Closing in on colors/spots for first CPC set + theme ideas (1 Viewer)

pipdenny

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Hi all,

I was working on a Pharaoh Tribute in an Armenian theme (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ibute-armenia-theme.61060/page-2#post-1201284) but I have since fallen out of love with the idea.

I want to create a sort of "branding" with my set, as many of you guys have (eventually getting a custom felt/cut cards/etc)
I have a few other ideas for what will ultimately become an heirloom tournament set:

1) The Prancing Pony (A tavern in Lord of the Rings - bonus is that HHR would fit very well)
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2) Three Kings Card Room (reference to the 3 kings of blues, my musical passion + double meaning with poker trip kings - bonus scrown mold would work well)
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3) Globe Head Card Room (an inside joke between my friends that dates back to High School Days)
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4) Little Wing Card Room (Jimi Hendrix song)

5) Fhloston Paradise (The Fifth Element Reference)

6) Milliways Card Room (Hitchhiker's Guide reference - name of the "restaurant at the end of the universe" - mine would be "casino at the end of the universe" - thank you to @BSteck for this idea)

So far, number 3 is my favorite. It's a nice throw back with my crew and I feel like with the help of a designer, I can come up with a classy retro looking inlay. I also like it because it doesn't take itself too seriously and is a little goofy/fun.

This is a lot, I know, but as the days go on I find that some of these I begin to like more than others. I am sure that soon enough I will land on a final theme.

However, I feel like I am very close to the color/edge spot designs I like (and are reasonable within my budget)

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This is just a thread to slowly document my progress and thought processes.
Feel free to chime in with thoughts/feedback/ideas.

Thanks everyone for an awesome experience on this forum! I hope to soon place my first order with CPC!
 
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Great post and pretty cool ideas. I would love to see a BB King style inlay with the 2nd image. Has a great 50's/60's look about it. I really like your first three chips. Looking forward to seeing how you progress. Thanks for sharing
 
Just playing around with the Globe Head idea (very rough). I need a designer to help me get rid of the lines on the globe and see how it looks with vague green land masses and blue ocean, for a more colorful option.

I'm going to do some mockups of the other options (prancing pony and three kings next) tomorrow or so.
I'm just documenting my thoughts for now.


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Prancing Pony sounds a bit feminine to me. Nothing wrong with that if it's your goal, but it reminds me more of one of my daughter's toys than it does poker night.

I like the Three Kings idea best. Could do some cool designs with that idea as well. I love me some BB King, and it goes great with the scrown mold (the best one) and also has a clear tie in to poker.

I don't like the globe head idea at all, but I do realize that's an inside joke, so might be fun for your group. But only to those in the inside. To everyone else, it would likely come off as a bit of a head scratcher. But maybe you want that.
 
Nice lineup! Standard CPC customs disclaimer, if you don't already have one, grab a CPC color sample set. :)

I've mocked up a very similar T100 numerous times for 44mm set, I'd offer the suggestion of DG peacock over light blue for the spot. Light blue is nice but it's so close to gray - given the black base color, I find peacock offers a little better color and pop.

And FYI check out this thread, Prancing Pony Limit set (CPC re-label): https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/the-prancing-pony-limit-set.51547/
 
As an LotR fan, I like the Prancing Pony... unfortunate that it's been done already
Sounds like the 3 kings has a lot more meaning for you. My question is whether or not you can incorporate the double meaning
(music & poker) into one inlay. I.e. "3 Kings Poker Club" doesn't say anything about music.. maybe "BB King's Poker Room" works
 
Prancing Pony has been done! oh boy :bag:

Nice lineup! Standard CPC customs disclaimer, if you don't already have one, grab a CPC color sample set. :)

I've mocked up a very similar T100 numerous times for 44mm set, I'd offer the suggestion of DG peacock over light blue for the spot. Light blue is nice but it's so close to gray - given the black base color, I find peacock offers a little better color and pop.

And FYI check out this thread, Prancing Pony Limit set (CPC re-label): https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/the-prancing-pony-limit-set.51547/
I have a color sample set as well as a mold sample set, but I think the mold one is somewhat not helpful because I need a nice inlayed shuffle stack of each mold to get a real idea of feel. Noted about the colors, and I will certainly play round with it! I'll try to find pics of the light blue with the black and dayglo arc yellow on other CPC customs. Thank you for the tip!

As an LotR fan, I like the Prancing Pony... unfortunate that it's been done already
Sounds like the 3 kings has a lot more meaning for you. My question is whether or not you can incorporate the double meaning
(music & poker) into one inlay. I.e. "3 Kings Poker Club" doesn't say anything about music.. maybe "BB King's Poker Room" works
I could have a different design on the front and back maybe? this gives me a few ideas

Prancing Pony sounds a bit feminine to me. Nothing wrong with that if it's your goal, but it reminds me more of one of my daughter's toys than it does poker night.

I like the Three Kings idea best. Could do some cool designs with that idea as well. I love me some BB King, and it goes great with the scrown mold (the best one) and also has a clear tie in to poker.

I don't like the globe head idea at all, but I do realize that's an inside joke, so might be fun for your group. But only to those in the inside. To everyone else, it would likely come off as a bit of a head scratcher. But maybe you want that.
If I didn't know about lord of the rings, I would probably agree. I don't know how I feel about it being done already though, it's just a personal set so I shouldn't be too concerned. Same can be said about the Globe Head. I'm not worried about anyone outside my crew liking it, but at the same time I respect the opinions of veteran chippers. I guess if the design can be made well enough so that the theme itself doesn't matter, then I'd be happy, if that makes sense :)


I am liking the 3 kings idea more and more, but I am having a hard time coming up with an inlay design that would look nice. I really gotta work with a designer!
 
For instance, there are some highly revered sets that were big-time head-scratchers for me, namely coke giraffes and BTP. The design for coke giraffes initially seemed kind of stupid and silly, but the chips themselves look great as a whole. Same with BTP - a goofy, yet "instant classic" sort of design in my eyes. Both sets are unique and odd in a good way, even if they don't make sense. I have no idea if I am making any sense, I need more sleep.
 
This chip is black, with light blue and dg peach. That should help you visualise the one in your mockup. Arc yellow will be slightly lighter than peach, but it's close.
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I’m a huge fan of the LOTR books, associated stories, and movies so I’m a fan of the Prancing Pony but feel like you can find something better considering how many things you could pull from the source material
 
Prancing Pony has been done! oh boy :bag:

I don't know how I feel about it being done already though, it's just a personal set so I shouldn't be too concerned.
As long as you're not copying the label design, you'd be OK.
 
These will likely never get made so I'll offer up the idea to a fellow LOTR fan as an alternate idea.... :)

(Spoiler added to not muck up your mockup progression)

The Green Dragon

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Here's one of several designs I was working on before I realized I didn't need to spend another $4k on another tourney set :LOL: :laugh: The chips needed some work but I thought the inlay design was progressing nicely for a cool LOTR set.

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I know this is getting out of control, but here is a rough mockup of yet another idea: VAN Cardroom

Van (pronounced like it rhymes with "con") is an ancient Armenian city from which my ancestors hail, also the name of my baby son.
The bird here is some sort of stork or a crane, which is a bird that for whatever reason always makes my 6-month old son smile and laugh. Bonus, I love birds.
(image pulled from google and won't be in final design if I go with this idea. This is just a rough idea)

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I did not use the CPC template because I was just playing around with the idea for now.
Again, just documenting my ideas in a "throw it against a wall" type of way.

As with all my "mock-up" designs, I always feel like it looks too flat. They always feel like they need some dimension or something, like little lines, background images, watermarks, or I-don't-know-whats. Does anyone have any general tips for this? An example would be my previous "globe head" post, where I added those little star things on either side of the inlay, which I'm not sure how I feel about.

BONUS stork/crane "logos" I pulled from google images to be used as potential design inspiration

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There will ultimately be several designs which I will like, but I will need to just simply pick one (for now :whistle: :whistling:)

I sincerely value the feedback of you guys here on this forum, and I am always open to suggestions/ideas/etc. Thank you all so much, and thanks for letting me vomit all my thoughts in this corner of the forums!
I still really love the 3 kings and LOTR ideas, which I will flesh out a bit in the coming days.
 
^^^ you've got some orange-y tones in just about every chip, so I think this inlay goes *really* well with the current lineup.
 
I like this basic design very much!

One thing that can help with "depth" would be to use a gradient background. I actually think in this case a top-to-bottom gradient will work much better than the center-to-circumference model.

White printing (with small/thin text) on black background can be challenging. If you prefer a dark background, try experimenting with various colour gradients such as blue-purple and red-purple, maybe even light-dark green or any colour to grey. Alternatively, try using larger/thicker fonts for your white text.
 
I played around with a gradient, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't quite like what I did, but I'm sure a designer would do a muuuuch better job at applying a gradient that looks nice. I will continue to keep that in mind, thank you for the suggestion @allforcharity !!

I didn't have much time today to work on this, but here are a couple more, both with bolder/larger text. "Card Room" and "Los Angeles" are still probably not large enough.
The dots have been replaced by card suits, a-la Jack Detroit chips (probably won't print well this small, but just an idea)

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I like the white border showing on the black inlay chip, but I feel like the off-white inlay needs some sort of very minimal decorative border, or little squiggles on either side of "Card Room", or something that I can't put my finger on
 

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Beautifully done! Works much better with white inlays imo and the color matching is just right, perfectly subtle. Love these!
 
They look wonderful. Maybe the 25s is the weaket chip, for my taste (I don't like that edge spot, no matter in what colour...)

Good job!
 
Definitely like the white inlay better. I noticed the colour matching isn't consistent though. For the first three chips (25,100,500) the wing matches the base and the belly matches one of the spots. For the next two chips (1K,5K) the wing and the belly match the spots and the 25K chip is the opposite of the first 3. Not a big deal... just an observation.
 
After sleeping on it, I am really liking this latest design and for the first time feel like I am getting somewhere.
Thanks everyone!

I agree that the 25 edges spots could use a rework. As for the bird colors @LinkyBabe , I will play around with it. I was trying to get the orange/yellow colors from each spot on the beak because otherwise I thought it would look odd. The 25k chip was the most difficult because white did not do well on the bird due to the background color, and the other colors were very similar to the 5k.

Bonus bounty chip (or possibly rebuy chip, commemorative chip, member token, etc..)

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Just playing around with the Globe Head idea (very rough). I need a designer to help me get rid of the lines on the globe and see how it looks with vague green land masses and blue ocean, for a more colorful option.

I'm going to do some mockups of the other options (prancing pony and three kings next) tomorrow or so.
I'm just documenting my thoughts for now.


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Not a Dolphins fan, but I love the colors of this chip.
 
Some great creative juices here, I like it. The logo is stunning and the bounty chip is just gorgeous.

My recommendation would be to think about white space. If you’re willing to play around with sizes and position, you might find a layout that really makes your artwork pop.

The bounty chip, for example- could you use a concave arc?

The challenge is having a short name and a vertical logo. Do you need the name? I can think of gorgeous chips without a name- here are two.
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