Hello everyone,

I am coordinating my first tournament in behalf of Jax Smash Pact.

The tournament is an "Awareness Tournament" and the crowd expected is around 20-40 heads. My biggest task is finding a good venue for a descent price. I am looking at either a: hotel, Gamestop, or movie theater. Do you guys know of any other venue options?

Also I am currently working on the fliers for the tournament and I was wondering if you guys could give some constructive criticism.

BTW I am including a second flier for another, invite only, tournament I am organizing for the top five winners and the cream brawl players in Jacksonville, no more than 14 slots. Please let me know what you guys think.

Thank you,

Vathris

Open Tourny:

Closed Tourny:

1. Look into any community centers or churches. I'm surprised a Gamestop would be willing, especially if they don't have enough TVs and/or the employees are incompetent.

2. The things I learned in the newspaper business are the same when coming up with advertising fliers. You need at least these essentials:

Event name
Date
Location
Start time
Web site, e-mail or phone (perferrably just one of the three, I'll explain why later on)

You really don't need anything else. If people want more info, they can either go to the site, e-mail or call for more info.

Now, make sure that everything is spelled correctly. In your first flier there, you have "Super Smash Bros. Braw." People like to criticize over the littlest things, even if they "get it."

What I like to do is have one icon that is easily recognizable. Any
Nintendo tournament, I'd have Mario, Koopa or Ice Climbers. Just one is fine and make it big.

Also, make note of the font size. People have told me that the size importance should go in this order:

Event name -- has to be the biggest, think of it like 1/5 of the flier
Date
Web site
Location
Start time

If you were to take a flier and look at it from a distance, you should know at least the event and when it's going to happen. If you stick an 8.5x11 on a light pole and people drive by it, the person should at least say, "Hey, it looks like an event that includes Nintendo, taking place on (insert date)."

Also, if you were to look at it from a distance, say if you were about 20 feet away walking toward it, the icon should be the biggest driving force of the flier. In the first flier, I see the Smash circle; that's OK if you know Super Smash Bros., but think about those that are just trying to enter the tourney scene. In the second flier, the world is the biggest draw; I don't see how that relates to a Smash tourney. In the third flier, I see three small icons: a Samus, Capt. Falcon and something that looks like Predator

Finally, color is very important. If you have the chance to make it colored, then make sure that it's very attractive. I've never been sold by people that have told me that red draws people in, but w/e.

If you're unable to have color, that's where having the character icon comes in.

OK if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

--GCII

Really great advice. Something I'd also consider-

Depending on the size of this thing, you might be able to save some $$ by keeping a lighter background. Black is sweet, and badass, but may not be practical when advertising. This might not be an issue if this is a big venue, but if you're printing these from home, you're going to be using a LOT of black ink. If you're going black, you might as well go color.

I'm in the process of creating my own flier, and from the tips above, I know what changes I should make. Thanks TG2.

They look great, like the above post says just make it far more clear that its a smash tournament...once you get that across youre golden!

Your fliers look great, one thing I would suggest is a simple change I learned in a graphics design "class" is that serif font usually conveys the message more effectively then sans serif, although a lot of people don't agree. Its kind of an argument. Disregard this post.