2 Different Covers for an Annual Report

[BoonDock]

Hey guys and gals, did 2 quick ideas up for this job that came in, (they want us to design the cover inside sleeves and back of this Annual Report that we will also be printing) thought I'd give em to everyone to critique before I send it out to the client...

Oh and please ignore their logo, they love it and I had to use it...


EDIT: REMOVED PICS BECAUSE I'M WORKING ON NEW IDEAS - WILL ADD LATER TODAY HOPEFULLY...

EDIT - AGAIN: Alright I went ahead and did 3 differnet ideas from the first 2, here are the different ideas I came up with today...(further on down the thread) THANKS FOR LOOKING! Please critique with constructive criticism. :thumb:




Thanks!
Boon :thumb:

[G]

I like the first image best....the logo is a bit...well lets not go there.

What about having some more colour on the first image instead of it being a white bg?? I think it would make it look a lot better.

[JoshuaJonah]

I like the first one, a like the sense of disconnection from the rest of the page. I feel the lines may be a little wacky, but otherwise, it is very corporate. The second however, i hate it.

P.S: please laugh in the face of the client on my behalf for the logo.:)

[BoonDock]

Yeah the 2nd one goes with their Advertising campaign...which I don't like and we didn't design...so I just thought I'd try and stay with what they were using...but eh, I don't like it either...

Oh and trust me, we have been laughing at their "great" logo for some time. ;)

[simplistik]

Well if I was to be forced to choose it'd be #1 even though I don't like either of them. #2 is just plain horrid IMO, and #1 the squiggly lines make no sense whatsoever, but on the flip side if you get rid of the lines, you have a whole bunch of white space... which isn't good in this case.

[Willofdarkness]

i don't particularly like either design.

in fact, i dislike both of them.

[bwh2]

i'm not a fan of either.

[matthewjumps]

i think they have had 0.3 seconds spent on them and look that way too...:bored:

[Jeff Wheeler]

Try getting rid of the clipart on #1… :(

[BoonDock]

Clipart on #1? What clipart?

Yeah like I said I didn't spend a lot of time I was thrown into this job and had to have some ideas...I'll spend more time on them later, just wanted to build off of these...so could I get a little more than "i don't like either design"

Thanks.

[senocular]

Eh, I kind of liked 2... but what do I know :-/

[LunaSolar]

I can give you a little more than "I don't like either", although I don't.

#1 - Amatuerish at best. Squiggly lines have no purpose, and they are undefined, they look like paths hit with a 2px stroke, and least "design" them. Give them some sort of depth, dimension, or gradiation. Better yet delete them and think of something else. The photo does look like a cheap stock photo, and the typography (if you can call it that) is so bland I feel like I should define the word typography before just throwing it out there. This is the better of the two, and that is saying something.

Try a better, more lively picture, maybe something that feels more "natural", Pick 2 good fonts and make the best of them (Day Roman would probably work well and it's free), and for cripes sake kill those lines.

#2 - Nothing the CEO couldn't have gotten his 12 year old nephew to do for free in Paint. It lacks anything worthy of being called "design".

I don't want to be harsh, and I usually reserve criticism. In this case I only make the exception because it is for a paying client, and you practically begged somebody to tear it apart.

[JoshuaJonah]

ok... post me one, I want to see the first one with the lines removed, then tkae the image and unmask it so it goes to the bottom of the page. Then i want to see a white gradient start where the image previously ended.
Can ya do that for me Boon?

[BoonDock]

Ok here are the 3 new ideas as stated above! Please keep in mind I have no control over their logo except for size and placement...the color and how it looks is not something I'd like to take credit for...

Please leave constructive criticism...thanks everyone! :thumb:

Boon over and out!

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4036/3rdtry0jl.th.jpg (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3rdtry0jl.jpg)

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/2977/4thtry9gp.th.jpg (http://img240.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4thtry9gp.jpg)

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9580/5thtry9si.th.jpg (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5thtry9si.jpg)

[JoshuaJonah]

#2 rocks my world, but only if the "2" actually touches the bottom of the orange like the other numbers:)

[BoonDock]

Yeah, I don't know why that font puts the 2 up higher than all the other numbers, but I will def. fix that if the client chooses it! I'll just adjust the height of the '2' and the placement in the character options in InDesign.

Thanks Defective! :thumb:

[lunatic]

I guess I like #2 the best but I still think its lacking something. Like you had to make the font for the catch phrase super big because you needed to fill the space. I'd almost rather see it off center and italicized (or something), not all caps, and tied to the name of the company (I'm sorry it's such a horrible logo). Then I'd fill the space with other images. Don't clutter it, but make a bit of a collage or something. Doesn't the company have any stock photos you can use? People working, meeting with clients, picture of a board meeting, whatever. It just needs something more to look at than a field (or a tree or a cloud).

My :2c:

[lunatic]

I don't want to be harsh, and I usually reserve criticism.

LunaSolar you crack me up. :beam:

[unclesond]

Boon, number1 just isn't doing it for me. The other two have more promise.

I'm curious to why there are microsoftesque backgrounds on the cover to an annual report? Is it just glamming up a potentially mundane document? Or is there some reason to these images?

Also is the document going to be internal or sent out to clients/shareholders etc?...I presume its going external otherwise they wouldn't be spending all this money.

Number2 is the most pleasing to look at, tweak the 2005 number positions as defective said. But also some more consideration needs to go into the text below. Looks a bit strange with the big gap in the bottom right. Personally I'd put the text smaller and make it spread one line....

Tweak the text that says annual report its kinda a half hearted italic, even straighten it out or go full blown italic, i reckon straighten.

I'm also thinking that the grey may need to go to white and the logo perhaps move to the bottom and the slogan to the top, but i need to ponder some more.

[simplistik]

Umm... yea definately 2.

3 was way to scary... it literally sent chills down my back... whew.
1 is meh... it actually reminds me of this CS or math book cover I had when I was in college, and the typo is bad, it was too on that book.

So... no. 2. It's a start... need to work on that 2005. The '2' absolutely needs to touch the bottom, and flush w/ the top. The image itself needs to be color corrected and enhanced... it's way to bland, and can tell it wasn't taken by a professional. The grey though... dunno... the grey is dulling it down a bit.

[BoonDock]

Perhaps I should post some scans of their previous 3 yrs. of annual reports so you can see what I had to work from...??? Would anyone like to see?

[JoshuaJonah]

Me! Me1!

[BoonDock]

Ok here are the previous 3 year's covers for their Annual Report which we didn't design here...they asked for a totally different approach which is why mine don't look like or hopefully don't look like any of theirs...

@Lunatic - yeah I wish they had some of their own stock photography, but alas...they don't...I was asked by my Senior Art Director not to use people if possible on this cover...so no collage but I had the same initial idea as well ;)

PREVIOUS YEARS:
2002
http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/5592/20021rz.th.jpg (http://img328.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20021rz.jpg)
2003
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/4290/20032dc.th.jpg (http://img434.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20032dc.jpg)
2004
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/9809/20046fg.th.jpg (http://img383.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20046fg.jpg)

[JoshuaJonah]

Other than the logo, Boon, they're not that bad. So you're trying to stay with this kind of color scheme?

[BoonDock]

No, I was told to not stay with these and to go in a whole different direction...

[Willofdarkness]

what application are you using?

did they give you a vector logo or did you just cut it from those images?

[matthewjumps]

i agree with previous post that number 2 of your new attempts looks the best ... still needs work tho

[BoonDock]

They sent me the logo as an .eps and I opened it in Illustrator CS2 and they created the words from some other existing font...they were all vectored out and not even outlines of fonts... :( ... so I had to do the best I could with what they provided ... (i asked if I could re-do the logo and just pick a font close to what it looked like, but my Sr. AD said that not to spend the time on it, that they love their logo and that they'd be fine with it)...

Also I did most of the graphic work in PS CS2 and then did the layout and the fonts in InDesign CS2.

[BoonDock]

Oh and to touch on the direction for this (the pictures being used) is because a lot of their clientel are farmers and agricultural people/business so this is why I used the tree/windmill pic and the field pic as well...(aside from the fact that they want to do something different from the previous covers that had people in them...)

[LunaSolar]

Alright, those 3 are a lot better. Pick whichever you want really.

Much better.

[LunaSolar]

LunaSolar you crack me up. :beam:

C'mon, I only killed 1 other dude, and he was really deserving of said thrashing. I only like to say good things mostly :azn:

[lunatic]

lol I've seen a few posts from you that were definitely not sugar coated. No worries man, I'm not picking on you. :love:

[LunaSolar]

lol I've seen a few posts from you that were definitely not sugar coated. No worries man, I'm not picking on you. :love:

I'm from Boston so half the time I think I am being nice; I am probably being so rude it would count as a civil rights violation.

I guess you are the product of your enviroment :bad:

[Willofdarkness]

i just looked at the new ones. the middle one is ok.. still needs a little tweaking.

you've misspelled "strength" in the third one. i've heard of people being fired for something like that.... but then again if it hasn't gone to the client yet it probably doesn't matter.