I have seen many designs by Parachute Design and they are all very effective, artistic, fun, and professional. Its always nice dealing with a company who is REAL.

You probably work for them. This design is the destruction of our industry. They are all built from Joomla templates. No focus, relation, or creativity behind them. The same way stock photos have tarnished the names of photographers

The comment from timeline 10:00 is unsettling, with bitter undertones. This individual doesn't know talent when he sees it. How unfortunate for you and I don't work for any design company.

Anyone knowing anything about coding could look at this site and see that it is not built on Joomla, but rather Drupal. Perhaps the person above should do a little research before offering their uneducated opinions.

This is a great solution for a great event!

OK. So Joomla or what? Drupal... Who cares what crap this is based on, it's no good. These are not unsettling comments with any bitter undertones, but rather an opinion on what I can see as bad design. Please, for design sake check typography, layout, gestalt of layout and hierchy and then come back with you uneducated comments. And, by the way if you dont work as a designer...Well then you probably are not educated in design, just an actor like the rest of you who can..In the words of a Great Creative director - "Choose their wall paper"

I agree, joomla, drupal ... who cares. this is crapola.
this kind of templated, predictable design has ruined our industry... which was once based on talent, not tech tricks ... Parachute should jump into a new field

You sound like such a wanker. Sure it doesn't fit the image of "high design" but it's far from rubbish. Firstly, it's a BEER FESTIVAL! You know what I often associate with beer? Lavish, decorative and photoshop heavy visuals. You think this would be better off with the Müller-Brockmann treatment? Howzabout helvetica neue 8/11 in light grey hmmmm? Not everything needs to look like it just fell out of the pages of Coupe magazine.

Wanker.

to #8 (Uneducated) ... using "tit" and "wanker" shows your level of intelligence ... maybe you were drinking beer when you commented, eh? Nobody is saying that all design has to be high-end, just effective.

Just because it is for beer, that doesn't mean it has to be visual noise. Do you see many poorly designed beer labels/packaging lately at the beer store? Eh? Sober up and go finish high school.

There's more missing to this design, then just simple "COOL" typography. HOWZABOUT some talent.

PS. Why would you sign off as wanker?

First time visiting this site, but I have to admit that most of the people commenting on this design thus far sound like students. Anyone with industry experience quickly realizes that it's rare to have a client give you so much freedom that you can create "the ultimate design" every time. Client's always want to add their two cents and warp just about anything you present.

That said, I say congratulations to Parachute Design for having the courage to put the design out there and shame on the negative "anonymous" commenters above.

Any professional designer would appreciate constructive criticism, but from what I read above, it's mostly ignorance and inexperience.

It's pretty easy to log onto a site and trash someone else's design without knowledge of the project, client or project related requirements without even having the courage to sign your name and labelling your slander as "anonymous".

It's not generic design, template design or whatever that is ruining our industry, it's lack of respect, appreciation for one another and sheer ignorance that's ruining the industry in my opinion.

I hope for all our sake that people learn to work together and help one another rather than trash and insult anonymously.

Kevin, you sound like you are trying to excuse bad work by blaming the client. If bad cliche design is posted here, people have the right to call it as they see it - whether they want to put their name to it or not. I actually find the critical comments to be true - and yours to be sugar coat.

I think you are either an amateur designer or you don't have the courage to say the truth. People that defend mediocrity are the problem. We need to set higher standards.

Brent Simmons

Well said Brent.

Brent & Jay... I am by no means sugar coating or standing up for the design. My comment was regarding the way that half the people critique the work posted here rather than offering constructive criticism.

Making comments like "this designer has no talent," etc. is not conducive to helping our industry grow and get better. In my opinion it does quite the opposite.

I have been in the industry for 15 years and I've noticed this type of attitude in the last few waves of students that do their internships in my studio, as well as a few young designers I've hired.

Like I said above, if you're going to hide behind anonymity and trash someone's work in that manor, I think it is cowardly. At least have the guts to post your name.

Not looking for an argument with anyone, just stating my case (as we all are) and what I think of the way (I'm assuming) young designers speak to and relate with one another.

This is a highly competitive industry and I love the fact that we can all "constructively criticize" and grow but from what I've seen on this site so far, this is pretty sad.

OK Kevin, I'll be like you are in your studio ... constructive:

Parachute, you really did a wonderful job on this website!!! I like the way you have used every graphic trick available to you in Photoshop. I really love the bubble pattern!!! Well done, guys!!! This is really exceptional work ... except, maybe you can add some glitter and sparkles just to mix it up a bit. That would make this design really cool, dudes!!!

How's that, Kevin? Constructive enough? ... now we are all getting along, but the work is still crap.

It is a highly competitive industry - and if you design crap, expect people to call you on it.

Well done, Kevin ... good job you did!!! now can we get back to reality.

Your best friend,
Brent

Brent:

Just as I figured, you don't appear to have any idea what constructive criticism is. Merely sarcasm. Judging by the way you speak to people on here I would love to see some of your work.

It really is a shame the way most of the people on this site treat each other. Designers have gotten a bad reputation from situations just like this and the lack of professionalism saddens me.

I agree Bruce M.

However, I must agree that the website showcased does need some work.

The site isn't that bad, but some visual choices leave you scratching your head.

First the social media icons don't really fit within the design style laid out in the rest of the site with the shiny metallic frames.

Now the logo – Typeface use aside (I count 4 different faces or styles) There's a Sun, then stars and a night sky? Lets not forget the use of a star as the dot on the "i" that really doesn't add anything to the logo to further sell the point of it being about beer or a festival.

Was there really a need to use 3 separate "remaining" words in the clock? Oh look there's 90 days remaining; oh no 10 hours remaining; no, no 10 minutes remaining. Perhaps one at the end would have sufficed.

The typography on content pages could be stronger. I would like to see more space between paragraphs and between different topics. The FAQ page especially stands out as being an unforgiving read.

The last thing is having the 'contact' link at the top appear as though it's a page but in reality it's an email link. It's deceiving and poor practice to launch someone's email program without warning.

Jon, really good assessment

Jon, I would like to applaud you on such a contribution to this thread. After reading so many various posts on this website, I cannot believe the attitude of so many people (Brent) for such slanderous comments. It is no wonder so many graphic designers have been given a bad reputation, especially new students. Have some class people.

Granted that the work may not be "up to your standards" or very good in your opinion, but there is no need to say that the person has "no talent." You just have no couth, no respect, and obviously your permanent posture includes having your nose in the air.

Although I agree the bubble pattern is weak, and the organization is confusing, the colours make it fun and the pictures say the exact same thing. Sometimes ingenious creativity is not necessary to get a message across and achieve the project goals. I think people should start to realize that they don't know the project and therefore can't make accusations and tear other people's work apart. Have some respect. Be constructive not disrespectful.

Thanks for the kind words.

I agree that since we don't know the project, we don't know things that  were ultimately decided upon. I don't think we need to make a critique personal. Mine were, or at least in intention, to look at the design and talk about what I would of liked to have seen different.

ok, you guys are going to make us cry ... graphic designers have a bad reputation because they are everywhere you look these days (my 15 year old cousin owns Adobe CS) and the majority are doing bad work like this.

if you held your peers to a higher standard and didn't have thousands of cheap designers flooding the market, it would be different

suck it up and demand quality from your peers and you will get the respect that other real professionals enjoy.

constructive enough?

Bruce M. Need a designer? I agree with the nasty butchering. You know, my work may not always end up so pretty, but it started out that way and the reality is clients pay the rent. Constructive criticism is valuable input the designer could use next time to try and educate the client in accepting a better design. But bashing without the history is just plain rude.

Oops, I mean Kevin, who's experienced a wave of petty young designers.

This message goes out to Brent.

I've been in the design/print industry for 10+ years now. I started in T.O. then moved on to Vancouver and worked most of my career there. Now I am a freelance designer in Alberta. Brent, you claim you've been in the industry for 15 years but sound like a cocky designer right out of college. I know cause I use to be one when I had the privilege of working on a project with David Carson working @ some amazing design studios.

Of all people, you should know how difficult it is to show companies new, exciting & a different way of looking at a campaign or logo design or whatever project may come across your desk. So being a "professional" designer, you know sometimes non-exciting, non-stimulating projects are more common then what they teach you at school. If that's what the client wants & it appeals to their audience so be it! You move on with the next project and you push for that creativity with another company.

It's sad for me to hear all this bashing of other designers and their work when we should be treating each other as friends and innovators like the days of Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Moore. They were a group of friends; out-casts that changed the world & inspired us in our designs, etc.

If you were educated in this field, you would realize this frustration between design studios & clients. I've work with some multi-million dollar companies in my time & believe me I wish they gave me the creative freedom to make something visually appealing to their viewers. But that's the style they wanted and their audience liked, oh well! The biggest question I have for you is why not mentor the younger generation that has no life experience yet in the design world?

I'm a 3D Illustrator now, mainly working on Character Design. I want to move back to my hometown Toronto, or Vancouver again, but now I'm raising my eyebrow and questioning whether its worth it because I would love to get back into the Art/Design community again & mentor & design.

For all those who went into this profession to make a difference, and invoke thought, keep on doing what you were meant to do! DESIGN, INSPIRE & CHANGE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THINGS!.
Michael

Michael, you said that I sound like I am right out of college, but you can't make a point concisely ..and you are in communications?

My point is that I am all for supporting fellow designers, but the designers that are too afraid to criticize hack work are not going to "make a difference" in our profession.

You ramble on about Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso - when the standard of art was and is much more critical than graphic design ...where anyone with a mac can instantly churn out crap and then blame the client. Toughen up and learn how to think strategically and you won't be the visual slave of your client.