[Rivalry]

READ BEFORE POSTING
First thread is a quick free one I made for Cooligan's new middleman service. It took about an hour. It's part of some ongoing experiments I'm doing in moving away from totally flat design and incorporating both flat elements and elements with depth. If it was a paid design, I'd redo the hero because I'm not entirely happy with it, but I cba (lol work ethic).

The second thread is unfinished. It's a WIP I made for Mr Kewl's now defunct 'Out of the Box' group, but I only half-finished it before the group was disbanded. Again, it's not entirely flat, but has a totally different feel to the first thread. I focussed on flow, originality, and warmth.

Do let me know your thoughts on both of these more experimental designs. Hopefully they're very different to the stale flat stuff HF churns out every day.

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Spoiler (Click to View)
[img]http://#/LQ7nZL.png[/img]

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Spoiler (Click to View)
[img]http://#/9UXyLl.png[/img]

[1MPERATOR]

Second is, in my opinion, way to bright

[Narrate]

Second is, in my opinion, way to bright

Agreed, and the userbars don't look very good colored like that.

[YinYang]

I love the second one, only for it's uniqueness

good job

[Omoi]

First one looks amazing I do enjoy the wildlife factor, 2nd one just a little to bright for me.

[minimalist]

First one - looks nice but why the hell is there a beaver lol
Second one - too bright, looks too weeby for my tastes

[Zanwald]

I don't think it's that the second is too bright but that the words need a thin outline as the colors clash and make it difficult to read.

[Rivalry]

Second is, in my opinion, way to bright

This is often a criticism of my stuff, and I think it happens because I tend to have my screen brightness down low. I just turned it all the way up, and I see what you mean. I guess it depends how bright you have your screen. Thanks for the feedback; I'll desaturate it a little for next time.

Agreed, and the userbars don't look very good colored like that.

I wanted to normalise the colours because otherwise they break colour flow and distract the viewer. It took ages trying to get it right, and I was still playing with the colour balance as I saved the thread. Maybe it would've been better to just desaturate them.

I love the second one, only for it's uniqueness

good job

Thanks, glad you like it :)

First one looks amazing I do enjoy the wildlife factor, 2nd one just a little to bright for me.

Thanks for the feedback!

First one - looks nice but why the hell is there a beaver lol
Second one - too bright, looks too weeby for my tastes

It's a bear family, not a beaver ahaha- it's there to show the mother bear (Cooligan, obvs) escorting the two baby bears (the two people involved in the transaction) through the dangerous territory (HF's marketplace). Step up your animal identification/allegory game, son :P

What is 'weeby'?

I don't think it's that the second is too bright but that the words need a thin outline as the colors clash and make it difficult to read.

Not sure about this. White's a base and goes with any colour so idk what you mean by white causing a clash; it's easy to read on my end. I think adding a Stroke would be a pretty horrid solution, too. Will bear it in mind.

[Zanwald]

I meant the white wording on a brightly colored background can make it more difficult to read then it should be.

[Narrate]

I wanted to normalise the colours because otherwise they break colour flow and distract the viewer. It took ages trying to get it right, and I was still playing with the colour balance as I saved the thread. Maybe it would've been better to just desaturate them.

Even that would look kind of off, I don't think it would look that bad if they were left normal.

[NieR]

I was questioning the imagery in the first one but now I see you went for a wildlife theme to it, which is pretty cool. The second one my only real complaint is the blank transition between the last palette, it seems anticlimactic while you have transitions everywhere else. And yeah, I would tone down the brightness on the colors just a little bit because you have a very nice scheme going on.

[AyoubbeeR]

Omg I love the first one, it's epic mate 20/10!!!! :D

[Illus Traitor]

The first one looks alright. I think the subtle glows ruin it for me. But it's nice, and good that you're trying something different.

The second one looks awesome to me. I don't think it's too bright. I just think you were going for a light design and you got it.

[Tʀᴀᴜᴍᴀ]

Very nice work on the first one.

However, the second one is better. It just needs a complete color remake.

[Rivalry]

I was questioning the imagery in the first one but now I see you went for a wildlife theme to it, which is pretty cool. The second one my only real complaint is the blank transition between the last palette, it seems anticlimactic while you have transitions everywhere else. And yeah, I would tone down the brightness on the colors just a little bit because you have a very nice scheme going on.

I agree, but the reason I didn't do anything was because I didn't want the wavy line transition to get overused. Instead, if you look closely you can see flow is preserved by the rays of light continuing into the 'Labs' section. I know what you mean, though. I think it could be a nice change to have the yellow bleed into the teal/green colour, since the equation and the labs are interconnected. That could work as a transition.

Edit: imagery ain't just wildlife themed. Get your metaphor hat on: the hero is mother bear (Cooligan) guiding two baby bears (the people he's MMing) through the dangerous landscape (HF). Boom. The snakes are because HF's marketplace is a nest of snakes, and Indiana Jones (Cooligan) arrives in the 'Solution' section to save the day! :D

Omg I love the first one, it's epic mate 20/10!!!! :D

Wow, thanks :P

The first one looks alright. I think the subtle glows ruin it for me. But it's nice, and good that you're trying something different.

The second one looks awesome to me. I don't think it's too bright. I just think you were going for a light design and you got it.

Seems like the subtle glows are pretty popular, so I'll keep them. Thanks, though.

Equally, it seems like the lightness of the second design isn't so popular, haha. You hipster, you.

Very nice work on the first one.

However, the second one is better. It just needs a complete color remake.

Thanks! What do you mean by 'complete colour remake'? As in make it darker or change the colours? Because these colours all go nicely together :s