Let me have it both barrels please

[Baz]

If you are going to do layouts then you really should invest some time and a little bit of money in some books. And you should start off with Mike Stevens "Mastering Layout". It's quite evident you don't know how to balance positive and negative space. Your choice of fonts are to simplistic and do not work well together (maybe you don't yet have a good collection of them). Your manipulations of curves are way off. And your use of distortion on text to fit within a shape are amateur at best.

Overall i "like" your last idea. but ... Your scroll elements in the border are way to overpowering. Your choice of font for American is very hard to read (especially the "A"). "American" is also to long (or to close to the border edges). The banner attached to it looks akward (the curves look terrible). "Kitchen and bath" looks pasted in and does not flow well with the banner. "Gallery" is also to big (it stands out to much from the rest of the text). "Gallery" also looks off center because of the extra negative space from the lower case "y". It might be technically centered but it is not visually centered.

You got some work to do and allot to learn ... But it's not the worst i've seen.

 

[fmg]

I give you credit you are trying. Good luck to you Adtechia.

 

[Locals Find!]

I give you credit you are trying. Good luck to you Adtechia.

Thank You.

Here are the 6 sketches I made. I am not great with a pencil by any means. My hands don't want to do what I see in my head.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

ohh no, here we go. Assume the position...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm7D5VRfaTI

 

[ProWraps]

oh man from the title i was hoping it was going to be you standing in front of a target.

what a let down.

yup.

 

[CustomEyes Design]

The panel idea was mine to try and match up with the Architecture of his building. I wanted the sign to fit the surroundings rather than just a big digital print of straight text.

Since this seems to be important to the direction of your design, do you have a picture of the client's building in his file? and what type of signage - a window vinyl? mounted to outside wall above door? 2-sided hanging perpendicular to the wall? out by the road?

Those are the kinds of questions I would ask...

 

[Locals Find!]

Since this seems to be important to the direction of your design, do you have a picture of the client's building in his file? and what type of signage - a window vinyl? mounted to outside wall above door? 2-sided hanging perpendicular to the wall? out by the road?

Those are the kinds of questions I would ask...

Actually I do from my survey. I will post them later today. I have to pull them off my phone.

I am mounting above the & between the two units, then 2 window panels one for the Kitchen Gallery & one for the Bath Gallery. I want to keep the same theme across all 3 locations.

 

[HulkSmash]

so addy, judging by your signature you like to be spanked.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

 

[Locals Find!]

Here are some of the site survey pics.

Btw: the sign shown in the picture is the previous tenants not my clients

 

[Techman]

put the friggin phone number on the door.

 

[Justin]

You should have left the 3rd pic off. You never know someon might try stealing your job! Or your neighbor down the road?

 

[Locals Find!]

You should have left the 3rd pic off. You never know someon might try stealing your job! Or your neighbor down the road?

I would only be concerned with that if that company in the 3rd pic was still around. That isn't my client that is an old beat up sign still attached to the building units he took over.

 

[HulkSmash]

You should have left the 3rd pic off. You never know someon might try stealing your job! Or your neighbor down the road?

Paranoid much?

 

[Gino]

What is it... an old motel turned into a bunch of flea market dwellings ??

Regardless of your capabilities... mostly lack of..... your measurements don't appear to be what 's in the picture. You better check that before you go off half-cocked spinning wheels for nothing.

Oh, yeah....... why don't you let someone design this for you as you expressed in so many threads/posts up til this one ??

You can learn this stuff eventually, but why give so many clients barely beyond horrible for end products ?? You're experimenting on people paying you to be a professional and you can't even design a business card, let alone a sign. How can you do this to honest paying clients ?? Do they know you have no talent for this stuff ?? Do you tell them, they're gonna be a guinea pig ?? Do you explain they are kinda in a trap where they probably know more about what they want then you do ??

I'm not being mean, just brutally honest. You shouldn't experiment with customer's reputations or image. You should be learning in someone's shop, paying you to do work and eventually learn basic design skills and techniques. So far, you haven't displayed a blessed thing other than you have t=no talent for this stuff. When are you going to learn or know when to quit and hire a professional ??

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Gino.... hold those peppers and pizza down

 

[Justin]

Paranoid much?

Well yeah.. You never know what someone will discover, or who they are when they run across it. These bigger web companies, and such probably crawl here ever so often looking for work, or places to call and market to.

 

[SignManiac]

There are many subtle things that go into design besides artistic ability. All mentioned above in other post. Until you learn these things (Mike Stevens book and Dan Antonelli) you will struggle and probably never get what design is all about.

Even your concept can be made to work if you understand what you're doing. This literally took me all of ten minutes to put together. Buy a few of the books you hear everyone suggesting on this forum. I think you'll be wasting time and money on some course taught in a college. They aren't specific enough to the sign industry.

 

[omgsideburns]

Addie (and everybody else), this is a link to the most fascinating design book I've ever read. It's modern enough that it's relevant but not so filled with archaic technical data that it's boring. It offers really simple step by steps to a really strong set of design tricks, teaches you how letter forms are created, and is just all around a damn fine book.

At only $10 from Amazon it's worth every penny.

http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Letterin...sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333726634&sr=8-1-spell

is a good book, bought it a few years ago. hardcover too so it looks nice while it collects dust.

 

[iSign]

Thank You.

Here are the 6 sketches I made. I am not great with a pencil by any means. My hands don't want to do what I see in my head.

Good for you... I was starting to lose faith, as I read this thread and saw another computer effort... but you at least put pencil to paper, so I will too.

So far, my first observation is that one layout does have something none of the others have... 2 things actually...

On my phone, I can't see it while I type, but I think it was #3 with the banner/ribbon on an angle. It is the only layout with asymmetry which isn't exactly working (yet) but at least you stretched to find variation in your attempts... Which is half the battle... Thumbnail sketches are a visual form of "brainstorming" and the point is NOT to simply get your hands to " do what you see in your head" ...that skill will help, when you develop it, but sketching should be loose enough and quick and uninhibited enough that you discover possibilities that aren't in your head...

The other characteristic in the one I mentioned above is "dimension"! By using an overlapping of elements, you create depth... It's weak, and I'll be honest, none of the sketches have much potential... but it's a start and you didn't waste much time exploring them...

I will do 6 sketches too, but it can't be right away...

Hopefully you will do 6 more... and feel free to steal concepts... In fact, remember when I posted half a dozen business cardswith logos I've done, on one of your threads? ...back when you said you would just give up designing? Well go find that and steal my concepts, and do 5 minute sketches of your copy, borrowing styles you see in other layouts you like...

We all do that, subconsciously or otherwise...