Klinkster25

Well, here's the project that I mentioned I'd be doing in one of my other posts. It's a project I invented (not actually done for a client or anything) to help bolster my portfolio.

I took photos of my friend's dog and used a real venue but made up the "Kennel Club" and the event itself. But anyway, it's been a while since I've done any print design - I do mostly digital being a web designer as well - so I hope this was a valiant effort.

Let me know what you guys think

Dog Show Poster

BlackBirdDesign

It's good! It has a pretty good layout; your eyes move naturally around the page and all that stuff. I like the colors too. I would suggest getting a better picture of a dog however, it's kinda grainy. Maybe partially color it to make the photo quality less obvious (colorize it, then fade it) good choice on the cute dog!

Klinkster25

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback

Yeah, the picture quality wasn't perfect... though I'm not the perfect photographer either, haha. But could you please go into a bit more detail about what you mean by colorizing and fading it? Just that I'm not sure what it is exactly you were suggesting I do. Thank you.

BlackBirdDesign

Well, in photoshop, you would select the dog (ctrl click the layer with the dog in it, or use the lasso tool, or whatever tool you like to use to select stuff) then you would go to image- adjustments- hue and saturation-colorize: play around with the sliders until you get a color that's like the purple you used before, then click okay. After you get that, go to edit-fade (hue and saturation) and fade it as much or as little as you want. It's that complicated

alyCe

Generally I like it, it's actually refreshingly non-refreshing. It WORKS, it doesn't try to be cuttingedge and therefore it works. I'd probably try to take another picture of a dog, a but less disturbing :P I would concider the font-choices too, they work but cold probably be a bit less "elegant" and a bit more including (unless it's a high-standard show, in which case you need a new dog )

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Klinkster25

Well, while Schnausers do appear in high-end dog shows, I suppose they usually do have fancier (aka, more bizarre) haircuts than the one I have pictured here But regardless, I'm more concerned about the layout and font in this case anyway. (Though yes, the image quality still comes into play, I know, haha)

Yeah, I'm sure not attempting cutting edge just yet. Still trying to get a better grasp on the basic elements in my designs. In my major, I only had a few graphic design courses, so I do admittedly have a lot of practicing ahead of me.

I will think over the font choices. This would be advertising a small city's dog show, so perhaps a more playful (less elegant) font choice and/or text layout is in order... to play off of the overzealous dog

Thanks for the critique!

Michae

The fancy text is difficult to read, too, with the color and the font being so thin. But you're on the way to something good! I like the overall layout, as others mentioed your eyes move around it very naturally. If you're gonna put it in a portfolio though, you really should get a better picture. There's free stock sites around, you know!

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Rexibit

I like the image part of the poster. However, I am not sure that color purple is the best one to go with the center presentation. It looks a little "worn" if that can be said.

What I mean is that white space in an image needs to be crisp and clean. The color purple you are using looks like it bleeds into the actual content. It is not too bad, but depending on the medium this will be used, the surrounding items that the poster will be around, and other areas - it could pose an issue for not being noticed the right way.

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designhide

I think, like alyce said, it gets the job done. However, since you are still trying to learn some things as you mentioned, I think you could spend some time trying to give it a little more zing. That's not to say it needs to be design heavy, but I think it could use some unifying elements. Also, I am personally not keen on plain white backgrounds.

I do agree about the dog picture as well, it doesn't really have the "dog show" quality that I equate with the elegance of the font.

Overall, I would say good start. Work on cleaning it up, finding a more unified theme, and making it a bit bolder. Post what you come up with.

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Klinkster25

Thanks to everybody for the critiques! There are quite a few opinions on here, haha.

I do want to experiment with some things based on what you guys have suggested, but am going to have wait on it for a bit as I have an upcoming interview I will be preparing for. But I've definitely been taking the things you've all said into account and am mulling them over. Hopefully I'll have time soon to start trying stuff out.