Feedback Request - Custom Label Design for Cash Set (1 Viewer)

Ragman

High Hand
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Jun 25, 2018
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Location
North Carolina, US
All -

I'm working on a label design for a custom cash set and would appreciate your opinions and feedback. I intend to work with @Gear on these and apply them to china clay Majestics from @Apache. I've gotten a ton of feedback on denomination breakdown in other thread, so suffice it to say I will be using $0.25 (yellow), $5 (red), $25 (green) and $100 (black). To keep the look clean, I think I'll leave the currency symbol off, but could be convinced otherwise.

I want to personalize them to my interests, so I decided on a bird theme. I've been a birdwatcher all my life so it made sense to incorporate that. My original thought was to use a different bird on each denomination that corresponded to the color and size of the bird (yellow-rumped warbler on the $0.25, northern cardinal on the $5, green heron on the the $25, etc.) In the end I decided against that because I am not an artist and getting a consistent design that unifies the set is a lot of work, and I don't really want to impose on artistic friends or pay a graphic designer. Instead, I found an interesting public domain image of a stylized hummingbird with a circular place for the denomination.

I also decided to use the location "Piedmont NC" instead of a specific city, like Greensboro, NC. The Piedmont includes a larger area of North Carolina, and I was a member of the Piedmont Bird Club many years ago.

I've not finalized the font or the lettering size, but think I have it close.

For the $0.25 chips, I'm torn between using ".25" and "1/4" - curious to know if anyone has used or seen fractions on other chips. Here is the design:

SampleQuarter_Fraction.png



SampleQuarter_Decimal.png



I'd love to get your opinions.

-Ragman
 
1/4 looks botched for a money value chip imo (this form of notation in general, not on your design in particular). I do admit I have designed a set with that notation - which will never get made - but have to add that I made the choice intentionally there. It was supposed to look makeshift.

.25 just the same, as would the 0.25 variation.

I vote for classy 25¢.
 
I'm worried that with the graphic the way and size it is, that the denomination will end up being too small, especially when squished to the side of the label like that. Have you given any thought to cropping the hummingbird graphic and enlarging it so that it takes more space, so that a) you can have a large, more clearer denomination that's closer to the centre of the chip, and b) move the text over to the other side of the label where there's more white space.
 
I'm worried that with the graphic the way and size it is, that the denomination will end up being too small, especially when squished to the side of the label like that. Have you given any thought to cropping the hummingbird graphic and enlarging it so that it takes more space, so that a) you can have a large, more clearer denomination that's closer to the centre of the chip, and b) move the text over to the other side of the label where there's more white space.
Thanks for the feedback, and I agree. I'll play around with a cropped or otherwise modified image and post an updated version shortly.
 
I'm worried that with the graphic the way and size it is, that the denomination will end up being too small, especially when squished to the side of the label like that. Have you given any thought to cropping the hummingbird graphic and enlarging it so that it takes more space, so that a) you can have a large, more clearer denomination that's closer to the centre of the chip, and b) move the text over to the other side of the label where there's more white space.
Updated layout below. I think this is moving in the right direction. I removed the light-colored feathering beneath the wing, increased the size of the image and moved it left. I'm not sure this goes far enough, but curious to get your take. This new version I attached is approximately what it would be on chip (about 0.980 inches).

SampleQuarter_Revised.png
 
Updated layout below. I think this is moving in the right direction. I removed the light-colored feathering beneath the wing, increased the size of the image and moved it left. I'm not sure this goes far enough, but curious to get your take. This new version I attached is approximately what it would be on chip (about 0.980 inches).

View attachment 185365

Now that I see it on screen, I think it might benefit from even more cropping of the wing, maybe even half of it, perhaps rounding it off to have it match the arc of the circle. If I do that I'll look at adding the feathering back. My guess is that would be more in line with the original suggestion by @allforcharity, so the denomination is moved more toward the center and can be even bigger (and the portion of the image left would be proportionally bigger too).
 
I'm worried that with the graphic the way and size it is, that the denomination will end up being too small, especially when squished to the side of the label like that. Have you given any thought to cropping the hummingbird graphic and enlarging it so that it takes more space, so that a) you can have a large, more clearer denomination that's closer to the centre of the chip, and b) move the text over to the other side of the label where there's more white space.

Now that I see it on screen, I think it might benefit from even more cropping of the wing, maybe even half of it, perhaps rounding it off to have it match the arc of the circle. If I do that I'll look at adding the feathering back. My guess is that would be more in line with the original suggestion by @allforcharity, so the denomination is moved more toward the center and can be even bigger (and the portion of the image left would be proportionally bigger too).
@allforcharity (and anyone else please) - updated layout below. What do you think?

PokerChipInlay_Revision2.png
 
I do like the latest version, Try it out with all your denominations (25c, 1, 5, 20/25, 100, or whatever), and see what font size looks best. There's no law that says the font size must remain the same across all chips. There's also no law that says you have to have the same label on both sides of the chip.

If you think the wing cropping is too severe, then maybe consider this option. Custom ceramic chips with full face printing isn't much different in cost for a stock Majestic chip with two stickers. You can print whatever edge spot pattern you want and still have the wing extend beyond the traditional inlay diameter all the way out to the chip edge.
 
I do like the latest version, Try it out with all your denominations (25c, 1, 5, 20/25, 100, or whatever), and see what font size looks best. There's no law that says the font size must remain the same across all chips. There's also no law that says you have to have the same label on both sides of the chip.

If you think the wing cropping is too severe, then maybe consider this option. Custom ceramic chips with full face printing isn't much different in cost for a stock Majestic chip with two stickers. You can print whatever edge spot pattern you want and still have the wing extend beyond the traditional inlay diameter all the way out to the chip edge.
I may play around with shrinking the wing rather than the massive cropping I did to see how that looks. For some reason, probably because it's what I play with the most in casinos, I'm drawn to the china clays because of the feel and the realistic looking edge spots. I admit I do not have a sample set of the ceramics so I haven't judged the feel for myself. I also like the idea of being able to order more stock chips as needed, and even relabel at some point in the future.
You have been very helpful in this process, and I am appreciative for the feedback.
 
1/4 looks botched for a money value chip imo (this form of notation in general, not on your design in particular). I do admit I have designed a set with that notation - which will never get made - but have to add that I made the choice intentionally there. It was supposed to look makeshift.

.25 just the same, as would the 0.25 variation.

I vote for classy 25¢.
@Nex - apologies for not replying sooner, but I took your advice and redesigned as you can see in my other posts. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Get as many samples as you can. You may be surprised at how different things can feel (and look) when you've got them in hand.

I owned a set of CC Pharaohs for a short time. They do look nice, and there is no problem getting more if you need. But I found them inferior in sound and feel to my custom ceramics (remember, this is my opinion only). And now that I'm working on my own set of semi-custom Paulson's, I'll likely never look back on the CC's as a whole. Oh, what a snob I've become.
 
That last revision looks great. I actually like the cropped wing.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm going to tweak it a bit to make the denomination bigger, probably by decreasing the size of the text, increasing the size of the image, thereby making the empty circle in the image bigger (to allow a font size increase).
 

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