It has been a long time since I have ordered up a custom CPC set. So long, that it was actually in the days of "Red". I finally pulled the trigger back in December of 2021, on what was going to be a small crown cash set. I wasn't fully committed to the small crown mold though, as I do have a CPC set ready to be relabeled some day, and I would like to have a set on each mold that they produce. (Just cards/dice and large crown left now!)
So, with those considerations, I also ordered up a barrel or so of jockey and large crown chips, just to handle and see what I might like best. In the end, jockey won out, but MUCH to my surprise, large crown became a heavy contender. It will most definitely be the next mold that I choose.
Anyways, with the order placed, I told David that I would most likely be modifying some things. Molds, colour changes, spot changes, and shaped inlay changes. Luckily, he said it would be at least 9 months out before I would need to get all that in line. Cue December of 2022, and I was now scrambling to get things finalized. (Luckily, I had already confirmed going to the jockey mold, which gave me a month or two extension!)
As those who have met me would attest, I like colours. Lots of colours. I like flashy. Unconventional. Interesting. (Sure, some would say, gaudy, loud and tacky, but they would just be wrong
)
Luckily, due to my wife's line of work, I have made friends with many super talented artists. Unfortunately, many of them are also quite busy , producing art, lol! However I was very lucky to be able to have one of them agree to work on some logo design for me. Many years ago, I had my wife do a Yoshi artwork, with Yoshi (of Super Mario Bros fame) , done in a Pacific NorthWest Native art style. While I still love it, I also realize that times have changed, and that it could very easily appear as appropriation, and that was never my intent. So, I was intent on creating a new Yoshi's chip.
First he created a "Yoshi" text for me. My request was "asian neon" , lol.
Then I asked him to create a neon samurai. He sent me a few rough sketches, which I loved, and then he polished them up, which,,,, I didn't love as much? So I asked him to go back to the roughs, and just keep the asymmetrical sketchy kind of look, and he nailed it.
I had already been working on a few concepts for chips. Using,,,,, unconventional spot patterns. David allowed me to go with some interesting things, but only because it wasn't a ton of chips. (This was only going to be about 600 chips for the full set, more than I would almost ever use with a single table cash game, we aren't a meetup group usually!)
This was the part that I had the most fun with. I also could quite easily see it becoming a massive dirty stack issue, which is another plus to ordering a small set. If something doesn't work out, I can re-order something for a denom to change it out at a later date, and not feel too bad about having racks and racks of chips.
Next up, was figuring out shaped inlays (yes!), but which shapes? That actually turned out to be fairly easy. As the shapes kind of flowed well with the spots, at least in my eyes.
Then, I decided I would try to do some colour matching with the logo and text, to the chips. Which turned out to be a massive disaster. Nothing looked right. Finally, I decided to just go with colours that I thought worked within each chip, even though it wouldn't be a match to the chip. I think it's ok, but could definitely be better.
I also had to choose some sort of background colour for the inlay. I didn't want to go with white, and originally I had thought to go with a golden kind of scheme, like a yellow smoked vintage look, but in the end, decided to just go with a fade and highlight, mostly because I was running on borrowed time, and on my vacation to Israel, trying to get it all finished up.
I submitted everything, and David worked his magic, and sent me the proof.
Disregard the levels of spots. They're not accurate, as they are just as if they would be the standard versions of them.
I'm usually really patient (heck, I placed the order at the end of 2021!) but when I got a shipping notice on March 4th? I started to get really anxious. Really really really anxious.
But on March 8th, I got a notification that they were waiting to be examined by customs.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Much despair.
Then, with a little assist from David, they got kicked out of the system, and magically yesterday, they appeared.
And the real chips will be posted,,,,, next.
So, with those considerations, I also ordered up a barrel or so of jockey and large crown chips, just to handle and see what I might like best. In the end, jockey won out, but MUCH to my surprise, large crown became a heavy contender. It will most definitely be the next mold that I choose.
Anyways, with the order placed, I told David that I would most likely be modifying some things. Molds, colour changes, spot changes, and shaped inlay changes. Luckily, he said it would be at least 9 months out before I would need to get all that in line. Cue December of 2022, and I was now scrambling to get things finalized. (Luckily, I had already confirmed going to the jockey mold, which gave me a month or two extension!)
As those who have met me would attest, I like colours. Lots of colours. I like flashy. Unconventional. Interesting. (Sure, some would say, gaudy, loud and tacky, but they would just be wrong
)Luckily, due to my wife's line of work, I have made friends with many super talented artists. Unfortunately, many of them are also quite busy , producing art, lol! However I was very lucky to be able to have one of them agree to work on some logo design for me. Many years ago, I had my wife do a Yoshi artwork, with Yoshi (of Super Mario Bros fame) , done in a Pacific NorthWest Native art style. While I still love it, I also realize that times have changed, and that it could very easily appear as appropriation, and that was never my intent. So, I was intent on creating a new Yoshi's chip.
First he created a "Yoshi" text for me. My request was "asian neon" , lol.
Then I asked him to create a neon samurai. He sent me a few rough sketches, which I loved, and then he polished them up, which,,,, I didn't love as much? So I asked him to go back to the roughs, and just keep the asymmetrical sketchy kind of look, and he nailed it.
I had already been working on a few concepts for chips. Using,,,,, unconventional spot patterns. David allowed me to go with some interesting things, but only because it wasn't a ton of chips. (This was only going to be about 600 chips for the full set, more than I would almost ever use with a single table cash game, we aren't a meetup group usually!)
This was the part that I had the most fun with. I also could quite easily see it becoming a massive dirty stack issue, which is another plus to ordering a small set. If something doesn't work out, I can re-order something for a denom to change it out at a later date, and not feel too bad about having racks and racks of chips.
Next up, was figuring out shaped inlays (yes!), but which shapes? That actually turned out to be fairly easy. As the shapes kind of flowed well with the spots, at least in my eyes.
Then, I decided I would try to do some colour matching with the logo and text, to the chips. Which turned out to be a massive disaster. Nothing looked right. Finally, I decided to just go with colours that I thought worked within each chip, even though it wouldn't be a match to the chip. I think it's ok, but could definitely be better.
I also had to choose some sort of background colour for the inlay. I didn't want to go with white, and originally I had thought to go with a golden kind of scheme, like a yellow smoked vintage look, but in the end, decided to just go with a fade and highlight, mostly because I was running on borrowed time, and on my vacation to Israel, trying to get it all finished up.
I submitted everything, and David worked his magic, and sent me the proof.
Disregard the levels of spots. They're not accurate, as they are just as if they would be the standard versions of them.
I'm usually really patient (heck, I placed the order at the end of 2021!) but when I got a shipping notice on March 4th? I started to get really anxious. Really really really anxious.
But on March 8th, I got a notification that they were waiting to be examined by customs.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Much despair.
Then, with a little assist from David, they got kicked out of the system, and magically yesterday, they appeared.
And the real chips will be posted,,,,, next.
