I NEED YOUR HELP Options

[hi-C]

I'm interning with this nonprofit beauty... line, I guess, and I need your honest critiques on this banner I created for them (because the other was fug, it looked like it had been patched together on Word, I'm so serious). I've resized the hell out of it, so if the watermark looks weird, that's why.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1602/sheayeleen2.png

Edit: Changed the color to beige. I'm not exactly sold on how I have the sample images placed in the first draft so what do you think about these two, too:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3514/sheayeleen21.png
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3029/sheayeleen22.png

Edit: My original vision. I love it so much more this way.
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8793/shea...en2vertical.png

Edit: Two new versions. Tell me what you think.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Edit: Removed the shadow underneath the product image, refined the shape of Africa. The sepia-y one has been overlayed with brown to take away some of the orange. Background on both is now white instead of off-white (it was basically white anyway so whatever.) They're going to go with one of these, but they really really like the blue-purple-pink one.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

This post has been edited by hi-C: Mar 26 2009, 05:48 PM

[hi-C]

The original vertical one looks great. The sepia tone also doesn't look bad either, but its a little too orange. Not digging the blue and pink hue of the very last one. Browns and beige look a lot better.
I actually like the outline and style of the products, the much larger one looks a little weird, the lighting makes it stand out oddly.
Fonts are great, outline of the continent also looks great, same with the blending. I don't know why but for some reason it just looks like it can use more to it. But i have no clue what. Just the surrounding area of the continent.

Perhaps some sort of background or low opacity image to blend into the background?

I, too, think it's missing something, but I can't really do much to the background. It's going to be printed and in order for it to be cheaply done, it has to be minimalistic, which is why the latest two don't retain the original coloring. I agree with the orange comment, too, I'll try to make it more brown.

In regards to the lighting, that's in the original image. I tried so hard to decrease the shine but since the whole image is shiny, I can't do retouch with the clone tool and when I used a feathered brush at a lower opacity, that didn't look good either. I'll work on it some more, though, and get rid of the shadow.

This one is my favorite:
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8793/shea...en2vertical.png

I think you should soften the edges a little. And maybe give it a little unoticable black border or light drop shadow or something.

Here i took it into gimp and played around a little.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8793/shea...en2vertical.png

That is my favorite. I just added a light blur to the borders and a light drop shadow and I made the background on the tree the same color as the reast and moved it up and moved the text to the left.

While I don't like the blur, I get what you mean about the edges. I, too, think it looks a bit pixelly. I'll work on it. I do like how you re-did the placement of the bottom elements, thanks for your input.