Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Center of Excellence


ronniemcbride

Recommended Posts

IT been awhile sinceI  posted something here.  I have been crazy busy! I been using Affinity Designer on everything I can. I  got three digital billboard designs I created that will be displayed in two major NY locations. Right now I am working on a simple illustration.  This is my first round so feel free to comment critique or whatever.  Everything was done in Affinity Designer.

 

COE-version-2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Wowser, that's a great start! For me, I think the glasses are a little too heavy and I'd do something to mix up the repetition of the male character - even just occasionally have a different haircut? It's really impressive though! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, Matt! You are right the glasses are a bit thick. plus I scaled the image down and forgot recheck scale with object setting in the stroke options. The Males were purposely made to be similar to represent that their all the same type of person with a similar skill sets, but perhaps I should play with their hairstyles a bit more to break them a bit.

 

MY client says the following graphic

 

Center-of-Excellence.png

 

is common in his industry, but he is tired of seeing it and wanted something that represents the same thing, but executed differently, so this is my first take on it. We see where this goes. Well, I can say this much it was fun to do in AD really just so fluent for me to work in. I don't even consider the other option at all anymore. It does all what I need so...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You expressed yourself fine. I understood you and appreciate what you had to say. :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, The_Giant_Bloomers! Yup, I agree. It is an unfortunate truth that there not many female tech engineers in this industry, in fact, there isn't one in my clients office, but I forced one into the illustration to show some sort of female representation especially due to the title. How can you have Excellence and not have a female involved somewhere in the mix?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IT been awhile sinceI  posted something here.  I have been crazy busy! I been using Affinity Designer on everything I can. I  got three digital billboard designs I created that will be displayed in two major NY locations. Right now I am working on a simple illustration.  This is my first round so feel free to comment critique or whatever.  Everything was done in Affinity Designer.

 

COE-version-2.jpg

 

 

Hej Ronnie!

 

Looks like a fairly straightforward design with a uniform group of people working on laptops surrounding an individual meant to stand out from this ‘crowd’ and a banner announcing the ‘message’ which the work is attempting to state.

 

While the uniformity of the group is clear, the mixture of male and female, glasses or none, and apparent ethnicity lend a more informal and 'natural' look to the work. As has been suggested, perhaps the work as a whole would benefit from some slight variation in the individual hairstyles and in the shapes of the eyeglasses.

To my eye, at least, the use of ‘apparent light’ could be improved. The centre bright spot coupled with the outer ‘vignetting’  distractingly counteract one another and the eye tends  to bounce back and forth between the dark and the light leaving what is meant to be viewed unnecessarily more difficult to view. Perhaps doing away with these ‘lighting’ elements and replacing them with gradients over the group would not only add some linear perspective but also allow you to control just how deep the pictorial space is to be. The red shirt with that lighter coloured tie, the grey hair, the addition of eyes, and the centre position already point the viewer’s eye to the figure in the centre so the lighting there is superfluous. Such a change should also better place the banner into the 'foreground'. (As the addition of eyes to the centre figure was a conscious one [most likely intended to further separate him from the group], perhaps going further and giving him more 'open' eyes could also be a consideration.)

 

This shows quite a creative take on the more ‘common’ graphic which your client provided and fits well with current tastes and trends.

 

You did invite critique and I mean mine to be only constructive; and it is only my unlearned and amateur opinion so you must be the judge of its value, if any.

 

 

 

A creative concept well executed - as I have come to expect from you having viewed your other posted work here on the forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, Just William!

 

I did invite critique. and absolutely appreciate your view. I think you are less "amateur" than you think. Your critique was well delivered and well received. Your ability to clearly depict what you feel is right, wrong, or what could be better is what makes your statements valid and respected. You provide some good points and I made some adjustment with a bit more focus on the feedback you provided. If it is better or if it is worse really is up to you to decide, but I think the piece has benefited from your input.

 

COE-version-3.jpg

 

 

 

Also, thanks for you last statement. I guess I have set some expectations from the work I have posted here and online in general. I believe I am pretty good at what I do. I am  far from being as good as I strive to be, but that will come. Thanks for reminding that there are people actually paying attention to my work even if they have not said anything in the thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hej Ronnie!

 

I found your changes to have made quite a distinct difference in the impact of this image. Your idea of using the same colour for the banner and the centre of attention's shirt not only guides one's eye back and forth between these two elements but has the additional advantage of helping one's mind to fully 'associate' the two. The addition of light onto the central figure (rather than behind him) also brings more attention to it. Although I did rather like the blue colour used originally (A true Teal has long been one of my favourite colours), I found that after flipping back and forth between the two images that I preferred the grey tone which you make use of in the second image; it creates an atmosphere of dull, drab uniformity which is then dispelled by the red colour used on the true 'subject' of the work. The shadows which you added give a sort of 'slightly, off-camera flash' feel to the whole making it seem all the more 'business-like' somehow.

 

You really are a clever and talented illustrator; if I had the disposable cash or weren't married (they do not seem to go hand in hand) I would love to work through your course, but I am learning by doing and am almost finished with a formidable project which I created to push my limits of skill (and patience) which I will post as soon as it is complete. Then you will be able to see what an absolute amateur I am and provide me with your own constructive critique.      :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome back Ronnie,

 

How about giving the central character a subtle glow? As if he is something special. As for the faces, where's the stubble (Me/MEB/rui_mac) or the beards (retrograde) to name a few?

 

How about a red background and a green banner?

MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6

 

http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, The_Giant_Bloomers! Yup, I agree. It is an unfortunate truth that there not many female tech engineers in this industry, in fact, there isn't one in my clients office, but I forced one into the illustration to show some sort of female representation especially due to the title. How can you have Excellence and not have a female involved somewhere in the mix?

With the amount of females using this tech: phones, tablets, social media, webcams and selfies. It's quite amazing that they haven't embraced the development side of this brave new world. 

 

Who is to blame? Schools, recruiters, parents, Ad men, the press, television, glossy magazines or the girls themselves?

MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6

 

http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.