Hockey Poster Help

A parent asked me to make a poster of her son, she only had a few pictures to give me and this is what I came up with - any other suggestions would be appreciated. Please keep in mind I'm limited to the pictures I have plus a couple more. Thanks.

Tom

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IMO it's a bit much. Too distracting. Some errors in filling in the shots too. But my taste isn't what a teenage boy's is, and that appears to be the age of your subject.

One thing I always say these brag shots need is the year or season. They accumulate over time and it's easy to lose track.

I'd agree, the background is a bit too distracting.

Tom,

I would fade the star burst and work on the cutouts. You could also look at changing the black to white. Can you punch up the saturation on the photos and maybe add some hockey pucks or team logo faded into the background so you almost can not see it. Sometimes I have people tell me that they like to "find things" when looking at these type of posters. Each time they look at it, they may find something new. Adding the year is a good idea as well as adding some depth to the lettering. Post up the new version when you get it done. If you want to send me the PSD, I can try something for you.

Kyle.

Thanks for the info everyone I'll work on that and Kyle appreciate the offer, but you have your own pics from this wkend to sort thru and the only way I'm going to get better is to keep working on these, but maybe later I'll send it off to you.

Tom

Just curious - you say she gave you the pictures. Did she take them? or does she have permission from the photographer? Buying a print does not equal the right to scan and manipulate.

i dont know if this matters, but is it 1 son or 2? in one of the shots, he is left handed, the way he is holding the stick....makes me wonder if it is a different person all together.

I know the family very well and it's clear to me that either she took the pictures or another parent took them and sent them to her because they aren't the best - the files she sent me either were oof, or not that sharp, the cut-outs came from the best pics she sent me. And actually I was going to ask her about that one pic because if anything I've never known her son to have that short of hair, i.e. not flowing out from under the helmet! But it was during a skate around so he may have just been practicing with his other hand too.

Tom

As a graphic designer, YIKES! Way too much going on. Lose the startburst and multiple silo's.

Pick your best photo, and use only one. Choose one clean, san-serif typeface, and keep it simple!

Check out some of the shots on the NJ Devils website, to see examples of good shots. One good shot will tell a story, much more than a mixture of imagery. Your eye does not know where to go first.

puggle wrote in post #5690800
As a graphic designer, YIKES! Way too much going on. Lose the startburst and multiple silo's.

Pick your best photo, and use only one. Choose one clean, san-serif typeface, and keep it simple!

Check out some of the shots on the NJ Devils website, to see examples of good shots. One good shot will tell a story, much more than a mixture of imagery. Your eye does not know where to go first.

completely disagree with this as far as using only one shot. This is a poster. This particular one has a little much going on, but you can (and IMO SHOULD) certainly use more than one picture to create the poster. This is a hockey poster. It should invoke excitement to some level while balancing out an eye catching format.
On top of that hockey posters are very hard to just use one shot as it would need to be a fairly large crisp shot. And well you just don't get that too often with the lighting in nonprofessional rinks.
here is one I did (this is nothing overly special.. fairly basic I guess) fora mother that was able to be printed in 16X20

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Thanks for all of the suggestions. Here's a "re-do" incorporating some of the earlier recommendations. What I'm going to do is show this to the mom and then ask to see her other pictures to see if there maybe some sharper ones. She sent a one of a great cross-check, but it's so blurry, it can't be used.

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Tom,

I like this one much better. Would be good if you could find some better photos but I understand what you get when using some elses photos.

Keep it up!

Thanks Kyle, I always value your opinion. I actually sent it off to the mom and offered to go thru her pictures with her just to see if there are some better ones.

Tom

puggle wrote in post #5690800
As a graphic designer, YIKES! Way too much going on. Lose the startburst and multiple silo's.

Pick your best photo, and use only one. Choose one clean, san-serif typeface, and keep it simple!

Check out some of the shots on the NJ Devils website, to see examples of good shots. One good shot will tell a story, much more than a mixture of imagery. Your eye does not know where to go first.

I agree & disagree. Posters of this nature are very effective in a multiple shot format. At this level we are dealing with parents and trying to bring out the best in their child, whatever sport it may be. So showing their talent and emotion is what sells. On the other hand, at a pro level, a single shot may be much more effective, although I have seen large comps at that level also, because of the later use for that poster/image. More than likely a poster of a NHL player will not be purchased by their parent, and it is probably not marketed that way. I will not comment on this any further because I do not have any experience at the pro level making posters. So this is an assumption.

A san-serif font is not a must either. Mainly used in sports to show portray force, intensity, size and importance. The poster above uses a san-serif font effectively. I have used many san-serif fonts on posters with great effectiveness. Text and images are one of the hardest things to incorporate effectively, and once this is overcome, the poster/comp with be at a new level of effectiveness.

The K.I.S.S. theory works and is great when you are in control, but most of the time we design to spec or for parents that would like "exactly 12 images in one poster of my son scoring all the goals throughout the year". So you see where things have to be changed and different design has to be implemented.

Here is a poster that was completed to client specs, and they even took the photos. So this is a similar situation.

How in the world do you guys create the starburst?!?!?!?!?!?!?