DVD cover - comment and critique

DadaKopf

Hi folks, just wondering what you guys thought of this job I'm doing for an NGO

Front.


Back.

Goodshape

Not sure about the colours, particularaly on the front. My first impression was that it looks like a cover to a cheap slasher/horror flick.

ErinGoBrath

The front looks excellent. I'm not sure about the main body of text on the back though, it just looks like it's text that has been selected.

spidermonkey

i think its pretty cool.
its very candy and creative review.

the colours catch the eye alright although it may be a bit too playful for the (at least i assume) serious/boring/monotonous topic.

throw a psycho style hand and knife flying in from the right and you got yourself a winner!:D

very good clear layout.

Goodshape

spidermonkey wrote:

throw a psycho style hand and knife flying in from the right and you got yourself a winner!:D

I would say the same only that doesn't seem to suit the subject matter.

eamon234

Like the overall design but I hate the font it needs something a little less ordinary something a bit classier....

eamon234

plus you spelt conversation wrong!!!!

JBoyle4eva

I think that the image on top at the back is quite repetitive. I know this is only an interview, but the lady's facial expression seems the same trhoughout all three. Prehaps including the fella being interviewed?

Briony Noh

To be perfectly honest I think it's perfectly adequate for a low-budget production, which I'm guessing it is. I don't see the 'slasher movie' references there at all, unless it's low-budget slashers we're talking about as well. The lettering cutting into the image is what gets me and makes it seem like a brave attempt by an enthusiastic amateur.

The colours are pretty enough but the available space is, in my view, largely wasted. I like the screen-effect image with a colour mask, but I don't like the squared-off, overlapping base of the photo that makes it look like a newspaper cutting. I like the use of images on the back but I don't like the choice which makes it look like she's been doorstepped by someone asking directions. The backgrounds are too fiddly and fussy in two of these three and someone like me can waste a lot of time staring at them to see the join. I find this technique works effectively with five or six pictures. Fewer than that and there really needs to be a gutter, I think.

The text on the back looks like it's been painted ready for a copy/paste procedure, which is ok except everybody knows what that looks like. Perhaps a black background would work better. Also, shorter sentences. It's a bit blurry at this resolution of course, but it looks as though each para is pretty close to a complete sentence. This tends to put people off as when they're skimming they can forget what they're reading well before half-way.

What is the subject? Who is the interviewer and who the interviewee? Why should we be interested in what either of them has to say? Why should their opinions be relevant to my lifestyle? How much of this needs to be right there on the front so people don't pass over it in the shop or while reading a review page in a magazine or whatever? Does it need a map of Europe in the b/g, for example, to attract the attention of people who are actually interested in Europe? (btw, to me, Susan George was a quite gorgeous actress of the mid-sixties/early seventies. "Has she changed that much???" I thought as I surveyed the image that now claimed to represent her.) What is the tone of the interview/discussion and how can this be reflected in choice of colour and use of lighting? I'm sure whoever shot the thing had these considerations, too. Is there anything in the footage that might inspire a style or image? What is there in this design that would make *you* reach out and take it off a shelf? (The title doesn't do it for me, especially as I wouldn't want anyone - and, forgive me, especially not an American - telling me what kind of Europe I want.)

There is a lot you can do with just OPEN OFFICE or even WORD in terms of design, but if you're serious about design work, and I'm not certain you are and there's no reason you should be, download a copy of GIMP (which is a free Photoshop-style program) and have a play.

And finally, spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck and when you're finished, have someone go over it for spelling.

DadaKopf

Thanks for the feedback folks. At the time I posted the JPG of the artwork, it was still a work in progress. Spellings have been long fixed.

To be perfectly honest I think it's perfectly adequate for a low-budget production, which I'm guessing it is.

It *is* a low budget production, with a low design budget. It was kept simple partly for this reason.

Furthermore, I was given a brief to produce a simple, 'modernist classic' style cover for the documentary. I felt, given the subject matter, this could be modified to incorporate some 'Swiss style' elements. Part of this was down to the fact that the client knew anything more would cost more.

The colours are pretty enough but the available space is, in my view, largely wasted. I like the screen-effect image with a colour mask, but I don't like the squared-off, overlapping base of the photo that makes it look like a newspaper cutting.

I considered many colour combinations. My objective was to take the cover beyond a very simple job (this was my brief in some ways) within the budget constraints. Susan George, and Attac, is a very vibrant, active and influential political organisation in France, with chapters throughout the world. It seemed important to me to introduce dynamic elements that could add energy - a particular kind of energy. One that is strong, but whose aim is to change things, to upset the status quo. Therefore, I decided to frame her in an angled square. The halftone screen was used because, firstly, the images supplied were very low quality, and two, it looked contemporary while also evoking the quality of printed matter by French radical organisations in the 1960s-1980s. I decided on red and cyan for a few reasons - the cyan (60% cyan) is, in some contexts, a placid colour - but its similar to the colour of the sky, so it represents both the status quo but also signifies possibility. The red field is the most overpowering colour - we automatically see red first. Red is also the colour of the left (she is an activist in the French left), and therefore, I hoped to use this strange mix of colours to signify the itnent of the people's movement in France - strong, cohesive and out there to change things for the better. But with those colours, I also realised that there's an implicit threat in that - so it's uncertain whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

I later decided to have a bit of her hanging outside the red box to add extra energy and reinforce what I was thinking above.

The 'slasher' references are interesting. In a funny kind of way, that's what I was going for but in a much more reserved way, and within a very particular context.

The lettering cutting into the image is what gets me and makes it seem like a brave attempt by an enthusiastic amateur.

Placing the text where I did was a logical decision, and one I think that works. Putting it anywhere else meant that the image overpowered the title, so it got lost. Putting it where it is compressed the message and connected the title to the interviewee.

eamonn234 wrote:

Like the overall design but I hate the font it needs something a little less ordinary something a bit classier...

What's 'classier'? I use Helvetica, one of the most ubiquitous and classic of modernist typefaces, except the Attac logo, which is DIN Mittelschrift. I had considered other options, such as Akzidenz Grotesk and serif typefaces like Goudy Heavyface, which changed the tone, but I felt misrepresented the subject matter.

Is there anything in the footage that might inspire a style or image?

See above. Also, I didn't want to go the simple route which is done to death and incredibly amateurish - some distressed typewriter font and images that resemble photocopied agitprop from the 1960s and latterly 1990s and 2000s.

There is a lot you can do with just OPEN OFFICE or even WORD in terms of design, but if you're serious about design work, and I'm not certain you are and there's no reason you should be, download a copy of GIMP (which is a free Photoshop-style program) and have a play.

Oh, should I have set up a print design job using something other than Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Streamline?

BrenC

I like it but I'd possibly enlarge the photo at the front, it seems like theres too much free space