NLSC Sig League Week 5 - Freestyle Theme

Cable Guy
Peachy
Cyanide

Cy, your sig had me confused the most. I'm not really sure what you were trying to do, all it appears you did was select a portion of the picture, create a mosaic and then add interesting blurbs of text. What were you trying to achieve with it?

I think most people got it, but though it takes a bit of analyzing, I'll explain it. The person in the photograph is Amare as 'hinted' with the orange text that says 'amare.' As basketball fans know, he's out for the season and he won't be back until next season. It's pretty much a graphic that says he's training and training and he'll be back soon as indicated by the 'coming in late 2006,' which is when the 2006/07 NBA season starts.

And to Cy, I'm a big believer in 'it doesn't need text'. Too many people just put text in a sig because they think it has to have it and it screws up the sig. If it doesn't add anything to the sig, why add it?

There are exceptions, and in rare cases, graphics without text must be consciously designed to purposely omit text for a good reason. In your case, you do actually have text, which is "Wade 3," but why the explosion? A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you want to communicate something specifically, you need to explain the explosion, otherwise you'll get a thousand different interpretations or a thousand, "I don't understand why the explosion is there." The purpose of adding text, and I don't mean a couple sentences, but one or two words may be enough (see: my WTF? sig) to communicate the meaning of the sig. A good example is Peachy's sig with a simple "Unleash the BEAST" though the image could fit the text's intention a little more. TBD did a nice one with Corey "Hustle" Maggette. Sure, casual NBA fans may recognize Maggette, but for the general audience, they won't know who he is. The 'hustle' fits perfectly what the player is doing, and it adds meaning when it counts.

As for screwing up a sig using text, that's the first time I've heard anyone say that. You're supposed to make text work with a sig, and if anybody is using the wrong kind of font, they don't know how to make type work with image. I didn't take typography classes for nothing.

How come I'm the only person that "simple is good" doesn't apply to here?

As Colin mentioned, there are several flaws. The biggest, biggest, biggest flaws are these: The head is slightly cropped, the use of bevel, the color in the background, and the lack of meaning. You have a picture of Kobe who looks like he's saying, "what the hell is going on?" and nobody's going to understand what he's trying to say when there's just his name in the background. The use of bevel is, by most designers' standards, is amateurish. The blue in the background is too tacky. Try to use something more greyish, darker, or lighter.The use of effect on his face and upper body doesn't add anything. It's simple, yes, but if you look at my previous sigs, you'll see that I use a lot of simplicity but using good visual hierarchy, contrast, composition, and color.

Alright, @ Axel, here's a few I've done kinda like that.





(Not very good)

I like that T-Mac signature, The Black Death, tight as hell.

There are exceptions, and in rare cases, graphics without text must be consciously designed to purposely omit text for a good reason. In your case, you do actually have text, which is "Wade 3," but why the explosion? A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you want to communicate something specifically, you need to explain the explosion, otherwise you'll get a thousand different interpretations or a thousand, "I don't understand why the explosion is there." The purpose of adding text, and I don't mean a couple sentences, but one or two words may be enough (see: my WTF? sig) to communicate the meaning of the sig. A good example is Peachy's sig with a simple "Unleash the BEAST" though the image could fit the text's intention a little more. TBD did a nice one with Corey "Hustle" Maggette. Sure, casual NBA fans may recognize Maggette, but for the general audience, they won't know who he is. The 'hustle' fits perfectly what the player is doing, and it adds meaning when it counts.

As for screwing up a sig using text, that's the first time I've heard anyone say that. You're supposed to make text work with a sig, and if anybody is using the wrong kind of font, they don't know how to make type work with image. I didn't take typography classes for nothing.

In terms of adding more text to my sig. My general idea in the sig was him leaping into the fire/explosion. The biggest problem is that it looks like he could be shooting a jumper when in a sig-size image, as opposed to that he's actually leaping forward for a lay-up. If I was to add text it would have been a thin red font in one of the corners with somethign along the lines of 'Into the fire' (but hopefully less corny ) But getting enough negative space for that to work just didn't fit the design.

the pic:


I should have been more specific in regards to text screwing something up. A common sight on many graphics boards is someone posting a sig without text that is beautiful, then criticized for not having text, so the artist will just go in and add text that they haven't really accomodated space for. I see what you're saying regardless. But I definitely disagree that a design is incomplete without text. Being that it's your strength, that might make that statement seem weird, but I stand by it.

Not having enough space is something I run into all the time. You find a great pic and have an awesome idea for a caption, but then you can't get the enitre pic in and it just isn't the same. If you had been able to use the entire Wade pic, I think it would have been way better because it does look like he's jumping into something.

Thanks for the examples Colin, same TBD... got some free time now to practice.

Also, Cy, thanks for explaining it better. I appreciate it

My votes are for...

Cable Guy
Black Death
Colin

Not having enough space is something I run into all the time. You find a great pic and have an awesome idea for a caption, but then you can't get the enitre pic in and it just isn't the same. If you had been able to use the entire Wade pic, I think it would have been way better because it does look like he's jumping into something.

Yeah man. The worst is getting an awesome pic that doesn't fit in any 'sig' dimensions, but is way to small for a wallpaper.

Not having enough space is something I run into all the time. You find a great pic and have an awesome idea for a caption, but then you can't get the enitre pic in and it just isn't the same. If you had been able to use the entire Wade pic, I think it would have been way better because it does look like he's jumping into something.

Yeah man. The worst is getting an awesome pic that doesn't fit in any 'sig' dimensions, but is way to small for a wallpaper.

Yeah, the whole figure could've worked better in the flame/explosion idea. It might be too small for a mini-wallpaper, but maybe more flames and perhaps a fading effect to "buffer" up space may have worked? It might be too risky, but your final sig still works nicely regardless of our opposing views

Btw, Colin, if you have time, can you show me an example of an image that looks great but where a caption screws it up?

I think the text really messes with this sig. There's this 'thing' coming at you and you don't know what it is, which adds this sort of mystery to it. I'm thinking 'What's happening?', but in a good way though. Then there's this text, which first of all, is a poor font choice. And secondly, it just kind of bluntly states what it is removing that real theme going on in the image.

Wouldn't "darkangel" be the user's name, or the name of the figure? I don't see what the problem of adding "darkangel" to it, though. It's like TBD's Maggette sig where he adds Maggette's name. It's still a mysterious thing coming at you, but I'd say the text should be 'hidden' as tucked away on the bottom right, but it's not necessarily a poor font choice, imo. Maybe a lighter grey instead of black type would hide it more.

It's better to communicate what the image represents rather than having an image that doesn't communicate a representation.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you would like to become a judge to replace cklitsie and Null, let me know as soon as possible. You'll be "working" through the play-offs aswell. All participants, eliminated or not, will be judging the play-offs.

i know i might not be a great sig maker, but i know how to judge well and would like to become a judge

so can i?

What exactly would I have to do as judge? Just what I did the first two weeks, right? Give my opinion about stuff and that's it, right? If so, I'm up for it.

If others don't share the sentiment about me being a judge, that's also not a problem. I'll hear from you soon enough Jae.

Nah basically just what everyone else does, pick a winner from each match-up. It's really easy. You wouldn't have to give any in depth opinions (god knows no one else does) I'd just rather use people I know/trust with this kind of thing.

Which means CP3 I'm considering you, but I'll make a decision before the next round.

The tables etc will be updated in the next 2 days, first round of the play-offs theme will be Play-Off Moments... just incase people want to get a head start, even if you don't know if you're in the play-offs.

The only week where im even close to winning the public vote, TBD pulls out his best sig.

Im guessing Colin beat out Cy, and Colin got a spot in the finals. Which means im eliminated

Ruff, im blaming that PM for putting me off.

A good example is Peachy's sig with a simple "Unleash the BEAST" though the image could fit the text's intention a little more.

Yeah i know but i couldn't find a more agressive pic or something that really depicted that but i really liked the tagline.

Im guessing Colin beat out Cy

O Rly?

@ Axel, yea it is Duncan. Here's the original pic> http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/706/ ... te15kp.jpg

where did you get the pic from?

O Rly?

That's a good one, where's Drex when you need him?

Just a quick note, I'm kinda mulling over whether I want to continue running this. I've compeltely lost all motivation for it due to a number of factors, but I'll give you guys an update when I make a decision on it one way or another.

Well it was fun while it lasted since im most probably out next round.
I apreciate you for doing all this, its been an awesome competition and its been an enourmous effort on your part. It ruined it with all the forfeits and such but i guess we can't avoid shit like that. A big thanks from me.
You helped me alot and i really think you spurred me on with some of your comments in some of the conversations we had, lol no kidding.

I can see where your coming from. I'm saying this because im probably out next round anyways. I know this post was so gay but you deserved a big thanks if you do decide to quit

BIG PROPS TO JAE-LO!

So are you avoiding my PMs Peachy? What's the matter, "are you PUSSY"?

With the forfeits, I wouldn't be surprised if this competition came to an end. It was fun while it lasted. I hope the results of Round 5 will be posted, though!

^Yeah, I want to see this rounds results at least. No tables or images needed. Me and Cy must've been close. But who won? By how much?

Yeah no worries I'll post them. I wasn't actually PM'd all of the votes, but this is what I got:

TBD 5
Peachy 1

Colin 5
Cyanide 1

CG 4
Jugs 1

Jae 6
Null 0 (Forfeit)

Axel 6
CK 0 (Forfeit)