Reviews of a future Signature Image please

[Mixed]

Hello Graphic Design Community!

I know you don't see me around here often but I was hoping to get a few objective eyes on a new signature I am working on. The purpose of the signature is to advertise three forums which I staff (admin or co-admin). The last time I had my signature reviewed, one commentator had said she liked each side individually but they clashed in the middle. In including the chain links in the middle (the logo for my newest forum), I hope to buffer some of the clashing between the two styles. However, I am not sure I really succeeded in blending the images.

So basically, the left side is for one forum, the right for another, and the center I would like to represent the "interweb" that connects the forums. It's not how I imagined (wanted lighter in color in the middle and a better blend between the images) so I am open to suggestions.

It would be especially nice if someone could give me recommendations on tools to use when fixing the image. I am working on the image using GIMP 2.0.

For comparison purposes, I've also included the original signature it is based off of (my current sig) so you can see where it started.

Thank you for your suggestions and your time.


Original                                   

Modified                                  

[Pebbles]

Jun 28, 2016 17:40:02 GMT -8 Mixed said:

Hello Graphic Design Community!

I know you don't see me around here often but I was hoping to get a few objective eyes on a new signature I am working on. The purpose of the signature is to advertise three forums which I staff (admin or co-admin). The last time I had my signature reviewed, one commentator had said she liked each side individually but they clashed in the middle. In including the chain links in the middle (the logo for my newest forum), I hope to buffer some of the clashing between the two styles. However, I am not sure I really succeeded in blending the images.

So basically, the left side is for one forum, the right for another, and the center I would like to represent the "interweb" that connects the forums. It's not how I imagined (wanted lighter in color in the middle and a better blend between the images) so I am open to suggestions.

It would be especially nice if someone could give me recommendations on tools to use when fixing the image. I am working on the image using GIMP 2.0.

For comparison purposes, I've also included the original signature it is based off of (my current sig) so you can see where it started.

Thank you for your suggestions and your time.


Original                                   

Modified                                  

maybe this can help you?

[Mixed]

Hello Pebbles ,

Thank you for the reference. Unfortunately, that tool didn't really do what I wanted it to do no matter what settings I tried. But your suggestion did spark a new idea so I tried a combination of the blur tool,  smudge tool, a white background instead of color to represent what would be the void of the internet without its content, and a little more clipped from the images. Plus I added the shortened title for the site that would be represented in the center.

So here are the three images again. What do you (or others) think?


Original                                   

Modified - v1                                  

Modified - v2                                  

[Former Member]

I think Modified V1 is my favorite. I've never really used Gimp much. I use the free old version of Adobe Photoshop, which is Adobe Photoshop CS 2. It has some errors, but if you know how to work it, it does the job.

[Mixed]

Thank you, @draterion. Do you think you can point me to the reason you prefer v1 over v2? The lack of white or maybe the lesser amount of blurring? What if I shrunk the landscape image in v2 like it is in v1?

[Kami]

If I may be completely honest, I actually prefer the original style over the modified versions. I can see what you're doing with the modified ones, but I feel like it's made the signature image way, way too busy.

I noticed that you are using three different images, presumably so that if you click on one, you can go to X site, and so on and so forth. The issue with that is that it's not clear that it's three different locations -- I actually had no idea that they were separated until I attempted to save the image to show you an example of what you could do.

Doing a combined signature / graphic for two different focuses can be incredibly difficult, so the #1 thing to decide is where do you want the viewer's eye to go first, immediately upon viewing the image? Is it to the left, where 'Avatar Ascent' is? The right, where 'Alraenia' is? Or the middle, where you want 'The Hub' to be?

Once you decide on the location of where you want the eye to go (henceforth the 'focal point'), then you can design the rest of the image around it. I find that for combined signatures, it's really important to draw attention to the fact that they are combined; most people will click on the middle of an image they assume to be a unified image, so it'd be a crapshoot as to which site they'd be directed to depending on the precise location of their cursor upon clicking.

I find personally that I learn best visually (hence my job lololo) so I've done a little mockup of a possible layout for your three-sites-one-signature idea.

1. If you aren't doing it this way already, it would be best to start with a single image and then splice them up into their components -- that way, you can focus first on the big picture and worry about tweaking the details later, instead of trying to get three separate images to jive together.

2. One way to unify multiple images is to use a gradient as the basis of the background. You can select the colour for one end and the colour for another, and the program will automatically generate a gradient between the two colours. I use photoshop, but here is some info about how to use and where to find gradient maps in gimp.

3. I would use guide tools to show the boundaries of where one image begins and ends (gimp version) so that you know not only where to cut the pieces, but to try and blend the images more cohesively.

4. Depending on where you wanted your focal point, I'd make the text of the non-focused portions of the images smaller.

5. A general tip: try not to mix the 'moods' of the different fonts if you're trying to make the image look cohesive. I'm not saying to use the same font for everything, but mixing styles of font can make an image look very disjointed. Some generic guidelines:
- designschool.canva.com/blog/combining-fonts-10-must-know-tips-from-a-designer/
- www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/best-practices-of-combining-typefaces/
- artist-refs.tumblr.com/post/92071046309

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions!

[Mixed]

Thank you, Kami! These are great pointers and I want to come back to them and address you comments in full later (when I'm less tired and up for such detail).

First off, I can totally understand the visual learner bit. Personally, I don't really understand something until I see or can touch it. But I'm a little confused by your mention of a mock-up. Did you include it or is that my mind playing tricks on me?

I want to go into your points and will use the same numbering you used so you can follow my thoughts.

1. I sorta did and sorta didn't do it that way. Yes, I built the signature (all three versions) up as a single image and then broke it up to be its different site-specific pieces. At the same time, no, because I took elements from the banners of each of the sites to build that part of the signature. So I'm not sure how to answer this. It also doesn't help much that I'm not sure which one I want to make the focus since I'd like to advertise for all three. Personally, I thought about doing the 3-sites-1-image idea because I didn't like how the three looked sitting next to each other. Also I wanted to blend them a bit more in a weak attempt to "fix the problem" of different styles. But since those styles are set by the forums themselves, I'm not sure I can.

2. I'll get back to this one. Thank you for the reference.

3. I did use some guides to help set up my personal boundaries for each image. But if I am getting this right, you are suggesting that I return the hard divide between the images that I had removed from the original. Right?

4. Okay. I get that. Make the font not proportioned to their relative space allotted in the image but use the font size to bring the focus to a head. But now we come back to the problem of which I'd like to focus on... Maybe I should be making these decisions later.

5. So then we are trying to make it a cohesive image rather than 3 blended images, right? Yeah, you caught me here. Each of those fonts is the one I used in the forum banner/title. Maybe I need to focus less on the forum styles and more on the signature image. What do you think?


Basically, what I am getting that can easily be done is to forget the 3-sites-1-image attempt and go back to the 3-sites-3-images-1-sig design of the original?

I hope I'm understanding you correctly. But if I'm not, at least I'll return here to reread your comments.

Thank you so much for your tips again, Kami! It is indeed helpful. Before I was thinking of my views and the opinion of one other person. Now I have a better idea of how the sig may or may not work in this format.

(P.S. I likely will be back with some questions/follow-up.)

[Kami]

I AM REALLY DUMB AND FORGOT TO DO THE MOCKUP LMFAO. I'll post it, if you would mind sending me or posting the images you're working off of? It'd be easier than trying to Frankenstein a piece together by cropping .pngs.

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First let's clear some things up because there's some misunderstandings. I am not saying you have to go back to the original version or change your idea or anything of the sort! What I am saying is that for the ideas that you have presented, the issues are as follows:

• It is not clear that each image goes to a different site
  
  
• The combined images lack any sort of unity or uniformity and the connection between them seems forced, visually.
  
  
• The way the images are currently set up, there is no single focal point, nothing that will immediately draw your eye and say "Hello! Look at me!"

Now, for the first two bullet points, this can easily be rectified no matter whether or not you have three distinctly separate images or three images combined to make one connected image, it's only how you would accomplish this that would be different.

For the last bullet point, using three separate and distinct images (as in, you can tell there are three different images) would solve this issue 100% without having to worry about if the images match or not. However, if you do want the images to appear like a single image, then you need to decide on a focal point.

I hope this makes sense. I am not advising that you do it one way over another, just that my advice was based on your idea of making three images appear blended / connected.

---

I want to stress that you don't always HAVE to go off of your site's banner. I know that's the most popular way, but you can also attempt to match the theme, rather than work off of a specific image.

A simple way would be something like this (I just went of colours bc again I don't have the images you're working off of).


 

Now obviously these are just quickly done and aren't really indicative of skill or technique but these two images, despite being different and separate, clearly have a similar vibe: the two fonts i'm using, while different, have the same mood (Papyrus on the left, and Herculanum on the right). I made both of the background colours the same, so even though the foreground colours differ, they're clearly connected.

I hope that makes sense. (:
    

[Mixed]

Kami ,

First off, I would like to thank you so much for your advice and pointers. I appreciate the depth and time it took you to write up tips and tricks in the perspective of the case I presented. Secondly, I apologize for taking some time to get back to you; I wanted to get another version together to offer.

If I am getting this all straight now (and I may be missing something by the end of this post), the signature would be much more functional when the images are distinctly separate images. So then, basing it off what I have in the original signature, something like the following would definitely be better when promoting 3 separate sites, each with a sort of keyword descriptor that pops up upon hover.

In this way, it's okay that they aren't presented in similar fashions, but it would be more appealing if the images at least had similar feels. Yes or no?

I might go back and try again making fresh new images to give all a similar vibe but if I keep to separate images, the signature would be more easily interpreted.

Sorry, I don't mean to skip over addressing any of your advice. I only want to be sure I understand and have a handle on the basic thoughts before diving into the details.

Thanks again!