Minimalist Tina no mold design drafts (3 Viewers)

[Jabinator]

Crystal Tavern makes me think of this "gem":

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

could not get the gradient pattern thing going
could not for the life of me get a way to fill the space that i was happy with

how about this tho
im enjoying pic 1 for the primary and 7 for the secondary , even though they're slightly different designs.

the tri moons (tri tris?) have been enlarged inwards to fill up the white space a bit more vs the previous designs

 

[Jabinator]

Here's my take: If you are going with minimalist design, I think you need to be super aware of the proportions of the few elements you have. In my opinion the tri-moons and "label" should have the same width, since they originate from the same geometry. Either same width or have a certain fraction of the width as the distance between the trimoon and the label. Usually the rule of thirds works quite well with spacing of uneven sized elements. Does this make sense at all?

I also think you should keep the line around the label in one color - it makes the chip seem more calm.

 

[headsmell]

Does it need to be white for any reason? you still have lots of color options with your current pallet:

 

[Lopii9]

could not get the gradient pattern thing going
could not for the life of me get a way to fill the space that i was happy with

how about this tho
im enjoying pic 1 for the primary and 7 for the secondary , even though they're slightly different designs.

the tri moons (tri tris?) have been enlarged inwards to fill up the white space a bit more vs the previous designs

I really like this one!

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

Those colours are available but for maximising contrast white seems to be the most contrasting.

I think i'm gonna change the X to a black 100 and change the 43mm white chip to a purple X and see if i can come up with anything that i like that fits the theme better

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

as much as i like the white chip design, i was bugged by the chip being in a very different style to the rest, plus having 2 wildcard chips when i only need one.

i thought i'd design a black chip (never thought i would bother) but i found something i really liked. the old purple chip is now the new 43mm
the face of the 3 spot 100 fits the set well, but side view doesn't compare to the out of control colours of the 6 spot one on the side (i love it so much).
the face of the 6 spot 100 just looks a bit out of control and doesn't fit the set.

i think im gonna order 75 of the 3 spot, and 25 of the 6 spot just to oogle lol

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

Does it need to be white for any reason? you still have lots of color options with your current pallet:View attachment 1529576

yeah it didnt have to be white, but with a lot of colours there's some contrast but not a lot of contrast with the rest of the set. thats why i was leaning away from doing other bright colours, unless it was all white. i guess it's also a matter of finding edge spot colours that i like too. i'll admit the light blue does look pretty good.

EDIT: didn't realise i already replied lol

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

Chips have been ordered!

 

[headsmell]

Chips have been ordered!

nice, through Alibaba?

 

[Cratty]

One thing to be aware, wish I noted before order, is edge spot alignment is usually never perfect (and in most cases with Tina, can be imperfect on every chip given how they handle edge art - may be fine on some areas but get progressively worse around the chip).

One of the reasons I do "faux" or rough clay spots these days, because it hides any imperfections more.

Just something to likely mentally prepare yourself for, but it can be a real bugger if you're looking for perfection to your original intent.

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

all good, i wasn't expecting perfection. will just put the nice chip on top of the barrel for the pr0n lol

 

[Taghkanic]

Really interested to see the final product.

 

[headsmell]

all good, i wasn't expecting perfection. will just put the nice chip on top of the barrel for the pr0n lol

I got 650 chips and I'd say maybe 50 or so have side alignment issues, but nothing I would fuss about or not play with. Especially if an off one is mixed in with normally ones. I had text and small shapes on my sides, your simple shapes should be fine for the sides.
In fact I liked my so much, I ordered 200 more to fully expand my set
Overall I'm still super impressed with the print quality, especially colors. I've had ceramics printed through another vendor and they where dull and washout.

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

OMG THE CHIPS HAVE BEEN MADE! I AM SO EXCITED! THEY SHIP TOMORROW

The edge alignment is way better than i expected (although they probably cherry picked the best ones)

The 100 ended up looking a lot brighter than i thought, so i'm gonna have to darken the edges with a permanent black marker lol

btw these are on the "smooth mold" not the "textured no mold"

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

After many months of learning how to design fiddling with ideas, my hard work has paid off!

Thanks to everyone who gave me some feedback, it all helped make the design what it is today!

I'm super happy with how these turned out! The magentas and the oranges really pop, and the print quality is overall excellent.
The edge alignment is waay above expectation - pretty damn good on 97% of chips, and slightly off on a few.
It's really sick having a 43mm denom as the special chip too.
The smooth mold even has a (just barely) noticeably heavier weight than the cards mold chips so they're the perfect weight.

Without further ado, it's pr0n tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

(Oh and the images aren't edited how you think. I had to tone *down* the brightness taking these pics in natural light from the window. Those magentas really do pop)

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

Aaaand it's nitpick time.

The only chip i made without a sample is the 100, as i decided to add an extra denom after making the first sample. So naturally, I didn't have enough contrast between the lighter sides of the faces (which you can see in the first image from the prev post). This doesn't bother me tooo much though as the accents draw the attention away from it.
The hue was also supposed to be ever so slightly green but it doesn't really show.

There is definitely going to be dirty stack issues between the ones and 100s is the 100 printed way lighter than I had expected. Going to try drawing around the edge with a permanent black marker or something to make the base colour darker LOL. We aren't even going to use the 100s much anyway.

The 43 millimetre chips are also slightly thicker than the 39 mm. you can see in the pic here. This shouldn't be too much of an issue as we usually won't even use the 43s, and if we do, it will be as a nit button or something. It does mean you can only fit 49 in a normal case though (in the pic theres 40 of the 39mm and 39 of the 43mm, 2nd pic shows 20 vs 20)

Will see if there are more dirty stack issues in my next game on saturday evening.

These are all nitpicks though. Other than the dirty stacks, I'm not too bothered, and am just happy to have a nice set of non abs chips with some nice colours (that I designed ).

Then to see if someone will buy my set off me so I can order another one with minor corrections LOL

 

[headsmell]

Those are cool, I like the different shades of color on the edges.

Interesting about the 43mm being thicker. Mine are all 43mm so I didn't notice. I'm about to buy a cheep Lykus case from amazon and build my custom case to hold everything, you can do something similar to accommodate the different sizes.

Yeah its a bit unfortunate about the 1s and 100s being so close, but like you said you can use the 43mm chip if you need a 100 or if your playing a tourney you can color up the ones before the 100s come into play. or just buy another rack of 100 in a different color (the yellow test above would work nice)

 

[warma]

The great news is, it wouldn’t be impossible or super expensive to order a replacement 100 if you feel the need.

 

[QuietMaple]

Great set! They look awesome. What is the actual alibaba listing and/or seller that makes the "Tina" chips? When I search Tina poker chips on Alibaba I get a lot of different results.

 

[headsmell]

Great set! They look awesome. What is the actual alibaba listing and/or seller that makes the "Tina" chips? When I search Tina poker chips on Alibaba I get a lot of different results.

Shenzhen City Chenglin Industrial Co., Ltd.

 

[Lopii9]

Congrats man! they came out great!

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

Friday is pr0n day

 

[glynn]

I'm really glad that you moved forward with this despite the first few posts. It is exactly because of the endless possibilities that the minimalist space has gone unexplored. People see a blank canvas and want to take advantage of it, which is totally reasonable, but it means that innovation tends to happen toward the maximalist side of the spectrum. I always come back to Exploding Cubes for inspiration: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/media/1-edges.16048/

These came out great. The 100 denomination is the star of the show. Please let us know about the spinner rate and stackability. I love the look of no-molds, and more data points are good.

 

[pannichine]

I'm really new here and wonder if you can help me clarify on this subject. So basically, if I'm understanding this right, you went straight to an Alibaba manufacturer to custom make a single set of chips for you? Did you make the artwork first? What other hurdles come with this? And finally, is this a viable option to order new chips? Thanks for any insight possible. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dylanthepiguy2]

I'm really new here and wonder if you can help me clarify on this subject. So basically, if I'm understanding this right, you went straight to an Alibaba manufacturer to custom make a single set of chips for you? Did you make the artwork first? What other hurdles come with this? And finally, is this a viable option to order new chips? Thanks for any insight possible. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to PCF @pannichine !

Yeah i designed everything myself from scratch using Inkscape, moved to Adobe Illustrator, then went to Alibaba (Tina) to get them to make a set for me. Since you're in the US, you should just go through @justincarothers group buys as you'll save probably 90USD on shipping versus getting your own personal set shipped.
Hurdles include:
* I should have used Adobe Illustrator from the start - so I can use CMYK mode to make sure I don't use colours that display on screen fine but cannot be printed. Very easy to get attached to a design that's not printable then have to not majorly tweak it.
* Even using illustrator, colours don't print exactly the same as they show on screen. Since i talked through alibaba directly, i could pay them to make a sample for me and so i could tweak some colour issues (until i yolo'd the 100 chip lol). Photos still are not perfect for seeing how a colour turns out as the lighting *heavily* affects how they show. i should paid them to ship the sample to me (if they do that). IIRC Justin doesnt forward samples to Alibaba.
* also Tina (actually her associate Lyman) told me gradient and very light (especially yellowy) colours dont print well as they can produce a black dotty pattern.
* Coming up with designs are hard. This was the hardest part for me as i had no design xp before
* Aligning the edge strip and face in the design is a little tricky but can be solved by making some angular guides on the face, then doing a little arithmetic to figure out the sizing of the edge spots on the strip.
* If you want edge alignment, the design has to be easily alignable -it should be easy for Tina to align the face and the side visually, bearing in mind that the colour on the printed chip. really complex patterns with lots of almost-the-same colours can make it hard for tina to align (my chips have lots of similar colours but the edge spots are designed to be alignable)
* Talking to the AliBaba manufacturer has a little bit of a language barrier, so comms aren't 100% clear. Not a problem if you go through justin though

many people go through justin to get chips, as you'll see in his group buy threads. it is by far the cheapest way to get the design you want and for some excellent colour quality (barring some accuracy) and for excellent quality chips

oh and always always get samples! buy a mixed barrel of 39 and 43mm tinas to see what they feel and sound like in person, (and to see what colours print well (bold magenta prints super bold). lots of people love the hybrid web and greek molds, but i personally dont like them so i went with no molds but im a rarity on this forum. (if you go through tina directly they'll allow you to use the "smooth mold" instead of the "textured no mold" if you like that. cant remember if justin has that option)

if you start designing, dm me and im happy to give you some feedback on the practicality side of things!

happy chipping!

 

[darrnit]

I love these! So unique and I could see these or chips inspired by these being very popular

 

[Colquhoun]

Hurdles include:
* I should have used Adobe Illustrator from the start - so I can use CMYK mode to make sure I don't use colours that display on screen fine but cannot be printed. Very easy to get attached to a design that's not printable then have to not majorly tweak it.
* Even using illustrator, colours don't print exactly the same as they show on screen. Since i talked through alibaba directly, i could pay them to make a sample for me and so i could tweak some colour issues (until i yolo'd the 100 chip lol). Photos still are not perfect for seeing how a colour turns out as the lighting *heavily* affects how they show. i should paid them to ship the sample to me (if they do that). IIRC Justin doesnt forward samples to Alibaba.
* also Tina (actually her associate Lyman) told me gradient and very light (especially yellowy) colours dont print well as they can produce a black dotty pattern.
* Coming up with designs are hard. This was the hardest part for me as i had no design xp before

I've been a print designer my whole career (even before "desktop publishing") and getting CMYK colors to match anything in a printed sample is definitely a process, with lots of different variables from inks, to printing, to the type of substrate. Not unique to poker chip printing.
It certainly doesn't make it easier when your vendor is halfway around the world.

 

[pannichine]

many people go through justin to get chips, as you'll see in his group buy threads. it is by far the cheapest way to get the design you want and for some excellent colour quality (barring some accuracy) and for excellent quality chips

What makes Justins so much cheaper? According to the Tina link someone sent previously of an Alibaba manufacturer (and other similar listings), chips seem to be cheaper than those from Justin. I've already looked into his group buys and was intrigued. However, I wasn't ready for all the fees and really long process times. Are quotes/time frames from the manufacturer inaccurate?

lots of people love the hybrid web and greek molds, but i personally dont like them so i went with no molds but im a rarity on this forum. (if you go through tina directly they'll allow you to use the "smooth mold" instead of the "textured no mold" if you like that. cant remember if justin has that option)

If you don't mind explaining, what is the difference between "smooth mold" and "textured no mold"? I like the look of your chips and wonder how they compare, feel/quality-wise, to similar ones from Justin.

Sorry for asking a million questions. I'm just trying to learn more before my purchase.

 

[Colquhoun]

If you don't mind explaining, what is the difference between "smooth mold" and "textured no mold"? I like the look of your chips and wonder how they compare, feel/quality-wise, to similar ones from Justin.

Stay away from Tina’s smooth no-mold chips. While they are indeed smooth to the touch (like the texture of printer/copy paper) they are slippery when stacked, even when brand new…and only get slipperier with wear.
The textured no-molds have a crosshatch texture that is much more grippy when stacked.