Stumped, need layout suggestions

[CES020]

I had a walk in customer about a month ago and she had a box of parts she had pulled off her daughters trophies over the years. She wanted them all put on one piece. Simple enough, or so I thought when I said "Sure, we can do it".

She's always said "No hurry at all. If it doesn't get done for 6 months, that's fine, I just want something I can give her at some point". Her daughter is an engineer now (mechanical engineer).

So I pull the box out, draw the outlines of all the brass plates, etc, and start to try and make it work. I'm a mechanical guy myself. I don't see things like many of you do, from the artistic side. I keep taking this same document and trying to line things up in a line or some sort of pattern, but I'm coming up empty time and time again.

I called her and told her that I wasn't happy with the layout and she said that if her engineer daughter didn't think it looked nice, it would probably end up hung in her home instead of her daughters, so the final customer is an engineer that's probably used to seeing things the same way I'm trying to go, but having no luck.

I thought I'd post it here to see if anyone had ANY suggestions on how to make this layout nice. The problem I'm having is all the plates are different sizes. It can end up any size at all, I'm going to make the back piece from wood or Corian, so any size will work, other than a super long, thin one.

Any ideas?

 

[thinksigns]

Have you tried just chronological? If someone were giving that to me, I would like to see the accomplishments as a journey rather than as a collage.

 

[Locals Find!]

When I look at that the first thing that came to my mind was why not arrange them so it they look like a rube goldberg domino machine. You got great shapes and a few round shapes to appear as balls.

I think an engineer would appreciate something like that.

 

[CES020]

Have you tried just chronological? If someone were giving that to me, I would like to see the accomplishments as a journey rather than as a collage.

That's how the Mom wanted them, but the problem is that the date issues cause some really serious layout problems for me. You can have the smallest one set next to a round one, that's next to a large one, that's next to another small one. Also, some don't have a date on them, so I don't know where they would go. I think I put the dates on the file I attached it that helps show the size/time frame issue I'm having.

 

[Gino]

Here's hoping this makes some sense.

Try creating an accordion shape. Group like objects and sizes together in a line, make the next line go in somewhat, the next line either in or out a little more and so on.... down to the bottom. You can add an odd shape to a line to create some tension and keep the eye flowing. Add a circle here and there to break up the monotony and don't necessarily make your bottom line the largest or it might appear bottom heavy.

Many of your boxes don't contain a date and have nothing to do with each other, other than they're all her accomplishments. I don't know what the plaques look like, but I think I would add a caption at the bottom of each one, so they might be easier to read for everyone, including old people. The caption areas would be the element which brings the whole thing into continuity and give and overall uniform appearance.

 

[Circleville Signs]

What are your size restrictions? Also, is there any specific reason that you are ONLY using these brass plaques? I would probably try to combine them with some images of the daughter throughout life (coinciding with the dates of these plaques). Maybe lay it out as something more modern, etc. I would consider using 1/2" acrylic with translucent vinyl and no lam for the background and create it so you could do a floating wall mount. That all being said, it's really hard to give good advice on this because we have no idea what type of interior design motif the daughter's home has...

 

[Billct2]

I too would get some photos and use them to tie it together and fill in the spaces. Plates could be mounted right over the pictures in some areas.
You can also put the plaques at different levels using pieces of different thickness black PVC or acrylic.

 

[Circleville Signs]

What Bill said.

You are looking at this in only a 2d way. Depending on the client's budget you could do some really wicked-cool stuff with this.

 

[ova]

We do many plaques of this kind. People stop in almost every week wanting to give us their kids old trophies. We suggest they remove the plates and donate the trophies to the local Russel Nesbitt School for slow learning kids. We take the plates and make the plaque.

As far as the layout you have, we've experienced that it doesn't really matter rhyme or reason on size. We just try to lay it out according to the dates. I'm sure if someone was looking at a certian plate and ask the person about a particular award, that person would be glad to rattle off the event, time of their life it occured, and any other details they wanted to add.

Remember: The older we get the better we were.

Merry Christmas
Dave

 

[Locals Find!]

...

 

[Circleville Signs]

Its amazing any of you guys manage to sell anything. You don't ever look or listen to the clues the clients give you. The OP has stated the final client is an engineer about 3 times. That is the key clue here. A Mechanical Engineer isn't going to want something artsy with pictures.

They are going to want something that says Wow! that they can stare at and imagine all the pieces doing something. They view the world differently. They don't look at a car and see oh that is pretty they see it as a combination of parts working together to make it go.

You are retarded.

 

[Smacka]

Its amazing any of you guys manage to sell anything. You don't ever look or listen to the clues the clients give you. The OP has stated the final client is an engineer about 3 times. That is the key clue here. A Mechanical Engineer isn't going to want something artsy with pictures.

They are going to want something that says Wow! that they can stare at and imagine all the pieces doing something. They view the world differently. They don't look at a car and see oh that is pretty they see it as a combination of parts working together to make it go.

Probably shouldn't stick my nose in this but maybe if you started your responses with "hey, what about this?" Or "have you tried something like this" instead of insulting everyone you might not catch so much flack. Just my opinion.

 

[Circleville Signs]

Addy doesn't care. He's made it clear that he gets his jollies by being a giant douchebag.

 

[Locals Find!]

Probably shouldn't stick my nose in this but maybe if you started your responses with "hey, what about this?" Or "have you tried something like this" instead of insulting everyone you might not catch so much flack. Just my opinion.

Your right. I was having a bad moment and vented my frustration in a totally inappropriate manner in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My apologies to everyone. I will attempt to edit the original post.

 

[ForgeInc]

Gonna be a bit of a thread pirate here...but oh well:

Addie,

Why do you insist on giving people design advice anyway? Do you honestly feel qualified to give people opinions on type choices, color, logo concepts etc?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, and I will say you do occasionally provide some good insight but there are many on this site who probably aren't familiar with you...do them a favor, I'm begging you and asking nice, avoid giving any design criticisms!

I mean, there are only so many logos where a ladder will be appropriate!

 

[SignManiac]

Roflmao!!!!

 

[GAC05]

Look up some of the photos Artbot has posted. He does some amazing things with stand-offs to to add depth to his artwork.
You could do something similar with an engineer themed base image and bring the plates out with some small copper or brass spacers.

I read more of the thread and see others have suggested the same thing - so - what they said x2......

wayne k
guam usa

 

[TammieH]

layout suggestions

I was thinking something like this, if you could overlap some of the items it would be more pleasing. Also I know its another element but may a photo also? View attachment AwardPlates2.pdf

 

[TyrantDesigner]

So I pull the box out, draw the outlines of all the brass plates, etc, and start to try and make it work. I'm a mechanical guy myself. I don't see things like many of you do, from the artistic side. I keep taking this same document and trying to line things up in a line or some sort of pattern, but I'm coming up empty time and time again.

I think the layout looks fine, I think the devil will be in the details. For something Like this, I would probably stagger mount these plates (where every plate gets a slightly larger but same shaped mounting surface and respectively those will go onto the final substrate.) Without seeing the plates I can't make a suggestion as to the design for those, but really even if you went with black acrylic mounts and something slightly metallic but neutral colored (brushed stainless steel plating would be cool) that the acrylic plates can mount to ... the other plates can probably look a million times better if they are made to have a 'cute' or 'artistic' layout. But this is just me spitballing.

Oh, and Addy, congrats on being a raging d-bag ... again. you never fail to deliver.

 

[Locals Find!]

Oh, and Addy, congrats on being a raging d-bag ... again. you never fail to deliver.

I apologized and erased my post. WTF more do you want from me?? I did what I could to correct the situation.