swisha · 09-16-2015, 02:46 AM

why does each one of these shows get the exact same color scheme?

Bryce, who is hiring you to do these jobs? are you actually getting paid to produce this stuff?

Liam Brocklehurst · 09-16-2015, 08:20 AM

Might be echoing everyone else:

1. Definitely the best one - shows that simple is almost always better. Text is clear and the background is definitely saying 'America'. I would've brightened up the background a bit though in parts just to actually give off the 'Honor' part and not looking so grim.

2. The hand drawn, Christmas book style could've worked on this, but the colours are way too washed out/dark and it looks a bit... messy. Also the Outer Glow on the text just doesn't work at all :/
If you want to go for that dreamy-type look, if you go for a subtle (30% Screen Blend) White Outer Glow and then add in a drop-shadow, it gives you something like this:

3. I actually quite like a bunch of things on this - it has that dated vibe (which I'm hoping you were going for), but again, the colours are quite washed out. I'm starting to think you were given a set colour pallette for these? That would explain the similarities between them all.
Just a little Saturation increase pleases my eyes a little more:

4. I also like this one! It's definitely getting across the idea of national parks, but like the other guys have said, the text is quite unreadable. I can appreciate that this is sometimes the worst part about having to put text onto a good image...
Blocking the text parks off with something and maybe incorporating the elements into it (sometimes looking up the 'real world' version can generate ideas, such as adding in something hanging on it, something stuck over, erased or whatever)
I just did something quick:

Keep at it though, dude! You're getting somewhere! Hopefully I'm not sounding too critical/patronising, just helping a brother out!

NearHi · 09-16-2015, 05:37 PM

No, I appreciate it.
And yes to being given the palette. The company's board of directors has their hands in all of this and the art director wanted a common color across the designs.

Tuna Hematoma · 09-16-2015, 05:43 PM

I don't know how to go into detail (I SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP BRYCE, STOP ASKING) but there's something wrong with the BB King letters. No black outline? I'm not really sure.

Make the 1st one into 325x60 and I'll make it my sig.

Liam Brocklehurst · 09-16-2015, 06:05 PM

Yeah I was thinking of tweaking that BB King on my edit (I think it's the inner glow?)

NearHi · 09-16-2015, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuna Hematoma

Make the 1st one into 325x60 and I'll make it my sig.

http://i.imgur.com/G8zhfPO.png

NearHi · 09-16-2015, 06:37 PM

Thanks for the critique, I've made a few changes.

Just to explain some of why these look the way they do. The artistic director wanted a "wood" look for the Heroes and Parks one and a "chalk" look for the Xmas and BBKing. I did Heroes and Xmas first, and the art director said that chalk might not work for BBKing, to which I agreed and was the reason why I did the Xmas one first. BBKing I was aiming for a dated, art deco poster (World Fair) look. The parks one he wanted to look like a mural, again, with wood. He wanted all of them to have the same color scheme and he was the one that suggested that they all be a little darker and more somber, hence why Heroes and Xmas aren't super vibrant. The board got involved in all the decisions and suddenly came a pouring in of "ideas" and changes. We agreed to keep Heroes kinda dark, but it's brighter than what it was. The XMas one, everyone was telling me to "keep it secular." So, I went for a cool, calm night showing just a roof with icicles but then, to contradict the secular part, they wanted to add a moon and some rays or something. So I did. Then they wanted lights. Then they wanted baubles. Then they said the moon was too much like the "Muslim Moon" and wanted to change it to a star, so really, the design is a little more hodge podge, but they say they like it, so I'm not going to argue, plus, at this point, I'm past the time I wanted to spend on it, and am not starting over. Lastly, all of these, were originally, not to have text. This was something the creative director said he didn't want ON the designs, but was going to put them on the side/top/bottom of the cover. My thumbnails didn't have text. My roughs didn't. My color comps didn't. And the final designs didn't. Then, last second, they wanted them. It's not right for me to be so careless with the text (sideways, glows, drop shadows all meh like) but I added them in not really being in the best of moods, since I wasn't accounting for typography in the first place. All this with the exception of the BBKing one. I raised concern about it being the only one with text, and was told it would be fine. I should have anticipated.

Liam Brocklehurst · 09-16-2015, 07:09 PM

Hahah oh man, I read all of that just thinking YES THIS IS DESIGNER.

It's weird, sometimes you can work together with a client to make something pretty badass, but the other 90% of the time, they just keep changing bullshit.

Bobby Swisha · 09-16-2015, 08:14 PM

OmniromX · 09-21-2015, 04:52 AM

Nice designs bro!! I like the BB king one!

Eukos · 09-21-2015, 09:52 AM

I think the BB King one has a more saturated tone (despite the design would suggest otherwise) because the color scheme doesn't really work too well with it

art deco also usually involves gradients with a hint of skeuomorphism, not solid color imagery with a bit of noise filtering

Bobby Swisha · 09-25-2015, 01:37 PM

No, but seriously. These look like shit.

Bown · 09-25-2015, 02:29 PM

The first one doesn't!

Bobby Swisha · 09-25-2015, 03:24 PM

what is that??? an american flag that has been cut up?? a blue piece of wood that hasn't been painted all the way? why is everything made of wood? what does that have to do with America or with this show?

Tuna Hematoma · 09-25-2015, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NearHi

The artistic director wanted a "wood" look

Liam Brocklehurst · 09-25-2015, 03:58 PM

Yeah after being asked for "wood look" and "American" I can't see how you'd do that any better.

Tuna Hematoma · 09-25-2015, 04:12 PM

Bobby Swisha · 09-25-2015, 11:23 PM

There you go.

Dungeon Snake · 09-25-2015, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby Swisha

what is that??? an american flag that has been cut up?? a blue piece of wood that hasn't been painted all the way? why is everything made of wood? what does that have to do with America or with this show?

yeah actually i agree. it's kinda making my eyes hurt the more i look at it. i can't tell at all how the wood pieces are supposed to be interacting. it's like.. something about the shading is borderline non-euclidean. it's like a statement about signs themselves

Bjorny · 09-26-2015, 03:07 PM

I mean the elements your employer requested are there but the way it's executed is just... bad. like these are straight up bad designs.

the choice of colors (especially the blue shade), the textures and the effects... just the overall composition... everything just looks really dated. and even if you were going for a throwback/retro look, I'm talking like 90s website dated. even the compression/image quality is bad.

It sounds weird that all these bad design decisions were forced upon you by your employer too. isn't it your responsibility as a designer to provide expertise and justify your position?

I'd like to give you more constructive criticism but I think the problem is your taste. I might be wrong though, maybe you're actually a decent designer that just completely lacks persuasiveness. either way, it would be more interesting to see some designs you made (without anybody else interfering) that you're actually happy with.

Phil Williamson · 09-26-2015, 03:13 PM

I like them all!

Bobby Swisha · 09-26-2015, 05:36 PM

is that a giant wad of dripping jizz????

this looks like a children's drawing that's been put through a photoshop filter.

09-15-2015, 02:56 PM	#1
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483	My new designs. A musical theatre company here in Phoenix hired me to do another season of graphics for them. This time, they wanted all of their shows on one cover, so I made 4 banners that we can use on the cover, and can also be easily resized for Facebook and postcards and the like. They're playing some patriotic music and such, so they wanted something "American." I went with our colors, stripes and went for a rustic, park bench kind of look. Obligatory Christmas show. A show of music from Broadway musicals and transitions to the bluesy jazzy goodness of BB King. I wanted to create an art deco feel for this one. They are doing a show about national parks. So they'll have picnic style music and some other things like Route 66 and Purple Mountains Majesty, so celebrate the founding of National Parks. This one I'm proud of the most.
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483

09-16-2015, 05:37 PM	#6
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483	No, I appreciate it. And yes to being given the palette. The company's board of directors has their hands in all of this and the art director wanted a common color across the designs.
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483

09-16-2015, 06:37 PM	#10
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483	Thanks for the critique, I've made a few changes. Just to explain some of why these look the way they do. The artistic director wanted a "wood" look for the Heroes and Parks one and a "chalk" look for the Xmas and BBKing. I did Heroes and Xmas first, and the art director said that chalk might not work for BBKing, to which I agreed and was the reason why I did the Xmas one first. BBKing I was aiming for a dated, art deco poster (World Fair) look. The parks one he wanted to look like a mural, again, with wood. He wanted all of them to have the same color scheme and he was the one that suggested that they all be a little darker and more somber, hence why Heroes and Xmas aren't super vibrant. The board got involved in all the decisions and suddenly came a pouring in of "ideas" and changes. We agreed to keep Heroes kinda dark, but it's brighter than what it was. The XMas one, everyone was telling me to "keep it secular." So, I went for a cool, calm night showing just a roof with icicles but then, to contradict the secular part, they wanted to add a moon and some rays or something. So I did. Then they wanted lights. Then they wanted baubles. Then they said the moon was too much like the "Muslim Moon" and wanted to change it to a star, so really, the design is a little more hodge podge, but they say they like it, so I'm not going to argue, plus, at this point, I'm past the time I wanted to spend on it, and am not starting over. Lastly, all of these, were originally, not to have text. This was something the creative director said he didn't want ON the designs, but was going to put them on the side/top/bottom of the cover. My thumbnails didn't have text. My roughs didn't. My color comps didn't. And the final designs didn't. Then, last second, they wanted them. It's not right for me to be so careless with the text (sideways, glows, drop shadows all meh like) but I added them in not really being in the best of moods, since I wasn't accounting for typography in the first place. All this with the exception of the BBKing one. I raised concern about it being the only one with text, and was told it would be fine. I should have anticipated.
NearHi Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 6,483

09-21-2015, 04:52 AM	#13
OmniromX Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 824	Nice designs bro!! I like the BB king one!
OmniromX Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 824

09-21-2015, 09:52 AM	#14
Eukos Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 3,133	I think the BB King one has a more saturated tone (despite the design would suggest otherwise) because the color scheme doesn't really work too well with it art deco also usually involves gradients with a hint of skeuomorphism, not solid color imagery with a bit of noise filtering
Eukos Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 3,133

09-15-2015, 10:55 PM	#2
Jesterfoot Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 7,470	1) I like this best, though the scratchy texture on the 4th row is too stretched out, and the stripes at the end doesn't align correctly 2) I don't like this one, too blurry and uninspiring. Christmas is suposed to be magical, should have a dark sky with bright moonlight snow, and glowing lights 3) Looks dated, but I'm sure you were going for that. 4) 2nd best, I love everything excep the font. The text at the bottom is also little hard to read against the texture.

09-16-2015, 02:46 AM	#4
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012	why does each one of these shows get the exact same color scheme? Bryce, who is hiring you to do these jobs? are you actually getting paid to produce this stuff?

09-16-2015, 08:20 AM	#5
Liam Brocklehurst Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 4,143	Might be echoing everyone else: 1. Definitely the best one - shows that simple is almost always better. Text is clear and the background is definitely saying 'America'. I would've brightened up the background a bit though in parts just to actually give off the 'Honor' part and not looking so grim. 2. The hand drawn, Christmas book style could've worked on this, but the colours are way too washed out/dark and it looks a bit... messy. Also the Outer Glow on the text just doesn't work at all :/ If you want to go for that dreamy-type look, if you go for a subtle (30% Screen Blend) White Outer Glow and then add in a drop-shadow, it gives you something like this: 3. I actually quite like a bunch of things on this - it has that dated vibe (which I'm hoping you were going for), but again, the colours are quite washed out. I'm starting to think you were given a set colour pallette for these? That would explain the similarities between them all. Just a little Saturation increase pleases my eyes a little more: 4. I also like this one! It's definitely getting across the idea of national parks, but like the other guys have said, the text is quite unreadable. I can appreciate that this is sometimes the worst part about having to put text onto a good image... Blocking the text parks off with something and maybe incorporating the elements into it (sometimes looking up the 'real world' version can generate ideas, such as adding in something hanging on it, something stuck over, erased or whatever) I just did something quick: Keep at it though, dude! You're getting somewhere! Hopefully I'm not sounding too critical/patronising, just helping a brother out!

09-16-2015, 05:43 PM	#7
Tuna Hematoma Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 10,055	I don't know how to go into detail (I SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP BRYCE, STOP ASKING) but there's something wrong with the BB King letters. No black outline? I'm not really sure. Make the 1st one into 325x60 and I'll make it my sig.

09-16-2015, 06:05 PM	#8
Liam Brocklehurst Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 4,143	Yeah I was thinking of tweaking that BB King on my edit (I think it's the inner glow?)

09-16-2015, 07:09 PM	#11
Liam Brocklehurst Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 4,143	Hahah oh man, I read all of that just thinking YES THIS IS DESIGNER. It's weird, sometimes you can work together with a client to make something pretty badass, but the other 90% of the time, they just keep changing bullshit.

09-16-2015, 08:14 PM	#12
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012

09-25-2015, 01:37 PM	#15
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012	No, but seriously. These look like shit.

09-25-2015, 02:29 PM	#16
Bown Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 18,740	The first one doesn't!
Bown Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 18,740

09-25-2015, 03:24 PM	#17
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012	what is that??? an american flag that has been cut up?? a blue piece of wood that hasn't been painted all the way? why is everything made of wood? what does that have to do with America or with this show?

09-25-2015, 03:58 PM	#19
Liam Brocklehurst Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 4,143	Yeah after being asked for "wood look" and "American" I can't see how you'd do that any better.

09-25-2015, 04:12 PM	#20
Tuna Hematoma Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 10,055

09-25-2015, 11:23 PM	#21
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012	There you go.

09-26-2015, 03:07 PM	#23
Bjorny Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 7,217	I mean the elements your employer requested are there but the way it's executed is just... bad. like these are straight up bad designs. the choice of colors (especially the blue shade), the textures and the effects... just the overall composition... everything just looks really dated. and even if you were going for a throwback/retro look, I'm talking like 90s website dated. even the compression/image quality is bad. It sounds weird that all these bad design decisions were forced upon you by your employer too. isn't it your responsibility as a designer to provide expertise and justify your position? I'd like to give you more constructive criticism but I think the problem is your taste. I might be wrong though, maybe you're actually a decent designer that just completely lacks persuasiveness. either way, it would be more interesting to see some designs you made (without anybody else interfering) that you're actually happy with.
Bjorny Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 7,217

09-26-2015, 03:13 PM	#24
Phil Williamson Super Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 16,900	I like them all!

09-26-2015, 05:36 PM	#25
Bobby Swisha Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 46,012	is that a giant wad of dripping jizz???? this looks like a children's drawing that's been put through a photoshop filter.