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Criticism of any kind welcomed

iSign

New Member
well now. We've only been married 2 weeks and you're the 4th guy tryna steal her from me.

I was this close to going hawaii for our honeymoon, but i changed my mind :tongue:

oh was that you Colorado? :Oops:

sorry.. I thought it was your wife, trying to steal me from mine :omg:
 

HulkSmash

New Member
k Doug,

No more :thread and wife stealing.


Ahem,
your logo needs a little more work, and possibly a new font. make it more interesting.. color? Layout in general.

and yeah.
 

OldPaint

New Member
That is beautiful. Thank you all so much for the information and inspiration. Hopefully one of these days this stuff will click together. I would love to move past the basic stuff however I do not have a printer, have had zero luck on outsourcing prints but would like to go back to the old way of doing things and keep it all in house.

Atleast that way if I loose my other job I would still have the basic knowledge and tools to take back off with the trade.

this post answers a lot of questions. you havent sold the job, you cant come up with some "nice" well laid out sign, and a few here ARE DOING IT FOR YOU!!!! not cool.
what is your other job, since this is just a "side job for ya. maybe this barber shop went to a real sign shop, got a price, didnt like it and your gona whip em out one.....FOR WAY LESS. sounds like a plan stan)))))))
 

Fitch

New Member
they get lost in translation somewhere between my head, hand and computer.

There is your first ( and greatest ) problem.

Rather than sitting behind a keyboard, grab a HB pencil and pad and DRAW.

DRAW, DRAW, DRAW, DRAW, DRAW. It doesn't matter if you can't draw a stick man. That's not the point. You HAVE to get the relationship between the brain, the eye, and the hand working. Get the creative juices to flow. Go extreme and tone it down or lay it back then give it some "roar" .

Draw half a dozen DIFFERENT drawings, pick two and improve those two.

The ideal sequence is graphic, text, shape. Put in your graphic - in this case barber pole, ( whilst others dislike it, I personally go with the "a picture paints a thousand words" theory ), style your text, then design a background shape to suit.

With fonts - draw a letter style to suit - then go searching for a typestyle / font that matches or is close.

Keep practising until you get something you are happy with. THEN... go to the 'puter.

Keep all your sketches in a folder for both reference and a progression of improvement.

ALWAYS draw first.

The good designers will tell you the same thing. The bad designers will usually go straight to the computer and end up with junk. Only a gifted few can go straight to a keyboard and pump something awesome out and nail it 9 times out of 10.

Design in black and white. Colour is the last stage.

Cheers - G
 
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mountaingraphic

New Member
Lol oh yea my logo is as bad as my stench however I can never find time to work on it. Have another child coming soon so not looking good as far as free time goes. I have just been enjoying learning as I go and growing a pation for the works of art I see produced by everyone. I find it amazing to see everyones different styles and take on things.
 

mountaingraphic

New Member
Sorry old paint but I am not a low baller by any means stealing jobs is not respectful and I understand your frustrations. In many cases I am far more expensive than others.I either get the job or I don't. I do lack in the design dept but compared to other shops I've seen locally I'm offering more thought atleast. Sad isn't it. And yes this is not a current paying job mainly just trying to get the hang of effective layout. Things in my area are affected by the same issues as others.i have respect for the old heads and never ment disrespect in my postings.
 

mountaingraphic

New Member
Thank you for the inspiration fitch and o have been trying to do just that. I have been reading the industry standard books to use as framework to go from however I find it difficult to concentrate And focus on drawing. With so many different ideas. Not sure if it makes sense but I can see it but when I try to draw exacly what I see it foes all to he'll. Assuming that comes with practice just not sure if I have sone type of brain atrophy which is causing the issues as well lol
 

mountaingraphic

New Member
Okay. So I gave it another shot to try to learn illustrator. For some reason when I save the preview it is not the actual artboard which it saves but it appears to be saving to some default area.
 

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mountaingraphic

New Member
As mentioned I would like to hand paint this one if I do try to offer to the client. Also as mentioned this is just a project I am working on for myself mainly but thinking ahead incase something does fruition from it. However not sure of the final substrate so for a visual comparison I wanted to see how it would appear on a darker wood grain. Still need a lot of working on the Cats since the sign isnt weighted properly.
 

mountaingraphic

New Member
lol sorry had to say it..I just plugged it in and hit a button and this is what it came out with..I will have to mess with it tomorrow as I did not put the file in my dropbox so its hanging out with my work files causing trouble no doubt. I guess I will read over Mastering Layout some more to get a better understanding of relative sizing
 
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