Poseter Design Help

[vassili]

i have this hockey jersey poster i want to update the look of. i want to get rid of the "clinical feel" of the white bg.

the layout is going to be pretty much what you see...but what can be done for it to look more interesting? it's gonna be divided into 9 (3rowsx3col) sections, with each section being 8.5"x11".

any suggestions appreciated.

http://www.itwonthurt.com/files/post.jpg

[ihadlegs]

If you're not confined to retaining the small images in straight columns, it may look nice if you wrapped the individual 'units' in to shapes... simple circle, oval etc... or even lay them out in the shape of one of the jerseys??? Does it want a title banner somewhere nice and bold and large?

[PrintDriver]

I dunno. If you do to much of anything, you may make a busy situation even worse.
The solution shown here is orderly and organized.
Why do you want to get rid of white space in the attempt to make something more 'interesting'?

[vassili]

If you're not confined to retaining the small images in straight columns, it may look nice if you wrapped the individual 'units' in to shapes... simple circle, oval etc... or even lay them out in the shape of one of the jerseys??? Does it want a title banner somewhere nice and bold and large?

yeah, a shaped border would be a good idea. might get a little busy though. gonna try that. thanks for the suggestion. i'm working on the title which will go in the upper left corner. but unfortunately, i'm quite limited as to what i can do with the layout, so changing the order around to make a giant jersey shape won't be possiblr.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I don't know that there's much you can do to this to make it more interesting without making it far too busy. I certainly wouldn't mess with the "clinical feel" of the white background, anything else would draw attention away from the jerseys. Perhaps a solid pale color, but even that I'm not too sure about.

[ihadlegs]

Have you played with the third column and the third row, is there a way you could get these to 'marry' into the design more... or be seperate entities entirely - like the others have said if you fiddle too much this may start to look too fiddly.

[Jam]

How about a background of the ice behind the shirts?
You could step the shirts similar to the right hand column but better spaced.
What about lining the shirts up as a team?
The only other thing is that there isn't a header or footer to explain what it is.

[John G]

make it look like http://www.noellespillows.com/ClipArt/ColorWheel1.jpg?

[vassili]

How about a background of the ice behind the shirts?
You could step the shirts similar to the right hand column but better spaced.
What about lining the shirts up as a team?
The only other thing is that there isn't a header or footer to explain what it is.

the problem is to find a picture large enough to fit the size of the poster...without paying too much.

[vassili]

make it look like http://www.noellespillows.com/ClipArt/ColorWheel1.jpg?

you mean the background?

[JUICE71]

what size is th entire poster?

[frankster]

Why not try getting some symetry into the design?

It might not be so visually overwhelming if there is some symetry

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2228/hockeyshirtsat7.jpg

[John G]

you mean the background?
but bothering to match the colors perhaps:
http://www.johntgordon.com/pictures/this_noob.jpg

[vassili]

haha, wow, you guys are pretty awesome. i do like both new layouts from frankster and john...there's def something there. i'd have to take it up with the boss to see what he thinks...i think it looks great, but it was emphasized to me to keep the original layout :(

[DesignStudio]

have you considered drop shadows? Not to mention gradients and lens flares?

I agree with John, organizing by color would be a nice improvement. Not only does it add an aesthetic appeal, but it improves the chart's utility by allowing people to find their particular team jersey more easily since almost everyone knows at least the basic color of the jersey they're looking for.

I don't know that I'd arrange them in a circle, but a simple roygbiv horizontal alignment- maybe combining John and Frankster's suggestions would work well.