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Kronus vs. the Image Dump (Page 8)

KronusKronus Registered User regular
edited November 2013 in Artist's Corner
Basically, I have recently discovered a strong interest in pursuing graphic design as a hobby/skill/career. It came about due to the work I do in a volunteer club at university, since we got it off the ground last year I have found myself as the sole person designing posters/graphics/website/etc. I have always had an interest in drawing but I completely lack the self-discipline to learn how to draw much more often than a handful of pieces throughout the year, which generally me a very long time to finish. However, I seem to have no problem spending hours on end working on posters or on our website, and I find it rather enjoyable. I think that having a goal or purpose for the work I put into a poster is what has kept my interest, as opposed to just grinding out pages upon pages of anatomy study (not to say that it isn't important, but rather I haven't found the motivation to do that on my own yet).

I have no formal art training of any kind, in fact I will be graduating next year with a physics undergrad but I don't intend to pursue that subject any further. I had never considered my interest in art anything more than a hobby until a friend of mine commissioned me to redesign a flyer for her company, at which point I realized I might be able to turn this into a marketable skill if I practiced and learned on my own. So hopefully you guys can help me get better at this and help me decide if this is something I want to do f'reals in the future. Plus having knowledgeable people to bounce ideas off of will be immensely helpful!

tl;dr: Help Kronus make pretty looking things!



To start off, I could use some C&C on the concert poster I've been working on recently:
h2oposter1small.png

Note that I haven't been told the name of the opening band, so "These Other Guys" is just a placeholder. Information is fairly basic, it's a benefit concert for an organization that deals with water/sanitation in Africa, we are specifically raising money for a school in Uganda, so the theme here should obviously be water :P. I have been trying to get across as much information as possible without making just a wall of text. I'd like to add a small bit of distressing but I haven't been satisfied with it yet. I was toying with using a texture overlay on the dark background but I haven't found anything I thought would be appropriate.

Kronus on
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Posts

  • ED!ED! Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    About the only thing I don't like is the overuse of the water drop. The color seperation in Blue Eyed Blonde is enough to get the "water" theme across it would seem to me. I'd either remove it from BEB or CLUB ONE. Otherwise I think its a good slightly minimal flyer that catches the eye and gets the point across.

    ED! on
    "Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
  • scottimusscottimus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    ED! wrote: »
    About the only thing I don't like is the overuse of the water drop. The color seperation in Blue Eyed Blonde is enough to get the "water" theme across it would seem to me. I'd either remove it from BEB or CLUB ONE. Otherwise I think its a good slightly minimal flyer that catches the eye and gets the point across.

    I had the exact same take on it. The only thing I'd add is maybe remove the water drop from both the BEB AND CLUB ONE. Really great concept. Nicely done.

    scottimus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Yeah good call, I think I like it best without drops in Blue Eyed Blonde, but still in Club One. What do you guys think of these background colors + texture? Do they look out of place?
    h2oposter3smalll.jpgh2oposter4smalll.jpg

    I like that the first one sort of looks oceany, but it might be a bit too much blue. On the other hand, I like the contrast of the second one.

    Kronus on
  • Dances With MagpiesDances With Magpies Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I like the black background better, it makes the blue pop more. The extra contrast makes it much more noticeable. I like the texture, but I'm not sure you need it, it makes the text next to the continent a little hard to read.

    Dances With Magpies on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I think the text next to the continent is hard to read because I resized the images a couple of times and then converted them to jpegs, it isn't nearly as blurry in the original as it is here. Thanks everyone! :)

    Kronus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Had to make some changes to the poster, mostly text size and placement, and added the band's logo to the bottom which has caused me a bit of a layout headache but oh well. I'll probably post the final version once it is set in stone. Other than that, I took some time off from the serius bidnuz and had some fun tonight:

    Invaders3.png

    lovin_it2.png

    Not-So-Ninja-Edit: Updated both of them slightly.

    Kronus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Here's something I did tonight, wasn't planning on doing it in this style at all, just sorta happened. I forgot to fix the top transition between the Metroid and Metroid Prime so at the moment there's a green blob in it's head. Don't think the "jaw" portion of its cheek turned out very well, I'll probably have to teak that too. Too late to do at the moment!

    MetPrime3.jpg

    Kronus on
  • Jake!Jake! Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I thought that first poster looked better without any texture...

    Jake! on
  • GrennGrenn Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Jake! wrote: »
    I thought that first poster looked better without any texture...

    Completely agree.

    To the OP: A great rule to follow with Graphic Design - don't just add something because you can; you're just adding clutter that detracts from your initial idea.

    Grenn on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Ok here's the layout I've been working with for the past few days. Is it too cluttered? Should I go back to what I had before? I wanted to make the name of the band bigger, and then I ended up having to add more info to the poster, so this is what came out of it. As much as I wanted to make it super neat and tidy and everything, I need people to read it amongst a sea of other posters and random crap. What I might end up doing is making the info at the bottom the same as it was before, and leaving everything in the block the same as it is now? (maybe I'll make the benefit concert part slightly smaller).

    poster300dpi3.jpg

    I could use some suggestions for background colours if you guys have any ideas, I don't think I chose a very interesting one for this test version.

    Kronus on
  • squidbunnysquidbunny Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I think I do slightly prefer how clean the old one was but this one's not bad. I feel like the continent should get nudged to the right so there's more space between it and BEB. There's plenty of room to go; BEB will balance it out.

    The new blue is a nice compromise between the grey and the texture.

    squidbunny on
    header_image_sm.jpg
  • JeckalHydeJeckalHyde Lord Awesome New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Heres what i think you should try to aim for.
    This is only an opinion. But yeah you would have to make sure all the font is readable.
    and that the bands names are in original typeface.
    poster300dpi3.jpg

    JeckalHyde on
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I'm a little late to the party on the first post but I agree with scottimus about removing the drops from both 'BLUE EYED BLONDE' and 'Club One'. Firstly because I think it's still overused even in only one of the pieces of text. Secondly because Club One, while part of the event, is still a separate entity that doesn't really need the water drop theme carried into it.

    I'm on the fence about Jeckal's rendition because I think it's important to have the headlining band pretty large and eye-catching but on the other hand I like the look of it being separated from the Africa logo.

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • JeckalHydeJeckalHyde Lord Awesome New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Well I was just trying to get it looking at bit more cleaner like it was originally.
    I would suggest that maybe he could then shrink the arfica a bit more, raise up the blue bottom
    and hence making more room for the bands names
    saltiness wrote: »

    I'm on the fence about Jeckal's rendition because I think it's important to have the headlining band pretty large and eye-catching but on the other hand I like the look of it being separated from the Africa logo.

    JeckalHyde on
  • Jake!Jake! Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    The first version of this poster was damn near perfect. Evey new iteration on this page gets worse...

    Bigger != more legible.

    Jake! on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Ok I think we have a winner! If only I had thought of this logo placement originally, I would have saved myself sooooooooo much time D:

    poster300dpi4.png

    Kronus on
  • NibCromNibCrom Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I'm going to have to agree with Jake. The first one was pretty much perfect, and larger text does not make it more readable. Margins and white space help to enhance readability.

    NibCrom on
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I'll take either one (excluding the drops in the text of course). But I do prefer the gray background of the first one to the blue of this last one.

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Yeah ok I think I just have to decide on a final background colour and then I can finally put it to rest. Here's something I did last weekend for Valentine's Day, I used a photo ref where she was making a silly face so yeah her lips are like that on purpose :P Top of her hair isn't very clean now that I look at it again but I was slightly rushed to complete it. Overall much better than my previous attempts at not-completely-cartoony faces.

    VD2011.jpg

    Kronus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Hey all, haven't forgotten about the thread! I've been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks, I've been working on stuff but nothing particularly show-worthy. I had to make an invitation to be sent out for a special event my club is holding this week, put the finishing touches on the H2O for Life poster fucking finally, made the tickets for the concert, and right now I have to design a newsletter for tomorrow. As for things that aren't related to volunteering, I also redesigned a flyer for a connection I have with a local business, as well as a letterhead for a basketball association my father is involved with. So overall I guess I have gotten a lot done, though I haven't done anything specifically for myself which I must soon remedy!

    Until then, here's something I did in January for an event that I think turned out ok. There's definitely a few things I would change looking back at it but I think it was a decent execution for having only a couple days notice:
    relay_martini2.png

    Kronus on
  • brokecrackerbrokecracker Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    All of this is awesome...please continue.

    brokecracker on
  • SpinalCrackaSpinalCracka Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Maybe it is just me but the large drops that form the continent keep distracting my eye. That is, too much. I think it is because they are soooo much bigger than the smaller drops.

    SpinalCracka on
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I really like the design of the martini one. My only concern is that some of the text that seems important gets lost in the design. Maybe there could be better use of the white space on the sides?

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Yeah if I were to do the Martini one again I would use a color background and white letters, and balance the info at the top a bit better. Maybe just by making the repeated info after that much smaller, and doing the same for the top tips of the glass. I realized afterward that it if I didn't have the light pink stuff on the sides, the contrast would have been a lot more apparent, as it is it doesn't stand out as as much as I thought it would.

    EDIT: Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. I came up with a few fun ideas but most of them had been done better by others.
    Helpcopy.png

    Kronus on
  • LaliluleloLalilulelo Richmond, VARegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Don't you hate when you arrive at something independently, and realize 10 other people did too? These are excellent though man.

    Lalilulelo on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited March 2011
    Whats interesting to me is that japan has plenty of other distinctive patterns/iconography but I've seen like ten thousand cracked suns.

    It does convey the message pretty quickly, though.

    Iruka on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I liked the simplicity of just white and a red circle, I played around with it all night and I really only ended up with what I did because I had to go to bed. I tried my best not to use any cracks in it but I needed something. I probably should have focused more on the words in the middle and not use any cracks/water/stuff.

    For some reason I kept trying to turn it into a cracked record but I couldn't think of a context in which to use it. I came back to it a bunch for times with no results, I just think that cracked records look neat.

    In other news, I have to do a flyer for a group that is holding a seniors symposium on a lot of different topics. Technology, Facebook, Email, Taxes, Healthy Living, Financial stuff, various kinds of frauds and safety, basically how to survive when you're old and don't know things. I'm having a hard time stepping outside of my comfort zones because I have absolutely no idea what seniors look for in a poster. I feel like every time I come up with something that starts to get interesting, I have to stop myself because it can't be complicated, the text has to be kinda large, etc. Am I underestimating the ability of seniors to appreciate posters these days?

    I am basically the antithesis of the people whose attention I need to grab.

    Kronus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Okay here's what I came up with for a first draft. I'm mostly pleased with the title stuff though I am unsure about the logo, however the rest of the layout is terrible not good. I'm going to get some feedback from the people I'm doing this for but I could use some of your suggestions. How do I keep the text as large as possible, keep it easy to read, but not look so boring? Or how I might go about making it look more book-ish?

    Seniorsymposium2.jpg

    Kronus on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    That poster turned out ok with some minimal changes, I haven't actually seen it printed yet but I trust that they went up somewhere.

    I've been throwing this idea around in my head for while, finally managed to sit myself down long enough to try it (ie I had the choice of doing this or studying).
    ttt1.jpg

    EDIT: Just had an idea for TRofK in the same style, hopefully I have some time to do it tomorrow.

    Kronus on
  • The_Glad_HatterThe_Glad_Hatter One Sly Fox Underneath a Groovy HatRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    i would buy this as a book in a heartbeat.

    The_Glad_Hatter on
  • ninjaininjai Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Oman, I love that LOTR design. I'm with TGH, I'd buy that. Poster/Book Cover/Something....

    ninjai on
  • RubberACRubberAC Sidney BC!Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    luuuurve it
    although i've always thought it was funny how covers of the two towers / the name almost always make people who have never read lotr before think of one of the towers as good and one as evil

    shits all evil, man

    RubberAC on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Thanks all! I think I'll add "Directed by Peter Jackson" to specify that it's for the movie, because the in the book the two towers are Minas Morgul and Orthanc, as opposed to Barad-dur and Orthanc here.

    Yeah I added that red splotch thing to try to connect that both towers are fuckin shit up as opposed to just Barad-dur. I couldn't really think of anything visually evil that happened in The Two Towers that I could add, but to be honest it's been a few years since I watched the movies.

    Kronus on
  • McGibsMcGibs TorontoRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I always thought it was wierd that everyone was surpirsed when Saruman turned out evil, when all along he lived in a giant evil black skyscraper covered in blades and made out of invincible obsidion stuff.

    Comon Gandalf. White wings and spirals = good. Black pointy shit = bad.

    McGibs on
    website_header.jpg
  • acadiaacadia Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Kronus wrote: »
    Thanks all! I think I'll add "Directed by Peter Jackson" to specify that it's for the movie, because the in the book the two towers are Minas Morgul and Orthanc, as opposed to Barad-dur and Orthanc here.

    Please don't do this. The strength of this design lies in its simplicity. Same goes for any future designs with this motif. Right now you're channeling early Olly Moss -- try to keep it going.

    acadia on
  • McGibsMcGibs TorontoRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I agree.

    I think in reality, people would figure out if it was a DVD or a book pretty quick.

    McGibs on
    website_header.jpg
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Awesome, thanks guys!! I agree, I put in the "directed by..." bit this afternoon and it felt all wrong, definitely doesn't belong. I find myself doing that a lot, adding extraneous stuff after the fact in the hopes of trying to add a bit of clarity, when it generally just complicates things. I should probably try to be a bit more confident in the designs and just make sure they're strong enough to stand on their own in the first place. :^:

    Kronus on
  • ninjaininjai Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Kronus wrote: »
    in the book the two towers are Minas Morgul and Orthanc, as opposed to Barad-dur and Orthanc here.
    I thought I was the only one that knew that.

    ninjai on
  • KronusKronus Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    ninjai wrote: »
    Kronus wrote: »
    in the book the two towers are Minas Morgul and Orthanc, as opposed to Barad-dur and Orthanc here.
    I thought I was the only one that knew that.

    Hah, I actually didn't read the books but I did my research before diving in :) As such it was pretty interesting to read about where the films diverged from the books.

    Kronus on
  • ninjaininjai Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Yeah, I was a sad sad little boy when there was no Tom Bombadil.

    ninjai on
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