The Graphic Design Thread - Drop It Like a Hotkey - Creationism Corner

Thanks for the input, there are definitely still a lot of changes to be made with the colors and the concept as a whole. The plan was to pick up some watercolors and create my own textures and create different palettes for different seasons/events. [t]http://i.imgur.com/bhuTSvi.png[/t] thanks for the ideas, this looks a lot cooler. also this might be a bit of a stretch but this is for the university of michigan and there's an 'M' embedded in it too. [editline]29th August 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Smeetin;52606975]I like it quite a bit, but I think the newest version (the main one shown in this mock-up) seems kind of like a high-end men's suit / business mark. Maybe it is the 'pinstripe' effect. What do you think, am I wrong? Does it work either way?[/QUOTE] I immediately thought of something medieval so I don't think that's an issue. Your color choice probably made a big difference on my perception of it. Have you tried adding subtle imperfections to it as if it were an actual lithograph? [QUOTE=Protocol7;52612731] New: [img]http://i.imgur.com/t8jcHgG.png[/img] The lettering on the original is actually 100% hand-done, that isn't a font, but on the new one it's a slightly modified Halis Rounded.[/QUOTE] I like the new text a lot better. This logo looks like it'd be easy to animate if you ever want to get into motion graphics.

[QUOTE=LaughingStock;52626111]Thanks for the input, there are definitely still a lot of changes to be made with the colors and the concept as a whole. The plan was to pick up some watercolors and create my own textures and create different palettes for different seasons/events. [t]http://i.imgur.com/bhuTSvi.png[/t] thanks for the ideas, this looks a lot cooler. also this might be a bit of a stretch but this is for the university of michigan and there's an 'M' embedded in it too. [editline]29th August 2017[/editline] I immediately thought of something medieval so I don't think that's an issue. Your color choice probably made a big difference on my perception of it. Have you tried adding subtle imperfections to it as if it were an actual lithograph? I like the new text a lot better. This logo looks like it'd be easy to animate if you ever want to get into motion graphics.[/QUOTE] It's still not working super well as a logo if you intend to use the watercolor all the time in it. The actual flower icon is kinda last in the hierarchy which is pretty odd since it seems like it should stand out above everything else. I would suggest removing the watercolor stuff from the logo itself but use it as branding elements in whatever collateral has to be created for the club. The type is also pretty weird in how it all just kinda feels like it's floating out in space as random text instead of a unified logotype.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/rKy9FT7.png[/img] still struggling but i think i'm getting there

i think white over the water colour doesn't emphasise the logo enough and the hierarchy is a bit wacky. but i'm not sure making it black would look great either. maybe get rid of the gradient inside the logo. gradients are usually a bad idea in logos too. i'm still not sold on the watercolour though. it looks too haphazard and not intentional at the moment. just two things slapped together rather than crafted.

yeah the more i work with the watercolors the more i hate it. for now i might just be a bit lazy and place the white outlines over photos of mountain ranges until i figure out a proper motif. maybe i'm missing something and this should be the easiest thing in the world but i have no idea how to combine all of the asian cultures that we're supposed to represent. [t]http://i.imgur.com/ga7LdgM.png[/t] does my workspace trigger any of you guys? when i have to send files out to people i just paste the relevant bits into a new document and send that over but when i'm on my own it's just a shitshow. ---- I'm taking a typography class next semester and hopefully we study a lot of page layout and stuff like that because I still struggle with it a lot. I'm usually pretty amazed when I watch my coworker because all of that stuff seems intuitive to her.

My workspace has become more chaotic the more experience I have had haha, only really matters if the things you send out are tidy.

[t]https://puu.sh/xqD58/f151acb4f1.png[/t] i made another metro map.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/1IWbj8n.gif[/img] Another quick little holiday-related animation. This time for Oktoberfest (no text yet).

looks pretty smooth one little touch is maybe make the foam move when it slides across

[QUOTE=LaughingStock;52661583]looks pretty smooth one little touch is maybe make the foam move when it slides across[/QUOTE] Solid point. I'll have to play around more with some of the details like that before I finish it up.

college has started up again and I'm back to designing the school newspaper. Would really appreciate some crits. I'm having the most trouble with solving widows/orphans on paragraphs. I had someone else critique it and they pointed that out. Does anyone have experience how to solve this problem? I usually just try to play with the kerning/tracking of certain paragraphs but that gets tedious and time consuming. [url]https://issuu.com/rampageonline/docs/issue1_7d4e0ed3c4c6a8[/url]

[QUOTE=Meller Yeller;52661658]Solid point. I'll have to play around more with some of the details like that before I finish it up.[/QUOTE] Also, the stream of liquid should thin only a little and then "drop" into the glass rather than disappear. The liquid is falling after all. [editline]9th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Rammaster;52665051]college has started up again and I'm back to designing the school newspaper. Would really appreciate some crits. I'm having the most trouble with solving widows/orphans on paragraphs. I had someone else critique it and they pointed that out. Does anyone have experience how to solve this problem? I usually just try to play with the kerning/tracking of certain paragraphs but that gets tedious and time consuming. [url]https://issuu.com/rampageonline/docs/issue1_7d4e0ed3c4c6a8[/url][/QUOTE] Not bad at all, certainly looks the part. There is a bunch of refining work you could do though. Padding on most of the things needs to be bigger. Too many places where images are right up against other elements or text. Also, having centered text adjacent or above left aligned text is very wonky and jarring when everything else on the page is left aligned. The front page has a weird thing where the middle story / text has huge margins on left and right. This is unique amongst everything else I saw and does not work. If you have a well defined set of columns and column spacing through out, don't break it so drastically. Something I personally don't like, but might be personal preference, is the indenting you use. Right now, you are using none justified text and an indent for every single 3-4 line paragraph. It makes your text columns look incredibly messy. One side at least should have significant consistency. I would suggest either using justified columns, small gaps between paragraphs instead of indents (smaller gaps than a full empty line between though) or a combination of both. Most newspapers use justified paragraphs. In terms of orphaned words, there isn't any good solution. In all my editing, I either change spacing between words like you said or (more appropriately) edit the text content itself to remove enough words that it shifts up to a more complete line. I don't know if you are allowed to edit the text though in your role. Also, indenting the sub-headings in a story looks really wonky. Additionally, stop using so many different fonts for everything. Pick 1 or 2 fonts max for headlines and a single font for body text (with a different font, related to your heading fonts, potentially for separated feature blurbs and quotes). After that, you can maybe... Maybe vary the boldness and italicism on those fonts carefully to emphasize headlines differently. Quotes are all over the place right now too. One other thing. On one page you have a large image (I think of soccer) where the caption is placed beside it to the top left forcing the frame of the picture inwards and thus breaking the grid. In this situation you could try putting the caption on the plentiful negative space WITHIN the image itself. This allows you to fit the image back into the grid. (On second look you do this in multiple places. You also have your images breaking the grid all over the place. This isn't bad necessarily. Images in newsletters often push into the paragraphs, but in many places you are pushing in so little or in a weird way that it doesn't look intentional. Try to work in fractions of the grid if possible.) Lots of comments I know, but you actually did a pretty good job. Just needs a couple touch ups.

Thanks for the comments! This is very helpful. Would the front page work better if it was the only story on the front? Maybe it's because it's right above a 5 column story. The other problem I get if I use justified columns is that the words get spaced very weirdly. But I guess that's the cost for that? I did look at a bunch of newspapers like the NYTimes and they often switched from left align and justified. I really don't know the exact reasoning why/when it is appropriate to do that but they do. Must be at a higher level that I don't understand lmao. Yeah the indents do look weird on sub-headings. Didn't notice that. Will fix next time. Actually I only use two fonts for headlines. It's just a serif and sans serif one and we vary it with italicization and boldness. I guess they look too different? idk lol.

[QUOTE=Rammaster;52665383] Actually I only use two fonts for headlines. It's just a serif and sans serif one and we vary it with italicization and boldness. I guess they look too different? idk lol.[/QUOTE] It looks like 3. The real problem though is that some are all caps, some are not, some are bold, others are italic. There is too little consistency. For the 3 column issue on the front page, maybe fit them within the regular column grid to the left and then you have room for another image to the right? - I would look at other news papers and see how they handle the justified thing. You are right that with small columns the spacing will often go wild. Yet, none of the examples I checked out while going over your paper seemed to suffer from that problem. Might be a strategy Im unaware of. Good luck, looks like a lot of work, but fun.

[QUOTE=Smeetin;52665445]It looks like 3. The real problem though is that some are all caps, some are not, some are bold, others are italic. There is too little consistency. For the 3 column issue on the front page, maybe fit them within the regular column grid to the left and then you have room for another image to the right? - I would look at other news papers and see how they handle the justified thing. You are right that with small columns the spacing will often go wild. Yet, none of the examples I checked out while going over your paper seemed to suffer from that problem. Might be a strategy Im unaware of. Good luck, looks like a lot of work, but fun.[/QUOTE] yeah, it's pretty fun especially working with the whole staff. I think it might be time to invest more into graphic design education, just been self-taught, looking a lot at pinterest and other papers. started out as a photographer for the paper, now I'm the "art director" for it. It seems like there's lots of resources for graphic design in terms of logo/web design and stuff like that. I'm finding it harder to find more resources on layout/editorial/print design. If anyone here has links or something, I would gladly appreciate it.

[QUOTE=Meller Yeller;52661551][img]https://i.imgur.com/1IWbj8n.gif[/img] Another quick little holiday-related animation. This time for Oktoberfest (no text yet).[/QUOTE] this could just be me being a jaded advertising employee, but the 'half in shade' vector stuff just makes me think of shutterstock now. i feel like rather than the shading being split in half, it would look nicer either flat or with slightly different shading (that isn't just split down the middle).

So, i was looking for a way to draw pixel art with an HD image on the background for reference. Is there a way to make it so i can really "zoom in" on a PS layer's resolution, so the pixels are all big etc., while keeping a photography in the background to use as a reference?

The best way to go about it is maybe drag the document tab into a separate window and drawing in that while you have another tab with the photo

[t]https://i.imgur.com/hrp1KMP.png[/t] [editline]15th September 2017[/editline] oops

[QUOTE=LaughingStock;52684154] The best way to go about it is maybe drag the document tab into a separate window and drawing in that while you have another tab with the photo [/QUOTE] Well, that solution wouldn't be the ideal one, since i was hoping for something i could trace on top of, but it will have to do. Thanks! [QUOTE=LaughingStock;52684154][t]https://i.imgur.com/hrp1KMP.png[/t][/QUOTE] Now that is the sort of quality content i'm here for.

turns out I've been neglecting the lasso tool for the past few years which would've saved me so much trouble. after figuring that out i started playing with the other tools, and i figured out the twirl tool can make passable spirals without any plugins. a gamechanger for a lot of people is alt(???)-dragging which creates a copy of whatever you're dragging, and ctrl+shift+v to paste in place. are there any features or shortcuts that you guys use a lot? [img]https://i.imgur.com/ChV7Ae3.png[/img] the twirl tool can also create a cool marbling effect, idk if that'll ever be useful.

[QUOTE=LaughingStock;52703148]turns out I've been neglecting the lasso tool for the past few years which would've saved me so much trouble. after figuring that out i started playing with the other tools, and i figured out the twirl tool can make passable spirals without any plugins. a gamechanger for a lot of people is alt(???)-dragging which creates a copy of whatever you're dragging, and ctrl+shift+v to paste in place. are there any features or shortcuts that you guys use a lot? [img]https://i.imgur.com/ChV7Ae3.png[/img] the twirl tool can also create a cool marbling effect, idk if that'll ever be useful.[/QUOTE] I have a hard time thinking about short cuts / hot keys I use because they are so sub-conscious at this point. Yet, when I work in front of someone else moderately acquainted with the program, they are like "What the hell are you doing? How are you doing everything so quick." I'd love to suggest some, but I honestly can't think of anything. My recommendation would simply be to learn the hot keys for all the basic tools rather than just the CTRL, ALT, SHIFT shortcuts. -- Oh, here is one which I didn't know for a while but should have. If you are using the normal mouse tool in illustrator you can press ctrl or alt or something and it will change to the direct selection tool so you can adjust control points on the fly. The opposite is true if you are using the direct selection tool and want to temporarily use the normal mouse.

[t]https://i.imgur.com/IYfl66T.jpg[/t][t]https://i.imgur.com/4nJKADS.png[/t] I was approached to redesign their logo today. I figured out what I wanted to do while I got on the bus and then executed it during class lol. rn I'm trying to figure out colors and weights, and how to incorporate the color part. What I have at the moment is pretty horrendous and I'm stumped trying to figure out how to get the message across. one thing that tripped me up was how ctrl switches the tool to the selection tool / direct selection tool based on whatever was last selected when you're using the pen tool.

Is the microphone a necessary concept to pass through the logo? Getting rid of that requirement might give you more freedom.

I think it's a play off of the name, and they're about giving students a voice. They wanted the hand in there and I told them it might be a bit much.

Oh, yeh, I get the play on the name. I was just thinking it may be unnecessary fluff. I think it's very hard to pull off a good play on a name and if you don't do it right it just detracts from the logo. That said, now you mention what it's about (giving students a voice) it does make a little more sense to have it there. The first design you have could be nicer I reckon with a bit of cleanup. (Looking at the edges of the subtitle, the part where the mic head and grip meet in particular) I don't think the MIC is needed on the grip either - again, I don't think the play on words is worth the added complexity. Maybe you could simplify it by using just black and white instead of the full spectrum of skin colors to get the diversity point across? Maybe that's simplifying it to the point where the point gets lost though, dunno, just throwing some ideas out to help ya along :)

Unfortunately, the hand version needs quite a bit of work to be viable at this point in my opinion. It is more of an illustration than a logo and the hand needs some tweaks to be anatomically correct to the point where it isn't distracting. The other option is a lot better, but it does feel a little like two elements (the "mic" letters and the actual mic) just slapped together. I like them both separately. I think you could probably find a really simple and effective way to do it. The first thought I just had, which if I had more time to sketch it seems quite interesting would be to have the 'i' be a mic, and have a hand grabbing it with the m and c beside. There could even be a head over the 'm' which when drawn certain ways looks a little like the v-neck of a shirt. You should do something super simple, but delightful. Find a way to make the lettering a clever show of that "giving students a voice concept." -- Nevermind, I sketched it. [t]https://i.imgur.com/SOg4dH5.jpg[/t] -- Nevermind, I refined it. (Whether you like this or not I am probably going to put it on my site haha, I love it.) [t]https://i.imgur.com/RmLuTss.jpg[/t]

Oh I didn't make it very clear but the hand is their current logo, designed by someone else. I'm glad I was able to ditch the hand because it really was more of an illustration than a logo. that's a pretty clever concept. i'd feel bad for making my own version of that but i might play around with that idea. it does a good job telling people what the group is actually about. a guy posted his icon designs in a facebook group and someone else mentioned that the figures he drew resembled caucasian males, which normally i wouldn't pay attention to but i guess it was a valid point. i think the dude in your design looks like he's in a suit and that's the only thing i would tweak. going gender neutral would be important for a group that is about inclusivity. one thing that's bothered me is that they run a section in our local newspaper, they don't actually record any media, it's all articles so the mic thing is weird in general.

Feel free to use it, change it, and anything. I retain the right to have it as portfolio fodder though lol. Sorry if my posting in the first place is annoying, I just had the idea and had to draw it out. It is a fun exercise. The whole gender / ethnic neutral icon thing is interesting. Tried to make mine a little more inclusive that way. Made the shoulders less broad, the waist more generic, removed the mouth since they are a serious group and the happy mouth may send the wrong message, added some very subtle detail / shape to the head (tried some hair stuff that would make it gender ambiguous, but ultimately it made sense just to have none since different ethnicities do different things and some don't even display their hair). I also rounded off some corners and stuff to make it less bold / masculine. Not sure what I could do more really in that regard. The 'v neck' could be read as a suit, but it is important to keep that imo since the M gets pretty awkward in some ways if it is reduced too much. It could also be just a deep neck on any shirt / blouse. [t]https://i.imgur.com/zgc0cKz.jpg[/t] --- ... I liked it better before. Oh well.

Made a logo for my Fallout serious roleplaying community. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/CWx8hYQ.png[/IMG]