# A New Banner!



## TheFuhrer02 (Jul 6, 2011)

So it had been a long while since I last created tags and banner in Ps. I figured it could use a bit of stretching as it was already gathering rust. What do you think? This one was created for my blog / website.


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## AvA (Jul 6, 2011)

Did you run a gradient map through this yet? I would suggest the purple/yellow one and toggle the type of layer and opacity to see if anything happens. Even a black and white one for the mood?

Perhaps its just me, but I find the text is leaning a bit to the boring side. Maybe spicing it up (not too much though) with a couple new fonts? You can browse through a lot and download them at dafont.com.

I did like what you did with the background and the box that holds the text.


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## elite (Jul 6, 2011)

TheFuhrer02 said:


> So it had been a long while since I last created tags and banner in Ps. I figured it could use a bit of stretching as it was already gathering rust. What do you think? This one was created for my blog / website.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



After staring at it for a few minutes, I finally see what was bugging me. Basically, whenever I look at it, my attention shifts towards the gun, and I have to force my eyes to the left to actually read what's written. Simply put, the text doesn't stand out enough; it's almost difficult to spot. It might sound weird since it's clearly there, but it's "obscured" by the figure on the right.






The place I pointed out is where my eyes focus every time I look at the picture, and whenever I try to read the text, it feels like I'm forcing my eyes to look somewhere else. This is because of the rule of contrast and the rule of thirds. The hand is both the most contrasting and is right in one of the division line between the second and third sections of the picture.

There are two ways to solve this: make the text stand out more, or make the figure stand out less. The text is kind of plain, so you can improve on that. To illustrate what I mean, I darkened the rest of the image a little and gave some emphasis on the text. Look at it quickly, and notice where your eyes focus first.






Your eyes most likely went to either "Tales" or "World". This is important because what matters the most in a banner is the title, and it should be the first place your eyes fall onto. You can use a more steep variation in contrast to draw the eyes towards that point, so there is no need to change the colors (which I personally liked). This happens because the hand now has less contrast, and the text feels more edgy and shines more. The eyes are drawn automatically to these things, so it's best to keep an eye on that.

The other solution is to move the cartoon more towards the right. This will remove the hand from the second line and thus won't draw so much attention.

Well, other than that, It looks good. Sorry If I went a bit too far on this, I'm kind of nitpicking.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Jul 6, 2011)

@ AvA: No, no gradient map yet. Never thought it was necessary. Perhaps I will add one.

@ elite: You have a great point. Tried centering the render between columns 2 and 3 so I could somehow feel that the image is symmetrical, or something. But I guess this did not do well with the title. Will follow your advice!

Again, to both of you, thanks!


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## Jinxi (Jul 7, 2011)

Wow! The banner is really awesome! I love the colours and the general look of it. I do agree with elite though, I think the picture looks great slightly darkened and it allows for your title to stand out more.


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## Monkey Doctor (Jul 7, 2011)

Hi
I like your banner. Just picking up on what you are saying about the text. I studied some psychology relating to advertising, page layout etc. One thing that I remember is that whatever you want people to remember most should be placed in the bottom right hand corner of the image, things that you want people to be aware of but not hold in their memory should go on the bottom left. I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

People in advertising will often put a logo or name of the company in the bottom right hand corner.

I tried to add some images but I'm new to the site and when I post the image I get an error message telling me its an invalid URL. I'll work out what I'm doing wrong and try later...


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## Flapjack (Jul 22, 2011)

Awesome Fuhrer. I really like the way you put everything together. Kinda jealous of your skills . 

Ditto to what Ava said about your text. I would definitely go with a different font. 

Out of curiosity, did you do the artwork on the character yourself?


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## TheFuhrer02 (Jul 22, 2011)

^ Thanks for the kind words. 

No, the character isn't my artwork, just acquired it from a free site. ^_^


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