Control Panel Artwork, Need opinions

[psyka]

I like fighting games, so I'm developing a 1 vs 2 player panel. I really like the Samurai Showdown series so I wanted to develop a CP with a samurai-theme. I'm not sure if this is what I want but I think it looks nice, and I'm also not sure how it will look with buttons on it; what is your opinion?

[Ad_Enuff]

I think what you have done is started designing your CPO with your theme in mind first without much thought where your buttons and sticks are going to go and how that affects your design.

My suggestion is to reverse the idea, mark out your buttons and sticks and then see where your design should go.

For example the transparent button areas are in fact obscuring the artwork theme that you wish to use and you have a ton of plain black area that isn’t being used at all.

My advice is to move up the samurai artwork and the transparent buttons areas down. This makes better use of the area concerened and will make it much easier to see your design.

[psyka]

Is this what you mean?

BTW, the CP is going to be 30"x18", and the buttons are setup for fighting games, Samurai Showdown is 4 buttons in one row, Street Fighter is 3 buttons in 2 rows, and I have the run button for Mortal Kombat where it needs to be.

[Ad_Enuff]

Thats exactly what I had in mind. Now you can see what I was talking about.

What I'm now thinking is how to spruce up the black area to make less boring. It may need a simple small pattern perhaps in black/gold to just finish it off.

[Ad_Enuff]

Also I'd use the same orangey red in your samurai artwork for your buttons.

And change the black button colour to the beige colour in your artwork.

That way everything is uniform.