Poker Chip Design Help Needed (2 Viewers)

[Burke]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and really love this place - I didn't know that people were so into poker chips! I would really like to start designing a poker chip to give to my dad as a future (?distant) father's day present. I don't have any clue when it comes to graphic design and I have seen some amazing results come out of other threads like this....

My father taught me how to play poker and continued to play in cash games with me and my friends throughout middle/high school and college. Even though his name is Rich, he eventually picked up the nickname "Rico" and that pretty much stuck for my friend group. I would like to design a black chip inlay for a cash set with denominations that say either "Rico's", "Rico's Room","Rico's Card Room", or "Rico's Poker Room." Additionally he is a stage electrician for large touring acts, so I think it would be cool if the "O" in Rico was a spotlight that cast down onto the denomination or something like that. I would also want "Virginia Beach" to be included on there as well. I don't have any real suggestions other than that though.

I don't have all the money in the world to spend right now as I'm still in graduate school, so I was originally planning on just designing an inlay to then be used with the Majestic chips...after seeing some amazing products though I may just wait a (?considerable) period of time until I could design a custom CPC set. Any advice on which of the two options I should pursue?

This site is awesome though. My fiance can't believe how much time I have spent on here in the past few days!

 

[courage]

lol Burke. You're doomed. Welcome to PCF.

The standard advice is get samples, and that definitely will feed the addiction and also help you determine what you like. CPC is a pricey option, but great chips. Another option worth looking at is Game On ceramics (and other ceramic vendors here), at about 60c/each plus design fees. Johnny5 (J5) is the design king and does great work, p5woody also putting out good stuff these days. The process takes a while so be patient, read up, and take your time. Love the ideas for the inlay.

 

[stocky]

I was going to say exactly what courage did so instead I'll just add that J5 is great but extremely busy. P5woody I've worked with before and IMO is also great, he has done some awesome designs recently. Also quicksilver is producing some great work. Can't go wrong with either of them.

If you can afford the CPC IMO are the Cadillac of custom chips. But there is also nothing wrong with labeling Majestics. From all accounts they are a great chip for the price.

Also Ricos Room is the way to go. Has a very nice ring to it.

 

[chipjoker]

Welcome to PCF..
You have all the advice you need right now with the two above comments....
Samples
and ask for design help from J5, P5woody, and also Pokerchipsdegin.

 

[Burke]

Thanks courage, stocky, and chipjoker!

I ordered sample sets of Majestics and CPC ceramics. Most of my time spent playing at home was using the Europa cruises set - after looking into the origin of that set with the help of this forum I believe it is an ASM with a Tri-club mold - so I am familiar with the feel of that style. I also reached out to Johnny5 about work on an inlay design.

I appreciate your advice! I foresee this becoming a rather expensive, time-consuming hobby...love it.

 

[ohio3302016]

I've worked with two designers here. @p5woody and @Quicksilver-75

p5woody - He knocked out a simple design for me in no time at all. Very easy to work with.

Quicksilver - He designed a much more detailed, intricate set for me that took A LOT of emails back and forth. He's excellent and very responsive. He also added great input to the final design.

 

[Burke]

I have perused the forum and have seen great work by every artist mentioned. Is there a thread dedicated to the designs by each artist?

 

[Burke]

So I got my sample sets of Majestics and ceramics in the mail the other day. Even though the ceramics are the most cost-friendly option they are out for this project because I don't think my Dad like ceramics. I loved the color and feel of the Majestics and I decided that they were the chip that I was gonna choose.....then I picked up a rack of ASM Europa chips. I thought, "Damn, these feel better and they sound waaaaayyyyyy better than the CCs." So I have a decision to make I suppose.

In the meantime I am in absolutely no rush on getting this set, so I started playing around with the Poker Chip Design tool. This is the first set I designed. I stuck with a simple chip progression for now but will inevitably change this 1,000,000 times I am sure (even if I decide against ordering a CPC set).

 

[Steverino]

I kinda like those chips. You're off to a great start. Welcome to PCF.

 

[Quicksilver-75]

Whoa! Look at all those 18's! David is gonna love your order.

 

[Burke]

Not an artist by any means, but while I'm waiting I figured that I would design an inlay myself so I would have a better idea of the overall product. I had trouble exporting my set in the chip editor - so I just posted pics of each chip below. Will be .25, .50, 1, 5, 25, 100.

I personally think the 25 cent and 50 cent (first 2) look the best. The 1 and 5 have something small missing I think. I think some chips would look a lot better if the spotlight was white rather than yellow, but others definitely not. Can you guys give me some feedback?

 

[ssanel54]

Not an artist by any means, but while I'm waiting I figured that I would design an inlay myself so I would have a better idea of the overall product. I had trouble exporting my set in the chip editor - so I just posted pics of each chip below. Will be .25, .50, 1, 5, 25, 100.

I personally think the 25 cent and 50 cent (first 2) look the best. The 1 and 5 have something small missing I think. I think some chips would look a lot better if the spotlight was white rather than yellow, but others definitely not. Can you guys give me some feedback?

View attachment 40179 View attachment 40180 View attachment 40181 View attachment 40182 View attachment 40186 View attachment 40187

My Advice is to not do both a .25 AND a .50. Go with either all .25s or .50s depending on stakes.

design your workhorse chip first (usually 1 or 5 depending on stakes) and work around those colors.

I do love the color combo on your quarter

 

[Burke]

Thanks for the advice @ssanel54. I personally agree that using two fracs is not conducive to the best flowing game. When I showed him some .25, 1, 5, 25, and 100 majestics last week that I liked (under the guise that I was getting a set for myself), he asked me about the .50 chip. We had a brief argument over the necessity of a .50, but he is pretty stubborn...that is why there is a .25 and .50.

Plus with an extra chip there are more color combo possibilities

 

[ssanel54]

Thanks for the advice @ssanel54. I personally agree that using two fracs is not conducive to the best flowing game. When I showed him some .25, 1, 5, 25, and 100 majestics last week that I liked (under the guise that I was getting a set for myself), he asked me about the .50 chip. We had a brief argument over the necessity of a .50, but he is pretty stubborn...that is why there is a .25 and .50.

Plus with an extra chip there are more color combo possibilities

Your call obviously. If you can't teach an old dog new tricks... From a cost perspective though, these sets can add up pretty quickly, so before sacrificing quantity of the chips you will need in play, you may want to reconsider cutting some of the redundancy.

 

[Burke]

Ok, I made some edits. Other than the suboptimal two possible fraction chips do you guys have any suggestions about the colors and spots?

I also included this version. Similar colors, but I may like it more:

 

[courage]

@Burke - you're dangerously close to falling down the rabbit hole!

I like what you have going in these but agree re: ditching the 50c chip. It's redundant and you won't use both fracs. Your dad will applaud your fiscal responsibility.

Also, my advice is to try to make your workhorse chips level 4 or below. You're going to want a lot of them, especially when you add-on lol, and this keeps costs down on what is otherwise an expensive enough project.

A personal pref is to not use close family spot colors on a few chips randomly (lots of yellow). Or if you like that look, go for shades of yellow-ish on each chip, that's what I've tried here.

A color sample set from CPC will guide you if you fall down the rabbit hole, but retro blue > dark blue for almost everything, esp. spot color. Dark green is very dark. I love it and have a $25 chip in a set but I'd use a charcoal $100 if that's the plan so you have contrast of chips in a pot.

Here's 25c, 1, 5, 25, 100 idea:

 

[courage]

In my previous version I'd be mildly concerned about confusing the quarter and $5 since they'll be in lots of pots. Here's a version where each chip is more distinctive and not having "yellow" travel across the set.

 

[Burke]

@courage - thanks for the advice! First, I must admit that deciding on this project is beyond the point of fiscal responsibility already...but that is OK. To be honest, a hundo will never see the felt so I will just eliminate that one at this time. The workhorse chip would be the $1 no matter what. I get what you are saying about the color running through the set, and I am not opposed to it at all, but I can't decide which look I like better. I like the yellow spot color because it gives a lot of contrast options and also I think the inlay will have a form of yellow-white from the spotlight.

Here is non-running colors with 2 fractions. Three of the chips have yellowish colors, but I thought that they all look pretty distinct from chip to chip?

Then I looked at a set with yellows in all of the chips:

Then I decided to look at chip sets that eliminate the 50 cent frac. First with a white $1, then a blue $1, and then a blue with yellow spots (yellow in all of set):

I don't know if I like 3TA316 better or not, but I figured I should probably get the colors in order first. Are any of these versions better than before or not really? I think I like the livelier colors the best. Oh and a CPC color set came in yesterday evening

 

[courage]

A bright colors guy, eh? I like much of what you've got going. Hopefully constructive feedback: most of the fracs are too low contrast and I think you may not be pleased with how they turn out. It's also a pretty complex spot so might make it hard for the next denoms to compete. And as much as I love 6D18 I'd probably avoid it for the $5 depending on how many racks you want (most people get too few $5's, myself included, and have to add-on later). And regarding the $100, I'd get one made anyway lol. Even if it's just 20 chips in the rack with 80 x $25 you get to have another design in the set.

A stab at bright colors loosely based on your latest:

 

[Burke]

I love the frac and the $5! Thank you for all the input, but I'm probably gonna go with something like this:

I really do appreciate the advice and the time spent helping me (@courage) but this is why I will probably end up going with this (or something similar):

1) This will be a small set for low limit games, .25/.50, mostly . The .50 chip would get a lot of use actually so I figured why not include that in the set rather than a $100.
2) He will never add on to this set, so I figured why not go with 6D18 because I think it will look great lol. I was also looking for good ways to avoid the extra charge for the bright white, but I think it looks fantastic especially with the rest of the set.
3) I'm OK with 3/5 of the chips having yellow shades. It doesn't tilt me (and I don't think it will for him either).
4) I guess I misrepresented myself in my previous post...I like contrast in general, but I think those 2 yellows work well for the frac. I think the overall contrast in a pot will be good too (hopefully!)

 

[Burke]

Updated a bit to bump up contrast on the 25 cent, improved the 50 cent imo, made the $5 a little less yellowy, added in a $100 cuz fun, and made the $25 lighter.

 

[AK Chip]

Great looking set! Love the green chip.

 

[Quicksilver-75]

@Burke - you're dangerously close to falling down the rabbit hole!

I like what you have going in these but agree re: ditching the 50c chip. It's redundant and you won't use both fracs. Your dad will applaud your fiscal responsibility.

Also, my advice is to try to make your workhorse chips level 4 or below. You're going to want a lot of them, especially when you add-on lol, and this keeps costs down on what is otherwise an expensive enough project.

A personal pref is to not use close family spot colors on a few chips randomly (lots of yellow). Or if you like that look, go for shades of yellow-ish on each chip, that's what I've tried here.

A color sample set from CPC will guide you if you fall down the rabbit hole, but retro blue > dark blue for almost everything, esp. spot color. Dark green is very dark. I love it and have a $25 chip in a set but I'd use a charcoal $100 if that's the plan so you have contrast of chips in a pot.

Here's 25c, 1, 5, 25, 100 idea:
View attachment 41058

@courage Fuck me! That $1 is the hottest looking chip I've seen in some time. Kudos. Simple and elegant!

 

[bivey]

Another new design option is @Luvcasinochipsncekid.

 

[Burke]

Love the work @Luvcasinochipsncekid is putting out. Can't wait to see final product for Silent Serpents. I had already contacted J5 and I'm in the queue.

 

[stocky]

Love the work @Luvcasinochipsncekid is putting out. Can't wait to see final product for Silent Serpents. I had already contacted J5 and I'm in the queue.

It's a long ass queue. I've been waiting since January

 

[Burke]

@stocky, Ouch, are you planning to continue with a GOT theme? I have been keeping an eye out for a previous sample set to hit the classifieds - I have been a few hours late on every one that has come up recently.

 

[Luvcasinochipsncekid]

Thanks for all the support guys, Bivey has amazing ideas and has definitely given me a challenge but some new mockups will be on the forum very soon and most importantly he likes them, but love the feedback from everyone

 

[Burke]

My next question is about molds. B-mold is my favorite of CPC's sample set selection. I like it more than MD-50 which seems to be the favorite per PCF members' consensus. The problem I have is that it doesn't quite go amazingly with my theme except it is the initial of our last name. The other option that I have considered is the circle-square mold with oversized inlays - inspired by @Redbelly and his awesome set. What do you guys think? Any other neat suggestions for the inlays?

 

[chipjoker]

Change the name to the BAND ROOM, problem solved..

I love the CSQ mold.