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environmental awareness poster
lollipox \| 02/22/2007 @768 \| edit post

basically im trying to show that the earth is melting due to pollution. is there any way to improve this?

http://normanade.com/PSTENNIS/nat02fin.jpg

Re: environmental awareness poster
arenhaus \| 02/24/2007 @440 \| edit post

Yes, a ton of ways.

Make meaningful choices. If your background is black, you better have a clear reason why it needs to be black and not white (for better readability) or orange (for heat). If your text is dull khaki, you better have a good reason for it too.

Use the clearest presentation you can design. The colors must be harmonious and match the mood, not what was available in the stock or picked at random. Composition must be readable and guide the viewer's eye where you want it. If there are no margins in the poster, you better have a good reason for it. If the bottom half of the poster is effectively empty, you better have a good reason for it too. If your text intersects the image - you know the routine.

Be thorough, do not be lazy. Arial typeface is readily available, but not the best for the poster even among Helvetica family. Try the snappier modern sans-serif fonts for readability and fresh look; Arial is battered to death by overuse. If you need Earth in the image, it should instantly read as Earth - any random sat photo will not do. Photoshop smudge tools are easy, but they do not do much in a way of melting look - your Earth looks finger-smeared at best.

Do your research and be creative in interpreting it. If Earth melted, what would it look like? Will its crust stretch? Fold in wrinkles? Would the mantle flow like jam or molten ice cream for better visual impact? Maybe actually make an Earth-textured ice cream cone? Will little drops fall, or ooze? Will the melting start from top. bottom, everywhere? Will the iron core plop out of it like a cherry? Would showing the actual pollution in some way help, or obscure the meaning? And so on. Again, make no random choices. Every your move must be calculated, aware, efficient.

As a general advice, do not be cheap and do not be a sheep. Illustrating whatever is the current media hype is easy, but you can bet that everyone else is doing it too, and it will make your work age at the speed of rumor. If someone commissioned you to do a "melting Earth" poster, then you have fewer choices; but if it is your personal project you do not have to stick to hype. Check collateral data. Check how much substance is there behind the hype - do you want to have this image haunt you forever if the data behind it turns out to be wrong? Last time I heard there were serious issues with how the UN's official climatology institute does and presents its research - down to using doctored math to make their iconic "hockey stick" graph, according to a critical article I read. Apparently some independent researches took their statistical algorithm and found that due to the way it was designed it would put about 300 times more weight on the data with even slight rising tendencies, and produce the same sharp rise at the end no matter what you feed it, including totally random data sets. After such warnings I'd be double cautious to buy into the hype, or they'll be showing your work for laughs, like that "global freezing" hype 30 years ago.

Is there an issue where you can genuinely help, rather then making the trite "save the earth from humans" stuff? Perhaps you could make posters to remind people not to litter in your local park? That would make a small, but very real influence - much more important than producing another generic-scary picture that will only help everyone grow jaded to the topic.

You want to make the world a better place? Start with yourself.

Re: environmental awareness poster
lollipox \| 02/25/2007 @274 \| edit post

wow, thankyou for the reply. As you've said, I had trouble selecting type ( colour, font,size) arial is actually a knock off of helvetica that ms uses lol they are very similar. Arial/Helvetica are overused but its really a matter of opinion if you think sans is snappier ? I'm not really sure because it does make sense. I picked yellow and red because they are "warning colours" so to speak and apparently they should get people's attention. I may be wrong. but were you thinking of making the text a bit cooler? i wasn't really sure what you meant by "hype". did you mean trying to add a bunch of useless crap to try to enhance the image? I really like your ice cream idea, that is really creative.

This is a school assignment to show our current situation, althougth there are many many things in this image that is not realistic or according to facts, i know after global warming there should be an ice age obviously i cant be too sure about that either. but the point is i have to design a poster that is attention catching, reasonable design layout and good typography with a melting earth.

I agree that i did not do my research. I'm actually quite noobish when it comes to this, sometimes it feels like i picked the wrong field. my mind is just stuck after working with one image. luckily people like you help me out

the earths crust, continnents, water falling/melting would really be effective and i do think that this would not be the best way to influence someone to change their habits to slow carbon emissions.

Thank you for the constructive criticism I really got alot out of what you've said, hope to hear from you soon

Re: environmental awareness poster
arenhaus \| 02/25/2007 @554 \| edit post

If you choose red and yellow as a warning, then use RED! and YELLOW! , not black with a little maroon and khaki. If you want to rely on color for impact, make that color visible.

And by "hype", I refer to hype. I don't know where you got the notion I were in favor of adding unnecessary junk to the image; I favor using as few devices as possible, for clarity. I mean hype as in the media hype - journalists mis-presenting opinions as if they were hard facts, and pumping up sensation bubbles instead of providing information. Which is currently happening with the whole "global warming" issue. There may well be significant man-made component in the climate trends; but the way it is treated right now, it is no good science. It is all politics and hype - and worse, doctored research on more than one occasion.

(BTW, no, it does not absolutely follow that there needs to be an ice age after warming. In fact, with the form of the continents for the past 40 or so million years, with the equatorial ocean current no longer possible, Earth's climate has become polarized, and will stay so for at least another 40-60 million years, and we are bound to have these oscillations from cold to warm. But right now the major trend over thousands of years has been cooling, not warming; and the minor trend over hundreds of years has been relative warming again - we are just now getting out of the so called Little Ice Age, and still living with the heritage of the latest Great one. We are not yet in the climatic optimum, nowhere as warm as it has been around year 1000 when Greenland was really green. So if our added carbon dioxide is indeed helping to warm the planet - it is not the main "greenhouse" factor, over 90% of that being water vapor, but every little thing has its influence - we may be actually stabilizing the climate somewhat, staving off the next Ice Age. So after this warming, it may stay warm for longer than usual! How true that is - well, given the current media hype, there is little chance to get a clear picture. Personally, I am waiting until the hype subsides, when the scientists might actually try some unbiased research.)

But you are right in saying that the poster does not have to be realistic, what it has to be is eye catching. The key to that is: simplicity and standing out. Use the clearest, most direct presentation you can make, and use an idea that is either different from the usual, or speaks to the viewer personally. You can start with this idea here, nothing so wrong with it even if it is too impersonal for me; but do two things: try to peel it down to the barest minimum, and then make several different versions based on that. Then pick the one that you think makes greatest impact, or maybe looking at them will give you more ideas. I had given a small demonstration of idea tossing in this thread.

I know that for a beginner so much work goes into every project that it feels too precious to lose. A professional values his sketches a lot less: they cost him much less due to experience. So don't value the poster design here; value the experience you got from it. Negative experience is good, too: you learn what does NOT work. If this does not work, do not cling to it: start over, deviate from the groove, try radically different ideas. It does not mean to be thrifty, of course: make your preliminary work cheap enough, too. Jot your concepts on postcard-size paper with a pencil, don't try to take them to production quality at once. Preliminary sketches save you time and effort, because if you notice a problem in a sketch you won't waste your time on "polishing a turd", as it is known. But don't think that professionals sometimes do not have to start over when an almost-finished piece just stinks. It happens. Just sober up, see what can be rescued, and start over if nothing else.

I do not think you should quit over a single attempt poorly gone, though.

At least you had the gut to go and ask for help! And if you realize what your specific personal problem is - you say it is getting stuck on one image - then you have half the solution. Just devise a method to make yourself unstuck.

Here's one that generally works well: make eight different little sketches for every assignment, each with a different way to deliver the result. Then pick the best one.

Re: environmental awareness poster
Wysiwyg \| 02/25/2007 @972 \| edit post

_quote:
lollipox wrote on 02/25 @274
As you've said, I had trouble selecting type ( colour, font,size) arial is actually a knock off of helvetica that ms uses lol they are very similar. Arial/Helvetica are overused but its really a matter of opinion if you think sans is snappier ? I'm not really sure because it does make sense. I picked yellow and red because they are "warning colours" so to speak and apparently they should get people's attention. I may be wrong. but were you thinking of making the text a bit cooler? i wasn't really sure what you meant by "hype". did you mean trying to add a bunch of useless crap to try to enhance the image? I really like your ice cream idea, that is really creative.

Arial is 'overused' because it's legible..there's a reason it's a standard. Text shouldn't take away focus from the image. It should stand on it's own but also give the image some spotlight. Avoid the overuse of decorative fonts as the message in the box is the most important...not the gift wrapping.

The norm (a guideline not a rule) is Sans Serif for electronic presentation, Serif for print.

Yellow and Red because they are 'warning colors'.....To me it reminds me of every major fast food chain's colors (McDonald's anyone). Analyze your target audience, as colors don't always have the same effect in every culture.

Red on black is essentially a dark tone on a dark tone...making it hard to read. Red is actually one of the least favorable color choices for text in most situations (again, it's a case by case scenario).

Re: environmental awareness poster
Marx-Man \| 04/16/2007 @380 \| edit post

Hmm interesting imagery..

[Message edited on 04/16 @381]

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