So awhile ago, the “official” facebook page for SmackDown! uploaded a picture of one of the wrestlers with a little caption on it. Everyone was commenting on it stating how excited they were and how much they loved that wrestler…
But, all I could look at was the atrocity sitting before me on my computer screen.
You’d think if it was an “official” facebook, you’d have professionals making the content they post on their page. Apparently not. I was baffled at the lack of… pretty much everything graphic designers apply to make their images look “pretty”. I’m not considered a graphic designer, but there was no way I was going to let this slip. I had to atleast ATTEMPT to improve this… garbage.
So I immediately took it into Photoshop. First thing I noticed was that it was a dinky 698×462 jpeg, and the pixelation was intense. Not much you could really do to help it there, though (they didn’t have a higher resoulution anywhere). Next was to rid this perfectly fine image with the horrific text scattered mindlessly around it. Using the skills I learned today actually, I used content-aware fill to remove a bulk of the pixelated trash and used the clone stamp to clean up. (It took forever though, Adobe made a pretty magical tool, but there are some glitches they need to fix…)
Pretty good so far.
Next, I used the marque tool to make a feathered trim around the edge to really make it pop. It took less then a minute.
After that back breaking work, it was time to enhance the image. It was so dull, I used “curves” and “hue/saturation” to really bring the color out of it.
Then the text. Looking at the original, I think it’s biggest flaw was color choice. Red, green, black, and white on a blue background… there’s not much consistency there… So I stuck with white, since it’s easy to read on the background and goes along with it as well. Another flaw I saw was that it was random typefaces, so I chose a single font “Boycott” and used only that and dropped in a drop shadow to help readability.
I know it isn’t “perfect”, but I think it’s a huge improvement from the original…
(I edited the text just now. Hopefully it’s easier to read!)
(I edited the quote to what he actually said, so hopefully it makes sense now!)
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omg soooooooooo much better!
I think you should add the 18-1 though
and possibly scoot the text at the top down a little or darken it because the lights at the top are, like, imposing on it.
but I really love your typography and i’m jealous that i cant do that kind of thing -.-
you should show the wwe your version lol they’ll be like “… damn! -.-” lol
Comment by Allie 03/15/2011 @ 8:37 amYes! I thought exactly the same thing this morning when I checked it again! It’s like, “Excuse me, lights, can you stop being so bright??” and then they tell me it’s my fault with my curves and then I dotdotdot for a bit and then move the text down…
And yeah, I have my ~guilt~ for not putting the 18-1 anywhere but no where seemed to fit?? Like, I put it at the top, bottom, and even in the stupid background but it just was too distracting. So I’m still pondering how to approach that beast.
Thank you Allie, you’re the greatest and I appreciate your comment/critique!
Comment by juliahenderson 03/15/2011 @ 2:47 pmOh god, if I show them, I’ll just straight up go “This picture was distracting, here I made a better version. THE GAME RULEZ LOL”
As a wrestling fan from since I was little, my heart smiles looking at this.
I’ want to guess that the “official” ad was far from official. Most of the ads for wrestling are supposedly done well in advance, so most likely what you were seeing was some random kid showing of his MSPaint skills.
HOWEVER, your version is lightyears better than the other pitiful original. Hats off to you.
One thing to note, the quote is actually “If I can’t end the streak…”
You missed the apostrophe and ‘t.’ Would be a bit silly to end a streak and promptly die trying. Yeah, it’s the original’s fault for misquoting and you probably copied and pasted, but just wanted to point that out
And I don’t think you should put 18-1. The message is already there, so it would be redundant.
Again, good job.
Comment by Christian Lim 03/15/2011 @ 3:20 pmYes, another wrestling fan! High five!!
When I was looking at the original’s text I was trying to remember back to that episode and could have sworn he said “can’t” but I wasn’t sure? So I went with what I was given… I’ll fix that right now, thanks for the head’s up!
Comment by juliahenderson 03/15/2011 @ 3:25 pmVery nice! Go post it on their page and tell them they’d better love it.
Comment by Tiffany S. C. 03/15/2011 @ 8:15 pmI should! But I want to make sure it’s ~perfect~ before I do!! ;3
Comment by juliahenderson 03/15/2011 @ 9:17 pm