[Design-team] Critique for Ticket #159: Freemedia Mailer Design

[Jef van Schendel]

2010/12/21 Onyeibo Oku <twohot at fedoraproject.org>:
> Hello(s):)
>
> In October 08, 2010, I submitted a design for ticket #159. Back then, I
> wanted the team to critique the work. (See follow-up comment #5 at
> https://fedorahosted.org/design-team/ticket/159). The team was focusing
> on the wallpaper design for F14 at that time and so, nothing much was
> said about my solution.
>
> I'd like to present it again.  I have included the initial mail below as
> it contains my thoughts on the work at that time. I look forward to your
> comments.

Hi!

Great work so far, I think. I like it. :)

Here are a few suggestions I hope are helpful:

- The fonts: I didn't know you had to use standard typefaces, that's
interesting. I think Bitstream Vera Sans is a good choice though. As
for the other ones, I see you used MgOpen Modata there. It might be
better to use Cantarell, since that's now what we use for body text.
Maybe these svg's were made before we made the switch?

- Personally I like type A the best, since the top looks more balanced
when the blue air mail object is on the right. As you said though, you
should do what's best for actual mailing if that conflicts with what
looks better aesthetically. :)

- I like the "Inside" sticker and the little envelopes next to it!
Cute and clear. I am, however, not sure what the little post stamp
icons next to 32-bit and 64-bit mean. Is this like a little checkbox
the sender can check off? Or are both 32- and 64-bit versions
included? If the latter, maybe a small checkmark might be more
suitable to tell people "this is what's included".

- Regarding the Fedora slogan and info text... It feels a bit crowded
to me, because the amount of text is quite large. I would try to
either reduce the text to one or two sentences, or remove the
"Freedom, Friends, etc..." completely, leaving more room for the text.
If you do include the whole bit though, it may be good to space it up
a bit and use paragraphs. It's also usually a good idea to either keep
larger amounts of text flushed left instead of centering it all,
because the latter makes it harder to read.

- I'm wondering why you used the full height for the front, but not
for the back (with the large Fedora logo). We could use the space
there. Maybe I missed something in the guidelines or your explanation
though.

If it's not clear what I mean, just tell me and I'll try to put
together some examples to explain it better. :)

Small nitpicks:

- Personally I would have put a colon after the "Inside", to make it
clearer that text things next to it are the things that are, well,
inside.

- I'd remove the quotation marks from the "Freedom, Friends, etc..."
text and not use italics, simply because they're not needed. That's
just me, though.

- At "courtesy of the fedora community close to you!", the word
"Fedora" should be capitalized. I'd also make it normal type instead
of bold. It's already smaller and lighter than the text above it to
set it apart.

Hope some of this is helpful. Awesome job already. :)

Jef