Favor for a friend

[urstwile]

Well, I don't post much in here, because I don't get much of a chance to do fun stuff that's design. But a friend asked me to help her with a school project (she's going to beauty school and needed to put together a brochure), so for trade (I get a haircut and color and a pedicure), this is what I've come up with.

It's a trifold brochure. I'm still working on the typography, I'm not 100% there yet, and the images are FPO, it's not a commercial piece, just a school project.

Comments and recommendations are welcome. This is a last minute piece that she needs done by Wednesday, and I just got the copy and stuff today. I've become Lady Last Minute lately. :rolleyes:

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/3554/picture3om0.jpg

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/4320/picture1vf9.jpg

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Looks like a french fold affair. I like that the copy is brief.

Something is off about your curved border.

Cut all the model's faces above the mouth to create some uniformity - the model on the left - also the third model has a dark triangle below her ear, that looks odd.

Allow me to suggest that you get a complementary colour for the background of the text...seee what you get.

Last minute is fine for the designer as long as there's enough time for the printer - I had a bad experience last month when a last "minute job" (according to the brief) went on for too long, eating into the printer's time, we ended up with gorgeously designed factsheets (two-page A4 sheets) with over inked black text...

[urstwile]

Sama,

Thanks for the comments.

First off, this won't be going to a printer, I'm simply going to be printing on our color printer at work. She's still in school, and I think the exercise is just to show that they can market themselves. She asked for my help, so there you have it.

I randomly drew a shape in Illustrator for the border. What feels off to you?

Do you think the light blue isn't complementary to the orange then? I've always rather liked that combo. What do you think instead?

I will be playing with this more tomorrow. I will look at your cropping suggestions, plus I want to tweak the densities on the photos.

This is just for a one off, for her project, I'll just be comping it up from work on our color printer.

I'm enjoying working on it because she's a good friend, and is totally relying on me to help her with this project, so this allows me to have some fun, where I'd normally be a little more conservative with a client. But it did kind of come at me at the last minute, so the typography needs work, and she has no logo. I'm not 100% at all with what I've come up with for her name.

I see this as an opportunity to stretch a little, this is what I came up with today. I'd like to expand it into something cool, so that when she is ready for final print when she is licensed, she might consider the design for her marketing. So there you have it. :)

[Red Kittie Kat]

Well..... it makes me wish she was here to do my hair ..... so I think you did good :)

[urstwile]

Thanks Kat, that's nice of you to say.

But is there anything that you'd do differently in terms of the design? I'm looking for feedback so that I can grow and do more of this kind of thing, because it's fun. :)

[Red Kittie Kat]

hmmm.. well I'm not sure I would go with curved border....

but I hate to say that because we all have such different tastes and what appeals to us visually.

But thats all I can think of from my perspective I think you have it layed out nicely

:)

[urstwile]

Thanks Kat. As I said, I'm trying to gain feedback so thanks for your input.

(((Hugs)))

[Red Kittie Kat]

{{{hug}}} right back at ya ;)

[urstwile]

Thanks!

Ack! I see a coupla widows! :eek: Going off to fix 'em. I'll post the final results of what my friend okays in a coupla days.

[WrC]

Here are my design suggestions: emphasize on your friend's skills on the inside panel with bigger fonts and, or different fonts -- I am looking at it as a whole page when the brochure is opened up. It looks kind of plain and doesn't sell right away.

[cjoe]

It is a little bit sparse maybe? I think you need to achieve a little more harmony between the top and bottom areas, maybe make the lines parallel

[orkaknos12]

I think it's pretty functional and easy to read.
My critique: The copy on the inside panel comes from a really strange angle, like a victim/nuture realtionship. It's really spooky to read. Maybe a more positive emphasis could be placed on the quality of the product and less on the bedside manner. The back panel's discount thing is kind of crass - perhaps that can be worked in elsewhere. The drop shadows on the graphics are out-of-control huge. "The process" probably doesn't need a colon. "blend *IT* together." FAQ's is really internetty. Maybe Questions and Answers or Common Questions. "maintenannce" is a spelling error.

-Jon

[urstwile]

Really great comments from all of you, thank you!

I will post up the final version, taking all of your comments into account. I'm really glad I posted it up here. I learn so much from all of you. Thanks again. :)

Orka, special thanks to you btw, on the copy points.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

I randomly drew a shape in Illustrator for the border. What feels off to you?

Do you think the light blue isn't complementary to the orange then? I've always rather liked that combo. What do you think instead?


I felt it was off because the random-ness of the wavy border was not helping the way you clipped the models faces- I gave some pointers in my post :). Someone suggested a straight line i think - perhaps you could give that a shot.

About the colours; perhaps you could try two colors that fall in the same bracket but in two tones of a color or the same colour in two transparency levels. ;)

[urstwile]

Sama,

I printed it out, and I'm actually happy with the colors. I like orange and blue together, maybe that's just me. :)

I do hear you on the cropping of the faces, I am going to work on that.

One thing I discovered after comping it up is that the wavy border presents a problem of it's own, which is mainly that I didn't work out the planning so that the "wave" follows through when the piece is folded as a trifold brochure. So I need to figure that out.

So I'm going to have to rethink that one. I think the piece will serve for my friend's project, but I'm looking forward to this also as a design exercise. I thank you all for your comments, Sama and Orka especially (sorry to truncate your aliases). :) I will post the final result.

Thanks to all of you, I really appreciate you walking me through some of this stuff! :)