Concept Reviews
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Hi Chris
You may not want to hear this, but IMHO it's better to know the negatives in order to learn and move forward and become a stronger designer.
Have a look at the attached notes...
Hope all makes sense if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Cheers
Notes Added to Images View
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1Font
although it's a technical looking font, it's black and has no technical feel to it... not to mention, it's particularily ugly font
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2ampersand
this is what's know as a 'orphan' in the design world and is BIG 'no, no'... keep ampersands after one word at the least
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3Mast Head
when designing a Magazine layout the Mast head needs to be really well layed out, as it differentiates it from other magazines. The idea is to keep the mast head, one specific size in order that when in a shelf the customer can easily recognise it from other competing titles... if it's not recognisable or doesn't stand out you have lost the target market.
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4Same Font
don't use the same font as the mast head
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5backround image
it's very abstract, it doesn't really say "science & technology" other than the colors... but overall not bad.
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I think is a good design in general, but I would change a few things to make it a little better.
I like the liquid chrome looking image on the front but am unsure how that communicates science and technology. If chrome is what you are going for, then I would also expect to see a chrome element in the top left section too.
To give some credit, my eye is drawn to the center of the image and I do wonder what I am looking at. Perhaps that will get me to pick up the magazine to see if I could figure it out as a high school student.
I made a few more annotations on the image itself.
Notes Added to Images View
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1spacing
The spacing is not uniform at the top. It needs to be centered unless you are wanting to draw attention to the disequilibrium. I suspect that is not the case here.
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2Move "Technology" up
I would move "Technology" up to go after "&" and play around with the spacing.
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3Font and Reflection
The font screams old to me. Perhaps it communicates science and technology well, but it is too clunky for me. I seriously don't know what to think about the reflection on the font. There is something about it that doesn't connect with me. Maybe angle it toward the center of the image.
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4Font and Reflection
Again...the font needs to be different. If you stick with the reflection down here, it needs to fade out sooner as in the header font. The gradient needs to fade to where you don't see the whole letter (as in the header).
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5Move "Anatolia College" Here
I would consider moving this whole text block to the bottom right side or MAYBE to the bottom center. The eye is moving in that direction anyway, so the current placement is fighting that movement.
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Chris Tr. commented:Hello Chris, first of all, thank you for your comment! I really found point 5 very useful! Hadn't thought of that! And you have a very good thought about it! As far as 1 is considered, we just left the same spaces between the three words. If we think of the whole top text, then, yes, it should go a little bit down, uh? For 2, I am not sure, if there will be enough space to place bot on the same line... Thank you again for your critique!
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Although I'm not quite sure what the 3D visual is, it still quite catch my eye when first seeing it.
The problem with this cover is that the Top and bottom text are totally disconnected with the visual. A solid, strong font in black with flection didn't quite match the white & smooth 3D material. Also the blue line on top left stepping on the title seem unecessary.
Could the fonts be created in 3D with similar material style of the visual?
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Chris Tr. commented:
I get your point Ming. But if the text was in the same material style as the background (which is possible), wouldn't it be much harder to make out the title. Indeed, it is strong, but we aimed to cause this difference, in order to make the reader clearly see what is written... We'll process your review, and see what we can do with it! Thank you!
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I like it. Yes, notes about reflections and ampersand in between two words are worthy attention, I also wanted to say about this but it had been mentioned already. But these are small things. All in all, this whiteness, purity, smoothness are very attractive and catch the eye. Just to re-work a bit typography and it will be perfect.
Aaran, Thank you for your comments... In the beginning it seemed to harsh to me, but now I read between the lines and I get your points... These are things that we hadn't thought of, really. What impressed me, most of all, was point 4. It seems very strange to me, as we chose the same font, so that there is sequel with the top of the bottom of the page, since we decided not to add anything else (this year), except for what you see... And I agree with point 5, as indeed I know that it doesn't really refers to science, but the idea was accepted, for that different feeling... Not to mention, that we thought it wasn't that bad in general... Thank you for once more! We'll consider all you points with my partners, and I honestly believe, that if nothing changes this year (due to deadline restrictions), we'll use this knowledge for next year!