critique needed

[shnelson]

I'm working on a project for a company and I was hoping to get some critique from what I view as some of the most hardcore waterfowlers out there. With respect to FMN, I have removed the name/branding, and do not believe this is in any violation of forum policy. If I am mistaken please notify me immediately and I will revoke this post.

On to the goods - The intent of this image is to be a vinyl window decal, the blue/black gradient is in place to give an idea of a window.

The white outline around each pintail is to help contrast it against both a tinted or untinted window.

What do you like/dislike about this? Would you change anything?

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

[CANOPY SAM]

Can't see much of the head of the bird on the left. I'd add more feather detail to the birds wings - if possible. Also, all the "texture" added to the lettering makes it a little tough to read at a distance. See a lot of this stuff today, but can never read it! Point of the ad is to read it, right?

Think i'd lift up the bird on the right a little bit too. Just my ....

[Lunker]

Pretty cool overall. I agree with Canopy Sam's comment about the head of the bird on the left. Needs to be higher, lower, or better outlined.

[shnelson]

good call on the left bird! Here's round #2:

Changed the bird on the left and blacked out right/left (i think this helps call attention to the center pintail). Should I add the white back? Also made changes to the heights...

The distressed text can be difficult to read from the distance, but I definitely jumped on the 'grunge' bandwagon because I think it makes people want to get closer to read it. I wanted to incorporate the HSOforum text but then I think it gets too 'noisy' per say. I had one decal made up already and the cutters did a good job with the custom distressing they had to do, the text is not nearly as fragmented as what I have in the image but still retains the look.

Thanks for the input so far guys!

[CANOPY SAM]

Put the white back in, and lift up the "bookend" birds higher yet. Can you add a white eyespot in for each bird?

Can you add some of the white outline detail further into the feather outline into the wings?

Maybe try having the birds all cupped and landing in the same direction?

[bucketmouth64]

I agree with adding eyes, and lifting the birds out of the lettering. Not a fan of the distressed lettering, I would rather see a nice display that can be read at a normal distance. Maybe add some holes that mimic shot in the lettering instead. Or see what a shot shell looks like as a letter.

[LightningBG]

I think add the white back in.

I dont thing I would put eyes on them, might look creepy.

Otherwise, looks great.

Is this going to be on a clear vinyl rectangle or are they individually cut?

[shnelson]

I'll give it a go with the white back in tonight and see how it turns out. If I get really ambitious I'll try to put some feather detail further into the wings too. I'm being stubborn about the distressed lettering.. i just like the way it looks .

These will all be individually cut, here's the old vinyl I had made up (company name blurred to respect forum policy), but it shows the visibility of the font:

I was getting grief from a few guys about the left pintail just being a duplicate of the center, which was me being lazy (vector images can get to be pretty tedious when building em from scratch!).