December 2007 Wrestling Graphics Contest

[The Mask of Norro]

Judge's Reasons:

Stateofmind: 6/10

Reason: The cut of AJ Styles has a clear faint white outline... little things like that always are good to make sure you have taken care of before your final output. Text cuts a little too close to the border, especially on the top and with the logo. TNA logo is very, very hard to see, and the blending effect on "The Choice Is Yours!" is a bit odd, considering nothing else is blended. Finally, there's a lot of awkward empty space off to the right, maybe move AJ over a little to take that room up more. Good effort, but has alot of room for improvement.

TheModernWay: 7.5/10

Reason: Wow, VERY nice touch with the mouse, fits the "feel" of the event very nicely. The standard "Matrix" effect for this kind-of event also helps push home its theme. Excellent blending on Angle and Cage, but I do have to say that the overly blurred edges to Karen are a bit poor looking... might have been better to just have her a solid cut, as I honestly think the contrast would have helped her stand out more. The text at the top might as well be ditched too, admittedly, because it does nothing for the otherwise very good poster. TNA's logo could be enlarged more to be made more prominant, as it should be. Excellent logo design, but I honestly think the "CONTROL_US.3/23" thing is a bit much and unneeded. Also, take a look at your date at the bottom, it's off-center, so it leaves an awkward feel at the bottom with everything perfectly centered above it and then it's more off to the right.

jason_darlonlane: 6.5/10

Reason: This is an excellent promotional graphic, undoubtedly. There's some problems with the cutting on the monitor of the laptop (Your overlaying effect on it is actually larger then the original monitor space, as I can see the original image on the monitor in a strip to the right of it). Decent job with the cut of Angle, though you missed a spot of blue on his right (left on your screen) forearm. Not too fond of the fuzzy edges either, to be honest. The Digital Warfare logo could honestly have a better font selection, as it's a little cheap looking and hard to read; what's more, the date's drop shadow is coming off the screen and onto the laptop, which sorta takes away from that "image on the monitor with a part of it bursting out the top" effect you were going for. The background is decent, but the blur around the monitor I honestly think could be knocked back a little. "Create History" looks great though, admittedly. All in all, it's a great idea, but little things kept dragging it down.

The Trouble King: 6/10

Reason: The cuts of Cage and Styles are of differing image qualities, so it does look a bit strange in the poster... try to find cuts that match (read: Cage's is gritty and grainy, AJ's is clear and high quality). The text leaves a lot to be desired to... grammatical error on the top ("TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION PRESENT"). I don't like the placement of the text over your logo... maybe bump the logo up and span that text across the bottom. That said, about the logo: VERY nice, probably one of the more professional ones I've seen in the contest. However, a suggestion: move the TNA logo over onto the top half of the star at the end of the logo, I think it'd fit better there then over on the left side. Tilt it, too, so it doesn't look so straight and flat against the logo. Finally, bump the logo a little more to the left, so it's a bit more centered-- you tried to center everything over it, so having that different doesn't add an appealing element, really.

Shamulous Rougeau Brothers: 7/10

Reason: I'm loving the feel you've given this poster, it has a distinct "WANTED" poster feel to it. That said, you really should have translated that to your logo, as adding the bevel was definitely not a good idea... it takes away from the feel of the poster. You modified TNA's logo to fit, would have been great to see your logo modified for it as well. Now then, with the mini-pages at the top, bump them down a little so they don't overlap your top black strip, it looks a bit awkward. Also, don't center the options where the checkboxes are... just align them to the left, I honestly think that could add to the effect of it all. Bring them a little closer together so the space between the pages vertically matches the space horizontally. Finally, with the "VOTE NOW AT..." text, bump it down so it' not trapped under the shadow of the pages, as ironically the shadow is lightening the black text at the top, which looks incredibly odd. Also, play around with expanding that span of text, maybe taking the "On Sunday February 17th... You make the decisions." text and getting rid of it on the bottom and instead adding it on the same line as the "Vote now" text. Bump the logos of TNA, iNDemand, and Midway up away from the bottom and put them on the same baseline, and I think this poster could really, really look sharp.

JKDaRock: 5/10

Reason: The simple gradient background has potential, but with the way you've set the poster up, it fails to realize it. I don't like the way the cut of the woman stands out on it, especially how hard the cut is... when you're cutting hair, try to remember that hair isn't just so straight-edged. You can get away with hard cuts like that when the background hides it, but this gradient background just makes it stand out more. Also, your "Web Warfare" logo should see the circle around the W shrunk down a little more, as it makes the logo look awkward... too much space between the W and the two words. Get rid of the website link at the top and instead bring it down to the bottom, under the "They Fight the War" text which, I would suggest needs to get bumped up some. Bump it up enough anyway that you can bring the logos of Halflife 2, Sega and Firefox underneath them, then maybe size them down some. Finally, I'd honestly just suggest getting rid of the gradient and the woman and going for a completely new design around the suggestions I've made. This one is just, unfortunately, an inadequete design for a poster. I really don't mean to be so harsh, but yeah.

Dochappy: 6.5/10

Reason: There's a lot of good and bad with this design. First, the good: the background, and the way you've set up the cuts, looks very, very nice Doc. Seriously, I'm loving the feel of the poster thanks to that. The logo idea is brilliant too, albeit it does need some tweaking. That said... here's the bad, though really it's not so bad that it can't easily be fixed: first, ditch the outer glow on the red text on the black bar at the bottom, it's not needed. The red can easily stand out on its own and I think would look better from it. Enlargen the "LOG ON! VOTE! TUNE IN" text and ditch the glow/drop shadow on it, but make it a slightly darker red. I think that could look really sharp. The text at top, if you went with a Sans-Serif font and made it black, that would make it look pretty good too, because how it is at the moment is honestly a little bit hard-to-read. With the logo, pick a different font for "Reality Check", as the current one seems far too "computer defaultish" and doesn't bend with the checkmark. With the right font, and with the right bend to it, you could make that logo look amazing. This is a poster with a ton of potential, and it only'll take a few tweaks to get it to realize that potential.

Gene Kiniski: 5/10

Reason: To start things off, the cut is very blurry, and the gridlines in the background actually detract more then they add to the design as an effect. The starbursts behind AJ's hands, head and by the text really look tacky, and give a "SALE! SALE! SALE!" kind-of feel to the poster. What's more, this poster is very, very pink... it doesn't seem to fit TNA's style very well. Honestly, if I were to see this poster, I'd think it was a promotional piece for Wrestler Valentine's cards. There's no TNA logo, the text you've used honestly DOES fit more for Valentine's, and the placement of the text is very rough in certain areas, particularly on the upper right corner where it cuts against the border. In the end, I'd ditch this design idea... not to be mean, man, but it's just not working for this style of an event. I really hope this doesn't offend you, I'm trying not to be overly critical, but it's really not screaming "TNA" at me in any way at all.

nufan: 6.5/10

Reason: The black bars at the top and bottom really don't seem to lend themselves to this kind-of design. You've got a superb idea with the sharp, contrasted American flags crashing through the center of the poster like that. I'm not sure about the way you've had them come into Angle, however... maybe keep Angle in the front? Don't have his head black out at the top either, it looks kinda cheap. I don't like the placement of the logo and the "3 matches..." text. Maybe make the Freedom of Speech logo all on one line, and place the "3 matches..." text underneath it, and drop it low enough so they fall into the black area at the bottom. That might make it look quite a bit better. The TNA logo could certainly use a bit of a resize... as it currently is, it looks really scrunched inside the black bar and almost gets lost in the design of the poster. This is another case of "excellent potential, questionable execution" for me, but I definitely love the idea.

3 - U-Control by The Trouble King

Reason: The reason this has got 3rd place is because of a few mistakes (or seemingly at least) in the text, even though the rest of it looks quite professional. At the top, it'd be better if it said "TNA Wrestling Presents" as opposed to "Total Non Stop Action Present". I like the design of the poster and the logo, though.

2 - Reality Check by Dochappy

Reason: For me, it was out of this one and ModernWay's to win it - ModernWay gets the nod for a few simple reasons. Spelling mistakes. You'd have thought someone with skills like this guy would have checked for mistakes before posting it. He's mis-spelled February, and has listed the TNA website as "tnawrestling>com" as opposed to "tnawrestling.com". Like TTK's, the rest looks great.

1 - Syntax Error by TheModernWay

Reason: Well, you could say that because he's a mate of mine, I might be being biased - But it isn't the case. It's clearly one of the top ones this month, and for the reasons given above for the others, this should get top spot. The text is great. Everything fits well ...and I'm almost sure he's "super-imposed" the mouse into Karen Angle's hand as well for added effect. Even if he hasn't, it still looks great. He could so easily have gone for the simple blue background ...fact is, it looks anything BUT simple.

State Of Mind: 6/10

While the graphic is really good and effects are spot on and everything is up to par but it doesn't have the feel of a ppv poster imo. While the text is easy to read , it feels crowded and the the tna logo being blended in makes it hard to see.

The Modern Way: 8/10

Overall a good graphic probably one of the best I've seen from you. Some of the text at the top is hard to read and blending in a spot or two could be better. The over all color placement of text and cuts is great.

Jason-daronlane: 6/10

Nice work. I love the way the top text is placed and the look of it. The tna logo looks a bit jagged around the edges and something about the digital warfare text looks slightly off. I wish you'd have done something more with the background instead of continuing with the fire effect.

The Trouble King: 9/10

I love the logo. I don't know if you created it yourself or used an existing logo , but the fact is I love it. the background is a bit plain , but the rest makes up for that. The Cage cut looks a bit bright compared to the rest of the graphic. Text stands out and placed well too.

Taka Apshamoku: 5/10

For a first it's pretty damn good. I just can't picture it as a ppv poster. The text is easy to read and placed well as is the logos. The mob rule text looks a bit blurry and I'd get rid of the bevel on it. This would work well eteam flyers and such.

JKDarock: 4/10

Sometimes simple is good but to me this graphic is too simple. the text at the bottom needs to be a different color because to me its really hard to read. the web warfare logo text doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the graphic.Also there's a lack of info. You don't a date time and etc.

Gene Kiniski: 5/10

Not really liking the color scheme of the entire graphic. The background is effective( maybe a different shade of red wink.gif ) the main font is hard to read. I like what you were trying to do with the special effect behind his hands. I don't see this working as a ppv poster either. Not enough info on the poster. It's a good graphic but the color scheme ruined it for me.

Edited February 6, 2008 by The Mask of Norro

[apsham]

So wait... Baddar only had points counted in voting for three of the posters in total?

Nevermind, I was just going by his reasonings.

Edited February 5, 2008 by Shamulous Rougeau Brothers

[The Mask of Norro]

He just gave his reasons for his top three, the rest he just scored without giving reasons.

[nufan]

so if doc gives me a score of 13 i can win

haha congrats to all those who entered and won and thanks to the voters, we cant have these comps without you

oh and Doc would u mind giving me a score.. just to know where im at

cheers

[Docpepper]

I could have sworn I added your score there before sending. When i originally typed my reasonings your image wasn't loading.

I can't remember exactly the score i gave you at the time but after looking at it again I'm giving you a 5. The blending and main text really hurts it imo.

Sorry bout not including that in the pm Norro