petrabigail

Detailed or Simple review: detailed
Message/Purpose of Graphic: a challenge
Your concerns, if any: all?
 

FIRST GLANCE/IMPRESSION

It's very elongated and has an almost obvious pattern that gives this a distinctive flow. The large head is a nice start as it flows down to the other images and to the words. Though, I understand you tried to make the words 'of' align with the other words, it's probably better if you stick it with 'the story' to make it 'the story of' which would complete the sentence and the entire presentation because 'of' has a really large space in between and that is highly distracting. Also, very contradicting to the full length of the poster, which focuses on narrowly cramped spaces. It would probably work better if the width was wider to accommodate 'of' (if you would prefer it that way).

In addition, the general flow of the images are obvious, but it's something you need to be careful about as well. In each photo, he is facing the opposite direction from the image next to himself, which is okay to some level, however, I feel cross-eyed following the direction he is pointing at. It may be wise to have him look at himself rather than away. Unless the point of the images is that he fears himself, then that may be able to work since to me, he looks really tense like he's afraid of the dark or something close to that. The narrow spaces also adds on to why I think he feels so tense when looking around, not to mention the large photo is like he's holding his breath, as if he can't breathe. Now I'm really curious if this was all intentional. 

Also, I find whatever it is under his arm(on the duplicate stock) really distracting. One, because it doesn't have a define form to distinguish what it is; two, it's sharpened for reasons I'm not sure if it has a purpose; three, I really don't know what it is nor the intent of hanging it below his arm unless this was part of the stock photo of some sort. If you could maybe define it a bit more or blur it out that would be great. 

MOOD AND THEMES

I think the mood would be correct if this was some sort of dark haunting horror and about Kim Jongin, as the title states. It's narrowly cramped, less on space (aside from the 'of' as I had mentioned earlier), there's hardly any light and the fire probably represents some dramatic horror occurrence. I'm not sure what, but it works in a sense that it's probably something painful that still burns in his memory. Normally, I would say the duplication of his character should be taken out, but I can see that you're trying to heighten his fear/nerves/cautious if that was really the intent you were going for. It's growing and gives a flow from up to down. And on the top, I see plants. I'm not sure if this is to reinforce this concept that this sense he's feeling is growing within him. Though, personally, if breathing wasn't much of a concern, I really would say to take them out completely to give the poster more space and breathe. As it is, it goes well.
 
COLOR HARMONY

You have a variety of colors on here, the majority being black and dark palettes, which is pretty much what it should be if the story is some dark theme storyline. The only thing that seems to stand out the most are the dark red flames and I can understand this since fire is normally bright. But alas, it looks like you tried to add more white light colors around the title and below Jongin, which is fine, but probably unnecessary. Concerning that the flames are already overpowering the lower part of the image, the white light just adds onto it and separates the images further since the top also has white light. Not only that, the light is facing the opposite direction of where the light shines on Jongin. However, it does make him pop out a bit more.
 
STOCK USES

There's a lot of images here and I'm not sure how significant each of them really are. I've already said a lot on the main stock images, but there's the cycle of the moon behind the duplicate photos and whether they play much of a role is questionable. If they do, maybe position them a bit higher because they don't really seem to connect with the larger head on top and only connect the bottom two. I also say this because the moon is mostly on the right side of the graphic and the fire is larger on that side as well, which weighs the right side more than the left. It's like there's a large separation of the symbolic photos and the only ones that really connect to the image on top are the plants, some building next to his face and the other two photos of himself. Which is also a problem when making a very elongated poster since you need to consider the connection between each photo at a farther distance. Not to say each photo should be touching each other, but what it is related to should have some sort of weight and space towards each other. Also, the lower part of the poster has a lot more weight than the top, like the white light texture behind the words as I have mentioned earlier. Maybe you should consider removing that. 

On the middle stock photo of Jongin, I think you should make the area with that shapeless thing below his arm, which I mentioned earlier, blurred out. It's creating some other shape (I have no idea what) since the cycle of moon is right next to it. I'm not sure if it's intentional or if it's another stock photo you have there. I know the woods are shadowed in the back or maybe it could be the light is playing tricks with the photos and I'm seriously imagining things. I am not sure but it's really distracting at this point and my eyes seem to focus on that area a lot since it's pretty sharpened with the white light. 

There's some shape below the larger image of Jongin and I'm curious if that's a mishap on the texture that wasn't hidden well since it's covering the moon. It's really sticking out and maybe if you could blur that out too, that would be great. Not to mention, on the moon cycle, there's one moon on the bottom where flames are. Again, it may be a mishap, but if it's intention, I'd suggest removing it. 
 
TYPOGRAPHY

At a glance, they look fitting, nice, readable and legible (aside from the 'of' as I've touched upon). I'd say the choice of type suits the theme, but it may be better if it was a bit thinner, like Bodoni thin sort of way. Especially since 'the story of' are smaller and it would be easier to read smaller font with thin lines to give it enough legibility. Also, it won't be as cluttered when you have to re-size them. Then, since this is a elongated graphic, the choice of making the words slowly going downwards is acceptable. Unless you really want to make this dramatic, you can space it out, however, if the theme is still keeping it narrowed space, then this placement of text is really preferable. 

I've noticed that you've tried to play with the text 'Kim Jongin' by using a different type for the first letter. It's a nice attempt, but it does not flow that easily and judging by the serifs on each letter, they're both different typefaces. Since you wanted to make the 'k' look like it has some fancy curve on the bottom to complement the curves on the 'J' why not make the 'j' connect with the lower part of the 'k'? Since the bottom of the 'k' looks like it can be the top hat on a capital 'j' you can connect the two letters so that they can flow better or make the 'j' seem like it's hanging off the 'k' in the most eerie way ever (theme-wise)? It's merely a suggestion and you're welcome to not take it. If you really don't know how to use creativity within the text, you can think of the theme or the title of the story. Sometimes the most obvious things are the things that are just staring you in the face. Anyway, the type isn't bad, but more like, you're almost there into making it look really nice and got lost somewhere on the way. I guess it needs more direction (or glue) to make it work out. 

In addition, the title doesn't look like the main focus of the graphic since most of the images are dominating the entire poster. If the intent of the graphic is to be used as an story poster, I'd say enlarge the text since it's purpose is to be read by an audience. If you think enlarging the type would disrupt the flow of the graphic, you can try putting the text on the top of the poster, above the head photo. However, you said the purpose was for a challenge, so keeping it there is fine too.
 
SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES

I see you have no problem with blending. Some areas I've already touched upon to either blur out or move around if you intend to make them the focus on the graphic at all. Everything is also proportionate and not out of the ordinary. Though the middle image of Jongin seems more blurred than the smaller picture so I can only assume it was blown up a bit or the image was already like that and if you could, either sharpen it a bit more or blur the smaller one so they would both be on the same level of clarity. The plant on the top corner is also more defined than the rest of the graphic. If you could possibly dull it out a bit more, it would be a bit more less focused than the rest. 

OVERALL 

It's a nice graphic and tells a lot about a story. Very thrilling on a meaningful level and is almost near great except for the things I've pointed out. I apologize on going into so many tangents. I hope this review was useful. :)