Is this that bad?...

[solis]

Hey everyone. This is my first time posting here in a really really long time... so long that I forgot my login. If I remember right you guys like to see real concept art not whatever random abstract or graphic design stuff... but I didn't know any other great art forum so I hope you will let it slide.

I am still in college, but have recently tried a couple freelance gigs and it has just been a nightmare. So, this local band that is releasing its first CD soon asked for some example work.. Since whatever I could call a portfolio is kind of meh, I said that I would make a poster according to their specs.

This guy gave me some show info and said that he wanted..... gas masks and grenades.... multiple images and bright colors....the rest was up to me.... When I sent him these pics, I said that I didn't finish adding color to these black and white photos because I wasn't sure that he they would like them or the nudity.

Anyhow... I was offering to do the work for less than other people he said... but is this that bad that you won't respond to calls and emails? Just curious what you guys have to say. It just bothers me that he doesn't respond. I would rather I got just a one line email with "no it sux die in a fire".

1/6th size

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5685/12smmu4.png

Detail

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/3862/12detailbb0.png

***OK, after I actually tried to look back through my email and link these images.. I may have figured it out. I first just attached the medium quality jpgs but strangely gmail took -forever- to attach them and I wasn't able to view them. So, I reduced the file size a bit more, sent them to imageshack and gave him links. I usually doublecheck less important things than this... but when I went to look on imageshack it just gave the text that the file has errors... The pictures finally display in gmail as thumbnails but the colors are in negative...

The jpgs on my computer open fine in PS... won't open at all in Painter... I had to open with MSpaint and save as PNG.... I have never had any problem like this before... going to go try to figure out why I can't save anything to jpg...

Thanks people..

[Sepulverture]

If the images aren't showing up or whatever, then just start a sketchbook thread here and link to it. CA.org has it's own attachment manager now so you can attach the images to the post and be certain they will always show up properly. One thing that I noticed is that there are no bright colors, and all the black and whites have basically the same contrast level and are fairly uninteresting. The gasmask part is down well enough, but what sort of style music are they playing? are you portraying the images in a way that would coincide with the message they are trying to send with their music? does the psychological impact of the images coincide psychological impact of the music itself? try more dynamic poses, and as for the bright colors the only place I really see any bright colors is in that one with the statue, but the colors are pretty muted in that picture too by the rest of the composition.

I'm wondering if you posted this in the photography forum here on ca.org as well, they are good guys, and can help you out as well.

Good luck!

[Undertow]

The pictures finally display in gmail as thumbnails but the colors are in negative...

The jpgs on my computer open fine in PS... won't open at all in Painter... I had to open with MSpaint and save as PNG.... I have never had any problem like this before... going to go try to figure out why I can't save anything to jpg...

Thanks people..
That's because you have them saved as CMYK and not RGB.

[sweetoblivion314]

my question is, are you using those images with the persmission of the original photographer?

[Uziel]

1
pasting a couple of photo's on top of a background is bad.
The pictures will stand on their own and that doesn't help the purpose of a poster, which is to draw attention and to give info.

2
You didn't give what they asked for - bright colors, nades and gasmasks
what you posted are artistic pictures of people with gasmasks and a nude figure with some color added. The link between the nude and the other pictures is a mystery to me.

3 are the pictures your personal work of that of other artists?

The way you've put the text is ok but it's not easy to read so change that too.

look into some vector art and graphic design and try again.

[Joshua Fountain]

If I saw that on a wall I probably wouldn't take the time to read it.

[Kman.]

Yeah definitely do something to tie the photos into the background.. they're just sitting on top with nothing done to them, looks very unfinished and/or amateurish. Also do soemthing about the tangencies of the photos with the sides of the frame of reference, move them off so theres some space between it and the edge. Good luck with it.

[CaptainInsano]

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5685/12smmu4.png


don't worry about it, you're still in school. You'll learn a lot in the next few years.

You have all these images, they look like they've just be placed in various places. That's it. Isolated images that don't really "mesh" together. You could have photoshopped them in a way that made all the pictures as a single image, in the very least.

It's not getting the point across, and it's not telling us anything about this band because all the pictures seem incongruent and unrelated.. not to mention in their own little perfect squares residing in their own space and story. Just because their wearing S&M outfits while on the toilet wearing a gas mask isn't somehow artistically deep or clever, and throwing in a classic nude painting won't give it artistic thoughtfulness.

btw... I can't make sense of the typography.

hang in there buddy, you'll get the hang of it.

[solis]

That's because you have them saved as CMYK and not RGB.

DOH! I didn't even think of that haha... I will check that out next time.

Some of the color that I added to the black and white Eve was lost when I move the file from Painter to PS... I think that I tried a couple formats and just settled with the one that wasn't as bad. For instance, if you look at the leaf on Eve, you can see some grey... The colors looked a lot better when it was still in Painter, but I didn't have time yet to go figure it out.

I suspect that it was a mistake to start out working in CMYK...maybe start in RGB and just change at the end? I really don't know enough yet.

To address some of the other comments/crits:

- No, these aren't my photos and I know that I shouldn't be using them probably. I guess that I could have tried a royalty free photo site that I know of, but I kind of doubt that I would have found anything interesting. The other attempt at some freelancing before this was for T-shirts... The guy wanted a photo of a famous sports player... I can't even pay my bills this month maybe... so you can probably understand why I might do what was asked for. Yea, I know it isn't a good excuse.

- The typography was done pretty hastily. I know that I could have done a better job with it. If any of you knew those bands, you would realize that they are largely dead artists/defunct bands. This guy said that he had a specific font that he used for the band... I asked him to send the font or tell me the name of it before I do any work but he somehow ignored that in the next email and never responded again. He also gave me some line about not giving the names of the other bands as if it was some huge secret I would care about.

Is there any specific advice that you all have on how to improve the text though? The headline could be more eye catching and the band names could probably have better contrast or color choices.

- I totally feel you guys on the images just thrown together on a background sucking stuff. I knew that myself at this point... I had not yet decided how the piece was going to end up. I think that I wanted to have many more images.. a collage? Too many and it would just obscure the tank. I truly didn't know what to do when asked for guns and gasmasks... Their music is kind of "pop-punk-lite" or something. When I first responded to their ad I had some other ideas, since I thought that it would be largely up to me to choose the design or theme. I sure as hell wasn't thinking guns and gasmasks when I hear their music.

I don't know how I planned to have the images mesh with one another or the background. Assuming that the background was a bunch of pictures... how would you make them be coherent? Some sort of border between each picture that also meshes with the larger text areas? Better layout so very light or dark edges aren't next to each other? I probably should have thought this out beforehand or just gone with a way simpler design overall.

Just because their wearing S&M outfits while on the toilet wearing a gas mask isn't somehow artistically deep or clever, and throwing in a classic nude painting won't give it artistic thoughtfulness.

Ouch. You know how you say you want honest criticism, but the answer just sucks. He asked for, "I'd prefer bright colors with gas masks and grenades on it. multiple overlaid images or something." I have been surprised how hard it is to work for real clients haha... If I was just doing work for myself it should be easier to come up something a little bit less crappy =)

Anyhow, before I end up writing a novel I will thank you all for taking the time to help me. This site has really, really changed since I last came here and I have a lot of catching up to do.

[paperX]

sorry man i hate to say this but, if you don't have permission to use the photos and you're using them for a job, then its definitely illegal, and I'd highly recommend you stop doing this IMMEDIATELY.

also I'm not good with graphic design or anything but you really need something to catch the viewer's attention...if this poster was on blown up and on a wall...which part of it will turn people's heads?

I'm not going to go in depth into the way you have stuck photos here and there as others have already commented on that, but just some ideas:

judging by their requirements, if i was to do this poster (just for the sake of explanation), i would have for example: a close up of a head with a gasmask in the center, and a few granades around the neck area (perhaps as a collar?) i would probably do this in a black and white cut out style (think Sin City maybe?) with graphic style explosions of different colours behind the head (since they asked for this and explosions go well with grenades :) ) you really dont need all these photos just to get the message across.

another main focus could be the words FREE SHOW, i think the letters in your current poster look sort of blended in with the background and doesn't really stand out...you want people to notice this right? and what better eye-catching word than the word FREE??? remember....its not always about lots and lots of information, first you have to GET ppl's ATTENTION before they go on to READ the information, simplicity is the key here!!!

anyways thats just a few ideas i had, I'm not sure what level of drawing skills you have but i would probably suggest combine photos + vector drawings to make a poster like that rather than just copy and paste many photos over eachother...

lastly....after you GET the people's attention, the information you try to tell them should be clear and concise, if its hard to understand people will lose interest very fast. for example, i personally believe the way information about the free show in your current poster is presented is sorta confusing.

why have so many different fonts? if they are the name of bands (im not really sure) you should make that clear and also easy to read. also i think you should place the date and place together rather than one at the top of the poster and the other on the bottom.

and...thats about all i can help you with sorry, I think you should take a look at some other event posters before jumping straight in and analyse what makes them "work" and learn from it. hope that helps :)

[AdamDillabo]

you need to figure out what your going to do, quick.

this guy is pretty sick if i do say so my self.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93156

[Seedling]

sorry man i hate to say this but, if you don't have permission to use the photos and you're using them for a job, then its definitely illegal, and I'd highly recommend you stop doing this IMMEDIATELY.


Ditto. Unless you want to start off your career getting out from under a lawsuit.

[Darasen]

Legal issues aside, the poster does not work for several reasons. An advertisement has to lead the viewers' eye through it just as a good painting does.

Some of the reasons yours fails to do this:

The top right where the eye enters the image (normally) you have the darkest potion of the poster and dark lettering.
The images go to the edges of the poster.
The jagged edge border looks like it was lifted from Powerpoint and reads like a stop and go look at something else.
Too many typefaces are used and not especially readable ones at that.
This combination just makes the viewer look away.

Why is the fact the show is free the most important portion of the message?

The image selection itself is bad even if it were not copyright infringing. The images are just kind of weird for the sake of being weird. you do not want a potential viewer looking away from your poster in distaste before you tell him what it he needs to know.

Not to be extra picky but another issue is that I looked at the poster and had no idea what it was advertising until I read your description.

As someone who is trained as and worked as a professional graphic designer I can tell you it is not as easy as it looks. Lessons that apply in 'fine art' also apply to design, chief among them is composition. Many other factors also have to be taken into account for design such as audience and methods and cost of printing. You stated you are in college so keep learning.

Last piece of advice from me then I will shut up. If you want to be a professional then work like it. Copyright infringement is, of course, not acceptable. Neither is saying I couldn't find something or I didn't have the time or I know that it's not good enough.

[Tydal]

i'd also be aware, if your not then it's ok...but if your posting this in the streets i'm sure mothers of young kids aren't wanting to see nude ladies with gasmasks on toilets (infact i'm not sure if it's legal.) :P not that you can use that pic coz of copyright anyway as clearly stated.

keep at it! :)