Critique

My first feature for "Vox" has been an interesting one. I had a difficult time coming up with a concept for the article because it is one of those "already done" topics: interracial dating. I knew I didn't want an all black-and-white themed story so I decided to use three different approaches.
The first one was to use hearts: not my favorite. I kind of made this one knowing it wasn't going to work but just so I could clear my head of the whole relationships and hearts mindset. The second one was a photo-inspired illustration in illustrator using hands and bodies to show a relationship between two races. At the last minute, I decided to put a little strategy drawing around the headline of the X-home team and O-opponents. It was something I knew everyone who'd played a sport could relate to because every coach uses it (even my old cheerleading coach did!). My third rendition has been lost in my computer somehow. I had drawn some illustrations (sort of cartoon-ish) and had a pretty good design going with them, however, my computer thought otherwise. I lost my entire folder of work because of a glitch in the Adobe program I was using! Talk about annoying. This upset did however change my viewpoint on the design—it was too sports-related and not enough relationship and race-related.
I am still trying to get the point across and still working with some drafts, so I thought I'd put up the first draft of the second rendition (the one everyone liked the best). Let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts on it!