Urgently need advice and help

[alesoun]

So, I run a ghost walk, and some little darling angel of God has kicked my sign in. It literally fell to pieces in my hands the other night. It's going to take time and money to fix, so I decided to do some A4 posters to go up in local shop windows. I'll probably do more than one version, but I need something by Thursday night. This is what I've got so far.

Not finished yet, but I figured there was no point taking it to a finished stage if it has any basic flaws. All advice welcomed; but remember, I'm useless at digital; so it would be useful if you not only told me what needs altered, but also HOW to alter it.

Thanks in advance.

[Liquidpope]

Howdy!
I'm deep in the middle of some stuff right now, but should be freed up in about an hour or so.
I'll try to get something posted for you at that time.
In the meanwhile, these are my thoughts...

I like the red font (quite alot), but I'd maybe try to thicken it up a little.
The current moon shape is rather elliptical, and should probably be more round.
The character should be lit from behind, making the moon the light source. Darker overall, with some pale yellow rim spill.
I wouldn't change anything about the character (other than the lighting) except maybe make the face a little less descriptive. Ghost-like, where you can barely make out the features.
(Unless that's supposed to be you, and you want to be recognized.)
And all of the other text needs to be moved around a bit. Some of it's getting lost in the cape/veil area.
I'd probably change that background color to something darker, bluer, and maybe make the rest of the text a pale yellow moon-y color.

Overall it's not bad, and will certainly get the job done.



Edit: Time is working against me today. I'll have to post later tonight/early tomorrow. Sorry.

[Jaunay]

Hey hope I can help out.

First off, i think that you're trying to show too much of the character. If it's due by wendnesday and you want something impactual. I'd try something with more contrast. Try moving the character around and get the composition with the type before putting in more details.

Chiller is old, just saying. And there are plenty of free fonts online that will suit the look of your poster better.

You viewers have 3 seconds to notice and get taken in when they look at your poster. Make sure it gets their eye, and it very readable.

Double check the dates and numbers, that's the last thing you want to get wrong!

I'll still be around if help is needed.

-Red

[Raoul Duke]

first and foremost ditch the cape it's clashing with the type. Secondly If you are under tight time constraints Just do a nice clean sketch and flat fill the colors. This is not a time for leaning and experimenting. I'd seriously recommend going monochrome with exception of the red dress and title.

[kab]

Far too much going on, with both composition and colors.

Posters need immediate impact and split-second communication and for that your text is way to thin and wonky. Blow the headline up so you could read it from five steps away, keep the illustration simpler considering your time-contraints.

-Kim

[Liquidpope]

This is roughly what I was getting at earlier.

(Warning: I'm a completely self-taught noob with no knowledge or experience to back up my opinions.)

Good luck with getting it done in time.

[LuckyDevil]

I think you should loose the witch completely, honestly it's not rendered good enough to help you. If it's not yet completed than i'm sorry and can give you feedback again on the witch figure later on but as it is right now its not working. I think you can have a good poster with just well placed and composition words and maybe photograph element(s).

The background colors are not helping either. it doesn't say witches or ghosts to me, i think of witches and ghost as dark and spooky. Use darker colors for the background but keep the moon theme going, maybe look at some halloween posters and mimic some styles. The title needs to be much bigger to capture your audience, maybe split it into two lines. The font is ok, not great but ok. Move around the text for better composition.

If you do ditch the witch drawing you can try to go with an actual picture from your place or scary scene of your tour. or even a stock photo that you can purchase online along the theme your looking for.

[Pocoyo]

If you can either post the psd or a png of just the witch image with transparent background I could whip something up for you.

[alesoun]

Thanks, guys. I've been running around like a headless chicken for the last few days. Had to miss my own deadline.

However, I snatched a couple of hours today to try out some of your suggestions. Nothing to show yet, but thanks for the help, and I'll post what I've got when I can.

[organ-kean]

You can do more than you'd believe with type alone for a quick job.

I used Fontin on this one - it's free, and I liked the look. It's also reasonably easy to read quickly. I varied it by using regular, bold, and small caps, as well as different sizes.

Making some assumptions, I figured Original Witches Tour was the most important thing to get across. You want your audience to know that there's a witches tour, and this is the original one. So those words are largest and towards the top.

Once they know that, then they're curious about the rest of the stuff. Smaller type, and organized by type of information towards the bottom.

Illustration isn't a bad idea - so I grabbed a quick dingbat from Caslon. A thistle seemed appropriate, given the names St. Andrews and Greyfriars. A pentacle might be appropriate too.

I didn't use color; this was a very quick job for me. If I were printing this, I'd suggest black on a neon yellow or green. Don't use red paper - black does not stand out on it. And I think that's what you want to do - attract attention quickly.

Good luck

[alesoun]

Ooookaaaay! This is what I have so far....

It's not perfect, but it's a start. I'm such a noob at digital art that I've made every mistake known to man (and invented a few new ones) trying to do this. I'm aiming to do a variety of posters, but I'm staying away from dark and terrifying for the first few; it doesn't even get dark here until after 10 pm at this time of year, so I'll save creepy for the winter tours.