The Design of the Week is going to focus on simplicity, again! Graphic designers are sometimes amazed at all the special effects we can apply in the last version of our favorite graphic software and the vast array of available plugins. As a result, we go crazy and overload our pieces with garbage.
The first version of this design looks pretty good, but is totally wrong for its intended purpose. For starters, it is too bright and shiny. And it is rather confined within this rectangular panel which makes it look like a credit card. I probably could find a few uses for this, but who has that kind of time!
Gradient fills and Light effects like these should be used very sparingly because they are time consuming and memory intensive. A real vaste of design time. I had spent almost an hour playing around with these features, when I suddenly remember that I was just doing a T-shirt design for a Print on Demand outfit. The fact that most of the T-shirts sold on Cafepress or anywhere else have Text Only designs, was not in my mind at the moment.
I was all caught up in the “slickiness” of the look. I was in “Gradient Fill” heaven. Hey, it’s a new day, the Obama-sun is rising. I must find the right orangey color (the sun is orange, remember) to match my faux gold lettering. When I finally realized my stupidity, I just lifted the text, the flag and the outline from the backgroung, pasted everything on a clean new document, and voilá. Simple. Beautiful. Yes , Simple Text Designs are always beautiful.
Simplicity works every time. Try it!
NOTE. This is a design from my ‘Elections Colection’. It is no longer avalilable for purchase.
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Blog post by Tatán
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