Graduation Announcement

Obviously, this comes from personal preference, because the only person you need to please is yourself - and the graduate - but here goes:

I like to see people look into the collage not out the edge - so I would put a photo looking in that direction on the right edge

I would like to see her name in the middle instead of the top corner -the size you used it a good size - font is nice
- leave high school name under her name as you have it

- Leave "class of" where it is - it's a good size, too

The two side photos are too small in proportion to the size of the announcement. The middle one is in a good position if you are going to put her name above it.

Use the same font/color for the "accepted" text that you did for the "high school" text.  Overall, "university" text is a little large

How about taking a photo of the college acceptance letter and use part of it on the announcement instead of another photo.  Keep out any personal information, but the text that says "you are accepted" might work

I like the diploma clip art - the size is probably good, too. You can move it nearer to other things. Don't be afraid of having one item infringe on another item. Things do not have to have their own space.

If you want to do some more preliminary work, you can use squares like you have in your original instead of the photos you are waiting for. I like to call photo squares "placeholders" because they give me a visual as to how a photo will look in the space. I also use those "placeholders" as clipping blocks for the photos when I receive them.

Another thought on the acceptance letter - instead of using an excerpt from the letter, how about grabbing the logo for the college she is accepted into - with the word "accepted" in a handwriting font above the logo. You could use the font you have already used. It's a nice font.

 

Diploma needs a relationship with something - maybe put it behind part of "Class" - maybe overlapping whatever photo is on the left of the "class" text - of course, then there is the problem of the empty space to the left of her name after you've removed the diploma??

I like the larger photo squares with the different sizes and shapes

How much margin is beyond the purple outline? It's hard to tell whether the name is too large for the overall size. Right now, it's overwhelming the top. Not sure about the shadow on her name. Maybe there's another way of making the name stand out without such heavy emphasis.

Only thing I came up with so far - two layers/two colors offset using move tool and arrow keys
have a fondness for the layer style - glow. It softens the edges of the photos. You could try that to work with your shadowing.


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Here's an outline around outside of the project and some photos with glow and a small shadow
(I like how 'glow'  softens the photo edges)

-- and the anchor has a relationship to the cat
(what kind of relationship can a cat and an anchor have?  Don't have a clue)



I don’t want to stifle your creativity with my way of doing things. You have good instincts as you have shown with your other project. But, I am always glad to offer other options for you to think about. Just ask. 

If these are printed as 4x6" there will be 1/4" all the way around. The issue I have with moving the diploma is, as you said, it leaves a hole in that corner. So I'm still trying to think about that. On my baseball collage what I did was I had two "Puma" mascots in each upper corner, facing each other. Not sure if that would work here, and I'd have to remove or alter the upper right photo box.

Cats4Jan,
Can you tell me more about the "layer style-glow"?  If I understand you correctly, this will soften up the edges of the photo in the clipping mask, right?  How, when, and where do I do this?  Thanks in advance.


********DISREGARD-I figured it out.  Sorry.

It was suggested that I not share personal info through this project, and I agree. So I removed the original photo, and I'll repost my project with some anonymous information. I appreciate the concern.