Diaphics

I was so much motivated and impressed by the Helvetica documentary that i made a poster or cover for the documentary. I want a critique about my work. I'm not that good in typography but i'll try to get better and better.

Attached Images

Helvetica The Documentary1.jpg (104.2 KB, 26 views)

__________________

alyCe

you've chosen quite a task for yourself, this is a task done by lots of great designers (just take a look for http://www.helveticafilm.com/shop.html) along with hundreds of posters done by the best of the design world for helvetica's 50th birthday.

It shows that your motivation was "I want to make a poster for helvetica the movie", it doesn't seem like you've done any more research than watching the movie, and more important it doesn't tell me -anything- at all. What do you want to say with this? Figure that out and you'll get much further, and it's also going to be much easier for us to give you critique. Step 2, 3, 4 etc. is worthless without step 1

__________________
everyone runs, nobody hides

Saywells

firstly, 'The' is clearly the primary focus on this cover. Do you think that should be so? Take a step back (or zoom out) and look at what you see first. Is it what you want people to look at initially?

The title of the film is Helvetica: The Documentary. At first I thought maybe you put "helvetica" and "the" out of order on purpose or something, so I think it needs a colon after Helvetica.

This is the film's actual poster:

Analyze it to see why it works. Aside from the clever angle of cast/movie, it really illustrates the text well. I see yours has the different weights of the font in the background in gray, but it's certainly not a feature of your design.

Designing with typography is HARD. for real. It's a good attempt, methinks; I surely would have no idea where I'd start. But I'd probably look at the Why's and How's of the font, and try to utilize its uniqueness.

alyCe

This may be uncalled for, but just to expand on how different designers have apprached helvetica-promotion in their own specific way, I'd like to share one of the best and one of the most creative ones I've found:


detail:


description: A promotional poster for the typeface Helvetica. The idea behind this is to illustrate how 'slutty' of a typeface Helvetica actually is.


edit:
Just to clarify my intentions with posting this. This wasnt meant as "it's already been done better before", but to illustrate how many different approaches you can take on typographic work, and how rewarding it can be if you use typography in more creative ways. Use it as inspiration and try to think outside the box (oh the cliché) ^_^

edit 2:
Oh, and nice to see more "new" designers actually interested in typography, not just photoshop filters

__________________
everyone runs, nobody hides

Diaphics

Thanx for your comments they really mean much to me.

1. Yes i didn't see http://www.helveticafilm.com/shop.html i didn't know that there was one and seriously i didn't search at all. (Sorry for that )
2. I never used typography but i found it interesting and i just wanted to try something ( the movie inspirited me that much so i tried to make something )
3. I'm not new to the design but i mostly work on tutorials and mostly with filters .. Typography is very new to me like designer .. i never had money to pay for book for some CD all i got was piracy and some .pdf books that were for typically filter effect designs and photo retouches. (maybe i was unsuccessful in searching for typography )
4. I will be glad to learn more about typography cause i'm really bad at it .. so if you have some suggestions or some tutorials, designs, etc... please direct me, and try to find some free.

P.S. Thank you again for your critiques i really appreciate, and you really showing the missing parts off the puzzle .. IT really helps a lot to see my mistakes and to learn more and more.

__________________

austers

For a first attempt at typography it isn't bad at all. As already stated typography is very difficult.

You should try and consider the spacing between the words and letters for that matter. Unless it was intentional, all the lines have a different spacing and, because im very picky like this, the spacing above "documentary" and to the right isn't equal.

I like how you've tried to create a sort of pattern in the background with the grey words but to be honest i don't think it works well as the words have a different style applied. Whilst it does ive a random feel it does also look messy.

However, see this design as a starting point and just experiment. Try messing around with the character palette in photoshop and the spacing of the words. Try introducing some non typographical elements to aid the type.

I hope my comments haven't been harsh I'd love to see the design if you continue to work on it

__________________


My Flickr
My DeviantArt

Diaphics

Ty m8 i appreciate all comments. More comments better i can get and when something is BAD is BAD there is no runaway from that but .. There are people that cant face the trough I CAN and because of that i think i will get better and better. ty again

__________________

austers

You've got the right attitude there There are some people who just can't take constructive criticism and just use it as an excuse to give up. Just stick at it, practice and you'll definitely see improvements.

__________________


My Flickr
My DeviantArt

the gorbott

definitely a plus that you are interested in typography. if you haven't already checked it out, there is a thread on design books, many of them related to typography. i would check out your local library (if one is available) and give them a read. typography is a very cool but rather difficult field. keep it up. your doing good stuff.

__________________
HTTP://THEGORBOTT.BLOGSPOT.COM