Critique my banner! :)

[kelseyoh]

Hey guys, so working on a banner for my site: Creative Discourse. It's a forum dedicated to critiquing creative work from writing to design and photography. I'm trying to achieve a banner that is simple, but elegant design-wise. I created the flower image in photoshop (don't have a mouse so it's a pain), so I'll probably be tweaking details. But let me know what you think of the placement, font and colors please and any suggestions you might have to improve it!

The website is here: creativediscourse.proboards.com/index.cgi

And this image:


Thanks in advance!

[Tumbleweed]

I have to admire anyone who would try to make a flower from scratch.

Couple things that stand out to me. The s and e in discourse are hardly readable even with the semi-transparent strip. Maybe move it off the flower totally?

I think I would have positioned the text "discourse" over just a little so the the dot on the i could be seen more easily.

Without actually playing around with it myself, I think the flower would have looked better tilted a little. Realistically it would probably be tilted, especially on such a narrow stem and the stem at the top looks a little too narrow.

You were going for a simplistic look and I do think you achieved that and you did a pretty nice job on the bloom itself.

[Anselm]

Liking what you've done with the flower, very impressive. I do think the bud and stalk need redoing though, they don't look as realistic as the petals.

In terms of the layout I'd go for more width and less height. That way you'll be able to pull the text off the flower as well. I think that'll make it look quite a bit better.

(another effective way to do the flower would have been to have made it on a larger canvas then sized it down - that way you get rid of any unwanted quirks. But I think you've done a really good job on the petals).