Opinions readability of my advertisement design

[bladeiai]

This is still a work in progress so don't rip my nuts off it you don't like it.

but..... how difficult is it to read "Jewelry Edition"?

Thanks

P.S.- It was not my idea to do it in Graffiti

 

[Guitarrasdeamor]

I could read it pretty quickly.

 

[leSLIe]

are you focusing your design to appeal to a younger crowd?

i could barely read "makeover"

 

[digital_exhaust]

are you focusing your design to appeal to a younger crowd?

i could barely read "makeover"

I agree, took a second to figure out both "makeover" and "jewelery edition"...

Just my opinion.

 

[Adam]

Give it a shadow underneath the words/diamond, it'll make it pop more and look better i think

 

[bladeiai]

are you focusing your design to appeal to a younger crowd?

i could barely read "makeover"

Not especially (to my knowledge anyway)

Give it a shadow underneath the words/diamond, it'll make it pop more and look better i think

Under which words? Jewelry Edition already has a pretty large stroke.

I think it's more of an issue with the leters "lry" running together.

Other than that I kind of feel the whole idea is just crap...

 

[madFive]

Wow, yeah these fonts have some serious readability issues. The one on top is the least-worst of the three; the middle is pretty bad, but you can make it out after staring at it a while. The bottom is just horrible - I would seriously toss that font and maybe use the top one again or something. The first J is the only character I'm not having trouble making out; the EWE is very muddled, could be EuIE or any other random combo of letters; the L could be a V; the R looks like a P; the Y sortof looks like another “u” with some random blotch under it... I never even got to looking at the word “edition” 'cause I was stuck figuring out “jewelry”...

I personally have no idea what the goal of graffiti artists is when they come up with such convoluted designs (don't get me wrong, they do look really cool, and they certainly have artistic merit), but when you're working with text in a graphic design, you have to assume that people are only going to spend a split second looking at your design, and then they are going to move on and forget it. So you have to make sure everything in your work can be read instantly without all this second-glancing. Think “would I be able to read this on a billboard at 60 mph?” If not, the design probably needs to be re-thought.

Speaking of which, what is the actual end-medium of this design? CD cover? Poster? Video headline screen? Just curious.

Anyhow, if you really want to try and salvage that font on the bottom row, at the very least I would space out the letters so none of them are overlapping; or maybe draw in the black lines between the characters so they are each individually readable.

Here's another trick that can help a lot when using these kind of artistically emaciated font styles (I listen to heavy metal; trust me, you've haven't really seen an emaciated font set until you've tried to alphabetize a pile of blackmetal cd's ). Add a "translation" for the messy font along with it! Basically, you're free to use the most artistic and convoluted font you want, as long as you have the same text in a normal sans-serif right along with it. Just use the messy font like you would use a logo or another piece of art in the design, and work in a readable version over the top. That way you can make sure to have something that's easily readable and still keep the spirit of the artistic font along with it.

(Problem examples )

This isn't really the best solution example, since the cleaner font is also pretty messy here, but hopefully you get the idea. This was just the first remotely applicable thing I could find in google. Hope this rant wasn't too confusing - good luck with the project!

 

[bladeiai]

I actually already updated the font on the bottom, it's not great but I think it's a lot better than it was:

oh and it's for a website

 

[madFive]

oh, yeah that's a ton better. I would still clean up the tail on the first 'R' a little more. It would also look a little more pro if you use the same color and stroke style for both the "makeover" and the "jewelry edition" - not really liking how they're just slightly different shades of off-white and one has that green embossed offset where the other one is just plain black stroke.

Lastly, I would tweak the symmetry/balance of the whole thing a little. Need to center the EXTREME over the diamond, make sure all 4 elements are centered in the frame, and I would bend the edges of the "makeover" down a little to match the "jewelry edition," just to tie the whole thing together a little more.

 

[bladeiai]

thanks for the advice, I hadn't even noticed they were different colors of off white untill you mentioned it, it that does make it look a bit crapish. I was also noticing the tail on the y is overdone and messy looking.

Thanks again to everybody

 

[bladeiai]

well I screwed around with it some more and have it up on the page design (also a work in progress)

let me know what you think