Continuing with the previous post on lettering (More on Lettering and Calligraphy), I promised to give some examples of how the draft versions of the Sickel lettering might be used with some of my photos from the Asbury Park photo walk. I decided I would develop a series of postcards, and see which I liked best. Here’s the first example:
The reflection effect was mostly based on an article by Corey Barker in the March 2010 issue of Photoshop User magazine. It involves adding a gradient to the lettering, then duplicating and flippling the duplicate layer to get the reflection, and masking and blending the “reflection” to allow it to blend into the water and disappear as the reflection gets further from the main title. I added the trick of distorting the reflection so that the reflection widens as it gets closer to the viewer.
Doing a self-critique here, I think the Sickel design doesn’t work as well as I’d like for this effect, as the descenders in the “y” and “p” cause the main part of the reflection to be too far from the main title. I might want to change the lettering to an all-caps style, or modify my Sickel design to eliminate these descenders if I were really going to use this design.
Hi Ray
In regards to your wonderful reflexion design, what I really like ARE the descenders (along with the ascenders and the spaces after the Rs and in between the words). The descenders look like they are supporting the weight of the words in an unusual way. The reflexion works beautifully because of them. After looking at the “asbury park” for a long time I begin to see piano keys with both index fingers ready to play! Hold on tho this design.
Susan, West Tremont, ME
Thanks for the comments, Susan. The reflection design has grown on me as I’ve looked at it more and more. I think I now agree that I like it the way it is, and probably wouldn’t re-design the lettering to eliminate the descenders.