99% sure I'm finished, but always welcome comments. I'll take another look at it in the morning and if I still feel the same, it's off to his father for confirmation before sending to ElCo Color labs - 24x30 on metallic.
Love the pic and the expression you captured andI like the use of the state silhouette to symbolize being Illinois state champ. I'm not so sure about the 39-0 covering the team logo. With the size of the poster, state being vertically oriented I think it might work better in portrait and may allow more room for the team logo, name and his record to be placed.
Mark...I like the shot and is noteworthy to be a poster. I'm not sold on the all black font and then the red text over it and over Champion.
I'm not an expert in the design of these (that's why I get templates) but I'm wondering of you are trying to crowd too much into it.
Maybe explore reducing the size of the logo and then a "banner" type shape across the bottom of the poster with all of the other info...285 - his name - record. Just a few ideas....but like I said I'm no expert on this stuff.
39-0 is pretty impressive. What college will he be wrestling for?
He's a junior - hasn't announced yet, but more likely to be playing football, getting some D-1 looks, about 6-4 285.
I tried it in portrait, but it doesn't work with this image. I had a different image I would have preferred to use, but it had some issues given the shape of Illinois.
The placement of the 39-0 is something I've struggled with. My initial inclination was to put it in upper right to balance the 285, and have the school logo at 0 opacity and the same height as the last name but I thought the record was impressive enough to be prominently featured. I've been playing with dropping the opacity on the logo even further so that it fills the space, but doesn't compete with the record as much. (The logo isn't an essential element per se, but I've included it in every poster for this school)
Mark, the guys bring up some good ideas. I agree with you that the subject photo lends itself to a landscape approach, but you could still play with some ideas to fit it into portrait orientation. The subject would have to be smaller, though.
Just a suggestion, but it's sometimes helpful to do some rough sketches to get the ideas flowing. It's quicker than having to digitally move things around. As you work through various scribbles, you often start to see something forming that works. At that point, move to the screen to try it out.
Personally, I think the layout you have here works well. You could add elements to take it to a higher level, but it depends on how much you want to tinker with it. Like, a texture (or four) to that gradient background, or multiple particle layers in the right places to develop the look of actually busting out of the state shape. (Here's a free download of some particle brushes: http://wegraphics.net/downloads/free-dust-particle-photoshop-brush-set/ )
Lots of other really easy stuff out there... just gotta look.
Here's an idea done as a quick sketch- took me all of 3 mins. It's not to any scale, just really rough to get ideas flowing- I was going for something more asymmetrical. The fitting of everything happens when you're in PS. Once I did it, I could then see what I'd try on the next sketch-
- enlarge/reposition the state shape (maybe full length of poster?)
- go full-opacity on the school logo, maybe enlarge it to taste.
- decide on locations for lighting or other effects if desired.
That's an interesting concept. Going vertical to me would require using a different image (which I considered as noted above, and I'll leave it at noting that spandex singlets create some issues for laying out the design.) For this one I really don't want to reduce the size of the main image - or the word champion.
I do want to look into the particle brushes and will try out some textures. I'm starting hit my limit of time invested. I have a bad habit of continually tinkering with these and end up with way too much time spent.
