like a madwoman...college poster

[janetg]

let me know what you think of this...

[robert guillemette]

really like it

[Trinity Ridge]

I think it looks fantastic!

[robert t]

Very nice

[DigitalDiva]

I like everything but, the glow on the girls, it's to distracting.

[janetg]

thanks for the replies...it's a really LARGE team this year, 20 girls. they have a total of 8 walk-ons which made it much more difficult than trying to fit just 12 girls on the poster.

i may remove the glow...not sure if i like it either.

janetg

[LonestarMan]

I did one similar to this with 15 girls. I think you've done a good job handling 20! I have to agree with Dora on the glow, a t least at this size. Fully printed, it may not jump out so much. Very well done. I like it allot!!!

[Michelle Allmon]

i actually like the glow, it gives it more of a poster feel.

[houstonrunner]

Looks good to me (the glow makes the people pop out). My only question is, there appears to be a disconnected arm in the mid-lower left side of the photo, is this intentional? Great job otherwise!

[janetg]

thanks for that jason...there was a person i had offscreen!! fixed now!

[LoungeLizard]

Nicely done.

[jonnydonut]

I apologize if my critique is too harsh. I'm a design student at UNT.

Glow is not so bad but maybe tone it down, just change the fill or opacity on it. In design, (and photography) you always need something to separate subject from the background, it's not really happening with a warm-cool color shift, but it is with contrast and scale, however, you almost have to resort to the glow to separate each girl from each other. There are better design options out there, but at this point keep the glow, just make it a tad less distracting.

The biggest problem, which absolutely needs to be fixed is the typeface for "train" and "play", it's way too bold and thick in the middle. This poster has thin, feminine females, and that's a big ugly typeface, where everything on it is rounded and thick. It would make sense for a sumo wrestling team, but not these toned girls. You need something that has curves, but nice thick and thins, maybe make it italic., something delicate and still strong. Try Caslon or Baskerville, (I'm, just naming of the top of my head).

Another problem is that I don't know what this is a team of. Sure, you could say, well, that's cause I'm stupid, but when you design you have to remember, people are stupid. Is this a dance team? gymnastics?, etc. It should be specified, even if it's really subtle like where it says UNH Wildcats in those two small blue Banners.

Speaking of which, I think that should be typed in all caps, especially if it's repeating itself. The Large caps in UNH dont flow with the word Wildcats, and then the spaces in between also compete with the two words. I'd say make it like this: UNH WILDCAT GYMNASTICS, and probably even spread out the kerning. I'd also suggest writing it in a sans serif typeface. Everything on here is serif or script, with the exception of the photographer's and designer's name. Use something normal like Helvetica or Veranda.

What is EAGL? Do you have the authority to modify the colors of there logo/identity mark? That teal-green is distracting, a blue would be nice, but there might not be anything you can do about that.

The girl in the foreground on one knee on the left, her foot is cut off. She also looks bigger. Now, she should look bigger because she's 2 dimentionally closer to us, but maybe scale her down just enough to keep her whole foot in.

***** Finally, haha, there's an elbow on the left side of the poster that doesn't belong to anyone. You're going to hate me when I say this... but theres only 19 girls on the poster.. and an elbow. In your post you said 20, You're going to have to sqeeze her back in somewhere. ****

Now that I've ripped everything to shreads (sorry, it's what I do, only to help out).
I will say there some things I really do like. The framing of the poster with the "header and footer" banners. and the thins strip of blue. I like the idea of putting text in that strip, I'd change the text how I mentioned, but the idea of ti is good. I love the typeface for "University of New Hampshire" the small caps are great and it fits so nicely. the colors in general. You can tell you spent a lot of time and thought into placing each girl. They are placed nicely, but now you have to place one more :/.

-Jonny Carroll
For credentials, if you want to see some of my art or design, here's an old link to some of my stuff: http://jonnycarroll.com/index.html?art.html

[kenmyers70]

I like it. I think the glow is necessary to separate the girls. My only suggestion is the font chosen for "Train" and "Play" It just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the fonts.

[janetg]

thanks for the detailed suggestion johnny - i'm still in the process of finalizing everything and havent' posted an update to the changes. the 20th girl has been put back in.

i really am a madwoman doing this - uploading to 2 diff places...etc, keeping track of all the changes not only as suggested here, but my own changes.

i also have the media guide that i'm doing as well, and changes such as cloning in the sky because there is not enough headroom (dumb photographer).

can i just say 'stress'?

all will be finalized today though - and i CONTINUE to be a madwoman!!