I finally asked a pro why my gradients always looked muddy and it was so simple

So I was at this local designers meetup in Portland last month, just showing off some of my poster work. This older guy who used to do album covers in the 90s took a look and said 'your gradients have too many stops'. I was using like 5 or 6 color points thinking more was smoother. He told me to stick to 2, maybe 3 max and let the blending do the work. Tried it on a recent project and yeah, it actually pops now instead of looking like dishwater. Has anyone else gotten some old school advice that made a huge difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade61812d ago

Tried that 8 stops on a sunrise gradient once. Looked like someone spilled bong water on a poster. Two stops and some opacity tweaks saved my career.

morgan_jenkins9011d ago

@jade618 I've definitely made a few posters look like bong water art myself.