Skaven Chance Seare Website
whywaitwebs (104 pencils) | Sat, 2008-11-01 14:46
This is a website I'm working on for a friend who is an illustrator. Well, to be honest, it's something we did in about an hour when we were bored. He insists that he likes it, and wants to go forward with it. I'm not so sure. A few of my reservations are:
-The logo. It looks...out of place. The colors and, the style of it, just doesn't match the rest of the site.
-The area for content is really small, but thinking about it, all he really needs is a short paragraph on the home page. And a portfolio.
-The photo itself, It's really really hard for me to take it seriously, but I don't know if it's because it's a bad photo, or if I'm just overly critical.
For the portfolio, I was thinking about putting a couple pencils or some other drawing objects underneath the content area, and have them be next/prev. Then use jQuery to have it "slide" from page to page of thumbnails, which, when clicked would Lightbox to full size.
Anyway, I'd love to get feedback on this.
Commenting on this Image is closed.
I'm sorry, but DON'T CHANGE A THING! It's gorgeous. Great work.
EDIT: Only thing I MIGHT try would be doodled horns coming out of your friend's head or doodled bushy moustache and eyebrows. Illustrators doodle.
"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Are you serious? Or sarcastic? I can't really tell lol.
JHouse: Any specific advice for the photo? To be fair I've never taken any lessons or really done anything with photography other than a few pictures of mountains and sunsets here and there hehe.
Yes, I'm serious. I think what you've presented here is unique and clever, and sets itself off away from the normal blah sites. And as I'd noted, the only things I would try would be adding some sketched elements over top parts of the base photograph, and eventually work on your POV angles on the links, which again I think you could try sketching rather than employing a standard font.
"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Your WWW logo is too prominent -- I'd remove it. Also, have you actually posted this in a centered div online? I think the text will be too small.
Otherwise, pretty cool. Can you show some artwork instead of just the guy in blackness, having just written all the text upside down? :)
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
Wow, I'm very surprised you guys like it! Yeah there will of course be artwork in it. And for like a "featured work" I want to put a "piece of paper" on the table to the left.
I mean, I am kinda proud of the concept I'm just not sure if it has the finished look. Would you take an illustrator with this website seriously?
Also, on the logo: Frankly, I don't care if my logo is too prominent :P I'm working for free here, gotta get something out of this! Though maybe I could change the color or dull it or something to make it not stick out like a sore thumb.
Just because you're working for free doesn't mean you torture the user with a confusing message. Take your logo out of there, but leave your contact info.
Notice on other websites, designed by another individual or firm, do this as well. No need to go against the gain on this one.
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
I never said anything about torturing the user with a confusing message. Design by: [Logo] isn't confusing at all, and it most definitely isn't torture. The logo is tiny, I don't think most people will even notice it, let alone feel tortured by it.
I appreciate the feedback, and I am considering changing it. But "torture" is definitely overdoing it.
Hey, at least you get my point.
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
Is that the logo on the light? The light is a periferal element in this photo, especially that part of the light, and therefor low on the hierarchy, and that puts the logo low too. I think the logo should be seperate from the scene. currently the desk is at the top of the hierarchy. I think your logo is fine at the bottom of the page, as long as you make HIS logo at the top of the hierarchy by not shadowing it or by drawing attention to it somehow. You would create a diagonal eye-travel by making the logo prominant in the upper left corner...
what's the site for?
it doesn't scream "illustrator" to me...
I think the photo looks cool. The high contrast really works and could work for the concept, but the setting isn't right, pre-computer illustrators had a work area w/ drawing board or work table and other tools such as brush, pen and ink, airbrush, French curves, ruler, with concept drawings pasted everywhere (Walt-disney cartoonist style) and that's a stereo-type that could make it more obvious.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
I'm not sure I follow your comments on the logo. To me, the light sort of highlights it, it's definitely the first thing I look at. And then his arm provides sort of a natural flow for the eye down to the content area. It seems more of a curve than anything diagonal to me. Plus you got the light coming from the lamp, which literally "underlines" the logo.
I'd like to hear others' opinions on the hierarchy, myself I can't see the desk as being at the top.
And not to be super argumentative, I really appreciate your critique. But the setting is exactly right for what he does. I mean, CreativeBits' layout doesn't really scream "design community" either, the content shows you what it is, and the layout makes sense... With little illustrations all over the place I think it will be more obvious.
Anyway, he doesn't use traditional tools. He sketches it out a few times, then he scans it in and does his digital thing to it. I recommended using more obvious "illustrator" stuff as you mentioned, but he's opposed to the idea of showing tools that he doesn't actually use. He's not exactly an "illustrator" as much as just a guy to go to when you want some sort of art done. All-purpose, sketching, illustrating, all that.
it's a natural tendancy to focus on brightly lit things first, and to ignore darker things as unimportant. In this case, the paper is what is being lit so that's the cue you are giving to where the initial attention of the viewer should go (think: spotlight). The logo apears to be PART of the light it does not look to me to be a logo...it's just an abstract design decorating the light.
You are correct in that it doesn't necessarily have to portray Design and illustration, but it helps reinforce ideas that you might want your customers to have: that you have skill, experience, etc. nothing says that this portrayal needs to be true exactly, this is marketing after all: the science of misinformation...
when you say "illustration", most people who don't know about modern design and illustration (and many who do) think of the classic walt disney shows from back when we were kids: with a cartoonist at his drawing board and sketches etc., not photoshop or a Mac/PC in a cubical. and this is only one example, one that fits your current theme, there are many other imageries that can say "illustration" and younger generations who may never have seen those old portrayals of illustration may have a diffent imagery that works better with them. as the artist, that's your call, as the customer that's your friend's call.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
I see what you're saying. Yeah, the paper high in the hierarchy for sure -- I thought you meant the desk itself, which confused me :P
Yeah, okay, I will see what I can do with that logo to make it more obviously a logo, thank you very much for your comments.
Maybe change your www logo to a gray color instead?
Good idea. I'll try that. Thanks
I showed it to my brother and here's his comment:....
"dude. the first thing i see is the paper..then i try to read what it says... when asked if i saw the logo i thought " hmmm...logo?" took me a minute to find it and it was so well hidden i felt id accomplished somethingXD. looks like its just some teens art deco lamp. not an artist personally but could b a customer... origonally i didnt even know it was an advertisement.. thought it was just a stock photo..thanks for the oportunity to help.:)"
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
Your brother rocks. Buy him something.
Mara
sometimes it's best to bring in someone who is ignorant of art and what you're trying to accomplish.
I do this sometimes with my own work. The trick is coming up with questions to ask before they see it.
he just happened to come in to talk to me while I was finishing my response and so I said, "look at this: what's the first thing you see?" then I asked him what he thought about the logo, and you all know the rest. Then he wanted to make his comment, and I thought that could be a big help.
back in Highschool when I first got serious about art and was learning about proper critique, I asked one of my father's friends about a piece I was working on... He got all metaphysical and stuff, and all I wanted to know was if my shading was correctly rendered(or something like that)... and so I got a crash-course in asking the right questions:
be short, to the point, and very specific, but be vague as to what kind of answer you're looking for (so they don't just tell you what they think you want to hear to spare your feelings). The questions also need to be prioritized, for instance "what's the first thing you see" is pointless if asked last, because they've had time to think about the image and may not remember what they noticed first anymore.
so how to be specific, yet vague? If I say, "I can't get the xxxxxx to stand out enough, do you see it first when you look at it?" that phraseology includes the cues to the answer you want to hear (yes!). whereas if I say instead, "What's the first thing you see", now there are no longer any cues, and the viewer has only a vague idea about what answer I'm looking for, yet the question is quite specific.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa
there's a logo in the light??
One thing I think you might try is a different perspective: it just seems kind of odd that I'm reading something that clearly the person at the desk can't read properly (the content would be upside-down to him). Perhaps an over-the-shoulder viewpoint from behind the person at the desk would be a little easier to swallow.
Also, I agree with most of the people suggesting that a higher-quality photo should be used. For instance, looking closely at the lamp, you can see a lot of "noise" in the photo - it just doesn't look like a professional grade image. I'm not a photographer, so I'm not sure how that noise could be reduced. Higher mega-pixels, adjusted camera-settings?
Best of luck - hope to see the final results!
edit: oh! I'm not so sure the t-shirt he's wearing would be appealing to a very wide array of prospective customers or clients. A plain black shirt or a more tastefully-neutral design would be ideal, in my opinion. :)
A good way to remove "Blue noise" (jpeg artifacts in the blue channel) in lower quality Jpegs, is to:
Duplicate the layer, Gaussian blur that layer until no longer recognizable. Then click blending options, and uncheck R and G, leaving B checked, making the blur only apply to the B channel. After that, change the layer to blending mode: color. Merge down, and check out your blue channel. Much more clean.
Here is the difference in the blue channel after this:
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My Portfolio
Well done! I'm glad you've shared this technique - I'm sure I'll be using it at some point in the future. I'll be copying this to my Evernote profile for sure :)
If you change the scene so that the artist is sliding the notebook over to the unseen visitor, as if showing his latest sketch, or presenting an estimate or bill, then that solves the issue of upside down text on the page. but the audience has to KNOW that is what is happening or it won't work.
I think the image is a success, even if for no other reason than that it generated so many comments in the critique :)
as for image quality, no one has asked this yet, and it's important: is this version of the image the "full size" version? or has this been resampled to generate a smaller file size? to accurately judge quality, we'd need to look at the version that will appear on the website. However, a simple Smart Blur would would fix most of the noise I see in this image. that type of noise is usually an artifact of taking photos in poor light levels or with lower quality cameras. Smart Blur smooths similar colors but maintains the hard edges. You may need to play with the settings until you find what you like. you can also use it instead of Gaussian Blur in the process mentioned by Stephanie
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa