Poster Design

[Ms.O]

Hey everybody. I just finished a poster (http://www.onieward.com/portfolio/images/lo-res.retreat.poster.jpg)for an upcoming women's retreat for my church in April. This is the first time I've tried something like this, but I love this style alot and just thought I'd give it a go.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[urstwile]

Ms. O, it would be great if you could reduce the size of the image by about 50%. It's hard to get an overall view of how things work together when scrolling is required.

Right off the bat, though, the text at the bottom, that follows the curved path, there's way too much wordspacing going on, I'd see what I could do to reduce that significantly.

In addition, the style of the flourishes along the border seems at odds with the style of the illustration. The flourishes are somewhat organic in feel, and the illustration seems very clean and neat. Any way to find a happy medium between the two?

[Samakimoto Graphics]

It was fine viewing for me, a magnifying glass cursor appeared...

It's a nice layout.

I agree with the sentiment that the styles counter... but you can get away with that if you loose the gradient on the large flourishes, and tone their colours down by keeping the in 2 or 3 tones of that peachy/pinky colour rather that different colours- solid colors in lighter tones.

The text at the bottom is a will probably become more legible and fight less for space with the larger flourishes if their colours are toned down.

The information may need to be in slightly larger text relative to the title, as it is it's too small, IMO.

[vtwin_gary]

i don't like to use script when folowing a path (text at bottom) it does some wierd things where the letters connect. also "quotes" are not needed on a bible verse but i would put the scripture reference - Isaiah 40:11 (incase they just gave you the text) ;)

[Ms.O]

Thanks all, for your comments...I appreciate that.

Okay...I revised it (http://www.onieward.com/images/final.2.poster.jpg) as follows:

...I've reduced the image size for viewing.

...I've fixed the word spacing and the font at the bottom and added the scripture reference.

...increased the text size under the title.

However, I don't get what you are saying here:

... the style of the flourishes along the border seems at odds with the style of the illustration. The flourishes are somewhat organic in feel, and the illustration seems very clean and neat. Any way to find a happy medium between the two?

Do you mean the border swirls don't match the large swirls inside? Or something else? Any suggestions?

Also, I should have included this with my OP, but here are the color and fabric swatches I've been given as the theme colors.

http://www.onieward.com/images/swatch.jpg

http://www.onieward.com/images/paisley.swatch.jpg

I tried to stick to these colors originally, but the poster came out too cold looking....and since it's in April and all about renewal and refreshment, I introduced the yellow/pink to sort of warm things up a bit.

Any more comments, suggestions?

[morea]

you know, I almost think that there's enough going on without the flourishy border... you could crop it to the box to place more emphasis on the illustration. It's hard to tell, because I have to scroll to see the whole image too.

I like the style. It's cute and soft and feminine. I love the shepherd illustration.

That blue hill in the background seems too "heavy" to me, I think that it would "flow" a little better if you changed that to the purple you are using in the rest of the illustration, or maybe even the green/gray from the lower right corner.

Very nice - especially for your first time!

[Ms.O]

Thanks morea....

Another revision (http://www.onieward.com/images/retreat.poster.3.jpg)....I want to keep the border, but realized it didn't need to be so large and overwhelming. I've softened the color of the mountain in the back too.

Any more comments?

[urstwile]

Sorry Ms. O, I didn't mean to confuse you. For some reason, in your first version, the flourish border (and maybe this was just the way it looked on my monitor) seemed to have rougher edges to it than the illustration, so the two styles seemed at odds with each other. In your latest version, with the smaller flourishes, things seem to blend more nicely.

I have another niggle, though. The scripture reference (Isaiah...) moves up out of the top of the curve. Can you adjust either the curve or the type style so that the cap height doesn't poke out at the top?

Otherwise, I think it looks really good. :)

[vtwin_gary]

I have another niggle, though. The scripture reference (Isaiah...) moves up out of the top of the curve. Can you adjust either the curve or the type style so that the cap height doesn't poke out at the top?

Otherwise, I think it looks really good. :)

i noticed this also & if i'm gonna nit pick they may want you to change the reference to Isaiah 40:11A (the A notes that it's not the whole verse)
I think i would move that to below the quote. (justified right)

[Ms.O]

Thanks everyone for your comments and help. I think I have it and am going with this one (http://www.onieward.com/images/retreat.poster.3.jpg). I think my deadline is this weekend, so if you see anything else, let me know.

Thanx!

[urstwile]

I really like it. The only thing that's slightly throwing me off, and this just might be me, is that the curlicue on the d in Shepherd makes it look like Shepherds to me, but that might not be a bad thing. As I said, that could be just me.

[morea]

Nice job, Ms. O.

[Ms.O]

Thanks everyone...I appreciate that! :-)