icon makers rant

[saitaina]

STOP PICKING APART MY BLOODY TEXT! I KNOW it sucks, that's WHY I'm working on it, but Every. Damn. Round. of this competition, you have picked and poked at my text, almost eliminating me EVERY FUCKING ROUND just because of the text.

I HAVE to put the text on it because our mod is apparently allergic to textless icons (which I obviously prefer as...I SUCK AT TEXT!). But you don't give me a bloody chance and pick on everything from the colour, to the font, to the placement, to the words, and even the fucking colour BEHIND the text that makes the text show up!

Yes I use bland, normal fonts, because I LIKE MY TEXT READABLE! And often I have a LOT of text to cram onto an icon, and in order to do so, my text can't be fancy or un-readable, because then it serves no point! Just be happy I left my pixel fonted phase and found Centaur, which is readable, small yet pretty.

Try looking at the icon as a whole next time, instead of just bitching over the damned text!

/rant

ETA: Icons removed because I'm an idiot

Note on icon three: The text excluding "Protect" is not supposed to be readable, it's just space filler, though it DOES make sense, in case someone can read it).

Comments

[bean-bunny.livejournal.com]

That's silly. I like what you did in the first one.

[ryutsuki.livejournal.com]

She means "a part" not "apart" :D
And if she doesn't, don't follow her advice XD Text and image should come together as a cohesive whole, best dependent on each other instead of mutually exclusive.

[saitaina]

OH SHIT! I forgot you were a member of zelda_lims...please don't turn me in for this rant! I wasn't supposed to reveal who I was and with the icons you can pick me out.

shit, shit, shit...

(more to come later when I stop flipping out)

[saitaina]

I know it's a challenge and I know the text is important...I'm just tired of getting critiques that say nothing but about the text, which is usually the last part I add and could care less about since...I hate text.

I just...it's hard for me, with so many competitions with that a part of it when it's not how I usually work, so I feel as if I can't show off my best if I'm trying to work around something new and frustrating.

Plus I'm tired of always being one vote away from being eliminated, it's discoraging (though, this next theme...yeah, I'm all over this like white on rice, I'm dragging out some of my major tricks for this one).

[ryutsuki.livejournal.com]

Then work on your text to the point where it's up to your satisfaction, and then when you think the icon is ready, submit it to whatever challenge is going on at the time.

I know I'm one of the ones who picked apart your text, but I always remember giving you suggestions on how to fix it (instead of those bullshit critiques that don't offer improvement), and I do also remember complimenting you on other aspects of the icon.

So there's good critique and then there's bad critique (which zelda_lims is full of sometimes). Pick and choose what you want to go with based on your own style and personal preference no matter what anyone else thinks. Besides, I think the majority of the voters have no taste XD;

That said, I really did like #2 a lot!

[saitaina]

...are you the one that told me to use PS becuase if you did I hate you.

not really, I just hate the bloody program *hugs PSP*.

I'm working on it, just...hard. Thus rant!

I just gotta remember, I only have a few more themes to survive through.

[ryutsuki.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I was the one who told you to consider changing the alias on the first icon! But Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro don't seem to be horribly different.

[saitaina]

PSP has three alias, none, sharp and smooth, I always use sharp when not using pixel fonts because smooth goes into 'blur' mode.

I might try playing with PS when I get some time though, see if it makes a diffrence.

[saitaina]

Yes...I should have, but I tend to forget since my journal really is completely open, no matter what the content is.

And I do try to work hard on learning from the critique, that IS after all, why I ask for it, I just keep hoping they'll coment one day on something that I missed, rather then something I already know I need to work on.

I'm grateful for your words about last week's icon, it was one of my hardest to produce (and not just because of the shitty image quality I had from the scan), so it makes be feel happier, to know that someone enjoyed it so much.

This week's icon is re-vitalizing me, I have so many plans for it that I'm not sure how I'm going to fit it all in. Hopefully, after spending a week feeling so rushed to be back in 'my groove' of textless, outside the box icons, I'll be refreshed enough to handle diving into the unfamiliar again.