The read test

Read fast. Hold up close. Carry across the campaign.

A graphic has to work in more than one moment. It has to read fast, hold up close, survive the crop, and carry across the campaign. This page runs that test on delivered work. Nothing is scored, nothing is graded, and nothing is compared to anyone else. The work is the evaluation.

01 Read fast

Distance

Can you identify the artist, the date, and the action before you have read a word of small type?

Suga Free, Concert Poster at thumbnail scale
The artist name and the words Live in Concert are the only things that need to survive at thumbnail size, and they do.

02 Hold up close

Detail

Does the typography, the image treatment, and the texture hold when you get close?

Detail crop of Suga Free, Concert Poster: The headline carries beveled chrome edges, the red rule is a single thin line, and the skyline is layered behind the portraits at reduced contrast so it never competes with the faces.
The headline carries beveled chrome edges, the red rule is a single thin line, and the skyline is layered behind the portraits at reduced contrast so it never competes with the faces.

03 Carry across the campaign

Format

Does the direction stay recognizable when the frame changes?

Delivered as a single portrait poster. Any other placement below is a presentation preview, not a delivered file.

Format shift

The master file is only useful if the outputs work.

A campaign begins with one controlled visual direction, then adapts into the real files and formats a release needs. Move a piece through the frames. Delivered and preview are labeled every time.

The delivered composition at its full proportion.

1122 × 1402 px as delivered

Every piece here was delivered as one file. Frames marked presentation preview show how the delivered composition sits in other placements. They were not delivered and do not imply a result.

Suga Free concert poster. Large chrome lettering reads Suga Free above a thin red line reading Live in Concert. Three portraits of the artist in dark shirts and sunglasses are layered over a dark city skyline. A Rokhouse Media logo sits at the bottom.

Suga Free, Concert Poster

Read fast

Hierarchy is the first deliverable.

The artist, the date, the venue, or the brand has to be identifiable at the size the placement actually gives it. Effects that cost that read are cut.

Hold up close

Craft is checked at 100 percent.

Type is built, not stretched. Image treatments are made for the composition. Small supporting information keeps the same rule weight as the headline it belongs to.

Carry across the campaign

Designed for the placement, not resized after the fact.

When a scope includes more than one format, each one is composed for its frame from the same master direction, so the set looks related wherever it lands.

Start a project

Have a piece that has to pass this test?

Scope, timing, deliverables, and price are confirmed for each project.

Project page

Arrow keys move between pieces. Z toggles zoom. Escape closes.