My First Flyer

[dj category 5]

Front (http://www.immanentchaos.com/images/drinky_s_front.jpg)


Back (http://www.immanentchaos.com/images/drinkys_backRS_copy.jpg)

totaly basic...using Photshop 7..any sugestions for original creation?

not really sure how to make designs and stuff..i can just do stuff to other peoples pix..lame i know..leave me alone. i'm learnin:D

[DeAtHmOnGeR bEaR]

Hey, not too bad looking!

The back of the flyer is a little hard for me to read at work, have you tried adding a slightly transparent background box for the text to rest on?

[Sunspot8785]

IMO you should change the font of color of the DJ's playing... the one's in black... it's kinda hard to look at with that background

[DeAtHmOnGeR bEaR]

Good call, haha - totally spaced and forgot to add that :D

[: ORI :]

No weapons? What kinda party doesnt allow weapons? I mean honestly.......

[crisis]

The M in March looks like a Star Wars font to me.

[LuckyShamrock]

I really like it alot

Good job

[Solipsist]

On the back of the flyer, the background is pretty cool. But, as everyone has said, it's difficult to read, especially the description under Reid Speed's name. Perhaps change it to a darker color.

[elad]

me no likey. :sok:

[: ORI :]

Try to keep the # of different fonts you use to a minimum as well. Helps keep your eye from running all over the place.

Not bad for your first flyer though. Its honestly much better than others ive seen who are self proclaimed professionals.

[LOGO]

Well, as a graphic designer, I have the tendency to be hyper-critical of flyer designs.
However, this is your first flyer, you admit to still learning, and you do not profess to be a designer.
I'd say, considering all that, it could be a hell of a lot worse.
Believe me, I have seen some god-AWFUL flyers in my day.

The front, although nothing more than a Matrix graphic and a free Star Wars font, is decent, but the concept is no longer topical.
Borrowing from pop culture is tricky.
See, when the Matrix trilogy was in the height of it's popularity, this "code" stuff was EVERYWHERE.
Then, interest in the Matrix kind of died, so bringing back the "code" look now is an example of what I call the "too late, too soon" syndrome.
Too late for the fact that you missed the bandwagon.
Too soon for the fact that enough time has yet to pass before you can successfully resurrect this little nugget of pop culture iconography.

Also, the kerning (space between letters) is awful in the Drum n Bass Invasions font.
It looks like it says "DRUM N BASS INV ASIONS."
Sorry, but I am a stickler for typography.

I agree with what has been said about the back.
However, I will go a step further and suggest that you don't really need a full graphic for a flyer back.
People tend to get really hung up on this aspect.
A flyer front is where you put your attention-grabbing art, the back is where all the pertinent info goes.
So, why do so many people design flyers with backs that are hard to read?
I'm not suggesting that flyer backs be boring, but the information should be easily accessible.
Form should follow function.

Now, because you've included Reid Speed's picture, I'm guessing that the picture to the right of DJ Imperial is, in fact, DJ Imperial.
So why have you given yourself a picture of Annakin Skywalker?
I mean, I understand the rationale (you're having fun with the flyer), but a picture of Smith or Neo would fit the theme better than Annakin, no?

Anyway, these are just a few thoughts.

[decoy]

wow that logo guy is pretty smart. I agree with him on all counts. If I were making the flyer, it would be waaayyy simpler.

I have a thing for simplicity. the engineers at work hate that.

them: "whay did you delete the stuff outside the border"
me: "because it was cluttering up the drawing, and I felt it was unnecessary"
them: "well, we might need to use that stuff later"
me: "yeah, well, I'll worry about that when the time comes"
them: "that doesn't seem to be a good way to go about things"
me: "look, get the fuck outta my cube before I bust you in the grill bitch!!"
them: "huh?"
me: "you fucking heard me" *stands up*
them: "whoa now, chill out. I'll leave you were right"
me: "booya muthafucka!!" *goes to get bagle*


.....


I'm not sure what that anecdote had to do with anything, but there it is.

[decoy]

although I have to say, it is kinda cool what you did with the background on the back. I myself would have used zoom blur, everything is better with zoom blur.

I'll make an example later. I'm off to bed.

[Muramasa]

Well, as a graphic designer, I have the tendency to be hyper-critical of flyer designs.
However, this is your first flyer, you admit to still learning, and you do not profess to be a designer.
I'd say, considering all that, it could be a hell of a lot worse.
Believe me, I have seen some god-AWFUL flyers in my day.

The front, although nothing more than a Matrix graphic and a free Star Wars font, is decent, but the concept is no longer topical.
Borrowing from pop culture is tricky.
See, when the Matrix trilogy was in the height of it's popularity, this "code" stuff was EVERYWHERE.
Then, interest in the Matrix kind of died, so bringing back the "code" look now is an example of what I call the "too late, too soon" syndrome.
Too late for the fact that you missed the bandwagon.
Too soon for the fact that enough time has yet to pass before you can successfully resurrect this little nugget of pop culture iconography.

Also, the kerning (space between letters) is awful in the Drum n Bass Invasions font.
It looks like it says "DRUM N BASS INV ASIONS."
Sorry, but I am a stickler for typography.

I agree with what has been said about the back.
However, I will go a step further and suggest that you don't really need a full graphic for a flyer back.
People tend to get really hung up on this aspect.
A flyer front is where you put your attention-grabbing art, the back is where all the pertinent info goes.
So, why do so many people design flyers with backs that are hard to read?
I'm not suggesting that flyer backs be boring, but the information should be easily accessible.
Form should follow function.

Now, because you've included Reid Speed's picture, I'm guessing that the picture to the right of DJ Imperial is, in fact, DJ Imperial.
So why have you given yourself a picture of Annakin Skywalker?
I mean, I understand the rationale (you're having fun with the flyer), but a picture of Smith or Neo would fit the theme better than Annakin, no?

Anyway, these are just a few thoughts.

No, no, you don't understand. He really is Hayden Christensen.

[decoy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/mookie714/050616_03_400h.jpg

see what I'm saying, zoom blur makes everything better

[dj category 5]

wow..thanks for all your pos and neg feedback. All taken into consideration.
Now, to answer a few questions.

1. I have no kewl pix of me, so i used annakin
2. the flyer is designed in CYMK, not RGB, so the colors i understand will stand out differently on paper as opposed to a puter screen, but good points and thanks..since it' alrwdy off to the press.again, i guess to late too soon;)
3. as far as the natrix motif paired with starwars, and yeah it was a free font..lol, it's just letting people know that this is tech stuff..not booty, not mainstream. If you dig on scifi, you'll prolly dig on this. Since both are icons of the genre, i figured..fuck it why not.
4. this was actually the 1st of 5, and i took this one, mainly becuase it grabbed me better, and the others are for next time. fitting for a first party venture...maybe it is too late, maybe i am hung up on 1999, but, dayum...if i could go back..welll....we know how that would all go.


thanks again you guys..come check out the final phase live!!

peace and respect

Ian

[dj category 5]

No, no, you don't understand. He really is Hayden Christensen.
lol..you nut;)


Ian Beveridge, not hayden christensen...jeez charly

[metagrapher]

Try to keep the # of different fonts you use to a minimum as well. Helps keep your eye from running all over the place.

Not bad for your first flyer though. Its honestly much better than others ive seen who are self proclaimed professionals.

I have to second this. You want to have no more than 3, at the most, fonts. I'll save the history lesson for later, but basically it confuses the viewer. Remember that letters are nothing more than pictures and pictures each have their own feel that they add to the composition.

In this case not only do you use too many fonts and thus confuse the impression, you also borrow from a couple of different movies, somewhat unrelated movies, in both font and image. These conflict and just further confuse you.

Ideally you want to decide on the look and feel, then select or create imagery that compliments it. Then you select fonts (I stick with 1 or 2) that will compliment and sometimes even round out the feel you are trying to convey. I have seen images that with one font look roller disco, but with a different font look cutting edge.

Use dummy text when laying out text first, that way you are not focused on what the words say, but how they look. Try www.lipsum.com they provide latin dummy text. The reason to use latin is that it looks enough like english to work, but you can't read it so as to be distracted by meaning.

I have a lot to say about your flyer... so this is the first post in a series. ;)

[Russell Christ]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/mookie714/050616_03_400h.jpg

see what I'm saying, zoom blur makes everything better

that's flippin awesome

[metagrapher]

wow..thanks for all your pos and neg feedback. All taken into consideration.
Now, to answer a few questions.

1. I have no kewl pix of me, so i used annakin
2. the flyer is designed in CYMK, not RGB, so the colors i understand will stand out differently on paper as opposed to a puter screen, but good points and thanks..since it' alrwdy off to the press.again, i guess to late too soon;)
3. as far as the natrix motif paired with starwars, and yeah it was a free font..lol, it's just letting people know that this is tech stuff..not booty, not mainstream. If you dig on scifi, you'll prolly dig on this. Since both are icons of the genre, i figured..fuck it why not.
4. this was actually the 1st of 5, and i took this one, mainly becuase it grabbed me better, and the others are for next time. fitting for a first party venture...maybe it is too late, maybe i am hung up on 1999, but, dayum...if i could go back..welll....we know how that would all go.


thanks again you guys..come check out the final phase live!!

peace and respect

Ian

cool. well, I wanna comment on a couple of things still.

First off, as your first flyer this was pretty good. My first flyer was pretty cluttered. I thought I needed graphics on the back and thought it was ok just to use a drop shadow or an outer glow to take care of that. I know better now.

I'll respond to your posts in line items...

1. I understand the rationale for using annakin. I hope that you changed it after reading the critiques. It wasn't clear whether or not you did, so I'll stick with that.

2. It's pretty easy to convert from CMYK to RGB. When showing for a web proof ALWAYS convert to RGB. Always. When printing from your home printer convert to RGB. In fact, when working on your monitor use RGB. Only convert to CMYK when it's time for print, and even then converting to CMYK is part of the Raster Image Processing (RIP) that will _always_ be performed by the printer and this reconversion will muddle the colors. What I mean by that is that the RIP will treat your CMYK image as RGB and reconvert to CMYK thus muddling your colors, unless... Most printers will have to convert to RGB for the RIP. Saves cost on all fronts and the printer won't think your a novice (which, right now you are, so it's ok.) Also, all this converting screws up your proofing. :P

3. I do understand your logic on that once again. However, star wars got tons of play about 30 years ago. Recently, not so much. It's still too recent, but whatever. As for the Matrix, well, LOGO was absolutely correct. "too late, too soon" It's like when you want to bring back your favorite old school track so you drop it in the middle of a set and you realize it's still only middle school... yeah, that's a shitty feeling.

4. You might be hung up on 1999, but the last matrix came out circa 2002 and people were making shit up until it was a dead horse in 2004. Give it till 2011 or so. Perhaps a little sooner.

It's a good start man. You did good your first time around. I hope you don't take critiques personal, cause they are never meant that way, and anyones who's ia, is a retard and deserves a .50 cal in the face.

A few final notes that I don't think got mentioned...

Watch your contrast. You have white letters that at times flow over white background. This is ah no good. Don't let yourself get caught up in fantastic imagery for the background where your primary focus is information. BTW, your background for the backside might actually have served you better on the front with some matrixy text if you still wanted to go that route. It wouldn't seem _as_ cliche and it's more eye catching. I have to admit tho, the matrix text on the front definitely would catch my eye...

Here's something for ya:
In art you want the person to stand there and think. Just sit and absorb your work for awhile.
In design you don't have that much time. You have anywhere from a fraction of a second to 5 seconds to capture a persons attention and make them stop and read your advert.
You don't want your audience to think. At least not immediately. Flyer art is only a touch closer to fine art than regular commercial art, yet the same rules apply. I hate rules, but you have to follow 'em before you can break 'em.
Catch their gaze, then their attention and then guide their eyes expertly through your information. That's what graphic design is all about. :)

keep it up. I expect to see more from ya.

[decoy]

that's flippin awesome

why, thank you. if I were designing a flyer, espically for a halloween event, I'd use that quicker than you can say "margret thatcher on a cold day"