Student Portfolio Exhibit #2
This week, students could choose what they wanted to create, with the optional real world project to create a conference poster for UCET 2019. It always makes me excited (and blown away) to see the creativity expressed in these exhibits. You're doing great!
Again, please realize my feedback suggestions are just that - suggestions. There are thousands of ways you could revise your exhibits, and I hope to have given some ideas here. If any of you have questions about how I did the feedback images in Photoshop, contact me. I'll be happy to show you.
Again, please realize my feedback suggestions are just that - suggestions. There are thousands of ways you could revise your exhibits, and I hope to have given some ideas here. If any of you have questions about how I did the feedback images in Photoshop, contact me. I'll be happy to show you.
Tessa E:
My Critique: First of all, this is lovely, and designed well. The colorful pencils immediately draw you in and point to the main message - Parent Teacher Conferences. You have created a good message hierarchy for your three messages - What, when, and no school - by both size and color of text. You've used a single font - Bradley Hand - so the text looks harmonious and school-like.
Let's talk size. Your image is 960x450 pixels at 72 DPI. That will work just fine if you're putting this on a webpage. If you are printing it, however, you'd want it to be around 5100x2391 pixels at 300 DPI (for a 17 inch wide sheet of paper).
My Critique: First of all, this is lovely, and designed well. The colorful pencils immediately draw you in and point to the main message - Parent Teacher Conferences. You have created a good message hierarchy for your three messages - What, when, and no school - by both size and color of text. You've used a single font - Bradley Hand - so the text looks harmonious and school-like.
Let's talk size. Your image is 960x450 pixels at 72 DPI. That will work just fine if you're putting this on a webpage. If you are printing it, however, you'd want it to be around 5100x2391 pixels at 300 DPI (for a 17 inch wide sheet of paper).
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Tessa C:
My Critique: What an eye-catching baby announcement. Well designed. You've used two contrasting fonts that work well together. The Naira decorative font feels a bit on the wild side, like a forest. The colors harmonize well. Yellows and greens are analogous colors - and that brown is just a darker yellow. Very well done! |
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Taylor:
My Critique: This photo you've taken - wow! What a beautiful spot. The Photoshop processing looks good - the photo reached out and grabbed me. The message works well too. You may want to try making your message more bold. Make it a shout instead of a whisper - something that echoes through that canyon!
My Critique: This photo you've taken - wow! What a beautiful spot. The Photoshop processing looks good - the photo reached out and grabbed me. The message works well too. You may want to try making your message more bold. Make it a shout instead of a whisper - something that echoes through that canyon!
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Tami:
My Critique: Tami, this was very creative design (and I appreciate your creativity very much), but it also was a little confusing to me. My first thought was, "OK, why is there a castle in the middle of a tire in a junk yard." So I had to go look up Blarney Castle to investigate further. I would suggest that more information is needed to decipher the purpose of the image. I came up with one idea - but there's probably a thousand others you could come up with. I used images and text from the Blarney Castle website. |
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Sydney::
My Critique: Good design, Sydney! My suggestions are: 1) Use space to your advantage. Don't try to fill it up. Let your text have some breathing room. Use the principle of proximity to separate families of information with space. Then use alignment consciously to provide visual connections between the families of information. if you use proximity properly, you don't need boxes or dividing lines, which just adds more imagery for your mind to process. 2) Think of a message hierarchy. What the most important message you want to give? Place that big and bold at the top. What's the second most important message - I think that's the center section. The third important message is the time, place, and contact. In my feedback example, I've purposely left the alignment lines in there so you can see what I was thinking. |
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Sophia:
My Critique: Well designed, Sophia. Good job. I feel your use of repetition really makes this harmonious. You've repeated colors, fonts, white outline around the people, and center justification. It works very well! |
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Scott:
What an excellent idea, Scott! In lesson 7, you'll learn some selection skills that will make this even better. For the chick, you'll learn how to use the select and mask mode of Photoshop to get a better selection of the soft feathers. Your text is just fine as is, but I wanted to show you a different idea - Add a bevel and emboss effect to your text layer (it's the FX icon at the bottom of the layers palette). Then lower the fill opacity - which keeps the FX at full strength, but reduces the opacity of the text color. I'd suggest finding a more expressive shadow as well. |
Nathan's revision 1...
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Nathan:
My idea: I found two free images on Pexels.com - the young girl and the desktop with technology devices. I made a selection of the computer laptop screen and then copied the girl and and went to the EDIT menu - PASTE SPECIAL - and PASTE INTO. This creates a mask, and I can resize the girl to fit exactly the way I want into the screen. I put a color layer over the background images and reduced the opacity - that way the text and logo stand out much better. I've used an analogous color scheme - warm reds, oranges and yellows - that match well with the logo. I've given a strong left alignment and used proximity (space) to keep families of information together, but separated from other families. |
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Mike:
My Critique: Mike, that's a pretty small image to work with - it's only 418x469 pixels at 72 DPI. You've done a great crop in from the original image. I think a bit more work in camera raw would improve it even more. |
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Megan
My Critique: You've done a good job with the depth of field blur, Megan. This makes a nice portrait. |
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Mason:
My Critique: Looks good, Mason. "Pop" sounds like a word that needs to have more emphasis. Think about alignment, too. I would increase the size of the logo a bit, too.
My Critique: Looks good, Mason. "Pop" sounds like a word that needs to have more emphasis. Think about alignment, too. I would increase the size of the logo a bit, too.
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Mark:
My Critique: It is a beautiful sunset, Mark. I have a couple of suggestions. First, take it into camera raw and get the best photo you can out of it. I clicked "auto" to begin with, and then pushed the vibrance up a bit more. Then in Photoshop, I used the content aware patch tool to get rid of the poles sticking up into the sky.
My Critique: It is a beautiful sunset, Mark. I have a couple of suggestions. First, take it into camera raw and get the best photo you can out of it. I clicked "auto" to begin with, and then pushed the vibrance up a bit more. Then in Photoshop, I used the content aware patch tool to get rid of the poles sticking up into the sky.
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Makayla:
My Critique: What a beautiful image, Makayla! And so many possibilities with this one. Below at left, I've taken your image into camera raw and enhanced it more. In the center image below, I've cropped down to the foreground, and darkened the bushes underneath the text. In the image below at right, I've gone to a vertical, or portrait format, and then used the Burn Tool to darken the trees in the background. |
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Kyle:
My Critique: I love to see my students experiment with various ideas! Kyle, it has been fun to watch this evolve. Your final four are well designed.
My Critique: I love to see my students experiment with various ideas! Kyle, it has been fun to watch this evolve. Your final four are well designed.
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Kam:
My Critique: Well done, Kam! My only suggestion is to continue angling the text as you did with the high school and Karson's name. The repetition helps to unify the design.
My Critique: Well done, Kam! My only suggestion is to continue angling the text as you did with the high school and Karson's name. The repetition helps to unify the design.
Jennifer's revision...
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Jennifer P.:
My Critique: Jennifer, this is very nicely designed, except that "Holiday Social" gets lost in the background. Select that text layer, go down to the FX panel, and add a stroke. That should fix that.
My Critique: Jennifer, this is very nicely designed, except that "Holiday Social" gets lost in the background. Select that text layer, go down to the FX panel, and add a stroke. That should fix that.
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Jennifer F.:
My Critique: This is very sweet, Jennifer! My only thought is that a black and white baby looks a bit anemic. How about reversing the black and white and color areas? 
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Jeremy:
My Critique: Excellent work on masking the earth and the baby, Jeremy. Once you've masked the baby, then you can adjust the background, like making it a touch darker to bring out the foreground subjects more. The green text didn't appeal to me (probably my personal preference) - I think it just needs to pop out more. 
Instructor feedback
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Jared:
My Critique: Jared, this is a great set of elements to work with. I feel like this could use a portrait mode, rather than a landscape mode. Let me know what you think? |
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Isabel:
Great idea, Isabel. I've found through long experience that designs look better if you don't use FX on them. I would suggest inverting the temple in the background to make it light (more than one meaning in that) instead of darker. Then darken the background. Here's my idea... What do you think? 
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Hayden:
My Critique: Nice work, Hayden! Your design works well as is. My only suggestion would be to incorporate the principle of alignment in the placement of your text and button. Then take a hard look and determine which you like better. 
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Ford:
My Critique: This is awesome, Ford. You've done a great job colorizing this black and white image. My only suggestion is to vary the skin color slightly. Pull up a color portrait in Google of a man facing this way, and notice the colors in the skin. You can use the eye dropper tool to actually pull those colors from the photo and use them in your colorization. |
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Emma:
My Critique: Well done, Emma! You've pulled Martin Luther King out of that background and greyed out the rest extremely well! You've created a good, balanced design, too. To make it pop just a bit more, I selected your grey background and did a black to white gradient, with the option bar in "overlay" mode, and directing the light to come in the same direction that light is shining on him. I changed the black text to white. Finally, I used an adjustment layer - gradient map - and created a gentle gradient to add just a touch of color. |
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Elle:
My Critique: Good start Elle! Is this a photo of you? The subject of the photo isn't in the exact center, but falls on one of the rule of thirds lines. Our brains are wired to look at faces first, so it's the face that draws us into the image immediately. The only issue is the text - it needs to stand out more. Here's one idea. |
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Eli:
My Critique: This is well designed and balanced, Eli. Great job! You have used space very well in this image. Visual elements need not fill up the space. This minimalist design is quite powerful and gets the message across very well. |
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David S.:
My Critique: This is well done, and a very powerful image. My only suggestion would be to give the text more margin - "breathing room". 
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David C.:
My Critique: Wow, David, you've combined many shapes and layers to create this. Good job! This would be a great exhibit to demonstrate the principle of alignment, David. In my feedback I've aligned tops, bottoms, and sides. What do you think? Does it feel better and more organized? |
Chris:
My Critique: What a fun image you've created, Chris. I can tell you have some past experience in Photoshop. Well done. The bright, beautiful sky is balanced by the dark section at the bottom - which gives the image weight and solidity. The small figures are on a rule of thirds cross-section, and their silhouette stands out agains a bright portion of the sky. There is just enough light in the foreground to give some detail to your landscape.
My Critique: What a fun image you've created, Chris. I can tell you have some past experience in Photoshop. Well done. The bright, beautiful sky is balanced by the dark section at the bottom - which gives the image weight and solidity. The small figures are on a rule of thirds cross-section, and their silhouette stands out agains a bright portion of the sky. There is just enough light in the foreground to give some detail to your landscape.
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Chase:
My Critique: Chase, that's a nice image! Is this a photo of yours? This works. There are so many possibilities here, if you wanted to explore them. For example, you could do one of those vintage posters. See my idea. I've used quite a few techniques that are new to you, but I'd be happy to sit down with you and show you how I did this. |
Charley:
My Critique: Nice work, Charley. This design works well. You have a good message hierarchy going here. Main message on the top is the bold, decorative font. Secondary level of information is next - slightly smaller font - lower down the image. Tertiary level is at the bottom in the smallest font.
My Critique: Nice work, Charley. This design works well. You have a good message hierarchy going here. Main message on the top is the bold, decorative font. Secondary level of information is next - slightly smaller font - lower down the image. Tertiary level is at the bottom in the smallest font.
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Carson:
My Critique: This works for what you were trying to accomplish for your employer. It will look good on the flyer or brochure you are creating. You might want to take the opacity of "Zootah" down just a bit so more of the fox shows through. |
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Brittani:
My Critique: You've done very well with this, Brittani. Nice work! I have a slightly different idea - let me know what you think. I copied the lake on to a new layer and set that layer to "multiply" blend mode. That made it quite a bit darker. I turned your USU logo white, and moved it over into the darker area so it would stand out more.
My Critique: You've done very well with this, Brittani. Nice work! I have a slightly different idea - let me know what you think. I copied the lake on to a new layer and set that layer to "multiply" blend mode. That made it quite a bit darker. I turned your USU logo white, and moved it over into the darker area so it would stand out more.
Bentlee:
My Critique: Well done, Bentlee! The warm face and cooler leaf shapes divide the image in half, but in a curved, natural line. Those curves lead your eyes through the image after the smiling face first draws you in. Well balanced. Interesting. Perfectly exposed.
My Critique: Well done, Bentlee! The warm face and cooler leaf shapes divide the image in half, but in a curved, natural line. Those curves lead your eyes through the image after the smiling face first draws you in. Well balanced. Interesting. Perfectly exposed.
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Becca:
My Critique: This is fun! Becca, I enjoyed playing around with this. I found a lovely font called Torta Ornaments. I added a drop shadow FX to the text to help it pop out more. I took the saturation a bit higher - it looks kind of like an abstract stained glass window, doesn't it? I created a gradient using colors in your image. 
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Austin:
My Critique: Nice photo! Sometimes, when I see a photo all by itself, and I'm wondering how professional it would look, I paste it into a magazine mockup to see if it passes the test. Yours does. 
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Ashlee:
My Critique: Ashlee, this looks pretty good. Just some minor tweaks as suggestions. I moved your text down and in just a bit. I centered your bottom text and aligned it in the black box at the bottom. I can tell you put a lot of work into this one. Well done! |
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Amber:
My Critique: Amber, this is a great design in every respect! Well done. Good use of the principle of proximity - using space to separate families of information. And pulling elements that go together - close together. You have a consistent color scheme that harmonizes well - black, white, and red. You go a good, strong left alignment that visually lines up with the typewriter return handle. |
Alicia's revision...
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Alicia:
My Critique: Nicely designed poster, Alicia! Just a couple of suggestions. Make "Dogs" a bit more bold and accentuate the dalmation spots. Unbox the rest of the sentence and change the purple color to one of the colors in "Dogs" so the sentence looks like a family. You might want to darken the top underneath the sentence just a bit so it pops out more. Notice the angular lines formed by the backs of both the dog and woman. This creates a very stable, triangular design that points directly at the message on top. |
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Ahmed:
My Critique: You've got a good start, Ahmed. Two things I suggest you should do to make this work better. First of all, be sure to double check your spelling. Take a second look at your main message. If English is a struggle, feel free to use Arabic, which is a very poetic, lovely language - with a beautiful character set. Just provide us a translation in the text of your portfolio exhibit, would you? Second, it feels unbalanced - a bit heavy on the right side. Picture your image as if it were on a balance beam - each of your visual elements have a visual weight. In my feedback image, I've pulled the text in from the edge (which not only helps balance, but makes the text easier to read). I've aligned the text to the top of the man's head, and the bottom of his feet. I've also moved him just a bit more to the left to give visual balance to the image. You can use the crop tool to add a little more image on the right if you turn on the "content aware fill" in the crop tool options. |
