Taking the leap for first Custom CPC Set. Feedback appreciated! (1 Viewer)

sheikh617

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Gong to be making my first CPC custom set. I love the Chinese Zodiac. I think it's cool by itself and when it gets tied into the whole gambling/casino scene it gains this sexy edge. So alas, I have decided to make a custom set themed around some of my favorite Chinese Zodiac animals. Each I tried to have each chip color/ edge combo tie into the animal in some way and the only one that this is not true for is the dog frac I'd say. The inlay work still needs be done by someone competent who is not me lol. I've made a couple very elementary mock designs just to get my ideas on paper for a designer to see and work with vs my words. Let me know what you think!

The Zodiac Card Room

As a quick FYI the brown chip will never be in stacks so there won't be any dirty stack issues with the orange tiger chip. I also had to made a concession on some of the edge spot choices because some of them get gnarly in price lol.
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First off, congrats on the leap! Very exciting.

I like the theme idea, but would caution you about making the chips individual works of animal representation Art, without some coordination between them. It’s very hard to do... (check out Pertmikes Motswari set, his is the only set that comes to mind that has pulled it off ..but I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking about).

Many set designs start off with a theme, and design inspiration.... the creators attempt to make each chip a work of art, perfect to their tastes... when attempting to make the individual chips represent something, like a animal, it becomes even more of a challenge to keep them coordinated with each other, with spots and colors that work well together... Often in design, you change a chip around to better work with the other chips, and the individual chip design might suffer... and vs versa.

This reminds me of our local parade of homes, where builders/designers showcase their new homes. These houses are often filled with amazing individual rooms, with very little forethought of how they look and flow as a whole... they’re individual works of art, but many of these homes look choppy and don’t function very well....

Just keep this challenge in mind when designing your set.

Also, Most importantly is to get CPC color samples, as the online colors look vastly different than those in real life. It’s a very common issue to have somone with a “final” mock up, only to receive color samples and discover the colors chosen look garish next to each other...

Best of luck, and thanks for sharing your journey with us
 
Also, Most importantly is to get CPC color samples, as the online colors look vastly different than those in real life. It’s a very common issue to have somone with a “final” mock up, only to receive color samples and discover the colors chosen look garish next to each other...

100% FACT
 
First off, congrats on the leap! Very exciting.

I like the theme idea, but would caution you about making the chips individual works of animal representation Art, without some coordination between them. It’s very hard to do... (check out Pertmikes batswana set, his is the only set that comes to mind that has pulled it off ..but I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking about).

Many set designs start off with a theme, and design inspiration.... the creators attempt to make each chip a work of art, perfect to our tastes... when attempting to make the individual chips represent something, like a animal, it becomes more of a challenge to keep them coordinated with each other... spots and colors that work well together... the challenge is to get awesome looking chips that coordinate well.. Often in design, you change a chip around to better work with the other chips, and the individual chip design might suffer... and vs versa.

This reminds me of our local parade of homes, where pricey builders/designers showcase their new homes. These often feel like houses filled with amazing individual rooms, with very little forethought of how they look and flow from room to room... they’re works of art, but I have found few of these homes that don’t look choppy and Poorly functioning.

Just keep this challenge in mind when designing your set.

Also, Most importantly is to get CPC color samples, as the online colors look vastly different than those in real life. It’s a very common issue to have somone with a “final” mock up, only to receive color samples and discover the colors chosen look garish next to each other...

Best of luck, and thanks for sharing your journey with us
Whew, so much goes into it.... almost daunting lol
 
It is a big expense. You need to get it right.

Image result for no ragrets
I agree wholeheartedly. This is a mammoth sized purchase I've scrapped so many damn designs already lol. I know everyone on this forum goes through the same.
 
Did some designing tonight when I got home. Definitely improving little by little lol. It’s looking pretty solid.

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Cool idea, I look forward to seeing where you go with it.

I was working on a leopard for mine (similar to a tiger).

Your tiger is begging to have a DG tiger or arc yellow base. Its a perfect excuse to use two of the best cpc colours
Screenshot_20190703_125444.jpg

Screenshot_20190703_125655.jpg


The animal thing is tough to do, since you are a bit limited on the colour palette, but I think with the options you've picked it will work.

Definitely get working on the inlay, before you get too caught up on the spot colours, especially since your chips are going to be based on the animals depicted on each inlay.

Here's the rest of my set for inspiration, since they are animal based too.

Screenshot_20190523_183947.jpg
 
Cool idea, I look forward to seeing where you go with it.

I was working on a leopard for mine (similar to a tiger).

Your tiger is begging to have a DG tiger or arc yellow base. Its a perfect excuse to use two of the best cpc colours
View attachment 306373
View attachment 306375

The animal thing is tough to do, since you are a bit limited on the colour palette, but I think with the options you've picked it will work.

Definitely get working on the inlay, before you get too caught up on the spot colours, especially since your chips are going to be based on the animals depicted on each inlay.

Here's the rest of my set for inspiration, since they are animal based too.

View attachment 306376
For starters, your set is sexy and I love it. I'll revisit the tiger with your suggestions and see what they look like. I love the ideas. Who did your inlay? Its gorgeous. I'm a novice so I'm doing my best until I hear back from some of the people I've contacted on the forum. I figure it a good excuse for me to actually get some real use out of my iPad Pro which collects dust lol.
 
Take your time. Don’t rush anything. I know your basic inlay is just ideas, but it has a lot going on with it. Try to simplify it to the basics of what you really want to show.

As mentioned, it can be very difficult to do what you want, but it can be done successfully. Making sure the set works as a whole is much more important than individual chips.

I did a themed set with each chip and inlay representing a season and it is pretty well regarded set I think.

592DE938-B6E3-4E1C-96EE-5D7930315085.jpeg
 
Thank you kindly. I will also echo the same comments. I didn't listen, because I had a bunch of sample sets and had owned cpcs before. The $5 came out not quite as id hoped and I did a secondary $5 as you can see from the photo above to rectify the mistake.

@p5woody did mine and he is the man. He's a bit busy right now as I understand it, but he's worth the wait.

Its a good idea to play around yourself in the interim to get a clearer idea of what you want the inlay to look like, but definitely get a designer to do the final design for you.

And @Rhodeman77 set above was one of the big inspirations for mine and is the reason I went with p5woody for the design.

Inlay and chip coordination ftw lol
 
Take your time. Don’t rush anything. I know your basic inlay is just ideas, but it has a lot going on with it. Try to simplify it to the basics of what you really want to show.

As mentioned, it can be very difficult to do what you want, but it can be done successfully. Making sure the set works as a whole is much more important than individual chips.

I did a themed set with each chip and inlay representing a season and it is pretty well regarded set I think.

View attachment 306378
Oh yeah I've enjoyed numerous photos of your set and I think its very well put together. The second inlay I did in post 8 is much less busy than in the OP and I think its actually very legible but it isnt anywhere neaaaaaar being done lol. This process is honestly fun and it'll keep me busy in a good way for the next couple months.
 
Thank you kindly. I will also echo the same comments. I didn't listen, because I had a bunch of sample sets and had owned cpcs before. The $5 came out not quite as id hoped and I did a secondary $5 as you can see from the photo above to rectify the mistake.

@p5woody did mine and he is the man. He's a bit busy right now as I understand it, but he's worth the wait.

Its a good idea to play around yourself in the interim to get a clearer idea of what you want the inlay to look like, but definitely get a designer to do the final design for you.

And @Rhodeman77 set above was one of the big inspirations for mine and is the reason I went with p5woody for the design.

Inlay and chip coordination ftw lol
Yup I reached out to Woody and he has a cruise coming up alongside a few other obligations so worst case he'll work with me as he frees up over the month. There's still a lot of time before this set goes into production so everything is in its infancy. The other idea I had was a a theme called The Toy Box Poker Room. My daughter loves Toy Story so it was going to be chips that were comprised around different characters from Toy Story leveraging their colors. That idea, in my opinion, would lead to some cool color choices.
 
My set has a theme, but it’s an overall theme, which somewhat dictated the base colors, but Left me free to pick amazing spots and colors. Everyone has something that inspired their sets. Don’t let me talk you out of an animal theme, just don’t forget about set coordination. :)

I echo the p5woody route... he’s the man! He did mine as well..

8072920D-FD7A-447A-AAD7-292DDE0ED835.jpeg


Ps. My theme was the fat tire neon sign..., so I just had bright colors as my guide...

4C40347D-CA66-4EFC-B877-77D343D5CE43.jpeg


F36A6327-8ED3-4C7D-9195-8C297C03E764.jpeg
 
Did some designing tonight when I got home. Definitely improving little by little lol. It’s looking pretty solid.

View attachment 306370
Your wording/artwork appears to be too close to the edge... have a look at CPC's guidelines/template for inlays (links are near the bottom of the Chip Design Tool) as I suspect you'll need to make some changes.
 
Your wording/artwork appears to be too close to the edge... have a look at CPC's guidelines/template for inlays (links are near the bottom of the Chip Design Tool) as I suspect you'll need to make some changes.
I did use the template and then I had just cropped the inlay onto the chip to get an idea of what it would look like.

306455
 
My set has a theme, but it’s an overall theme, which somewhat dictated the base colors, but Left me free to pick amazing spots and colors. Everyone has something that inspired their sets. Don’t let me talk you out of an animal theme, just don’t forget about set coordination. :)

I echo the p5woody route... he’s the man! He did mine as well..

View attachment 306380

Ps. My theme was the fat tire neon sign..., so I just had bright colors as my guide...

View attachment 306382

View attachment 306383
The shaped inlays are killer. I've followed your blog as well. Love the chips!
 
I did use the template and then I had just cropped the inlay onto the chip to get an idea of what it would look like.

View attachment 306455

Great theme and I really like where the inlay is heading. One potential recommendation - go with just the zodiac symbol, centered in the design, on one side of the chip, and the denomination centered on the other side of the chip. I think that will simplify / clean up the design a bit, and give you a little more room to move the text running around the perimeter in a bit so there's some more space between the edge of the inlay. While you may be within the template, you typically don't want any element of the design *right* at or touching the edge. There's a very small tolerance in how the inlays are printed/cut, so moving it away from the edge prevents anything from getting snipped in production.
 
Do u have a CPC sample set? Your colors look great on the monitor...but the real clay comes out different, especially for your tiger chip. Blue base for the dragon is also darker than you might expect. @Trihonda has the same scheme but used different colors for his fat tire 1s and they came out fantastic, I’d consider matching the clay he used.

And I’ve never been a fan of DG Saturn... DG yellow might be a better rabbit spot.
43080734-0020-4269-87F2-BE869C4CF32C.jpeg
 
Great theme and I really like where the inlay is heading. One potential recommendation - go with just the zodiac symbol, centered in the design, on one side of the chip, and the denomination centered on the other side of the chip. I think that will simplify / clean up the design a bit, and give you a little more room to move the text running around the perimeter in a bit so there's some more space between the edge of the inlay. While you may be within the template, you typically don't want any element of the design *right* at or touching the edge. There's a very small tolerance in how the inlays are printed/cut, so moving it away from the edge prevents anything from getting snipped in production.
Thanks! I'll definitely do a run with the zodiac on one side and compare. That was my original design and it it looked good and so I did the second in post 8 to see what it would look like with the mirror image effect. It fills the space well but does push the chip edge limits.
 
Do u have a CPC sample set? Your colors look great on the monitor...but the real clay comes out different, especially for your tiger chip. Blue base for the dragon is also darker than you might expect. @Trihonda has the same scheme but used different colors for his fat tire 1s and they came out fantastic, I’d consider matching the clay he used.

And I’ve never been a fan of DG Saturn... DG yellow might be a better rabbit spot.
View attachment 306456
I dont have a full sample sadly. I might see if someone has a loaner that I can pay shipping on both ways to borrow while I design the chips!
 
I dont have a full sample sadly. I might see if someone has a loaner that I can pay shipping on both ways to borrow while I design the chips!

Color samples - and current color samples - are absolutely vital for designing a custom set. You're going to be dropping $1k+ on a set of customs, your best investment in that set will be the $49.50 color sample. If you try to rent/borrow one from another member, make sure it's a set that's been purchased in the last couple of years, as the colors (especially the DGs) have changed over the years.
 
Color samples - and current color samples - are absolutely vital for designing a custom set. You're going to be dropping $1k+ on a set of customs, your best investment in that set will be the $49.50 color sample. If you try to rent/borrow one from another member, make sure it's a set that's been purchased in the last couple of years, as the colors (especially the DGs) have changed over the years.
Welp, there goes 50 bucks. Good call though I just placed an order.
 
I did use the template and then I had just cropped the inlay onto the chip to get an idea of what it would look like.

View attachment 306455
Okay good however you need to crop it in a way that will better represent how it appears in the Chip Design Tool. In reality, your text will not be that close to the edge.
 
Welp, there goes 50 bucks. Good call though I just placed an order.

It'll be the one of the best $50 you ever spent because it'll save you hundreds/thousands down the road when you're re-ordering chips that didn't look the way you imagined from the chip designer...

Side note - the sample will likely be shipped with the chips in the order they appear on CPC's main color page: http://www.pokerchipsonline.com/pokerchips/realclay/colorchart.htm

You'll be tempted to rip open the package and start pouring through the colors, but take the time to mark each chip while they're still in order. Some colors are pretty close (reds/oranges), once you mix them up it'll be tough to tell which is which.
 
Ooh nice I love following along with CPC design threads. :tup:

I like the theme and I think you have a great start with the colors. My small suggestion right now would be to use the special font you have for just the room name and the switch up the other text to some other font(s). It adds a little more importance to the name which is the most important part.

And congrats on making the decision to go custom. It’s a fun ride for sure.
 
Okay good however you need to crop it in a way that will better represent how it appears in the Chip Design Tool. In reality, your text will not be that close to the edge.
Gotcha, how much further out does it not to be? Should some of the white edge be showing within the recess? I had cropped it to fill the recess entirely.
 
It'll be the one of the best $50 you ever spent because it'll save you hundreds/thousands down the road when you're re-ordering chips that didn't look the way you imagined from the chip designer...

Side note - the sample will likely be shipped with the chips in the order they appear on CPC's main color page: http://www.pokerchipsonline.com/pokerchips/realclay/colorchart.htm

You'll be tempted to rip open the package and start pouring through the colors, but take the time to mark each chip while they're still in order. Some colors are pretty close (reds/oranges), once you mix them up it'll be tough to tell which is which.
Whoa great advice thank you. You think it's a little much to just take a sharpie and label them?
 
Ooh nice I love following along with CPC design threads. :tup:

I like the theme and I think you have a great start with the colors. My small suggestion right now would be to use the special font you have for just the room name and the switch up the other text to some other font(s). It adds a little more importance to the name which is the most important part.

And congrats on making the decision to go custom. It’s a fun ride for sure.
I was honestly thinking the same. I made the "Card Room" text different from "The Zodiac". So I'll switch up the "Year of the Gambler" text with the same as "Card Room" font to see how it looks.
 

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