(Aug 2, 2017 01:01 AM)Snowchugger Wrote:  I'm assuming this is only the top part of the thread design, and that you're still working on the rest of it. This is the perfect time to ask for criticism, because you will not design the rest of the thread design in the same manner of mistakes.

First off when looking at your image, it seems very blurred. Either you saved it wrong (.jpg compresses your image), but it seems to be a .png. It can either be the image host (Imgur can compress your image), or it is to do with your settings.

A few tips I can give you to make it look less blurred:

- Do not use a very spread drop shadow. Try to keep it as hard and crisp as possible.
- The gradient you applied is fine, but along with a thin stroke on the text, it appears the text to be blurry. You can try increasing the stroke, or removing the gradient.
- The white line underneath your main text needs to be either completely removed, or refined. The edges are hard and the whole line looks blurred. You can try using the pen tool, then a brush that is set to 'transfer', and right click the path to apply a brush stroke to it.
- Apply a vignette or a gradient to your background image behind your main text to create more value and depth to the header.
- Last but not least, the blue line inside and outside of the whole ordeal looks very jagged, making a large contrast with the soft shading and blurry feeling of the overall piece. It looks very out of place with the rest of the piece.

I hope these pointers will help you in improving your thread design.

Spoiler (Click to View)

(Aug 2, 2017 07:16 AM)The Conjurer Wrote:  Spoiler (Click to View)



Embedded your image for you 👍.

I like it apart from the grey underneath the "Read more" button, why is that needed?

Good work OP! 👍