What are you recommendations on Color Theory / Best Practices for poker chips (2 Viewers)

geimerman

geimerman

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In the process of designing two custom sets of CPC chips for both a cash set and tourney set. There are great articles on sizing of the sets and what to do before ordering like samples, but I've yet to find one on color theory beyond the basics of making sure two different chips aren't too close so you don't end up with dirty stacks. Does a detailed guide exist? If not what are you recommendation when it comes to best way to create a set that feels like it was designed together?

For the primary colors on your chips do you try to pick all colors with similar value and saturation?
Do you keep the same edge spots the same design for every chip or vary them?
Do you keep all edge spots with similar color value and saturation?
How similar are you cash and tourney color sets (e.g. are you $25 and T25 chips both primary green with different edge spots and colors? or do you vary them more)
etc...

What do you regret doing or not doing with your custom sets?

Thanks!
 
geimerman said:
Does a detailed guide exist? If not what are you recommendation when it comes to best way to create a set that feels like it was designed together?
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I haven't seen a guide.

The inlay is critical. You'll want the designs to be easily distinguishable, but share some common features.

I like the way @Eloe2000 did it.

Cash: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/casa-mango-cash-cpc-csq.83913/
Tourney: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/casa-mango-tournament-6a14-cpc-csq.86980/

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Simple logo is cash, full inlay color with water is tourney.

geimerman said:
For the primary colors on your chips do you try to pick all colors with similar value and saturation?
Do you keep all edge spots with similar color value and saturation?
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Highly saturated colors are very popular here. They're more distinguishable too. I haven't designed twin sets yet, but I'd probably err on the side of high contrast over distinguishing the two sets. That would leave lightness as your main tool to play around with.
geimerman said:
Do you keep the same edge spots the same design for every chip or vary them?
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Generally cash sets have different spot patterns and tourney sets have the same spot pattern.
geimerman said:
How similar are you cash and tourney color sets (e.g. are you $25 and T25 chips both primary green with different edge spots and colors? or do you vary them more)
etc...
Click to expand...
If you are planning a $0.25 cash set and T25 set, another way to help distinguish them is to have a $20 chip that's not green. But if they are both 25, you can go with a DG green for one and a different green for the other. The different edge spots will also help.
 
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Thanks this is helpful and coincidentally I'm looking at the same square/circle mold from CPC or the Fleur-De-Lys. The tip on the edge spots being same for tourney and different for cash is a good and fun one to implement.

Normally our game is 1-2 NL so I may pick up some fracs just to open the door to other games in the future, but the $25 chip was what I was thinking about since it gets a decent amount of play as rebuys happen and night goes on. My current cash set is $1, $5, $25, $100, interesting option to change the $25 to a $20. Not sure if there are any cons to do this so let me know if you or others have experience there. What @Eloe2000 did with the two different greens is a good option I'll probably do. I want to have my own colors so they are a replica of any casino set, but also want to hold true to the general color standards of a redish chip $5, green $25, black $100, etc... so it's recognizable to anyone playing.

The inlay/color combo on that set you shared is nice!
 
Don’t feel like you have to stick with any rules. These are your personal chips, so do what you want. I, for one, have a cash set with the same spot pattern, as many vintage sets do.

I would encourage you to search away here, look at the chip DB, and look at the best chip set threads to see what excites you and make sure you won’t have buyer’s remorse when you spot the next sexy chip set.
 
While there are clearly standard East Coast and California color schemes, no one is bound by those.

I just completed this unconventional inlay replace set, cash, about 1,300 chips total:

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A lot of my initial choices were dictated by availability.

I wanted spotted THC in mint-to-excellent condition. But it seemed impossible to find 400+ red $5s of that description. When some mint AS $2s (the brown chip) turned up, I ran with that as my $5.

From there, I looked for other chips in a “harvest” palette. The white $1s are fairly standard, but the rest are improvs.

I also wanted to have some sort of variation, if not perfect progression, in the spots; and to have high denoms be larger chips. I had the rack of the HSIs which be and the $100s.

As it developed, certain color families emerged, such as the pinks/magentas/peaches, tans/browns/oranges, greens/aquas. I didn’t want these creating dirty stacks, but also wanted some connection to tie things together.

Hardest to find were the chip which became my $25. Still hoping to find 50 more someday.

So basically I’m saying anything goes… But put some thought into it. Totally random colors may disappoint. Unusual ones can be made to work.
 
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You can do any colors you want. Fu*ked up color choices lead to new players being confused, losing a lot of money and never returning, because the game was "dumb".

...or you can choose standard Vegas or Cali colors. Those palettes have been tried and tested over 50+ years to avoid dirty stacks and to bring uniformity to the "expected" color of a chip.

Now that said, variations exist. Brown is a shade of red (5). Blue is a shade of purple (500). Tan, blue and white are all used as 1s.

Get samples of colors and try not to overlap large spots with a base color of another chip that will be in play at the same time..
 
I might have gone blue instead of purple for the 500 on my sets, but I've only had one person say they have trouble distinguishing them from the 100s.

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As mentioned there are standard Vegas and Cali colors with their variations, but in the end it's really up to you.

One regret is not taking my time with my first 2 custom sets and wasting a few grand.

General custom set recommendations:

- get a color sample set
- look at the colors with different lighting
- get shuffle stacks of the molds you're considering, ideally with inlays (unless you're doing hot stamps)
- avoid dirty stacks as you mentioned
- for cash, your workhorse is important because this is what you'll see most of.
- color contrast progression isn't talked about much, but it can be done (less contrast between base and spot colors on lower denoms, more on higher)

Warning since you mentioned CSQ. My table doesn't have a rail, and there's a hard floor:

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The smaller space between the outermost debossed ring and the edge makes the CSQ more susceptible to flea bites. I like my chips to have character, but it's not for everyone...
 
I would stay close to the standard base colors. Personally I prefer Vegas but Cali is popular too. The inlay and edge spot colors/patterns are what I see as the main creative space to give it a personal flair. But, these are your chips so you should do what you like!

I think it was mentioned above but you should examine the color samples in your poker room on the table and under the lighting condition they'll be used in. I made stacks with my base color on top and the edge colors beneath slightly exposed to see how they looked as a unit.

I would stick to $25 in the cash set, especially at $1/$2. If you're worried about conflict with the tournament set you can start that at T100 and use an alternate color such as gray or white for the hundo in one of the sets, or just make the edge spot patterns and colors different enough. Including currency symbols on the cash inlays and 'NCV' and no currency on the tournament inlays helps too.
 
Great call out about looking at the colors in the room with different lighting conditions. Haven't done that yet.

Hadn't thought of starting at T100, but I like that as it give a perception of bigger stakes too at tourney even though it's all the same and relative to blind levels.
 
geimerman said:
Great call out about looking at the colors in the room with different lighting conditions. Haven't done that yet.
Click to expand...

I made a couple color changes from my original design after I did this.

geimerman said:
Hadn't thought of starting at T100, but I like that as it give a perception of bigger stakes too at tourney even though it's all the same and relative to blind levels.
Click to expand...

Right, and it seems to have replaced T25 as the standard anyway.

You could even start at T500 and completely eliminate the conflict...there are many on here I see advocating this for its own utility and efficiency as a tournament set. Personally I stuck with T100 but it's an option you could consider.
 
For tournaments I love a canary T1k

Unfortunately for me both of my custom tourney sets I didn’t do this :-( :(

However arc and blaze 1k is pretty good too!
 
All the information given has been good stuff so far!

I will say one thing though, ultimately it’s your money and your chips so if they don’t follow the “rules,” that’s perfectly fine. I had a cash game set made by ASM with the wrong breakdown and non-traditional colours but we all still had a good time. I think if you’re playing with PCFers or regular casino/cardroom players, a non-traditional $5 chip could be quite tilting.

But if you’re just playing a friendly game with rec players, I doubt they are gonna care about what colour your chips are.

The rules and guidelines are there for a reason but if you’re going to spend 000’s of $$$, you had better make sure that you are 100% happy with them.

Take your time, don’t rush!
 
For anyone who has recently dealt with CPC what has turnaround time been? Waiting almost 3 months so far. Tell me what you think of my customization for my new set!
 

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ryanoreilly1511 said:
For anyone who has recently dealt with CPC what has turnaround time been? Waiting almost 3 months so far. Tell me what you think of my customization for my new set!
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A mold is always in production so that should be the shortest wait time.

Recently CPC had a problem with machinery so that may be delaying everything. Check out the vendors section for more details.
 
buzzmonkey said:
I'd drop the $10 unless you have a very specific use for it.
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Yes I added the $10 to set because I liked something about the old 5/10 NL game at the Borgata that used to use blue chips and I thought it was an awesome touch

SteveEH said:
A mold is always in production so that should be the shortest wait time.

Recently CPC had a problem with machinery so that may be delaying everything. Check out the vendors section for more details.
Click to expand...
I figured he was lying. He told me each chip is handmade and it's just a long process and about how expensive his equipment is and a bunch of logistical stuff when I inquired about the mention of broken machinery on the website he said it doesnt affect me but I still cant see how under 2000 chips should take atleast 5 months to produce
 
I have thoughts on this, a whole lot of them. My big one is that I think a color that is on a chip should not be anywhere on an adjacent denomination, including as an edge spot. So if I had a yellow $1 chip with blue and red edge spots, there would be no red, blue, or yellow on my frac or $5 chip.
 
FDLmold said:
I have thoughts on this, a whole lot of them. My big one is that I think a color that is on a chip should not be anywhere on an adjacent denomination, including as an edge spot. So if I had a yellow $1 chip with blue and red edge spots, there would be no red, blue, or yellow on my frac or $5 chip.
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Yes that is a good point
 
ryanoreilly1511 said:
I figured he was lying. He told me each chip is handmade and it's just a long process and about how expensive his equipment is and a bunch of logistical stuff when I inquired about the mention of broken machinery on the website he said it doesnt affect me but I still cant see how under 2000 chips should take atleast 5 months to produce
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It's legit. I think it takes up to a couple weeks to make a set, plus the backlog of orders in front of you, plus their custom grinder has been down. But you're going to end up with a one of a kind heirloom level set.
 
buzzmonkey said:
It's legit. I think it takes up to a couple weeks to make a set, plus the backlog of orders in front of you, plus their custom grinder has been down. But you're going to end up with a one of a kind heirloom level set.
Click to expand...
If the grinder is broken doesn't that stop all production? Does anyone know when they expect it to be repaired?
 

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