Need comments or compliments on this flyer, for schoolproject!

[Minimi]

Hi there. I'm going to a school called "Multimedia Design", and I got an assignment from them, and if I succeed then I'm in for the school.

The assignment is to make a flyer for CJP, wich is a dutch company that supports cultural activities for youth. I chose for subject, "Movies".

The language is Dutch, but what do you think of the design? Is it good enough, and if there's something bad, please point it out!

I made it all in "The Gimp"

Thanks in advance!

[Tuomas]

It's just a suggestion, but you might try smoothening the lines between the green pictures. Anyway, that's what struck me the first, otherwise, great job...

Yet to think of it, you might concider wherther those yellow and green fit together, and the font you use on the green again. But as I said, it's a great piece and mine are merely suggestions, you could try them, I guess it wouldn't hurt.

[Phemar]

I think the layout is great. You might just wanna find a slightly less boring font for the text on the green.

Also, tone down the green! Too bright!

[Minimi]

The font used is the font of "Hollywood". I figured it would fit. Do you mean a more artistic font to choose?

About the green, my printer is printing it darker, and I have to deliver a printed version. So that's about the reason.

...hmm, I guess I'll look for another font!

[Pet Terry]

Use anti-alias on the font. Definately.

The colour scheme doesn't look too bad, but the words "drama", "avontuur" etc. seem too randomly placed.

[Mordalles]

looks cool,
i just wonder if the people of the multimedia school wants to see what you can do, or the people on the forums. 

[DanClarke]

the text in the middle needs composition, it's floating about. I also think the text on the left is too far left, there needs to be more margin, and the web address at the bottom is too big. Sorry for so much crit, i studied graphic design so it's a bit of a habit lol.

[Minimi]

nah, that's just fine! Me as a beginner, needs to learn. Thanks for the helpful advice. I'll start working on editing it immediatley!

any more specific ideas how to place the words in the middle?

[DanClarke]

consider using ruled lines to give you a guide then take them away when youre done, try and keep the distance between one word and the word below equal (known as leading) otherwise the eye tends to wonder. If you take a flyer and draw ruled lines where text etc lines up, youll see that theres always a grid structure in place, even if there doesnt seem to be one at 1st glance.

Keep at it and you'll get it

dan

[Misj']

Hi there. I'm going to a school called "Multimedia Design", and I got an assignment from them, and if I succeed then I'm in for the school.

The assignment is to make a flyer for CJP, wich is a dutch company that supports cultural activities for youth. I chose for subject, "Movies".

The language is Dutch, but what do you think of the design? Is it good enough, and if there's something bad, please point it out!

Hi,

Well...ehm...please chance the colours. First of all, the combination of (this) red and green is very shouting and - to be honnest - quite negative. As a matter of fact, I would probably only use it for a movie-poster for a bloody-thriller (which, incidently, I will never have to do). But even worse: the most common form of colour-blindness is red-green (deuteranomaly)...somewhere around six and ten percent in all males 'suffer' from it. So that would mean that in your class of about fifty people, and assuming twice as many males than females (multimedia is still mainly a guy-thing I believe), you would have two guys sitting there not being able to see your flyer. So with 100000 members (assuming an equal amount of males and females), 3000 of their members would be left in the dark by what you try to tell them.

The safest thing to do is either to use the (clasical) combination of (different shades of) blue and yellow, which gives a high contrast, and is least problematic for colour-blindness, or use the pink/white/gray combination they themselves chose on their website (which by the way I wouldn't). Unfortunately both these combinations are not very original, I have to admit. It's a choise you have to make...in the end the design has to represent you as well as the client.

An other point is the amount of fonts. Not counting the logo (CJP) I counted four different font-families. It is however more of less advisable to use as few families (counting for example ariel and ariel black as one) as possible, with a maximum of three. Reducing the number of fonts will give clearity to the observer. Using the same font for SPEEL FILMS and >>>WWW.CJP.NL<<< should be possible without loss in the design (I think). I also agree with the remark made by Zor, for even though I understand why Hollywood is appropriate, it's also quite messy (going up and down). And I doubt people will associate it with that hillsite...maybe they do, I just don't know. I think Headline will give more or less the same atmospher.

I won't discuss the message (you didn't translate it for me, and it's not - in a strict sense - part of the design)...I assume it was given to you as part of the assignment. Or at least I think it should be: you want to be a designer not a copywriter.

But...I do like the overall layout. I think it's well balanced. It does draw you towards the message on the left below the SPEEL FILM, and it leaves no doubt as to who it's for (well...I guess everyone in the Netherlands knows what the CJP is).

Yeah, I know...I write too much. Juist hope I was not to straight forward in expressing my opinion.

Misj'

[Nikolas]

I don't know if it is my sick compositional mind that wants this, but I would shift the pictures a little bit. They seem too aligned with each other. But that's just me...

I like the colours, but they do give you a little bit of a sense of "sickness". And Misj' has a lot of good points.

[Mr. Mozzarella]

Hi,

Well...ehm...please chance the colours. First of all, the combination of (this) red and green is very shouting and - to be honnest - quite negative. As a matter of fact, I would probably only use it for a movie-poster for a bloody-thriller (which, incidently, I will never have to do). But even worse: the most common form of colour-blindness is red-green (deuteranomaly)...somewhere around six and ten percent in all males 'suffer' from it. So that would mean that in your class of about fifty people, and assuming twice as many males than females (multimedia is still mainly a guy-thing I believe), you would have two guys sitting there not being able to see your flyer. So with 100000 members (assuming an equal amount of males and females), 3000 of their members would be left in the dark by what you try to tell them.

sorry, I really can't agree (although I agree that red-green-yellow isn't such a good-looking combination)
"suffering" from that genetic "illness" doesn't necessarily mean that you can't see red and green at all. Only very similar shades can't be distinguished (like some brownish green or red shades). Nevertheless it makes a difference and e.g. disables you to become a train conductor.
Also, someone who really can't differenciate between red and green will hardly choose an artistic carreer Ã, , so the percentages within the whole population can't be transferred to such a class

sorry, if it's a bit off topic, but I just had to defend myself a bit. My dad has it but he is definitely able to distinguish colours as intense as those on the leaflet. I was told to have it as well ... but even less "strong" than my dad ... and I can distinguish them perfectly

[Igor]

Hm.. i'll be brutaly honest here.. can't say i like it.

First of all.. color combination doesn't really work.. to me, not only it doesn't reflect word "movies", but it also creates very claustrophobic feel.

Second.. it's way too busy. Good design must be clear, readable and as simple as possible.. here you have too many elements&styles mixed together without any order, meaning or purpose. It's confusing and not very pretty to look at.

Third.. the idea. Try to be more original.. why should you use the most cliche concept: a few photos from movies and some text? Why not something more original&fresh? Design is all about ideas.

Hope i wasn't too discouraging.. but i'd really suggest (if there's still time), to leave this one as it is and try to come up with something entirely new. It's all about learning anyway

[Misj']

sorry, I really can't agree (although I agree that red-green-yellow isn't such a good-looking combination)
"suffering" from that genetic "illness" doesn't necessarily mean that you can't see red and green at all. Only very similar shades can't be distinguished (like some brownish green or red shades). Nevertheless it makes a difference and e.g. disables you to become a train conductor.
Also, someone who really can't differenciate between red and green will hardly choose an artistic carreer Ã, , so the percentages within the whole population can't be transferred to such a class

I love off-topic discussion (actually, I don't think they should exist too extensively, but I just can't resistÃ,  )...You are correct to state that it does not mean you cannot distinguish the colours at all...but...that does depend on the type of colour-blindness you have, as well as the strength of it. Now I have to say: I only look at the problem from a scientific point of view. I'm a medical biologist, so you can blame it on the dayjob. But I have spoken to both people who suffered from it slightly , as well as people who considered the colour of both their sweater and their throusers to be gray (one was red, the other green)...although I sometimes think he exaggerates. It's one of his hobby's.

More importantly, the flyer is - based on the assignment - meant for the entire Dutch population (well, those below a certain age atleast). So from that point of view the argument is still valid. Too high a percentage of the target group would - in one way or an other - be limited in percieving the message.

Your last remark I will have to disagree with though (yeah, I did see the smiley ). Assuming that someone with colour-blindness would not pursue an artistic carreer is like saying someone who's dyslectic would never become a writer. The talent to visualize, compose a scene, draw a line, that's basically colour-independant. Just like telling a story doesn't mean you have to spell all the words right. It might make things a little harder - sure...but not impossible or even unlikely.

Misj'

Ps. Ahhh....that's my last off-topic comment for today. Shouldn't have too many of thoseÃ, 

[Andail]

Although it's a flyer, it's built up as a webpage, with some sort of panel to the left and the background image to the right.
I think first of all the format is wrong. Either cut it in half, or - if it's supposed to fold - make the halves very different in terms of colourscheme, and add something important (some text or more important pictures) to the right to balance things up.

The background stands out too strong; lower the saturation by some 50%. You could also consider framing them with black borders.
The key words should be worked on a lot. They will attract most of the attention, and need to be well designed and appealing. Work out a nice font, add anti-aliasing and allign them neatly.

[TheYak]

And for god's sake, man, wash your hands! Sit up straight! Mind your manners!

Sorry, something about the last line of that critique reminded me of me dear old mum. 

I've got no idea how I would arrange it better or more appealingly, but have to agree on the colors.  Either reduce the overall photo contrast or lower the saturation a bit, but it's coming on so strong against the text that none of it becomes eye-catching when everything's eye-catching. 

[JWar]

Hello there,

I believe the time of busy flashy posters has gone by, the current trend is more towards the sober less is more approach, so try to keep that in mind.

Also, you're making a flyer for a company or organisation that has a welldefined 'house-style', which you should use to your benefit. People will recognise the poster easier if you adhere to this style. If, for example, you made a poster for orange, all you have to do is create a quality photograph, shift is to black and white and highlight with bright orange to get across that it's for orange.

Edit: The example wasn't respresentative for my usual quality, so I decided to remove it.

[Phemar]

I liked the original a lot better!