new photoshop

[kkling]

hello. im new to photoshop. i'm designing a postcard for my business. i'm learning slowly, but enjoying it. please let me know if you have any creative opinions. critiques are appreciated. i hope im posting this in the right spot.
i attached the front and back of the card.

[D-Frag]

A couple of things, on the back, I would add another picture on the top to hold it in, looks wierd and off balance with just a blank spot on the far right. The body copy, I would re work. either up your point size, and fill up all that negative space, or find another way to seperate it from the design instead of just floating around. I would also justify the type, as this is for real estate, and you want that high end feel.

I think you could rework the back and make it better, its pretty stale right now, all the fonts seem to be the same, and the type sizes between them are pretty close, try breaking up the type more, making your strong statements more predominate and maybe even throwing in a whole new type style. When I think luxury, I think whispy fonts, or serif fonts with boldness. Also, along the luxury line, I would go as far as to say to rework your colors too. The light blue makes me feel like im looking at a womens ad (no offense ladies.) I would say go for the neutral, and grey color palette as it seems to say "high end" more then light blues. Also, kill all the reds on the front of the design, use a deep earth tone, or something to compliment the light beige you have around the strokes on your images.

I think it could be a billion times better with some serious thought and attention, as of now it looks thrown together, and not planned out. Hopefully this helps you out.


p.s. I moved your thread to the showcase section, this is where you receive critques on your designs, and input on improvement. Welcome to the GDF!

[vtwin_gary]

beside all of the design issues if you are going to mail the cards you are going to need to make some changes to the bottom or the post office won't take them
i'm not sure what size these are but be sure to check the post office guide lines.
you need to have space at the bottom for the barcode it is usually a sticker & the may let the cards go through but it will cover your name.
http://img454.imageshack.us/img454/5047/postcardregulationskg9.gif

[budafist]

Can you please post a vesion without the safe zone border, extra design text and arrows? it's hard to figure out what your design is and what the extra non-printing crap is. You could never show a client a design with safety zones in red! If they sign it off and then the final doesn't have a red border like they wanted, they won't be happy.

I dislike what you are doing with the headings. Too many strokes and layer styles. Keep it simple. People can tell what is a heading by the size and placement. You don't need to emphasize it in more ways than that.

[kkling]

great help guys. i will do my best to apply your opinions and see how it goes. I will repost shortly.

[jimking]

As a printer I see several problems. On the front it appears to be a layer of text behind the small and large graphics, is this correct? On the mailer side the text is too close to the trim. You sould move the text and your pic of yourself at least 1/8" to the right. Also, the pics at the top with the white frame would be hard for a printer to trim down and hold equal borders. Either create a white border for bleed at the top and left of the pics or move the pics down and to the right 1/8" to line-up with your text that you should move to the right.

[budafist]

As a printer I see several problems. On the front it appears to be a layer of text behind the small and large graphics, is this correct?

I think that text is non-printing registration/printing or design details.

[jimking]

At first I thought the arrows were part of the design too until I read your earlier post Buda. I wasn't sure what that text is.

[cmont]

I would also suggest not using Photoshop for the creation of this flyer as most Fonts don't often print well from this program. Its largely researved for editing/manipulating photos or doing web graphics which don't require as much definition.

[kkling]

cmont,

what program would you use?

[CurtisS]

cmont,

what program would you use?

Illustrator (if you have it). The fonts will come out clean as well as any lines, shapes, etc... Use Photoshop for the photos then Place into Illustrator (or Freehand, Corel, etc...).

Then output to PDF (this is the way most printers are requesting final output). Ask your printer for the PDF settings they prefer.

Oh, and make sure you work in CMYK (4 colors). Your printer will really appreciate it.

Ciao!

CurtisS