Typophile

Design Assignment Feedback HELP!

ben92

Hi everyone!

This is my first post! I've currently just started a course specialising in digital design and have an assessment that I need to get feedback on from other designers. I'm still very new to this but here goes nothing!

The main objective for the assignment was to create a shirt and poster for the Salvation Army that can be ordered online; it should showcase their efforts to help and show compassion towards others. I designed my shirt to aim at a broader audience, whereas the poster is intended to show the effort the salvation army has made since 1865.

Please! Any kind of negative/positive feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!
Ben.

PS. I don't know how to change the size of the image, I know that it is too big to see so I have attached copies below.


AttachmentSize
SALVATIONPOSTER.jpg888.03 KB
DraftSalvosShirt.jpg412.24 KB
James Michaels

Welcome to Typophile.

In my limited experience with the Salvation Army, my impression is that many of the volunteers are rather conservative and traditional people. So while I like that the t-shirt is taking a different approach, I'm not sure it would appeal to them, unless you are trying to attractive a different type of volunteer.

Regarding the poster, I like vintage images, but are there any where the volunteers look happier? They look like they're on their way to a funeral. (I hate to admit this, but I've sometimes used the Liquify filter in Photoshop to make changes to people's expressions, like to give them a subtle smile. But I'd hate to tamper with a vintage photo that way.)

Also I'm not clear what the poster is trying to do. Get donations? Volunteers? Increased public attention? I think it needs a call to action to clarify what you want folks to do. I might also experiment with combining the vintage photo with another image, maybe something more modern. I don't care for the type treatment, but I'd concentrate more on the concept at this point.

Sye Robertson

Hi Ben!

Welcome to Typophile.

I am an in-house designer for The Salvation Army, at their headquarters in Melbourne, so I have a bunch of experience working on Salvo designs.

Firstly, is your brief aimed at getting more donations? If not, what is the goal?

In terms of Salvo style, it varies. Lots. Some things are very conservative, traditional etc, others are more progressive.

For shirts, probably the best place to see some very popular designs is: Wardrobe at http://www.tsa-wardrobe.com - those guys have engaged some super talented designers from a round the world to help with the shirts, so there is lots of great stuff there.

Depending on what the goals of the assignment are, one of the popular slogans here in Australia for advertising etc is "Thank God For The Salvos", not that you have to use it or anything, but just so you are aware.

In Australia we have two Territories, each with it's own website and communications department.

http://salvos.org.au & http://www.salvationarmy.org.au

Take a look over the websites to get a feel for the current styles used for public-focused communications.

In terms of your designs, I feel the historical image is not very engaging, maybe try finding a more contemporary way to communicate the idea of 'Earth's Angels" that relates to some of the current ways The Salvation Army is helping people.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing how you progress with this :-D

Bob Evans

You used three fonts on your poster - Try only one and the army shield.

ben92

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

I really needed it, I'm still new to all this.

davidjackson

Your design is pretty good I would love you give a good feed back to you. Best Of Luck for your Assignment.

Martin Silvertant

Not to put you on a specific path, but if you're seeking to speak to a larger audience, why not take a modern approach? You can still use some old images to give it a nostalgic and perhaps even a euphoric feeling (I'm thinking of Monty Python, but less wacky), but perhaps you ought to think of it as a brand that needs to speak to a lot of people. The wings are quite specific in style and exclude a lot of people already, though I do like the idea of using wings. Be careful not to make it look pretentious though.

A red background and a friendly looking sans serif (something like Gloriola perhaps) may put you on the right track. Certainly try to limit the amount of typefaces you use to two. Their logo also feels outdated, though perhaps you do need to refer back to when they were established, but I'm not sure you ought to do that with typography that is not of this time, as it excludes a lot of people.

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