Please critique new poster designs

sonny_c

This being a new year, I wanted to come up with some new poster designs for our youth sports business. Over the past four years many of you may have seen my previous work and I thank you all for your input.

When the 2009 little league football season was over, I took a break from sports photography to spend some time with my family and this also gave me a chance to work on some new poster ideas. I've been working on these designs for the past three months. You only see football designs, but these posters can be customized for all sports.

To me they all look great, but I know my opinion is bias and misleading. This is where I need your help. I need a second, third, fourth pair of eyes and more! You don't have to be a designer, a graphic artist, or even a sports fan to leave comments and critiques. I need the opinions of moms, dads, aunts, uncles, sister, brothers, coaches, photographers...etc or anyone that could fit the profile of a potential client.

In return for your feedback, I am willing to give away one of my poster designs. We'll have a drawing. I'll pick a name, for those that qualify, to win an 11"x14" PSD of their choice. How do you qualify? Here are the ground rules.

1. Any registered member is eligible.
2. You must critique 5 posters you like and tell me what you like each one. If you could change one thing about each poster, what would it be?
3. Rank the posters you like 1-5.
4. You must critique 5 posters you do not like and tell me why.
5. Rank the posters you do not like 1-5.
6. Pick a favorite and pick the one you hate the most.
7. In your descriptions, be detailed, be blunt, be honest, but more importantly...be respectful.
8. Add any other comments if you like.
9. Any submissions containing simple comments like "It's cool" or "Good Job" will NOT be counted.
10. Enter only once.
11. Send me your info via PM.

I will be accepting PMs through March 6. On March 8 I will randomly select a winner.

If you're not interested in the drawing, please leave comments in this thread. Any and all comments, critiques, and feedback is appreciated.



Thank you,
-Sonny

P.S. - the names of the posters are not final. If you want to suggest some alternative names, I'd be happy to hear them.

1. Adjectives


2. Adjectives 2


3. Big Words


4. Faded


5. Large Jersey Number


6. New Vintage


7. New and Old


8. Old Skool


9. Polariods


10. Refreshing


11. Sections


12. Simple


13. What Sport?

chest2tank

OH MY! Those are all fantastic! Where were you when I was in grass hopper?

Macushla

I'm in - I pm'd you. These are fantastic. How do you get just the kid isolated without the background so perfect? What program / tool are you using to get that?

SnapLocally

On March 8 I will randomly select a winner.

Forgive me for raining on your parade, but it seems to me that it defeats the purpose of putting in the detailed work and quality feedback you're asking for in these critiques if you're merely choosing a winner randomly.

Crossbarphoto

SnapLocally wrote:

Forgive me for raining on your parade, but it seems to me that it defeats the purpose of putting in the detailed work and quality feedback you're asking for in these critiques if you're merely choosing a winner randomly.

You have to critique to be considered, and then after that, the selection is random. Sounds pretty fair to me.

Kagan

I think they are all great but few things I think would make a couple of them better. For what thats worth lol

Adjective #1 Everything is good but I might consider changing the color to match whatever team it is. You may plan on doing this I dont know I liked the stripes and it made the player pop off the screen, But I think it would look even better with perhaps a muted forest green? Just me maybe.

Adjective #2 I think the main photo should be bigger. I like the design and understand you have to get the adjectives in but I just think he should be more prominent in that one.

Faded #4 I like it but I would add something to that large open area in the upper left corner. An adornment of some sort, perhaps a very faded eagle type brush, shape, logo? I saw a faded eagle on #10-perhaps that very muted? Other than that looks good.


Old and New #7 Its a good poster but I just dont like the pattern behind it. I would prefer a more um clean look. I prefer #9 in that regard. But I freely admit I just hate patterns

What Sport#12 I like Letter cutout backgrounds and do them a bit for action shots but more for the 8x10, 5x7 range. I personally would not like it bigger than that, but I am not sure what your intentions are size-wise.

I loved the grunge posters and cant imagine changing anything for myself.

The others I also thought looked great. For some reason I really liked Reflections but I think its more to do with the photo of the hug even than the design. Still great hehe.

This is just my thoughts since you ask. I think you have a real eye for the work. Please do not take is as bashing cause it is all I can do to make my memory mates each year

SnapLocally

Crossbarphoto wrote:

You have to critique to be considered, and then after that, the selection is random. Sounds pretty fair to me.

You're confusing the issue of "fairness" with the issue of quality feedback. It is of my opinion that one puts forth their best work, or in this case details of critique, if the choice of winner wasn't predicated on a random selection, but merit.

Not looking for an argument here, and I'm not entering the contest. Just offering an opinion that may or may not prove helpful to the original poster.

That is all.

time2smile

The only one I dont like is #2 the green with the white letters, I find it hard to see.
Very creative on all the rest, real winners...

Crossbarphoto

SnapLocally wrote:

You're confusing the issue of "fairness" with the issue of quality feedback. It is of my opinion that one puts forth their best work, or in this case details of critique, if the choice of winner wasn't predicated on a random selection, but merit.

Not looking for an argument here, and I'm not entering the contest. Just offering an opinion that may or may not prove helpful to the original poster.

That is all.

I understand your argument and your position. Judging the best quality of advice in itself is subjective and can be deemed 'rigged' or unfair.

mercphoto

Crossbarphoto wrote:

You have to critique to be considered, and then after that, the selection is random. Sounds pretty fair to me.

I agree as well. It seems like a raffle to me, and I have no problems with raffles.

timparker_NikonD60

Looks nice to me. I would take a look at #3 again and fix the typo.

tjk60

His ball, his rules. Don't play if you don't like, can't see where there is any skin off your nose for his offer

TEphotos

WOW!!! These are amazing!!

MNGirl

Wow! I'm impressed - and jealous!

Funny to see this post this morning as I just started to work on my FIRST poster layout last night. Was doing some searching online to get some ideas as a starting point. Basketball season is about to get wrapped up and I wanted to try and put together a poster which team members could purchase.

I'll have to print these out and sit down and take time to review them.

Thanks for posting!!

sonny_c

chest2tank - Thanks!

Macushula - I use the Pen Tool in Photoshop CS4 to extract the player from the photo. Thanks for the comments and your submission.

Kagan - Your comments and feedback are welcomed. This is the whole reason why I asked for members opinions. As much as I like all my designs, sometimes I need another point of view. There might be some detail I can enhance or change...ya never know. It opened my eyes to other options I have not considered. Thanks again for taking time to respond.

time2smile - Thank you.

timparker - , my wife usually catches my spelling errors.:D Luckily these are 1st draft designs.

TEphotos - Thank you.

MNGirl - My research for designing posters consists of watching TV, music videos, reading magazines, commercials and advertisement, and of course ESPN! There is inspiration everywhere! Sometimes I'll see a certain design element I like, I'll jot it down and save it for later. Thank you for your comments.

tjk60 (Tim) said it the best, thank you sir!
My apologies if I stirred up any confusion about the drawing. My goal was to get honest and detailed feedback about my designs. I thought it was a good incentive for our members. I've asked for feedback in the past without giving anything away, and the results were less than I expected. Like I mentioned in my original post, I wanted to get more than a few words like "Good Stuff", "These are good"...etc.

Keep posting and submitting your comments.

flipperpics

Wow, these are awesome! I coach and photograph or swim team - I'd love to do something like this for the parents - how difficult is to create a poster like this?

Any advice on how to start would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Donald

sonny_c wrote:

chest2tank - Thanks!

Macushula - I use the Pen Tool in Photoshop CS4 to extract the player from the photo. Thanks for the comments and your submission.

Kagan - Your comments and feedback are welcomed. This is the whole reason why I asked for members opinions. As much as I like all my designs, sometimes I need another point of view. There might be some detail I can enhance or change...ya never know. It opened my eyes to other options I have not considered. Thanks again for taking time to respond.

time2smile - Thank you.

timparker - , my wife usually catches my spelling errors.:D Luckily these are 1st draft designs.

TEphotos - Thank you.

MNGirl - My research for designing posters consists of watching TV, music videos, reading magazines, commercials and advertisement, and of course ESPN! There is inspiration everywhere! Sometimes I'll see a certain design element I like, I'll jot it down and save it for later. Thank you for your comments.

tjk60 (Tim) said it the best, thank you sir!
My apologies if I stirred up any confusion about the drawing. My goal was to get honest and detailed feedback about my designs. I thought it was a good incentive for our members. I've asked for feedback in the past without giving anything away, and the results were less than I expected. Like I mentioned in my original post, I wanted to get more than a few words like "Good Stuff", "These are good"...etc.

Keep posting and submitting your comments.

sonny_c

flipperpics wrote:

Wow, these are awesome! I coach and photograph or swim team - I'd love to do something like this for the parents - how difficult is to create a poster like this?

Any advice on how to start would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Donald

Thanks Donald. For me, the hardest part is coming up with a design then trying to put my thoughts on paper (or monitor screen ). The next hurdle is creating the poster in such a way that you can change elements quickly and easily.

mercphoto

sonny_c wrote:

Thanks Donald. For me, the hardest part is coming up with a design then trying to put my thoughts on paper (or monitor screen ). The next hurdle is creating the poster in such a way that you can change elements quickly and easily.

For me the hardest part is coming up with the thoughts in the first place. Seriously, I have a hard time just envisioning designs like this, let alone putting them to paper, or making functional templates from them.

timparker_NikonD60

I'm with Flipperpics. Any chance you want to share any tips or tricks to doing this type of thing? Maybe links to learn the process?

sonny_c

timparker_NikonD60 wrote:

I'm with Flipperpics. Any chance you want to share any tips or tricks to doing this type of thing? Maybe links to learn the process?

• First and foremost...practice, practice, practice! I've been at this for over five years, and in my opinion, it's only been the last two years that I've been proud to show my work. It's all about learning and growing.
  
• I'll see something on TV and try to reproduce it in Photoshop or take magazine ads and try to copy it in Photoshop. Like I mentioned above, I get my ideas from TV, magazines, and the internet and expand on those ideas.
  
• In the beginning, I use to sour sites like Good-Tutorials, Tutorial Out Post, and Kaoz-Tutorials. You'd be surprised about techniques you can learn by following their tutorials.
  
• Learn to master the Pen Tool in Photoshop. This is my tool of choice when extracting a subject from an image. Stay away from all those extraction programs. They all suck and no matter how great they claim to be you ALWAYS have to go back and clean up the images.

Please feel free to PM me anytime you have a question. I'd be happy to help anyone. Plus I'll go one step further. How about I give y'all one of my older posters? You can break it down, study the layers, and learn from it.

This one I made back in 2007. This was just for practice and I never sold this poster because of the logo copyright infringement. I was learning to use elements to create depth, interest, and object placement at the same time not wanting to overpower the baseball player because that is the main focus of your poster. All the other elements are suppose to compliment the design. I was also learning to use shadows, gradients, and drop shadows to create mood and feelings.

I'll leave this poster available to download for two weeks. Enjoy!

Click HERE to download the PSD file

time2smile

You now need to change your signature from
"complete newb" to POSTER MASTER...

Gary Peterson Photography

Wow...

sonny_c wrote:

This being a new year, I wanted to come up with some new poster designs for our youth sports business. Over the past four years many of you may have seen my previous work and I thank you all for your input.

When the 2009 little league football season was over, I took a break from sports photography to spend some time with my family and this also gave me a chance to work on some new poster ideas. I've been working on these designs for the past three months. You only see football designs, but these posters can be customized for all sports.

To me they all look great, but I know my opinion is bias and misleading. This is where I need your help. I need a second, third, fourth pair of eyes and more! You don't have to be a designer, a graphic artist, or even a sports fan to leave comments and critiques. I need the opinions of moms, dads, aunts, uncles, sister, brothers, coaches, photographers...etc or anyone that could fit the profile of a potential client.

In return for your feedback, I am willing to give away one of my poster designs. We'll have a drawing. I'll pick a name, for those that qualify, to win an 11"x14" PSD of their choice. How do you qualify? Here are the ground rules.

1. Any registered member is eligible.
2. You must critique 5 posters you like and tell me what you like each one. If you could change one thing about each poster, what would it be?
3. Rank the posters you like 1-5.
4. You must critique 5 posters you do not like and tell me why.
5. Rank the posters you do not like 1-5.
6. Pick a favorite and pick the one you hate the most.
7. In your descriptions, be detailed, be blunt, be honest, but more importantly...be respectful.
8. Add any other comments if you like.
9. Any submissions containing simple comments like "It's cool" or "Good Job" will NOT be counted.
10. Enter only once.
11. Send me your info via PM.

I will be accepting PMs through March 6. On March 8 I will randomly select a winner.

If you're not interested in the drawing, please leave comments in this thread. Any and all comments, critiques, and feedback is appreciated.



Thank you,
-Sonny

P.S. - the names of the posters are not final. If you want to suggest some alternative names, I'd be happy to hear them.

1. Adjectives


2. Adjectives 2


3. Big Words


4. Faded


5. Large Jersey Number


6. New Vintage


7. New and Old


8. Old Skool


9. Polariods


10. Refreshing


11. Sections


12. Simple


13. What Sport?

I love these...I want a Number 6 of me please!

MNGirl

sonny_c wrote:

• Learn to master the Pen Tool in Photoshop. This is my tool of choice when extracting a subject from an image. Stay away from all those extraction programs. They all suck and no matter how great they claim to be you ALWAYS have to go back and clean up the images.

Please feel free to PM me anytime you have a question. I'd be happy to help anyone. Plus I'll go one step further. How about I give y'all one of my older posters? You can break it down, study the layers, and learn from it.


I'll leave this poster available to download for two weeks. Enjoy!

Do you use any kind of tablet w/ Photoshop to make it easier to extract images?

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the example!!! It is very much appreciated. I just downladed it and will start playing with it right away.

Macushla

Wow, no wonder my pathetic attempts looked nowhere near as good - you've go so many layers on that poster. I've only had photoshop for a month now so I'm way out of my depth but here is my first attempt using your template. I also am really bad with the pen tool in photoshop. I downloaded the remask tool from Topaz. It is really easy.

I know it is kind of busy. I'd love some feedback and I'll keep playing with it.


Here was my first attempt. I used a program called Printshop because I've been using it for years and I know where everything is. I'm kind of lost when using photoshop so everything takes me a really long time.


I hope you don't mind me posting these here. Let me know.

MNGirl

Macushla wrote:

I know it is kind of busy. I'd love some feedback and I'll keep playing with it.

Macushla - they both look really great! Don't be so hard on yourself - I'm hoping my first try looks that good!

sonny_c

MNGirl wrote:

Do you use any kind of tablet w/ Photoshop to make it easier to extract images?

I use a mouse for all my extractions. I tried a wacom tablet but couldn't get use to it.

Macushla wrote:

I know it is kind of busy. I'd love some feedback and I'll keep playing with it.

That's a great start! I'd be more than happy to give some feedback.

• Remember, the main focus is the foreground photo that's been extracted. Lower the opacity on all the other photos.
  
• I love the close-up head shot, but seeing the bar go right through his head is distracting. Shrink that photo to fit inside the bar.
  
• Your extraction looks good but I can see some halos around the player's left arm, the back of his jersey, and shorts.

timparker_NikonD60

Thanks for the "demo" file. I just downloaded it and will take a peek later today hopefully!

jimqjr

Hello Sonny,
There isn't a bad one in the bunch. The only thing that I would change is making the pictures bigger when there is room. Also I would consider doing them in portrait as opposed to landscape. Did you use PhotoFrame by onONe software for some of the backgrounds? Very creative, thanks for sharing.

Macushla

sonny_c wrote:

• Your extraction looks good but I can see some halos around the player's left arm, the back of his jersey, and shorts.

I think those halos are from the photo behind that photo, the black and white one where the opacity is turned down. I like the effect by where his head is but you're right it doesn't look good by his arm, back and shorts. I'll keep playing around with it. Thanks for the feedback.

sonny_c

jimqjr wrote:

Did you use PhotoFrame by onONe software for some of the backgrounds? Very creative, thanks for sharing.

I did not use Photoframe. I have a huge collection of high res backgrounds I use for all my posters.

tijoseph

And who's the winner????

I hope it's tijoseph!