Hello! I've created a new cover re-design. Does anyone have a few spare minutes to share some constructive feedback? Thank you so much!!
https://joanareis.myportfolio.com/the-golden-compass-deluxe-edition
Replies12
- @George H Thank you George! That is such a great feedback. Thank you for taking the time. there is always something to develop as a graphic designer or illustrator. It feels like what we can learn is never ending and that is why I find it so fun! I will follow you advice. Hopefully I can find a nice job with this portfolio. You gave me hope! :)
- @Laura Bertinelli You helped me so much, Laura. I know you meant good. I will follow all your suggestions :)
- @Joana Reis oh I didn't mean it in any bad way! Type is a fine tuning art and requires lots of practice. Some of it is also just personal preference. As Geoffrey mentioned below, learning about type in its context and why things are done in certain ways will shift your design practice!The books he recommended are really good, I second the suggestions! :)
- Fair.By in large the website shows that you are a very good illustrator. It is tougher to identify you as a graphic designer, however as the work is much more rooted in illustration.Display is good - file sizes of images large cuasing slow loading at points.Having said that - the images are large which is an A+Home page is good. Maybe a little too many options where to begin no clear direction just a collection of work. It does seem that better is first which is good.On the contact page use this space for some extra info about you. i.e. skills and experincePeguin mockups require more photoshop work and shadows introduced to aid experince. There are also questionable layouts - maybe review this more to see if all the mockups are needed.Overall there is very little that can go wrong with this webdesign set up. But this means that everything is in the open. Currently, there is not much wrong technically and it is professional enough to serve its funtion. Any changes to be made are purely for style reasons, as do not see major UX issues.
- @Geoffrey Bunting Thank you so much! I just added those books to my list. Because of what you said before, I also added a few books on book cover design so I can look closer at how the type works in that context. I used to only look at book covers at the store or in bookstore websites but you made me think that I should read more about the history and the why. For the type I always used https://fontsinuse.com/ for reference. I will now make sure I know the rules and have a more contextual approach. :)
- @Joana Reis By all means, take on some courses in type. I think The Dots offers some stuff, Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning are good options too. However, what I will say is that one of the best ways to learn typography (and design in general) is a more contextual approach, but examining the history of typography and design you achieve a greater of understanding of why things work rather than just how. I would recommend picking up The Complete Typographer by Will Hill for a primer on type and also Simon Loxley's The Secret History of Type for an excellent contextual examination of typography and its history. And while great design has a major contextual factor that many designers miss through not really wanting to engage with the academic/essay subjects at university or believing it to be a solely practical pursuit, there are practical elements which may help you - chief of which being experimentation. More than anything, take type out of the text frame. Turn it into outlines and play around with individual characters, smooshing them together, editing them and you'll be surprised by the results.
- @Geoffrey Bunting You really boosted my motivation to keep going, Geoffrey. That makes me think that I should do a few online courses on type so I can develop the skill. Thank you so much for taking the time to write feedback. You cannot imagine how much that means to me :).
- Hi Joana,I think this is a perfectly good book cover. There are issues with the type and the use of upper-case and small-caps, you should explore - in general, not necessarily on this project - the use of small-caps as an alternative to upper-case when using upper-case for a whole title. Often, small-caps are just better looking and cuter, especially with a good sense of space. With a bit of time in which you really get your typography down, I see no reason why you can't become an excellent book designer.Looking at your other covers, illustration appears to be your main strength right now and I think that puts you in very good stead in this industry. That being said, the hierarchy and use of typeface are perfectly acceptable here - I wouldn't suggest you need to change anything. As for suggestions you show your working, that's fine at an academic level or a portfolio that you might show to a prospective employer, but for a professional, public-facing, site in which you are demonstrating past work in the hope to secure future work it really just comes across as filler. People want to know what they're getting at the end, not to have to walk through your process to get there. You can always tell them about your process and how you work with them after they've engaged you. Otherwise, this is an excellent solution and an excellent start to your portfolio.
- @Raafaye Ali Thank you so much, Raafaye! I've created other 3 alternatives. Maybe I should post them too to show development.Yes, you are right. Development is very important... I was never really good at creating nice notes and sketches. I have to get better at that. :)
- i understand you jumped to execution, would be nice if you highlighted exploration before you decided to go with the polar bear, what were other possibilities, why not show mock ups of the various different covers it could of been before you got to this one. atm it just feels like this was the only version you did. realistically in creative industry you offer a few options rough sketch etc, then you get feedback and proceed with ones in which are working the best then final round of then proceeding with a inal design.i feel development and the build up are some times more important then the final execution. show that you are capable of thinking of various ideas before you got to a final execution.i myself need to do this with my own projects, but dont have a chance with work keeping me busy. hoping im able to show more development.
- @Laura Bertinelli ahah it is so obvious that I know very little about type! ahah that helps a lot! I will make those chances and see how it looks :)Thank you so much again, Laura!
- Hello again Joana! I really like this one, very elegant and the illustration has the right amount of detail.One thought: you use a serif and a sans-serif, but both are in all-caps and the hierarchy of the layout is not clear. Perhaps it could help differentiate the title from the author's name if one was Titlecase and the other all-caps (this is definitely something to address on the spine in my opinion). Worth a try!And maybe make the author's name a tiny bit smaller, so that the bear has more room to shine. :)
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