Bad Decision, Bad Photoshop: LeBron and Sports Illustrated

I, like the rest of NE Ohio (either still living there or still calling it "home") have a mixed opinion on LeBron James' decision to leave for the sunny shores of South Beach. I left NE Ohio too, so perhaps I should be looking to take the plank out of my own eye rather than focusing on the speck in someone else's eye. I can't blame LeBron for doing what he feels is best for himself. Still, I'd seen LeBron play as a high school student, he played most of his high school games at the college I attended and played varsity soccer for. Both my dad and brother traveled around Ohio watching the guy - and while I haven't spoken to them today I am guessing they're ticked off.

Even if you're not a basketball fan or don't even know who LeBron is, I was able to draw a couple of loose parallels between what the media/general public outside of Miami feel about him now (it's not good), and working as a freelance designer:

1. If you are going to hype yourself up to your client, or in this case your fans - you'd better deliver before moving on. LeBron did wonderful things for NE Ohio but never won. Going by the name, "The Chosen One", he failed, so did the Cavs. As a freelancer, if while interviewing the client you make promises and hype your skill set and creativity up, you'd better deliver.
   
2. If you decide to part ways with a client, (perhaps looking to work with better, higher-paying clients) do it quickly rather than waiting it out and making a big deal about it. LeBron in this case had months to make a decision but relished in the spotlight (which has put his former employer, the Cavs in a very bad spot), if you delay or string a client along like this, they are going to be furious if they feel like you've left them out to dry.

Okay enough ranting, if you're from NE Ohio you'd understand, if you're not you're probably left wondering, "What was the big deal"? Anyway, moving on to the design, I still can't understand why the "designers" at Sports Illustrated can't seem to do simple photo manipulations.

Check out the new jersey on LeBron, it's just floating there. The designer didn't adjust the lighting on the jersey, nor did they shade any part of LeBron's body to make it look even remotely realistic. It looks like they slapped the jersey on there and decided to go for sushi at lunch.

I probably shouldn't be so harsh, maybe the designers were in a rush or had other projects that took priority. But if you check out foxsports.com or espn.com I'll bet you'll walk away with the same conclusion I did - the other two networks have much better artists on staff. I can't help but wonder if the designer that did this actually thought it was good, knew that it was bad and didn't care or knew that it was bad but didn't know how to make it better. Oh well, they're done, the artwork is done...and so is LeBron in Cleveland.

Comments

[company logo design]

Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one