010: Gradient Rage

Why do people use terrible, terrible gradients?

I apologize for the mass delay of a new post. It has been far too long since I've even touched any one of my websites. The reason being my other job finally took more priority over my focus on new media to the point where I've hit lethargy and I absolutely hate my job right now. 

But a job is a job - however, there's always perks outside of a "job" (other than resigning and moving on), like something you actually enjoy doing. I've found hope in being paid to design a poster for my high school's annual art show this year, which is a great honour since last year I also designed their poster last year (it wasn't that great now that I look at it), and now I'm more than excited to create a great looking product. 

However, while I was walking around the school, I noticed posters advertising our annual high school talent show. Their theme was parodying Youtube, and there was an alright turnout for audience. Surely the posters would reflect on the talent since it was my school doing it!

Except the posters looked like this:

A replica of a poster I saw. I swear, it looked almost exactly like this.

WHY?! What in the name of all that is good and well-created possesses you to do something LIKE THIS?!!

I have a couple of nitpicks about this:

1. This isn't so much a nitpick but something I observed. The designers used Illustrator to make this poster, evident by how crisp things were when I looked at the prints. That's fine, I always regretted not learning how to use Illustrator enough in high school and I appreciate the fact the teachers are telling their kids that this is the program you should be using for graphics since vectors > rasters for print media. 
2. The placement of objects and text are messy. Ticket prices and information should not be blended in with a gimmick of the poster - they should stand out because that's what people are looking for the most. I'm aware it's at the bottom right corner, which is where people living in North America's eyes will travel when reading, but it doesn't stand out at all. It wasn't even bolded.
3. If you're going to make it look like Youtube, at least put some effort into getting some things right. Creative liberty is fine, lack of effort is not. Making Likes purple and Dislikes green just makes me incredibly bothered, and not in a nice way.
4. Why is the vector guitar player (it was a vector of a guitar player on the real poster) floating above the lines of the box? We can tell his legs have been cut off and the Drop Shadow filter looks terrible since it highlights that cut-off.
5. The fonts and filters are terrible. For that red font, it actually had a 3D filter on it, and it was Lithos Pro. I'm not joking.
6. These ugly demon-spawned eye-blinding gradients.

It's not even "the gradient doesn't fit this logo so much as flat colours will" kind of problem. No. That is excusable because you can get away with it with a few critics here and there if it's publicly available as a general attention grabber. This is a major problem, and this isn't even based on the style of how something is coloured. This is something "PINK, GREEN, AND BROWN IN A RADIAL GRADIENT WILL LOOK GOOD BECAUSE IT STANDS OUT AND I TOLD YOU SO".

I say pink, green, and brown because when I walked into a class, the teacher was teaching their students how to make text logos in Illustrator by doing this. With Impact font. With a 5-stroke bold black outline.

It infuriates me so much I'm tempted to throw all decency out the window and caps-lock rage with F-bombs dropping all over the enemy bases. I can't even describe how mad this makes me. This is NOT reflective on my high school's creative abilities or the talent show at all. I have SEEN the talent show. I'd say it was pretty good, I liked it just as much if not a little more as when I saw my own high school's talent show when I was still there. (Heck, two teachers who taught chemistry and math performed Holy Diver by Dio in-between an act. And they were really good. If that isn't epic I don't know what is.)

If this is what my Communications Technology class is teaching their kids to do, I'm disgusted. I will lead a revolt if they are actually getting graded to put gradients on their work in this kind of manner. I'm pretty sure some of these kids want to go into some type of media design or graphics and THIS will get them nowhere other than the pegboard bulletins in college that eventually get overcrowded by more . Even babies know that these colours do not work if you want to make something look good! I can actually feel my stomach twisting in rage just raging about this. 

A revision of the earlier poster, in terms of following similar layout.

I was so angry I stayed up until 2 AM re-creating a better version on Photoshop. While it's not Illustrator, you are capable of the exact same things using that program, but that isn't the point. The point is making it able to look at because of time, effort, and using what I knew. While this doesn't stand out as much as the one with ugly gradients, it is certainly easier on the eyes, looks better, and makes you want to go to the show.

The only gradient present here is the one in the Tube logo. I also followed using the school's main colour more prominently in the photo (substituted for Raster Rage's sky blue in here). Their school colour (which is teal) grabs attention just as much as pink or green or poop brown combined together. This way, it helps unify the idea that this is for the high school more.

I also left the ticket prices and time where they were, but made sure they stood out than the rest of the poster. Not only does somebody need to teach how to make this stuff look pretty, but how to make this stuff look important. If you're putting that kind of information in the bottom right hand corner, make it stand out! This isn't a page number, IT'S THE FIVE W'S. Bold the font, outline it, add some colour! Follow the Rules of Reading too - unless you're in various parts of Asia, people aren't going to read right to left. Don't put it on the left unless it'll stand out a lot, and even then, it's not a good rule to follow since this information is better in the middle.

And FINALLY, no matter how bad these filters are, the Lens Flare > Eye Blinding Gradients. 

I know the Lens Flare is a terrible, cheesy filter. But it works. If you really need some kind of forbidden filter to use, use the Lens Flare. It has NOT failed me yet, it has made my high school website banners stand out, and it has made other campaigns where I required graphics successful. People will look faster at shiny stuff rather than a bag of Skittles (unless they really really like Skittles) and this is why it's better to use that for graphics if it has to come down to it.

This is a picture of David Tennant from Doctor Who, known for being the charismatic, crazy Tenth Doctor.

This is when I put the two filters together. Which would you rather look at if you had a choice between these two?

If you're going to use gradients, don't make them the main attention grabbing point. People will look at it, sure, but they won't want to when they see the hideous rainbow of colours hurting their eyes and it won't appeal to them as much as something stylishly done while grabbing the right amount of attention. Use it subtly and not directly. This isn't a Powerpoint presentation from elementary, it's supposed to be a semi-professional advertisement trying to sell people something.

That my old high school which has taught me some of the greatest, wonderful design techniques has now degenerated to not knowing how to design things or put any effort whatsoever into their own creations makes me more than upset.

*Should the kid who made the horrendous poster presented in this example be reading this, I am NOT sorry for your lack of effort and time. I would have given you a failing grade if I was your teacher and that was an assignment; that kind of garbage is inexcusable and I'm sure you can do much better than that.