Feedback on marquee, please?!

[mtalkington]

Hi, all:

OK, so after seeing the cool stuff that Pixelhugger and others have been doing, I thought I'd try redesigning my marquee. (I have no "before" pictures, but trust me, it was pretty bland.)

So, assuming I can figure out how to post a picture, here's what I've come up with. Please let me know what you think. I was going for a sort of almost kitschy retro look. Like an old Underdog cartoon or something.  Be honest....but not brutal, this took all day!

[fredster]

I like it.  I like the title.

How about side art for it?  

I could do without the pink, I'd go orange, but it's okay.

[Brax]

I'd  make your pink nebula closer to being round, if not perfectly round. Maybe have it more transparent though so it looks more nebulous. The rocket already has your eye moving along it's length, with the pink nebula ALSO drawing your eye along that axis it seems to be a bit too much.

I think you're going the right direction though and if you're going for cartoony I think you were very successful. Looks good.

Ok, I just had a second look at it. Full screen. The image is too big to see all at once on my browser. (annoying) The nebula doesn't look so bad to me anymore.
Another solution would be to overlap some of the rocket and planet with your text. I think if you centered your text it would greatly improve the balance of the piece.

[zorg]

tremendous

I just don't think the guy lying on the upper rigth corner is attractive enough
as a side not I think the text going on the side, not being centered,  gives life to the marquee

[BobbyG66]

Looks good so far.

1) The astronaut looks a little flat, add some shading.

2) The saturn type planet that is the "O" in atomic needs to look more like saturn. You have a ring "around" the planet but is not shown in the front...
Make it go around the planet and it will look right.

Great job!

[mtalkington]

Thanks to all for the feedback! And big thanks to Pixelhugger, who PMd me with some excellent advice and tools for improving my artwork.

BTW, Pixelhugger noticed that my band's Website features a little old-school arcade shout out. If anyone's interested in seeing what the heck this gamer does besides agonize over artwork, check out www.hardleftmusic.com, and see if you can find the shout out!

Regards,
Mario

[mtalkington]

OK, so I changed it up quite a bit. Does this still have a fun/slightly cartoon vibe but not look quite so over-the-top cartoony? or do you think the first one is better?

[crashwg]

I personaly like the first one better, but I do agree with most of the others' responses, esp. BobbyG66 on the rings around the planet...

[papaschtroumpf]

yeah, I liked the first one better too!

[Yander]

I like how the second one is a little darker but you got rid of the rocket on "The Rocket-Powered Game Emulator"

[Stingray]

I liked the  first one much better.

-S

[dmsuchy]

I like the second one but I would get rid of the astronaut and put the rocket back in. The rocket and the rest of your artwork has the same "line weight" and looks very well put together, the astro guy dosen't feel like he belongs. The rocket with the planets and lettering give the whole marquee a solid feeling to it, like it was all drawn by the same artist. I do like your ideas alot! It kinda reminds me of a 50's Vegas themed hotel neon sign or something.

[mtalkington]

OK, so I've changed it again based on everyone's feedback. Can you guys take another look and tell me what you think of this one? I've tried to retain some of the fun cartooniness but still have it not like quite so kiddiesh. So tell me what you think!

[dmsuchy]

PERFECT! I really like this, and you could use the rocket with the planet art work behind it for the sides of your cabinet. I dont know what your going to have on your control panel but you could put a trackball inside the moon and place the player 1 and player 2 buttons inside of the rockets and use the "saturn" style planets where your joysticks are. Anyway you came up with this yourself and it looks awesome and has it's own style!

[BobbyG66]

Me likey!

Great job. Very original.

I agree with dmsuchy, you can now use that for artwork for your CP and sideart. It will all tie in together and look like a "Real" arcade machine...

[abrannan]

That is Awesome.  (Yes, with a capital A).  Fun.  Original.  Its got a nice beat that I can dance to.  The feel-good marquee of the year.  I loved it.  Much better than Cats.  I'm going to see it again and again.  


I could go on all day like this.

[Goz]

I wish I had the talent to create what you did, unfortunately I am far more autistic than artistic.

Looks great.

-Goz