Design Critique poster

Question

Here is my attempt. Extremely preliminary, I understand this would require several iterations.

But any sort of constructive criticism would be helpful.

Question 1 : Are there way too many elements? I tried to show the two different rooms and two different places

Question 2 : I am new to this and hence have more or less zero idea on grids? Is it visually appealing?

Question 3 : Does it look suitable to be released on social media.

Answer 1

First of all it is really good! But I'll admit it took me awhile to understand what the poster is trying to tell me.

1. It is not immediately obvious that the man and woman are in different countries. I suggest showing them outdoors, with the picture that was on the wall as their backgrounds, respectively. The various elements in the room are distracting. It is difficult to notice the important objects, the gift, calendar and phone), among all the accessories, and deduce the proper conclusion.

   Showing them outdoors will eliminate the redundant objects, and the different national background will be immediately noticeable, instead of being just another object in the room.

2. The gift is lost in the background. Try making it a different, more outstanding color. Check what color is used the most in the background and try using it's opposite on the color wheel. Since you already used opposites on the room colors, (blue and orange) It is a tough call to make right now. Alternatively, since your poster is using a pastel palette for the most part, you can use darker, more dramatic color for the gift (such as the red in the "Delivered" ribbon).

   I feel that if it where a more solid color, without the pattern, it would stand out even more.

3. I'm not sure the calendar is necessary or not, but if you do decide to keep it I think hanging it midair, in the outdoors, is perfectly fine even if it doesn't make much sense logically. Try making it and the gift bigger.

Of course this is all my personal opinion, but I think it is hard to see something objectively after working so hard on all the little details. Good luck!

Answer 2

I agree with all the points raised in Rosa's answer but I want to add a few other points.

1. There are, in my opinion, slight spacing issues.

Everything looks a bit unbalanced. There is minimum spacing at the top of the illustration - the books and windows go right to the top, but there is a relatively big empty space at the floor. The logo, Google button and banner aren't aligned to anything, and look a bit messy.

A quick edit to address some of the spacing issues:

Note I have added some text above the Google Play button. This visually balances the whole bottom area against the larger banner on the left.

2. It wasn't instantly clear to me what this was about.

Having the illustration at the top means that is what you see first and you can't instantly see what is going on from the illustration. As soon as you see the word 'Go Ship' it makes sense, but you see that after the illustration. One option would be to put the logo etc at the top:

I'm not sure how visually important the different elements are but you can play around with scale and positioning to draw attention to the most important elements. Another quick edit to show some possibilities:

These are all just my humble opinions - based on first impressions and some very rushed quick edits so they may or may not help.

Answer 3

I really like the elements that you have used. However the gift object in the left side of the poster is lost with the other elements on the page. Also, for showing that they are in different cities, it looks like that they are two paintings on the wall rather than windows. Here is what would fit right into the theme - You could make use of that rocket-ship and connecting it from the left side gift box to the right one. It could be shown via "bee-tracks". I think that will make it clearer for the user to focus on the gifts and the transport service more than the other elements which is the whole purpose of the poster.

Answer 4

Comments from someone who took a few courses in visual space and layout design a loooong time ago, so take these worth a grain of salt:

1. The box on the left is on the floor, so it's not evident that it is the item of focus. I recognize that you need the phone to order, though -- is there a way to have the fella on the left holding the box and the phone perhaps?
2. Even though the rooms are different colors, the diagonal sight lines connecting them at the center makes them seem like one room. You could possibly break the room in the middle (adding two different brick wall patterns perhaps), separating them out into two obvious buildings, and then put some global space between them (arc sliver of the Earth, stars/sky) so that it is evident they are not together.
3. You could even use the rocket ship in minature flying en route from left to right to show transport/travel. If you can do the change in #1, then you can have the ship in the middle with a dotted line connecting the box from the guy on the left to the woman on the right.

Answer 5

• why do they both need a book shelf? replace one with some decorative, plates or plants ..

• adding curtains sounds good, make them match the outside scene, also make the windows more square?

• don't recognize the sights, left one is sidney? the right one i don't know. maybe use a skyline, then you need a larger window or no wall at all, or the eiffel tower or some mountain. do you want to imply different continents? would increase contrast between the images, so it looks like different daytimes too.

• would move the calendars to the middle and make them larger, maybe adding a text somewhere close saying "2 day delivery" or whatever is important to point out

• the right present is hiding the sight outside, feels like i would recognize it if i could look around the box .. i wouldn't, but it feels like

• CAI's edit to move the description to the top is great

• would make the top bar smaller then and add a bottom bar with the app store links, there will be two or three, right? and homepage url

• the receiver could look more excited for receiving the box

• some shipping animation between the images? circle with a running guy inside that carries a box? the rocket with half a box sticking out like on old airplanes?

Answer 6

Are there way too many elements? I tried to show the two different rooms and two different places

Yes. The concept of shipping is pretty self-evident to most anyone. We understand a package can go from one place to another in two days. While your illustration is nice, I'm not sure what it is communicating that is unique about your particular product over any other shipping product.

I am new to this and hence have more or less zero idea on grids? Is it visually appealing? Does it look suitable to be released on social media.

I don't know. We'd need a whole lot more context to answer that.

As it is now, some suggestions:

• you have a rocket, a ribbon, and two rooms. These don't go together all that well and feel like 3 isolated concepts.

• I don't understand from looking at your poster what is special about GoShip v any other standard shipping method. What's the sales pitch?

• it could be something lost in translation, but the tagline isn't doing much for me.