AlbinoDragon
Flush
There is a lot of really good advice here.
I'll say that for me, every one of my designs almost always started with a concept... rough and hand-wavey or even just a single image that sparked an idea.
My Lounge set was just "1960s Vegas", and I picked the H-mold and simple spots around that concept. I had the lavender 50-cent chip from the Flamingo in my collection already at that point and the black inlay, white border ring and minimal design elements in that chip were a major design driver as I started working on that set.
When I started The Arizona Club design, all I had was "something simple but contemporary", but the Escher lizard(s) have always been a favorite piece of art of mine and I figured the two could play nicely with each other. I have always liked the color match lion logo on the chips from the MGM Grand and used a "reverse" version of that with the spots on the chips matching the lizards. The text offset to one side was inspired by a late 25-cent chip from the California Club that did something similar, but with a standing bear off-center and text wrapping around one side rather than wrapping around the top.
The California Club tribute set was a bit of a cheat in that all I did there was re-work design elements that had been used by the casino. My original version had the walking bear as seen on the 2nd edition chips, but Jim Blanchard at ASM quickly put the kibosh on that as being "too close to the originals" despite having the open and close dates on the inlay. I'm eternally thankful that he did that as the end result is so much better than what I had. I had earlier rattled around the idea of a black inlay for the chip anyway, but had previously bought a photo of the Club at night with the neon on the bear lit up and quickly adapted that into the inlay design I wound up using.
I realize it might not be a lot of help for your quandary but just having a theme for what you want to do with the set helps drive design concepts. Of course, that is often the most difficult part, but many of the suggestions here might help (likes, passions, inside jokes only your group would get... the list goes on). Once that concept is in place, I found paging through the images of all the current and old casino chips on the Chip Guide let me see what has been done and maybe a design element I like that I could incorporate.
Final suggestion, less is more. You're working in an area the size of a stamp (or even smaller). It's easy to want to throw a bunch of ideas at a wall and see what sticks but the examples you posted as ones you like, as well as the other examples that have been posted here all are great because there isn't too much going on. Just simple and to the point.
I'll say that for me, every one of my designs almost always started with a concept... rough and hand-wavey or even just a single image that sparked an idea.
My Lounge set was just "1960s Vegas", and I picked the H-mold and simple spots around that concept. I had the lavender 50-cent chip from the Flamingo in my collection already at that point and the black inlay, white border ring and minimal design elements in that chip were a major design driver as I started working on that set.
When I started The Arizona Club design, all I had was "something simple but contemporary", but the Escher lizard(s) have always been a favorite piece of art of mine and I figured the two could play nicely with each other. I have always liked the color match lion logo on the chips from the MGM Grand and used a "reverse" version of that with the spots on the chips matching the lizards. The text offset to one side was inspired by a late 25-cent chip from the California Club that did something similar, but with a standing bear off-center and text wrapping around one side rather than wrapping around the top.
The California Club tribute set was a bit of a cheat in that all I did there was re-work design elements that had been used by the casino. My original version had the walking bear as seen on the 2nd edition chips, but Jim Blanchard at ASM quickly put the kibosh on that as being "too close to the originals" despite having the open and close dates on the inlay. I'm eternally thankful that he did that as the end result is so much better than what I had. I had earlier rattled around the idea of a black inlay for the chip anyway, but had previously bought a photo of the Club at night with the neon on the bear lit up and quickly adapted that into the inlay design I wound up using.
I realize it might not be a lot of help for your quandary but just having a theme for what you want to do with the set helps drive design concepts. Of course, that is often the most difficult part, but many of the suggestions here might help (likes, passions, inside jokes only your group would get... the list goes on). Once that concept is in place, I found paging through the images of all the current and old casino chips on the Chip Guide let me see what has been done and maybe a design element I like that I could incorporate.
Final suggestion, less is more. You're working in an area the size of a stamp (or even smaller). It's easy to want to throw a bunch of ideas at a wall and see what sticks but the examples you posted as ones you like, as well as the other examples that have been posted here all are great because there isn't too much going on. Just simple and to the point.
