Running the halftone texture at an angle instead of straight-on is what keeps this from reading as a stock dot-pattern filter — it moves with the diagonal stripe field instead of sitting on top of it as a separate layer.
The texture in these is what gets me, that scratchy engraved look against the flat neon green is such a strong contrast. Was that hand illustrated first and then digitized, or built directly in software?
The halftone gradient against the flat diagonal stripe block is the strongest choice here — one reads as texture/craft, the other as a hard graphic signal, and keeping them separate instead of blending stops the illustration from turning into noise.
Love them, they're so unique! Do you explore them analog first or straightly experiment digitally? Such complex graphics have always been a challenge for me, any tips? 😄
Been part of this community for a few years now, sharing my work, joining challenges, meeting some great people, and even picking up a few wins along the way.
I've genuinely enjoyed being part of Contra and seeing how much the platform has grown.
This one means a lot. Big thanks to the Contra team for the recognition!
Congrats Alec, a few years of showing up is the part most people skip. Out of the challenges you joined, which one actually brought a paying client afterwards?