Bean's Graphic Jar

[BeanMarine]

OH HAY, I bump dis : DDDD

Finally found this thread lurking on page 07, lol.
I haven't touched photoshop in ages--but seeing everybody else make such great sigs inspired me to give it shot again. I will probably regret posting this in public in the future @__@ but for now C&C, prz.


My attempt at smudge (again, again--I can never smudge!) and c4d >_<

[Kenjii]

A pretty big jump in your style, lol.

My main problem is the left side. It's rather blank and it ruins the depth.

[Yume]

He kind of looks like Jackie Chan to me... :3 Very nice sig!

I still love that "My missing 1/2" poop/toilet paper sig. xD

[BeanMarine]

Aw, thanks Yume. Poop and toilet paper forever!!! <3

Originally Posted by Kenjii

A pretty big jump in your style, lol.

My main problem is the left side. It's rather blank and it ruins the depth.

I was so tempted to fall back into my comfort zones and start throwing in random shapes; but decided against it. And yeah, that corner was bothering me, too. It's so dark compared to the rest of the sig, but I couldn't think of anything to do with it ;__; I think I should have made the flow go towards the left... rather than the right. Will most likely try to re-make this siggeh >_<

[Kenjii]

Something you could possibly do is make the background color the same as the right side and reduce the amount of smudging there. Right now it looks like as if it's curved there.

But I'm always tempted to fall back in my comfort zones as well. I've been trying newer things recently, mainly because I don't make as many sigs as before (it's less machine-like).

[Tea]

I like the warm fuzzyness of the piece, the swirling smudge is nice, i'm fine with it really. I dunno about that purple/pink, but i know you love your vibrant colors to stand out. since its curving, you could have curved the dark color to seep in from the top-right corner. So it starts pulling in from the right side, leveling it out just a little. Thats if you want to keep the left side the way it is. To me its basically a black n white piece.. you could slice this thing down the middle and you got yourself 2 completely different halves. Its just missing a unity coming from both sides. (edit) the readability on your name Bean, is a bit bright although my LCD screen could be showing it that way. D: all flat screen monitors seem to show things way brighter than they really are.

[BeanMarine]

Thanks Tea and Kenjii! I'll try to bring some of the right into the left--but it's hard to blend in the right arm (the one extended) without having it stick out like a sore thumb >_<

the readability on your name Bean, is a bit bright although my LCD screen could be showing it that way. D: all flat screen monitors seem to show things way brighter than they really are.

I noticed that, too! Every time I'm at school and use the on-campus computers, the colors are so much more vibrant/saturated on their screen. It completely throws me off, and makes me second guess the color palette I chose =_=

[k0n]

That sig reminds me of coffee (the left side) with cream on it (right side) ;o

[sunchip]

as always, your work is nice bean

[Ruuka]

Now I remember! It's AnpanMan!
Moar siggies pleaseeee. I always admired your work (:

[BeanMarine]

Still alive and kicking! I don't make sigs that often anymore, but I'm putting my photoshop skills to other good use. Started designing t-shirts and postcards for my medical clinic to help advertise our mission.

Granted, my photoshop abilities aren't what they used to be. I've gotten considerably rusty over the past year T__T;;

POSTCARD:
I don't understand why the ribbon comes up purple, but it's actually a dark pink on my screen. We intend to hand these out to students who are interested in joining. They're nice and shiny in real life :O *touches*

Front:

Back:

Relay for Life T-shirt:

Turns out that the design was limited to 3-colors, so I hastily colored over some shapes, which explains the jagged edges on some of the shapes .__. I've never worked with t-shirts before, but I like thinking up of designs! So hopefully I'll get more experience in this area.

I just realized how similar the ninja and MOG's mascot look @__@ completely unintentional! I swear! Please don't sue me for plagiarism T_T...



Appreciation Banquet Program:
The person in charge of the banquet was really adamant of using that gd ribbon, even though I personally found it appalling. Tried to make it work. Still think it looks awkward, but bleh. I had finals the following week and didn't feel like spending anymore time on it =3=

[Tea]

I like the postcard. Its probably the lighting on your screen is widely different than others i guess. It comes up as purple to me too. You have a really nice front to the postcard where the words and the image pops out at you.. then you flip it over and it looks ... flat. No offense, its probably just the solid blocks i guess.. i noticed you tried to put a flow design to help ease it.

I thought the t-shirt design was cute, i like it. Dunno what it means, but looks like its attacking bacteria stuff. And yeah, i agree the ribbon looks like it doesnt quite meld with the rest of the layout. I think the glow on it just really separates the image from the rest of the design... maybe if you duplicated the curls and flipped it vertical and rotated it a bit.. you could latch it onto the other end.. it looks like it stops abruptly in the middle of the layout.

Was this paid work or voluntary? I think its a good start and i hope you continue with this stuff.

[KiddyKiddy]

As usual your sigs are really admirable. You are at a level I feel like I cant really reach.

[BeanMarine]

Originally Posted by Tea

I like the postcard. Its probably the lighting on your screen is widely different than others i guess. It comes up as purple to me too. You have a really nice front to the postcard where the words and the image pops out at you.. then you flip it over and it looks ... flat. No offense, its probably just the solid blocks i guess.. i noticed you tried to put a flow design to help ease it.

Was this paid work or voluntary? I think its a good start and i hope you continue with this stuff.

Thanks Tea! I always appreciate your criticism because it's direct and effective. I'm not sure if it's my screen or my photoshop. When I edit the postcard on photoshop, the ribbon appears pink, but when I save it as an image, the ribbon looks purple. We ended up printing the postcards anyways... and the ribbons are purple-ish -_-;; But you're right about the back, it does look flat. Being informative just had higher priority than being aesthetically appealing.

The work is voluntary. As Publicity Officer for my clinic, it's my job to come up with stuff like this @___@ Though it really does wring my creativity dry at sometimes.

Originally Posted by KiddyKiddy

As usual your sigs are really admirable. You are at a level I feel like I cant really reach.

Aw kiddy, don't say that! Everybody just needs to practice a little bit more to get better. And I'm really mediocre, haha. I'm like an old dog who still uses the same 'ol vector tricks to get around

OKAY, so I was completely intending to join SOTW this week... because I love ninjas, but then my life got taken away by my clinic--again. These are potential poster designs that will be placed in frames in the student union. I also plan on having them attached to our A-boards for increased publicity.

The role of these posters is to be eye-catching and draw in the everyday pedestrian. Rather than being informative, we just want to get our name out there.

I'm not used to working in large formats, so some of these are awkward. What can I do to improve these? What should I take away or add? C&C most appreciated! 'specially since I need to submit these in by next Friday

[Ascherit]

I really love the 4th one~

The colors are soft and eye-catching and the floral brushes add a nice touch to it. (:

The typography on all 5 of them is also very organized -- they match well with the color scheme and fit perfectly into the banner.

[Tea]

Ack, sorry i haven't really visited the art forum much. I know its last minute but ill try to give some last minute CC. [im critiquing from left to right, in that order]

Pic 1. I like how the Ribbon stands like that, it makes it represent it on a strong foundation. I might want to add some silhouettes of people.. kinda like the Running AIM messenger man.. but standing.. kinda representing a lot of people under one care? kinda thing. I'm not sure im liking the khaki green with the pink/blue. Khaki kinda represents that army feel to it, thats why you don't see it much unless its used where it doesnt give off that notion. I would maybe pick something else to be placed on the rays.. maybe do a 2 color job with a tint on blue or pink. Watch when you use text and it starts reaching the edges of the poster.. when doing print jobs where its multiple prints.. it can be cut in the process so having decent bleed marks is necessary. For the bottom text.. its a suggestion but you dont have to do it.. you could cut the ascenders from the Ds and remove the i's dot if you wanna make it clean cut across... i dont know it if you wanna completely chop it or shorten it since it might look like an A. But its just a suggestion. Try to avoid Impact font if you can.. its good for some things, but since you have the VN Cares in bolded font.. you don't need the bottom text in the same. You want them to focus on that and draw their eye back up or completely down.. so remember Hierarchy.

Pic 2. I think its pretty straight forward and gives that official feel. The background is kinda plain though.. maybe like a silk fabric like a flag feel to it to give more texture to it. And watch the kerning on some of the letters. Especially in Vietnamese and Research. Although my eye isn't that good at finding stuff like that, just tweek it a little bit and it should be fine.. its just a lil bit too close between some of the letters. I would maybe change the colors of V N C A R E S in your Vietnamese Cancer Awareness, Research and Education Society. Kinda of showing how your logo is represented. Like a yellow from the emblem or tinted blue but more towards white but gives that feel of standing out a bit more than the other white letters. One suggestion would be to bring down the 'Research' to the 2nd row because having 'and' at the beginning of the row and it doesnt represent an initial .. doesnt seem quite right.. but thats just me.. *shrugs*

Pic 3. I like the new angle to this, it takes it from the norm and shifts your eye if you were to pass by making the person stand there longer.. the longer they stand there the better you are at getting your word across to the viewer since they will read it for what its worth. But a rule of thumb when doing cut off lettering/words.. is to not make it look like the printer chopped it off by accident. It makes it look a bit unprofessional. Especially where the website link is and the word 'Society' and that section. The alignment is a bit off.. i know you have that large image bottom left but you have colors drawing your eyes one way .. and you have text drawing you the other way .. but one is clean cut straight and the other one is jagged.. my eye jerks a bit when reading it.. you probably want it to flow straight like a X or curve it purposely. You can do that by pushing the emblem up more and using that as the circular portion of your poster and curve your straight text a bit more in that fashion .. it doesnt need to be close to it.. that image just helps in giving you the circular motion for your text.

Text, you have about 3 Text types in there? in advertisement or graphic designing for business. Try to keep it to 2 fonts max.. 3 is iffy but more than 2 and its not good it creates too many changes where your eye needs to adjust to a new fontface. Since you use bolded font for your logo thats fine, but you don't always need to use a sans serif font.. the 2nd pic didn't have that and it was okay. That looked like Arial or Verdana or something. You already have serif font in your emblem image. So you can use that. You're taking something from your elements and using it again, which creates repetition and continuity. Reminding the reader they are looking at VN CARES etc. The alignment in the middle section near the ' & ' .. it doesnt look right.. you have one flush right and you have another in center alignment. I know you were trying to make it so it fit but you are probably better off choosing 1 alignment for both or doing flush left and flush right and using the ragged parts in both to fit the curves of the ' & ' . Also, a suggestion i have is making the & .. the top part of it.. a ribbon? since you have ribbons in your other posters. its subtle and still represents the 'and' its suppose to.

Also remember what i said about hierarchy... I'm not sure why the word 'Research' and 'Society' is larger than the others... but i would adjust it.. so it looks more unified. Its also tearing into your leading, the words are getting too close to each other. Since im on the topic of hierarchy, the next section below that .. your first glance.. you go to 'Visit us at' .. i don't really see the importance of that line.. maybe 'Interships Available' holds higher importance.. Then you could list Medicial Experience underneath it.. in a size or two smaller. 'Visit us at' could be smaller... way smaller. And i've already talked about the website text. VN CARES.. i don't think you need to cut it off at the edges like that .. you could shrink it down a bit and still get the same effect.

Green, yellow, Pink, and orange-red ? The green sticks out again, it goes with the yellow, but not with that purple/pink. Plus you can see the white swirls in that transparent section between the green and the yellow.. it looks kinda awkward. I would eliminate that green ring or replace it with another color if you really wanna keep it.

Another suggestion since i just noticed.. you have the words on the emblem image... why don't you shrink down the image.. because you are going to have to since its awkward being shopped off like that .. it looks like it was quickly placed. or instead of shrink.. keep it or enlarge a bit and rotate it 45º where the emblem pops out from the corner of bottom-left. you dont need the VN CARES portion at the bottom since you already have it listed at top-left. and you don't need the wording since you already have it big enough on your emblem. you don't need it written twice really. You can use the emblem to your advantage.

okay im moving on.. lol writting too much.

Pic 4. I like this color scheme, as kait said before, its very calming and soft on the eyes. I'm not sure how the floral designs relate to the ribbon, but it is attractive. Although when i see it.. i think beaches or hawaii. I don't get the notion its for a foundation. Cept for that ribbon. but its being melded in with the other graphics. Now, onto the text.. yes i know .. Q__Q;; .. but its not that bad. I would suggest instead of using black.. to use a Black-Red.. i know it sounds weird, but adding a bit of red into the black will give it a warming feel to it.. you don't know it .. but people catch onto it even though its subtle. Black-Red and Black-Blue are good in conveying subtle emotion. Something i was taught so i use it a lot. Watch your proximity, your words are way too close to each other. its like your trying to mash them into a small box. So open your leading more.. your kerning.. and the amount of space you have in your purple text at the bottom of the line.. thats good. i would use that as an example and follow suit for the rest of your words. And some of your text is getting too close to the ' & ' .. As for the website link.. i would choose a lower opacity % on it (like 80~90%, nothing big).. so your VN CARES holds top priority or vice versa. whichever you feel comfortable with.

Also i would bring all your text down a bit more.. you have that cross overlay of the ribbon.. you can shimmy it down to there.. using that as a center line. Oh, and watch out .. your text is too close to the edge of the poster.. you should increase your margins a bit if its coming out like that.

Pic 5. Again the emblem is being hidden and chopped a bit. A little randomly placed. The Green/Brown line.. its nice but its not totally helping. I say, that image of the island in your emblem.. you could mold that green/brown line to look like that and thus having a bit more continuity. And maybe play around with it a bit and make it appear in front of the emblem like shown.. or have it come from behind the emblem or come behind and curve to the front like its hugging it a bit. Also that orange-red heart etc. its an eye sore on this layout. If you can change it to maybe green heart with brown lines in the middle.. or something.. so it fits more into the piece. Plus, i might want to either tint or a light opacity white where the white is suppose to be in that emblem.. so it stands out a bit more and readability is better.

I like the background, it gives it texture which is good.

Text, yes again.. lol;; You have about 4 different fontfaces. Big nono, You can do the same job with 2 or maybe 1 even. Like i said before, try to avoid using an impact type font. You can get more out of it by using another. Serif might work better.. like that font you used in your *details listing section. As for the logo text.. i would try to be consistant with your other ones. but i'd space out VN and CARES a lil bit more.. to show its two separate words.. if you glance at it.. you would read it as one word.

The alignment from the top text to the 'research' doesn't align properly. You can shrink website link a bit more.. and that lower portion of text a bit more.. and center it using the logo text as a guide.


But yar.. your strongest one would have to be the 4th or 2nd picture. the 5th one can become a good one, but it needs some changes.

-
all your posters only have the website link... what if i don't have access to a computer? isn't there other ways of contact?.. telephone number? address? and if there are more than 1 building.. list the one that would be most frequented. I, as a viewer/ a person, want to know ways i can find more information on this. When you're doing advertisements.. you want to give as much info as you can, but not overcluttered and overly informative.. because when passing by a poster.. the normal person's attention span is 3~7 seconds and they move on. AND, you want them to become enticed and curious to learn more .. of anything you promote really.


Hopefully this helps.. im not sure how much it will do at this point, but this will probably benefit you later on i guess x___x;

[BeanMarine]

O_O whoa, thanks tea. I'll make the changes and post them here. The posters haven't been printed out yet, so I can take my time xD

Made a new signature to celebrate Star Craft II . C&C! I tried to use c4ds again, I think I'm getting better... o_O

[BeanMarine]

SOTW #38 Entry:


B&W is difficult to work with, especially when you like color. It's hard to find the right pictures, add depth, and still make the sig interesting to look at without being able to depend on bright colors (as I usually do x_x) But since I've never made a black & white siggeh, this was a good learning experience (SOTWs usually are)! I suppose my style just deviates from what most people find aesthetically pleasing, haha.

C&C as always, because I'd like to learn how to make it better!

EDIT: does this count as a double-post x_X?

[WhatThePhuc]

i love you

[xKakashi]

hey thar. Kevin misses your colorful shapes Q.Q