Re:____ post card (initial layouts)

After looking through several dozen broken bone and cast images, when I found this one I was immediately sure that this could be it. Just a quick retouch to adios a hospital watermark, bump up the color a tiny bit, increase resolution to 300 dpi for print output, and it was ready to throw in a layout.

I actually tried a horizontal layout first as that's how the image was originally, but the headline and other type looked clumsy and arbitrary, so I flipped it vertical and things started shaping up quickly. Making the headline huge and centered was a nice way to establish a proper hierarchy, as well as getting some subtle cruciform symbolism in there. The sans serif type looked the best for the headline, which was also handy for the rest of the info because sans serif prints better when you're reversing small type out of black.

The white headline was my first idea, for a stark, simple look because the small type had to be white to pop off the background. But then playing with some options in photoshop I then happened upon the bright cyan option, as well as the ghostly monochromatic one (#3). Then once I went there it was a small step to the faded red option, where I also toned down the subhead so it wouldn't compete as much. For the final pick though, see the next post.