School Event Promotion and assorted work

[NTLemon]

Hey Everyone! You guys helped out a lot with my previous BTX page and I was able to implement several of the suggestions before having to send out the final. Anyway, I have a few more things to get torn down, ripped apart and rebuilt if anyone wants to send some input or critique my way.

Primarily what I am looking for critique on is this first one. The other two pieces are just personal projects or technique pieces but I value your thoughts all the same.

Anyway, its for the Harborside Activity Board (of which I am the director of promotions) and it's for the first 3 events of this school year: Foam Party, Comedian, and Spray Paint Artist. I am primarily concerned over whether it may or may not be too busy but at the same time if it's interesting enough that it will grab your attention and will still work to achieve its goal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Atrius/Back2Class.jpg

These last two are just personal works. The first was a recycled project from a drawing class last semester based on influential people/events from the last century. The Second is for an ARG (alternate reality game) that played out on a forum I was a part of, it's supposed to imitate the viral marketing from the dark knight like whysoserious.com.

Linked for size:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Atrius/iconcomp-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Atrius/Carnival.jpg

I hope none of it is too bad but I would love to hear what you think or what could be improved.

[a_muse]

I really like it, I think it will appeal to your demographic, but maybe ya, a bit too busy. Also I had no idea who the heck Kyle Dunnigan was until I read you post mentioning the comedian then I figured it out, then I realized that the hand written notes were referring to the pics (foam party & Kyle), I automatically looked for one for the spray paint artist, wasn't sure if the "reno 911" note was for the artist or the comedian. I think it needs some clarity, the general look of it is great though :).

The ARG thing is great! What forum did you go to? I was briefly, mildly obsessed with ARG's, it was annoying though that unless the game was big (with big budgets) the graphic design tended to suck, not all the time, but often enough to drive me crazy.
I think the drawing project is pretty great too :)

[NTLemon]

Thanks Muse. I'm glad you mentioned the clarity of the notes. That's something I was a bit worried about.

The ARG was inspired by the dark knight viral campaign so within that context on the penny-arcade forums a joker character basically left clues and notes and such throughout the forums. It was low budget but it revolved around the much larger viral marketing. I wasn't that involved with the game itself but I did a lot of grunt work making people "jokerized" avatars signatures and graphics like the carnival one.

[budafist]

I really like it. The only thing that stands out for me is that the "BACK 2 CLASS" blue looks over saturated on comparison to the rest of the colours.

Free food!? Awesome!

[NTLemon]

Yeah food is our biggest event draw!

[Randomhero]

Looks awesome.

Both of the other projects look great too. I especially like the "Cromatomic" one.

[NTLemon]

Cool, thanks random.

Small update: Different Color on Back2 Class and attempted to sort out the events to make it a bit more clear. (I hope)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/Atrius/Back2Class_update1.jpg

[Red Kittie Kat]

That is a really cool concept Lemon .. I like it very much :)

Love that doodly look ;)

[Danger_Mouse]

Great work!

[Typically]

your shadows on the thumb tacks are a little wonky. pick one light source and stick with it =]

why the obey sticker? you could probably do without it

the skulls look cool but why are they white? they stand out a bit to much for me. i'd get rid of the fill and just let it look like a doodle on the paper.

but i like the overall look good job man

[Mr_LeE]

yeah i agree with typically.. the green circle stands out.. also the whole thing is really crowded but i guess it works with ur audience. (sorta like a lunchtime notice board! the ones at uni are so crowded like that too :P)

but good job. fix the lighting and maybe the green thingo

[klevr]

I'm a big fan of the recycled project from drawing class.

[Virgo Nightingale]

What is backlighting? Is that supposed to be blacklights? Or am I just showing my clubbing naivté?

[NTLemon]

Lol Virgo, I have no clue either but that's what they said they had.

As for the Light source on the pins I was a bit lazy and made them into symbols I should probably go ahead and fix those. The obey sticker, at first I was going through my vector stock folder finding things to fill in space but after adding the buttons and extra sticky notes it's not really necessary.

I think I will leave the green circle as is. If it grabs attention I'm okay with that as it's the schools logo and it might help differentiate it from other advertisements and postings. Unless it really is distracting?

Thanks for the comments guys, girls, and avocados.

[Typically]

i think the green circle is fine but the words service and fees get a little squished.