Photoshop Doodles: What Do You Think?

Buy some fonts.

Honest opinion?

Couple of layers with some deviantart generic brushes and standard looking font.

Sure they're ok and all, but there is no skill in doing what you have done above. imo

I did this the other day (attached) in about an 1.5 hours messing about in CS5 before I went out for the evening. (yes i know im a **** for comparing my work but meh...)

Oooh. Aaah.

dxstewart said:

I have a collection of fonts. This was a new one I just got and I wanted to play around with it.

Click to expand...

as long as you are enjoying PS that is what matters most ... you will know you are finally there when people want to pay you for your creativity.

I'll be gentle...

First off and moist importantly, it is good that you are playing around, and learning from your experience. Design is after all a form of structured play.

That being said... you need to learn some essential basics of typography.
Kerning, word spacing, etc. Also, on some of your type lines it looks like the second line is slightly a different size, which makes it look like your are being sloppy as opposed to making a conscious decision as a designer. There were a few points in which I cringed, but someone needs to point out the cringe-worthy parts (or you won't know). Taking criticism is the toughest part of the job, but an essential skill for growth.

If you have someone who can mentor you, great. Internships are great ways to learn from the masters (if you are lucky and not stuck manning a copier or running mail). There are tons of resources for you if you don't. Leslie Cabarga has a good book called the "Logo & Lettering Bible", well worth picking up. Read Communication Arts or something similar, learn from the examples of the best (their annual issues covering design, photography, etc. are excellent references). Online there is tons of stuff as well, Smashing Magazine.com is worth the visit.

Nothing wrong with breaking the rules and pushing boundaries.... BUT you need to know them nonetheless. Keep on working and learning is my best advice. After 25 years as a professional designer I still am learning...
cheers,
michael

Well done to you for taking the time to give it ago, we all have to start somewhere.

Pay attention to the advice being given, although sometimes it may sound a bit harsh, and practice, practice, practice.

I've been using Photoshop and Illustrator professionally for nearly 20 years and I'm still learning new things!!

Cheers

It's hard to critique something that doesn't have any meaning. mlblacy speaks a lot of truths. Work on your leading, tracking, and kerning. Also - attention to detail - it didn't take very long for me to see repeated brush patterns in various places on the same piece of work. If this were for a real client you would want to avoid that.

Visually, they are interesting, and the color palette is nice, albeit simple and a tad cliche. As an exercise in type treatment and photoshop brushes, these are a success.