Student Portfolio Exhibit 01 - Motivational GearUP Poster

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Instructor feedback
Anna Sadler:
What feels good about this design? 
  • That finger with the paint on it draws your eyes right to where your message begins. Why do your eyes go there first? Well, because that's where her eye gaze is pointing you. Also, there is a lot of contrast happening right there.
  • Playful use of text - well done!
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • ​Don't let your text get too close to the edge of your design. Text needs some margin - some breathing space - to be more readable.
Ashlee Kirby:
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Instructor feedback
​B Chau:
What feels good about this design? 
  • This is an eye-catching design, B.​ I think the texture adds more interest to the design.
  • You've used two contrasting fonts - a slab serif and a sans serif font.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I think your background competes with the text. If you take the background into Camera Raw and reduce the exposure to make it darker, the contrast will help the text pop out a lot more.
  • Your text is not quite centered. Here is a short video on how to accurately center your text layer.
​B Wilson:
What feels good about this design? 
  • I think how you've used "the world is mine" and "determined" is quite creative! Nice!
  • Good use of space, alignment, contrast, and proximity! It looks clean and professional.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • The last line of text could use a bit more work. Perhaps, "Determined students learn to love learning, and become great leaders."
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Instructor feedback
​Bonnie Schenk-Darrington:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Nice idea - admit one ticket to an awesome life.
  • ​The graphic elements you've included go well together with the idea of school.
  • Good use of contrast. Repeating the color blue ties the pen and handwriting together. 
  • Primary color scheme - Red, Yellow, Blue
What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I would close in your text elements a bit - using proximity to make them seem more related. Your four lines of text are spaced far enough apart they feel like four separate, unrelated phrases. If you reduce the spacing between the lines just a bit, that relationship is reestablished.
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Instructor feedback
Bryan Christensen:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good overall design idea, Bryan.
  • Repetition of the moon image in the word "stars" and "moon" text.
  • Good color choice.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • Your moon/gear image is touching the edge - creating a strong visual tangent that immediately draws your eyes to that edge. I would suggest moving that element up into the image a bit.
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Instructor feedback
Brynne Peak:
What feels good about this design? 
  • I think the idea is a good one, Brynne.
  • The two contrasting fonts go well together
​What problems do I see in the design?
  • The background image is so busy, it seemed like it needed a focus on just one or two people.  I took your layer of white and filled it with black. Then I took the eraser tool (soft, large brush) and erased a hole in the layer, and then reduced the opacity a bit so everyone else shows up.
  • To perfectly center your text, watch the video I shared with B Chau.
Caleb Barton:
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Instructor Feedback
Caleigh Hales:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Gorgeous background image
  • Nice use of font
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I wouldn't cover up that beautiful foreground - it's dark enough as is for the text
  • Give your text some breathing room between it and the edge.
  • Align with a strong alignment line on your text.
​Cameron Draper:
​Good update Cameron. One last suggestion. "College is Hard." should end with a period.
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Instructor feedback
​Chelsea Gunther:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good idea, Chelsea. Easy to remember what the letters in BULB stand for.
  • Good repetition of color, font, font size.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • ​You've used an adjustment layer to darken the background a bit more so the lettering around the light bulb would stand out. But it dimmed the light as well. Using black paint, paint a hole in the mask to let the light shine back through!
  • Be careful not to create visual tangents by having your letters touch the edge - give your text just a bit more margin. Or, break the rule and make them touch edges - which will certainly draw your eyes toward them. Just avoid almost doing it.
​Dani Lawrence:
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Instructor feedback
​​Eric Price:
What feels good about this design? 
  • The strong line of the stair rail brings your eyes right to the text because of the contrast
  • The text had to take the stairs, too. Good visual metaphor
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • The image is the wrong size. It needs to be 1920x1080 pixels at 72 dpi. Here's a short video to show you how to fix this.
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Instructor feedback
​Erin Amundsen:
Good update, Erin. My only further suggestion would be not to let the dates on the left side touch the edge. Give them a bit of margin.
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Instructor feedback
​Holly Hudson:
What feels good about this design? 
  • This design works. Good contrast between the sky, balloon, and text. Repetition of the balloon's colors in the text. Alignment of the text with the balloon. The text's line spacing is perfect for proximity between the lines.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • You've done a great job, Holly. The only suggestion I have would be to shrink the text slightly to more align with the height of the balloon. This will also pull the text away from the mountains just a bit, which was almost creating a visual tangent with the mountain and the "n" in new.
​Justina Adams:
​Kaitlyn Faraone:
​Kate Sargent:
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Instructor feedback
Kate Stefanakos:
What feels good about this design? 
  • ​Kate, your design is good. Two contrasting fonts. Text along a rule of thirds line. "Today" goes outside the box boundary - emphasizing that word even more.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • The background image is underexposed. I think you can bring out more detail by taking it into camera raw and working to bring out detail in the shadows.
​Katy Dollahite:
​Kaylee Rowley:
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Instructor Feedback
​​Keslie Packer:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good design and message
  • Gradient background is a nice effect
  • Good font choice
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I would suggest a stronger alignment
  • I would also darken the gradient a bit to make the text contrast more.
​Kole Nielsen:
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Instructor Feedback
​Landon Peay:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good design. Good message.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • Landon, your image is only 969x5445 pixels. It needs to be 1920x1080 pixels to display on the TVs in the schools. Go into the "Image" menu and choose "Image Size..." and change the dimensions there.
  • I would suggest taking that black rectangle layer and free transforming it to go behind all the text, and then increasing the opacity of that layer so the text isn't competing with the background.
  • The first five of your habits are in semibold, and the last five are in the regular font. I would make them all semibold.
​Lei Mobley:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Beautiful background photo. 
  • good message.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • ​That sky is the most beautiful part of the photo. I would suggest moving the text to the darker bottom of the image. That way it will contrast more.
  • I didn't have your Photoshop file to work with, or I would have provided a visual example for you.
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Instructor feedback
​Lesya Feinstein:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Beautiful evening shot of the USU quad
  • The message applies to being bold and going to college
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I think that to strengthen the message, zoom in on the symbol of the college. To do this, I did a free transform on the background layer (Command-T or CTRL-T), then zoomed way out (Command - or CTRL - (minus)). Then I used the transform handles to enlarge the image.
  • Use a stronger left alignment. Sentence case is easier to read than all caps.
​Lisa Balling:
​Lisa Hopkins:.
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Instructor feedback
​Liz Pickrell:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good message, Liz.
  • Used contrasting serif and sans serif font
  • Love background photo
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • One thing that can interfere with your message is having too many visual elements that would distract from that. If an element such as a color rectangle, serves no real purpose, then it is best to simplify.
  • Give your text some margin to make it more readable, unless there is a really good reason to make it touch the edges.
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Instructor feedback
​Luke Barton:
What feels good about this design? 
  • ​Simple silhouette gets the visual across more effectively than a regular photo.
  • Simple color scheme
  • Good use of contrasting fonts 
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • Message seems a bit unclear. Perhaps when the GearUP logo is added, that might help.
  • Give your text a bit more breathing room. To do this, see the video I made for Lisa Hopkins about content aware scale. That's what I did to add more room to your image.
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Instructor feedback
​Megan Garn:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Good image and message.
  • Good arrangement of text and lines for your message.
  • Good work pulling the man out of his background on to a new layer. There is an even easier way using the quick select tool - it's a button in the options bar - "Select Subject" - that will do most of the work for you.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • It's always hard to make the text pop from the background. In my example, I added a new layer and made a black rectangle, then dropped that layer's opacity just a little. I reduced the size of your text just a bit to fit in the rectangle with some margin for readability.
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Instructor feedback
​Melissa Johnson:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Clever message and text arrangement, Melissa
  • Nice use of a blue layer overlay
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • The text is mostly covering the famous art work on the Salt Lake
  • I suggest making that the focus of your photo by cropping in, then free transforming it to fit the image size.
Mynth Carter
What feels good about this design? 

​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
​Sabrina Satterthwaite:
​​Sophia May:
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Instructor feedback
​Sydney Chapman:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Beautiful design and message
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • ​It's hard to make the text really stand out from the background. I created a short video for you to show you how to select the main character and jump him up to a new layer, and then blur the background more so the text stands out better.
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Instructor feedback
​Tanner Castro:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Great quote
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • If you can't tell what the background image is, then it just becomes visual "noise." Simplify. Single line. Easy to read. Lots of white space helps you focus on the message.
​Tia Kime:
​Tori Strong​:
What feels good about this design? 

​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
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Instructor feedback
​Whitney Drollette​:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Eye catching design, Whitney! Well done.
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • I would shrink your text just a bit to give it more margin (breathing room). Not a lot - just enough to not have it almost touching the graduation caps.
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Instructor feedback
​Zak Osgood:
What feels good about this design? 
  • Great eye catching design, Zak.
  • Good alignment
  • Good use of the outer glow FX in the layers palette
​What problems do I see in the design? ​​
  • Needs a bit more contrast on "Reach", "Dream", and "Dare" - make it pop out of the background more.
  • I think you should adjust the boy's position just a touch so he's almost touching that bright star, rather than reaching above it.