Typography tips needed

[RikFTK]

Hi everybody,

I organize gigs from time to time and like to do the posters/flyers myself. Although I got a little better at doing this over the years, I'm still hardly a wizzard and I do all my work in Photoshop simply because I lack the skills in any other software.

To see what I've done so far, check my gigposter page:

GigPosters.com - Rik Verdonschot

*pause for hysterical laughter from Gigposter.com crowd*

Problem is, I suck at typography (I know, looking at my work, you will probably think I suck at a lot of things, but typography is the worst) and I could use a little help.

I'm currently doing a poster for a show I'm setting up for Dutch postrock band Atlantis (http://atlantis.bandcamp.com , don't worry, it's not my band, so this is not an attempt to advertise )
See the imagery I did so far below. Now I need to get the lettering in and I've thrown a lot of things at it already, but nothing seems to work really.

Do you guys have any tips? Fonts and ways to make them work in this flyer?
I want to place 3 bandnames directly below the drawing and some additional info (date, venue, etc) below that.

Any hints or maybe links to text in photoshop tutorials would be greatly appreciated.



Now let the mocking begin.

[RikFTK]

Oh and kids, even though I've been using photoshop for years, I still don't know more than 1/3 of what that software can do.
So if you're willing to help, I might need a little more explanation than you'd expect.

[Steve Chanks]

First tip. Get all the text on the poster.
Next tip. Experiment with 1 font.
Next next tip. It's next to impossible to answer such a broad question when there is nothing to critique.
Last tip. Emulate your idols, style will come with practice.

[hoveringobject]

I'd scoot the image down some and go with an understated type treatment. Like Steve said, ONE font. Let the viewers' eyes go to the illo first and then the text. Don't get hung up on Photoshop effects on the type either. Look at the band's album cover art. I think those treatments coincide really well with their music.

[RikFTK]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm still figuring this out, I'll come back with the results when I have them.

In the meantime, any more tips are welcome.

[standard]

I think if you ever learn 1/3 of Photoshop, you will be a Professional Expert Designer. That program runs deep.

[zlandrum]

copperplate. Shepard fairey even uses it!

[Dan Apparatus]

As a type nerd I look at "I suck at typography and could use a little help" like "I suck at drawing and could use a little help." There is a lot that goes into type than just finding the right font. Your approach to typography over time will become a style unto itself. It depends on how hard you want to work at it. Type is an object, not just words or letters, so you should be thinking about your typography before you even start drawing. Each and every typeface is emotional, obviously Helvetica invokes different emotions than Hobo as with any other typeface. All the rules of color, hierarchy, scale and composition go for typography as well.
I can suggest where to stick your typography: below the image, smaller in hierarchy and scale so that when you squint you see the image first then the typography— although the space you have allotted for type is already so large in comparison to the image that the type will unquestionably overwhelm the image if you make it fill that space. Image and type need to work together, not just next to each other.

What kind of type is up to how you want your poster to feel. Every single face will make your image feel different. Take your emotional cues from someone that has already figured it out and try and dismantle their typography. This illustration looks to me somewhat like a cover illustration for some 60's macho pulp novel. So, how is typography used on those novels? What color, hierarchy, typefaces, etc? But, that is one baseline suggestion out of infinite possibilities.

[Mark McCormick]

all good suggestions.... except for Copperplate. Ugh.

The amount of time and thought you put into your type should be equal to, or greater than the imagery.

[God-Awful]

A lecturer of mine once suggested a technique where you turn your text upside-down and then try to match the type to the artwork.

I guess the idea is to try and remove the meaning of the text and just concertrate on matching the graphic qualities, curves, lines etc.

I haven't personally tried it out, but it might help.