Zelda Themed Set - Need Feedback! (1 Viewer)

Please vote for some of the design choices below. You can vote for each choice!

  • Neither of them is fitting for these chips

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • --

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • --

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Middle ring could work with a nice pattern and would be better

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • --

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hyrule Money Making Game

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • All-in or Nothing

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • --

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

Mysticum

Pair
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Gothenburg, Sweden
It's finally time to share my mockups with you all! I have worked very hard with these to incorporate some of the ideas I had, but I'm in no way any designer, which makes this process hard and complicated. The mockups will show this clearly, so keep this in mind that these are merely sketches and ideas that I've done to the best of my ability.

I need feedback and critism and suggestions!

I already what some of the points are going to be, and I will cover some of them later with explanations and motivation. But first, let's take a look at a sample set:

Artboard 1.pngArtboard 2.pngArtboard 3.pngArtboard 4.pngArtboard 5.pngArtboard 6.png
(Click on the images to see them full size!)

That's the baseline right now. Let's also take a look at some variations:

Artboard 7.pngArtboard 8.pngArtboard 9.pngArtboard 10.pngArtboard 11.pngArtboard 12.pngArtboard 13.pngArtboard 14.pngArtboard 15.png

With that out of the way, let's try to explain what is going on in this design.


What the f**k is this?

This is my take on Zelda themed poker chips. I've always been a fan of the video games series and it has some of the best games of all times. After the idea of making a customized poker set spawned, I started to list all ideas I thought were feasible, and among them were something personal, something with my hometown, and something with a game theme. After all, the chips are going to be used with board games, so a n3rd theme wasn't a negative thing.


About the logo

This is publicly free vector graphics that I choose to use. Except one design that has the regular Triforce emblem. I did sketches with both of them, especially when I sketched for labels for Majestic/Royal chips, where I tried out the Triforce instead, as that was the original idea. This is how it turned out:

Early Majestic.png


Not bad. I liked it, but after playing around a bit more, I think the bigger logo with the Hyrule emblem fits the design better. What do you think? Vote in the poll for this!


About the decoration in the outer ring


They are actually rupees! Here is how a rupee look in the games:

BotW_Green_Rupee_Icon.png


When I got this idea, I immediately became crazy about it, and I think that design choice is pretty much set in stone at this point, unless you really disagree. The thought is that the final design will incorporate rupees that runs from one side to the other, and thus becomes a full rupee. The side-edge will of course need to incorporate this.

Note that the current mockups only have the outer shape of a rupee. I think it works okay, but I want my final design to look more like a rupee and I need help from an actual designer with this.

Before this, I had some ideas with triangles that could be part of the Triforce:

Early Triangle Decoration 2.png
Early Triangle Decoration.png


One thing I need help with, though is how "long" the rupee should be. Mathematically, the "length" is correct since the edge will take up some of the length, but thus, it looks short on the main sides. I'm thinking about making it longer than it really is since it could be a more logical and pleasing design. Here is a comparison:

Artboard 2.pngArtboard 13.png

Which looks better? Please vote for this in the poll!


Middle ring


Is a middle ring a good idea or not? In some ways, it can look classy, and add to the look. But sometimes, it becomes too much and very clustered. Here is an early sketch, followed by some of the latest ideas:

Middle Ring 1.png
Artboard 7.pngArtboard 10.pngArtboard 11.png

What do you think about the middle ring? Please vote for this in the poll!

Another option is to have a middle ring with decoration instead. Unfortunately, I'm unable to do this with my very limited skills.

Text decorations


A standard design is to have something like "Person's Card Room" or "Person's Game Room". I like that actually, so I thought how a game room in Hyrule would be described.

In A Link to the Past, there is a Treasure Chest Game, which is the closest to gambling in that game. In Ocarina of Time, some mini-games exists in Hyrule Castle. In the first Legend of Zelda, there is a "money making game". And in the latest Breath of the Wild, there is gambling game called "All or Nothing".

This resulted in the following ideas/suggestions:
  • Hyrule Treasure Game
  • Hyrule Money Making Game
  • All-in or Nothing
  • Hyrule Rupee Rush
Which text would work best for the theme in your opinion? Which one feels most "poker chip authentic"? Vote in the poll!

Colors


I've already started a discussion about this, but the "problem" here is that I like to follow standards. And here two worlds collide because casinos/poker have its own standard, and Zelda has another one.

With the rupee decoration idea in place, however, I could incorporate both of the best worlds! The base color is the poker color and the rupee decoration, being a rupee, is the Zelda color for that value. Do you think that is a good match? No poll for this, leave a comment what works or not.

Only standards for 1/5/20/100 really. After that I took suggestion from @BGinGA to have pink rupee on purple chip for 500. I think it works well, but my SO disagree. She also thinks the 20 is ugly, but she hates yellow.

The 20 is the biggest problem. There is not really a standard, and I can either have Green as a 20, which is the "closest" to standard, or have another color completely. Personally, I think the yellow works well. Please vote for this in the poll!

The Label


Can't believe we haven't even touched upon the label yet, which could very well be the most important part. We have covered logo, and to be honest, I'm pretty satisfied with the Rupee text which works well as decoration text as well. Earlier sketches had some of the other texts as a ring decoration. (I wanted to show you, but I can only attach 20 picture apparently, so later then.)

One thing I wonder about is whether the label for value should be straight or, as now, curved, exactly as the text above is. Here is a comparison:
Artboard 14.pngArtboard 15.png

Please vote for this in the poll!
(I seem to have reached a limit for options in the poll, please leave a comment instead!)



Since I can't post more pictures, I think this will be enough for now.

Please leave your comments, but if not, please vote for what you think works or not. Your feedback is invaluable to me and I'm really counting on you guys ;)

Other suggestions are welcome of course.

I should also mentioned that I hired some designers on Fiverr to help me sketch ideas. The results were very mixed (still awaiting the most expensive one), but it gave me some ideas along the way which was valuable.

Speaking of which, I will need help to finalize the design and polish further. Please give me a PM if you can help me with this.
 
This is a lot of information. I know a couple folks here that have an affinity for the time period, video games, or Zelda/Link in particular, but it's gonna take folks a bit to read this, comprehend, and then provide feedback.

My first question, what chips are you using these on?
 
I voted ... and being a Zelda player myself (dating back to the original gold NES cartridge), this design is the best (yellow 20 though) and somewhere needs one of these
1601589213994.png


1601589163122.png
 
You are trying to eat a elephant here in 5 minutes. Pick one thing to work on and get community help with, not 50. When you perfect one tiny thing move onto another part of the chip. This is way to overwhelming, just my opinion. As much as I love zelda I can't even begin to give suggestions here. GLWD
 
Id def reach out to some designers here. They’re very fair on pricing, you have timinator, pwoody, j-5 who’s username I can’t recall, and more.

I think they’ll be able to help you narrow down some ideas as well. Like for me I would go with a different text, or at least like to see a couple. You may work on the rupees, find something you like there, but then those impact the text or color or other aspects of the design. I think a designer can give you those options and then come back with hey community what can I add/remove/change.
 
This is a lot of information. I know a couple folks here that have an affinity for the time period, video games, or Zelda/Link in particular, but it's gonna take folks a bit to read this, comprehend, and then provide feedback.

My first question, what chips are you using these on?

Well, there's no rush, and I wanted to get some feedback while continuing the work. Right now it's leaning towards the Sun-Fly PolyInno 43mm, but I haven't gotten my samples for Majestic/Royal etc yet, so not set in stone.

Id def reach out to some designers here. They’re very fair on pricing, you have timinator, pwoody, j-5 who’s username I can’t recall, and more.

I think they’ll be able to help you narrow down some ideas as well. Like for me I would go with a different text, or at least like to see a couple. You may work on the rupees, find something you like there, but then those impact the text or color or other aspects of the design. I think a designer can give you those options and then come back with hey community what can I add/remove/change.

Yeah, I wanted to do exactly that, but I wanted to get some basic ideas first and some iterations on the sketches first. I think this is going to be an iterative process, and I have a limited budget so I wanted to minimize the work for the designer by preparing as much as I could.
 
This logo looks good. Make it bigger and put it by itself on one side

Put the denomination on the other side and make it easier to read.

Even enlarging the image the text is hard to read.

View attachment 544557

Yeah, the font isn't final, just something I picked that I thought fit the theme. Not sure what you mean by "put it by itself on one side". Let's say I move it down, do you mean I put the denomination under the text then? I think of the text more like a decorative thing. Noone is going to read "One Hundred Rupees" when it says "100"?
 
Well, there's no rush, and I wanted to get some feedback while continuing the work. Right now it's leaning towards the Sun-Fly PolyInno 43mm, but I haven't gotten my samples for Majestic/Royal etc yet, so not set in stone.



Yeah, I wanted to do exactly that, but I wanted to get some basic ideas first and some iterations on the sketches first. I think this is going to be an iterative process, and I have a limited budget so I wanted to minimize the work for the designer by preparing as much as I could.
Most of what I’ve seen has been very price friendly, to the point you’ll prob want to tip over after you see what beauty they can do for you.

Not that fiverr route isn’t smart, just not always necessary.
 
You are trying to eat a elephant here in 5 minutes. Pick one thing to work on and get community help with, not 50. When you perfect one tiny thing move onto another part of the chip. This is way to overwhelming, just my opinion. As much as I love zelda I can't even begin to give suggestions here. GLWD

Sure, I can see your point. Thing is, I wanted to make a well-written post that reflected the time and effort I spent on this project, and it wouldn't feel right to ask smaller questions repeatably. If I did, perhaps someone would have said that I should make a bigger effort and offer a more complete design first.

I wanted to give it my best and ask for feedback to not waste people's time too much. Obviously you felt the opposite, and that's okay.
 
Sure, I can see your point. Thing is, I wanted to make a well-written post that reflected the time and effort I spent on this project, and it wouldn't feel right to ask smaller questions repeatably. If I did, perhaps someone would have said that I should make a bigger effort and offer a more complete design first.

I wanted to give it my best and ask for feedback to not waste people's time too much. Obviously you felt the opposite, and that's okay.
It’ll be amazing with what you’re willing to put in. I’ll pm you later some thoughts and reference some works so you can see what came of peoples first drafts and ideas.
 
Yeah, the font isn't final, just something I picked that I thought fit the theme. Not sure what you mean by "put it by itself on one side". Let's say I move it down, do you mean I put the denomination under the text then? I think of the text more like a decorative thing. Noone is going to read "One Hundred Rupees" when it says "100"?

you can have 2 different designs of the label, an A side and a B side. You can make the Hyrule logo one side by itself. Then on the other side you can do something with the rupees on the other side, even using the actual image of a Rupee if you like.
 
The concept is a great idea.
How many different denominations will you have in the set? I ask because ea denom could be slightly different but keep the Zelda theme. Lots to work with. I've used J5 for several of my projects but you can't go wrong with any designers mentioned previously.
 
If it were me, I would have taken a rather different approach. I'd have put the rupee front and center in the label, as if the chip itself were a rupee. That's the kind of connection I'd want to draw - rupees are a coin within the Zelda games, and the chips are a coin within poker (and board games), so create the mental connection that the chips are in fact themselves rupees.

I'd make an overall graphic design that was closer to a Bud Jones / Matsui style of chip, rather than a clay chip with inserts for edge spots. Incorporate the major symbols like the Triforce, Royal Crest, Sword-and-Z, etc into the patterns running around the ring outside the label. On the rolling edge, use the rupees again. The label would contain a large rupee of the appropriate color in the middle, with the denomination in a nice legible font, size, and color underneath it (or possibly printed only on one side), and some appropriate text surrounding it from above. Black background for the label, with the rupee color matching the base color of the chip.

Not saying you should do this, or that you haven't already considered it and moved on. But that's where I would start, if it were my design. Which it's not.
 
Whew! That’s a lot to take in. Big Zelda fan here! For some suggestions in regards to the name, how about Clock Tower’s Treasure Hall from Majora’s Mask?

If it were me, I would have taken a rather different approach. I'd have put the rupee front and center in the label, as if the chip itself were a rupee. That's the kind of connection I'd want to draw - rupees are a coin within the Zelda games, and the chips are a coin within poker (and board games), so create the mental connection that the chips are in fact themselves rupees.

I'd make an overall graphic design that was closer to a Bud Jones / Matsui style of chip, rather than a clay chip with inserts for edge spots. Incorporate the major symbols like the Triforce, Royal Crest, Sword-and-Z, etc into the patterns running around the ring outside the label. On the rolling edge, use the rupees again. The label would contain a large rupee of the appropriate color in the middle, with the denomination in a nice legible font, size, and color underneath it (or possibly printed only on one side), and some appropriate text surrounding it from above. Black background for the label, with the rupee color matching the base color of the chip.

Definitely go with these ideas. The good thing with making custom chips is that they don’t have to follow a specific pattern and you can make them to your liking. Same can be said for the rupee values, as there are different values depending on which game you’re playing.
https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Rupee
 
Voted. I prefer the denomination flat. I like the idea of the rupee appearing on the chip. I don't like the idea of it wrapping around the chip. Voted for the longer one, because I think it looks better than the short. :) Cheers
 
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you can have 2 different designs of the label, an A side and a B side. You can make the Hyrule logo one side by itself. Then on the other side you can do something with the rupees on the other side, even using the actual image of a Rupee if you like.

Aha! Now I understand you. That's not a bad idea.

One thing I'm hesitant against though is not having the denomination on both sides. Part of why I want denominations is to use it in board games where some people are not familiar with the colors and its connection to values, so I want it to be super clear.

The concept is a great idea.
How many different denominations will you have in the set? I ask because ea denom could be slightly different but keep the Zelda theme. Lots to work with. I've used J5 for several of my projects but you can't go wrong with any designers mentioned previously.

Thanks! Right now, it's what you see in the first row of pictures: 1/5/20/100/500.

how about putting the ruppees and the denominations on the outer ring and let logo take centre stage? like old school and union station chips

Not a bad idea, but I tried denomination in the outer ring and it was just not to my liking.

If it were me, I would have taken a rather different approach. I'd have put the rupee front and center in the label, as if the chip itself were a rupee. That's the kind of connection I'd want to draw - rupees are a coin within the Zelda games, and the chips are a coin within poker (and board games), so create the mental connection that the chips are in fact themselves rupees.

I'd make an overall graphic design that was closer to a Bud Jones / Matsui style of chip, rather than a clay chip with inserts for edge spots. Incorporate the major symbols like the Triforce, Royal Crest, Sword-and-Z, etc into the patterns running around the ring outside the label. On the rolling edge, use the rupees again. The label would contain a large rupee of the appropriate color in the middle, with the denomination in a nice legible font, size, and color underneath it (or possibly printed only on one side), and some appropriate text surrounding it from above. Black background for the label, with the rupee color matching the base color of the chip.

Not saying you should do this, or that you haven't already considered it and moved on. But that's where I would start, if it were my design. Which it's not.

Thanks for your comment!

I have considered having the rupee as a more central element, but then I liked the idea of having the rupees on the side, which also created this "common poker chip pattern" on the sides, so I didn't really move forward with the central rupee. But maybe I should sketch some concept about this and try it out. I like being able to incorporate more major symbols into a pattern, like you suggest. At the same time, I want to keep it fairly clean since I don't like a "too busy" design.

Whew! That’s a lot to take in. Big Zelda fan here! For some suggestions in regards to the name, how about Clock Tower’s Treasure Hall from Majora’s Mask?

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Though, my connection is not that strong to Majora's Mask (but actually gonna re-play it very soon). But I like the name!

Definitely go with these ideas. The good thing with making custom chips is that they don’t have to follow a specific pattern and you can make them to your liking. Same can be said for the rupee values, as there are different values depending on which game you’re playing.
https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Rupee

Yeah, if you knew how many hours I've spent on this page the last week :)
https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Rupee
 
First things first, are these going to be a cash or tournament set?

*Edit: Nevermind, just saw that these would be used for board games.*

Using what @CrazyEddie said, I mocked these up so you can get an idea. You can use them to set whatever value you want, because only the hardcore Zelda fans would know the true valuations of the rupees.
c508163f-bb7a-435a-abc2-250c92cc3cc8.png
 
First things first, are these going to be a cash or tournament set?

*Edit: Nevermind, just saw that these would be used for board games.*

Using what @CrazyEddie said, I mocked these up so you can get an idea. You can use them to set whatever value you want, because only the hardcore Zelda fans would know the true valuations of the rupees.
View attachment 545654
Green 1, blue 5, red 20, purple 50 or GTFO
 
Dude, this is such an awesome idea! The Zelda series is one of my all-time favorites.
 
I just found this thread and I’m loving it! Since the first game released I’ve been a huge fan of this saga!
I‘m also thinking about a custom Legend of Zelda set, and it’s interesting to see another enthusiast’s designs.
My concept art is still in the Imaginarium, but I will likewise post my stuff in the future.
I can’t wait to see your final designs!
How‘s it going so far??
 

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