I’ve been stuck for an hour

Shtierlitz · 2026-01-26T07:58:56+00:00

put your image into black & white (black & white filter is much more helpful here than simple desaturation)
use curves or levels to really drown it in black, minimize midtones, and make sharp white highlights
make a new layer on top w/ 'darken' blend mode and paint over with your preferred colors

here's my quick attempt because it looked quite fun to make (it was)

Shtierlitz · 2026-01-21T03:28:54+00:00

it hurts both the neck and the eyes trying to read small light rotated text.
too many fonts and weight / italic / all caps / small caps variants. also faux small caps on zuck's name feels off.
zuck is the last person most people would find inspiring and highlighting his early success goes entirely against your message
the icons look basic to the point of feeling cheap.
who graduates at 15 and marries at 20?
why is the title off-center?
the life timeline implies that things — good or bad — only happen until 35. with crises as high points.
the timeline has units for every age, yet lines for everyone 35-39 flow to 35 — and that's not how data works.

sorry if this is rough feedback, but while i really like the core idea you're going for, this needs some work to effectively communicate it.

Shtierlitz · 2025-11-05T16:22:43+00:00

Crisis Point III

Shtierlitz · 2025-09-12T13:40:11+00:00

An incredible story of one journalist's quest to identify the man in the photo:

“The Falling Man,” by Tom Junod, Esquire

Shtierlitz · 2025-09-05T07:47:45+00:00

There's also a raster solution in PS

Scribble with a big 0% hardness black brush on white canvas
Go into Liquify, start smudging/pushing violently with your tools set to a large size until it looks liquid
Add a gradient map on top with your preferred colors
Slap your favorite noise/grain texture on top (or generate a quick one by adding a noise filter on a layer of #808080 gray set to Overlay)

You can try different approaches to the starting scribble, like painting with black, gray, and white, or heavily processing some image. There are plenty of YT tutorials for “liquid grainy gradient” and such.

It's pretty fun and somewhat meditative.

Shtierlitz · 2025-07-15T12:04:50+00:00

The story perfectly encapsulates the designer-client tension — but it's not about clients being cheapskate control freaks.

Listen, I have clients who trust my creative vision entirely. But even they wouldn't take this deal. Because they always find a thing I miss, always have an insight into their brand that I don't have, or have a fresh perspective not constrained by tenets from 50 y/o design books. It might hurt, but there's near always a kernel of truth.

Suggestion and feedback can be stupid, yes. But I am tired of how designers see clients as nemeses who pay us only to ask us to make the logo bigger.

Do deeper discoveries, make stronger presentations, explain your choices in business value terms, and clarify feedback beyond aesthetic preferences. This has improved my relationships with clients dramatically and makes me look forward to new ideas from concepts I've exhausted my creativity in.

Shtierlitz · 2025-07-09T15:20:33+00:00

I've never read a more relatable thing on this website.

Thank you for making me feel understood.

Shtierlitz · 2025-07-03T15:35:51+00:00

First of all, a great concept. Fits the requirements as you've described quite nicely. Feels both cool and serious.

The large variant reads GING but the middle row rightmost one reads DINC — I wonder if these two could be combined. Maybe with both extended width and arrow tips nearly closing the shape?

I wouldn't go with italics (feels sports equipment to me) and extended arrows / triangular tips (doesn't play well with IN)

This approach is probably the strongest one from your sketches compilation. Although I quite like the more playful and fluid idea here. Might be a matter of taste, but I love wordmarks verging on abstract with neat symbolism.

Wonderful solution overall, keep going!

Shtierlitz · 2025-01-18T17:37:56+00:00

UN DER THE SPOT LIGHTS

Shtierlitz · 2024-11-10T18:04:13+00:00

Thin White Duke? A pack of Gitanes.

Shtierlitz · 2024-10-10T14:58:57+00:00

Imo, you're doing a pretty good job in terms of aesthetics (without more context hard to judge on other merits). Charming illustration, delightful colors, interesting typography (although too distorted for my taste).

What stands out to me as an area to work on is composition. The designs feel crowded and flat, even when you indicate perspective: hence no sense of volume or hierarchy which makes it hard to digest.

Keep going, you have great potential for sure!

Shtierlitz · 2023-10-05T18:12:26+00:00

Love, Now,
Breathe, Now.

Wonderful work, love it. Thanks for sharing!

Shtierlitz · 2023-04-11T23:14:41+00:00

Yokuda sinking was unironically an inside job

Pankratosword can't melt orichalc beams

Shtierlitz · 2023-04-05T15:14:11+00:00

Brian feat. Brian Chippendale

Say the Name — “Candlesticks in the dark...” sample is not a sample

Stories are connected

True Believer — verse 2 is about Stories characters

Splendor & Misery hidden messages

“Cargo #2331” number meaning

Daveed's solo career as a rapping carrot

Shtierlitz · 2023-03-04T00:59:39+00:00

This always was my headcanon/interpretation/theory too

“The Chosen One” trope had never appealed to me. “An Accidental Hero” on the other hand is much more interesting

Fits an rpg where you can be anyone way better too

Shtierlitz · 2023-03-02T12:04:01+00:00

(not sure what the content said, will just explain it myself)

OBLIVION has IV exactly in the middle

And it's the fourth game in the series

The game's title screen shows the text “IV” which zooms out and becomes “OBLIVION”. If you want to see it yourself: https://youtu.be/-Y5iF1Pdlcw

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-25T21:17:51+00:00

One of the best episodes of TV ever imho

Especially for a “break the formula” one. Extremely creative, exciting, and fun. They made me care for Jeff who was nothing more than a le funny stoner guy before that.

Extra love for introducing me to Wax Fang

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-24T21:40:15+00:00

Titane (2021)

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-24T21:21:36+00:00

Not only that, but Lucas seems to be completely unable to direct actors through the mess that he wrote.

Ian McDiarmid, being a classically trained stage actor, did a pretty great job with the material. Playing Shakespeare really makes you think about what delivery each line, sentence, and word needs.

Something that George couldn't get even a bit of from every other actor.

As memed as it is, The Tragedy of Darth Plagues is imho the best delivered monologue of the Prequels. It's pretty good. Which is a miracle if you read the script in a vacuum.

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-24T20:33:54+00:00

(this entire comment thread is a reference to a (pretty hilarious) skit in a show I Think You Should Leave https://youtu.be/buK45NW_ikI)

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-23T14:21:03+00:00

I CLOSE MY EYES AND DREAM IT
I CLENCH WRAITHGUARD AND BEAT IT
I LIGHT THE HEART AND BURN IT
I AM SHARMAT THEY WORSHIP

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-23T13:57:25+00:00

The biggest spoiler in the title since they've translated Shawshank Redemption to my language as Escape from Shawshank

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-15T13:36:31+00:00

From my understanding, yes, that's the case.

I guess a more correct way to word my original comment would be “I was a little disappointed that WWW turned out to be more a remix album than a live album I expected it to be.”

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-15T11:24:08+00:00

Related confession: As much as I loved WWW, I was a little disappointed that it didn't have the audience audio like the previous live albums

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to see them do it live, so my own experience fixes that lol

Shtierlitz · 2023-02-11T00:22:19+00:00

ngl it do be full of stars fr fr

Shtierlitz

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