Request: MGSA flyer/poster design

hanli

Hi All,

O-week starts on Monday and I would like to plaster the campus with posters and flyers. My skill set ends at pencil and charcoal and somehow I don't think it would be a good fit :P

Please could someone knock out a general poster/flyer design for MGSA?

Here are my thoughts:
Clean, simple, easy to read
Just red black and white?
Logo:
Info:
MakeGamesSA
Make Games South Africa is an association of professional, indie, hobbyist and student game developers, artists and designers. Join the community to learn, get feedback, and show your games! (suggestions needed for better text)
Monthly meetings:
*Jhb and Ct details* (do we want this here or does it clutter it?)
Find us at:
makegamessa.com/
*twitter icon* @MakeGamesSA
*facebook icon* MakeGamesSouthAfrica
*youtube icon* MakeGamesSouthAfrica

I will print them out as I need them for here, and others could do the same? When we need big batches we can order in through MGSA.

Thanks!

dammit

My suggests for text:

Are you interested in game design?

Join MakeGamesSA. It's an online community for professional, hobbyist and student game developers, artists and designers alike - everyone's welcome!

Post on the forums and get feedback from fellow game developers or enter the regular game design competitions to stretch those creative muscles and show off your skills.

You can also join the MakeGamesSA community members in monthly meet-ups in Johannesburg and listen to talks by experts and fellow game developers, play games currently in development and to show off yours. There is also the chance to network with and meet people with similar interests to your own.

Microsoft Campus Bryanston
3012 William Nicol Drive
Bryanston

www.makegamessa.com
@MakeGamesSA
[f]MakeGamesSouthAfrica

duncanbellsa

I might be able to get onto designing something today. Otherwise I'll definitely have time to do it tomorrow?

hanli

@duncanbellsa You. Rock.
@dammit Perfect! thank you soo much!

Jwho303

Its coming out a little bit text heavy but if you like just post changes
@dammit
@hanli

Tuism

Dudes, gotta keep it simple and clean. Not so much text. I'll get on it :)

Jwho303

@tuism has a plan :)

Bensonance

That's a pretty cool poster!

I'd take out the last two paragraphs (sorry Megan) and replace it with the simple "Come show us your games, attend our community meetups, participate in competitions and join the forum!"

You could also add: "Join us for the next Community Evening on the 11th of February at 18:30 at Microsoft, Bryanston!"

Don't know if we need addresses either?

dammit

Don't worry, I don't get offended when things go through review :) Yes, it's too text heavy, but at least I created some text to start with! I like Ben's line.

tbulford

"I see you like to make games. We like to make games too, we should hang out." :p

creative630

Ooh rad! I'd be super keen to post some at UCT too!

duncanbellsa

Managed to do a quick layout this morning.

Not sure if the address is needed at the bottom since the logo has it?

Fengol

@Tuism knows what I like! He did the awesome rAge 2013 flyers and t-shirts

tbulford

@duncanbellsa its my opinion that the poster text has too many calls to action. It should have one strong single call to action. Join the forums or come to the meet. The other calls to action could be smaller foot notes. Remember if someone joins the forums we can call them to the meets there or vice versa. That having been said I suspect there are other thoughts on this.

AlphaSheep

I agree with what @tbulford says. And I'd like to add that I feel the poster should mainly invite people to the meetings - specifically next weeks one... Anyone who's interested will almost certainly check out the website anyway.

In fact, all it needs to say is this:

Bensonance said:

Test games! Talk games! Make games!

When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Tuesday 11 February

Where: Microsoft Campus Bryanston, 3012 William Nicol Drive, Bryanston, Johannesburg

and then of course, because it's targeted at students, we should add

Cost: Free!

Tuism

We can't have a new poster printed every month, so the best call to action is to have it come to this forum :) Social media and things are more secondary nice-to-have things that people can easily and quickly latch onto when they're on the go in front of the poster (twitter, facebook, etc are all more or less mobile now).

Speaking of which, I do want to still put our meetups on the front page of the site - like "Next jhb meetup - date" with a click through to the thread, that's all that's needed. Who do I speak to about that?

Working on the poster, this weekend I was gonna do it but the #warriorrace for a friend's bachelors happened, and that gave me Drogolitis (the thing that Karl Drogo got when he crossed the desert). Feeling absolutely terrible, slept sunday away. *groan*. MANFLU IS A REAL THING.

dammit

@Tuism - There should be new text for the home page which will guide people to the meet up events and social media pages. eyeballs @Fengol

Tuism

There are social media links and I did just say:

Speaking of which, I do want to still put our meetups on the front page of the site - like "Next jhb meetup - date" with a click through to the thread, that's all that's needed. Who do I speak to about that?

:P

Fengol

you can speak to me!

Gibbo

Cool work guys and a good idea for driving membership during O-week!

To add a cent or two to the design discussion from an advertiser's perspective, I would recommend cutting down a bit on the amount of red in the poster, as from a distance it combines with the heart shape in the logo to possibly look a bit like a blood drive rather than a game development community :)

Tuism

Hey guys
so I did this between painkillers and fever, so... let me know if mistakes :P
Earlier notice next time plz :P

I was gonna stick with the black white and red thing but it seems like something more game-like would get the point across better and quicker. less like a blood drive :P

tbulford

@Tuism great design and of course I dig the copy. :)

Perhaps some of the local teams would be willing to lend you a few sprites instead of just using random ones. We would be willing to. Also what is the little heart on the 9 squares top right? I can see it helps balance the poster but I have no idea what that is.

dammit

@tbulford - I love the idea of local sprites. What would you guys think about having that same idea on the social media account headers and backgrounds, like YouTube and Facebook?

tbulford

dammit said:

@tbulford - I love the idea of local sprites. What would you guys think about having that same idea on the social media account headers and backgrounds, like YouTube and Facebook?

Open to the idea completely here.

Pomb

@tbulford companion cube! It's just become your weekly goal to play portal.

tbulford

@Pomb 3 releases to do then I can certainly find time to play some games instead of playing BUG hide and seek.

dammit

PS: @tbulford Stealing this copy for the home page ;)

edg3

@tuism: just be careful of the Microsoft logo usage, they are kinda specific on how they want it to be used: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/Trademarks/Usage/Logo.aspx - I just don't want to work to go to waste if someone decides they have an issue.

Tuism

Yeah you're right @edg3, I should've known better, that's my drug addled brain at 2am :p I'll take the logo out :)

dislekcia

dammit said:

@tbulford - I love the idea of local sprites.

Those are all local sprites, done for the spriting competition on the forum a while back, which is where @Tuism got them from ;)

tbulford said:

@Tuism great design and of course I dig the copy. :)

Perhaps some of the local teams would be willing to lend you a few sprites instead of just using random ones. We would be willing to. Also what is the little heart on the 9 squares top right? I can see it helps balance the poster but I have no idea what that is.

That's one of those community-drawn sprites - a companion cube.

tbulford

@dislekcia ah well that's fine but I still feel that sprites from local products would have been better.

Tuism

For me they're decorative elements that show more gaminess, was gonna be mario but of course that's other peoples' property. Otherwise looking at local games, what fits?

DD perhaps
Toxic yeah
Viscera not at all
Broforce... OH yeah, that'll fit

But I think these community made sprites have a nice feeling about them :) And there's a story to tell there, when people ask "what are those?" - we can tell them about our comps :)

Also I don't wanna create a situation where "where's my game? Is it not good enough??" thing and then we have to stick on a million things - I just wanted a few things :P

[edit - updated the previous post's files with the ms logo removed]

Chippit

My vote goes to leaving the sprites as they are, with the singular addition of having a goat grazing on the grass somewhere.

Tuism

My vote goes to leaving the sprites as they are, with the singular addition of having a goat grazing on the grass somewhere.

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about :P

Fengol

@Hanli, how do you want to get these printed?

dammit

@Tuism - Can we get the same kind of art as in the flyers for the FB and YT accounts? Our other volunteer designer is kind of PC-less at the moment and you've basically created what I asked from him in the mean time ;) I can send the exact dimensions if you need?

Tuism

ok cool, you looking for FB cover photo and youtube header background... thin?

dammit

Yup. Both of those. Not sure what you mean by thin?

Tuism

....... what I don't even know what that means. I don't think I typed it. Or I might be high. Errrr.

Tuism

Here we go, quick n dirty optimised for each medium. Put it up and lemme know if there's any problems. Logos not included cos the logo is present in each social media pages' icon.

dammit

@Tuism - Love it. Could you remove the social media icons from both? It kinda makes no sense :P

PS: Take a look at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/MakeGamesSouthAfrica <- Do you think you could get me a better fitting logo - possibly with some clouds/blue in it?

Tuism

Why not the social media in facebook? It's still good to note that there's twitter and youtube for it? I see there are buttons on Youtube already.

I've taken the FB icon out of the fb one :)

The youtube icon should be plain because it's used in other places too, not just here on the top of the bar, and clear white is more prominent. I wonder why it was cut off in the first place?

dammit

Thanks!

Uploads done on YouTube and I landed up updating our G+ page too, since it's connected and the YouTube cover fits nicely.

@Bensonance will upload the FB one a little later today - or when he gets a chance.

Tuism

The icon's not changed on the YT page, or do I have a cached version? :)

dammit

Changed on my side - I'm on a different PC :) Maybe it is cached on your side?

Tuism

Changed but doesn't have the type, did that get removed intentionally? If so I'd change the spacing around it so it's not so tight :P

dammit

Oh you're talking about the logo.

I think it looks a bit cluttered with text in the logo's space. That spot is really just for an image - It's got the words Make Games South Africa right underneath and a link to the website on the banner. Also, in search, it shows up next to the words "Make Games South Africa by Make Games South Africa "

I'm really not sure how many more times you want to say our name in such a small space? If anything, I'd rather have it repeated in the banner.

Take a look at apple's clean look: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple

Do we want our logo to speak for itself? I'd really love to get to a point where people see the logo, and have the immediate association. If the wording is always there on the logo, I don't believe that will happen because your brain switches to understand language rather than interpreting images.

Tuism

Yeah I agree, don't include the text then, was never my intention to have the text, the logo's very tight in that space though.

dammit

Tuism said:

Yeah I agree, don't include the text then, was never my intention to have the text, the logo's very tight in that space though.

Oh. Do you want to get the spacing improved? I just cropped it as centrally as I could.

Tuism

It's dangerous outside! Here, take this :)

dammit

Better now? https://www.youtube.com/user/MakeGamesSouthAfrica