You can probably guess, it gets ignored a lot.
So, along I come with my slightly-more-readable poster draft:
Let's be honest, it's not really much better than the whiteboard. At least the whiteboard author had an excuse - there's only so much a mortal person can do with a whiteboard and two markers. I had no excuse for the plainness. I needed color!
So, I lookup the HEX values for JMU colors (FYI - Purple #450084 and Gold #C2A14D) and pop over to my 2nd-favorite color making website, www.colorschemedesigner.com. I plug in HEX value for purple into the RGB field to find supplementary colors.
I'm browsing through the different color wheel options (complement, triad, analogic, etc.) when I find this vibrant green and pink combination.
It's bold, it's attention-grabbing, it's...almost dangerous. This is not the fail-safe little black dress. Can I be trusted to use this sort of color wisely? Sure, I tell myself, it's OK - I'm a trained professional (in training).
So, I did it. I got crazy. I used 3D and bevel effects, patchwork filters and even created a custom shape from some crazy mashup of circle-triangle-smaller circle. So what if I crashed Illustrator and had to start from 40%? It's not like I had any other plans that evening (sorry, Katie and Olivia). Lesson learned: save versions, save often, and do not layer filter effects!
Deadline comes and I'm uploading the document, adding a comment about choosing the eye-catching colors when I realize that I've misused the colors. A last-minute change? Do I dare? Fortune favors the bold, or at least the foolish, so I make one final edit.
Here is my final poster, and the almost-final one I did not submit. Guess which one I submitted.
I really like both of these so much better than the first one. The colors are bold, but they make you stop and look. I may have a slight preference for the second, as it seems to go with the flow of the poster better. This looks really great.
ReplyDeleteI hope it was the one on the left...!
ReplyDeleteI like both of these, also...but prefer the one on the right. =)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteI went with the one on the left. The reason is because the pink color really stands out. I wanted the eye-catching words to be the most meaningful ones, so the viewer might see it and think, "Unlock Mailbox...hey, that's what I'm trying to do."