Strat-O-Gems Deluxe Label Contest

[jferio]

Some interesting entries so far.  A few comments:

 

-1- The font in the title screen is closer to "Britanic Bold" than Peignot (my mistake in the contest page).  I definitely prefer "Britanic Bold" to "Chicago"

 

-2- I am not partial to "Saloon"-style fonts.

 

-3- I would very much like to have some sort of horizontal striping on the logo, though it doesn't have to be a uniform "50% duty cycle" pattern.  Neon is an interesting notion, though some smoothing of the shape of the "A" might be appropriate.

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Commentary appreciated, I'll revise and resubmit by Saturday.

[pmpddytim]

Some interesting entries so far.  A few comments:

 

-1- The font in the title screen is closer to "Britanic Bold" than Peignot (my mistake in the contest page).  I definitely prefer "Britanic Bold" to "Chicago"

 

-2- I am not partial to "Saloon"-style fonts.

 

-3- I would very much like to have some sort of horizontal striping on the logo, though it doesn't have to be a uniform "50% duty cycle" pattern.  Neon is an interesting notion, though some smoothing of the shape of the "A" might be appropriate.

970606[/snapback]

 

Maybe a dumb question what do you mean by saloon style font?

 

And I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say if you like a design but want it tweaked to your specs its not a problem.

 

-Tim

Edited November 23, 2005 by pmpddytim

[supercat]

Maybe a dumb question what do you mean by saloon style font?

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By Saloon-style, I specifically meant fonts which feature overly-thick horizontals, like Linotype Playbill, shown below:

I'll admit the term "Saloon" probably isn't the best (I was originally going to say "Western", but that's not very helpful; "Old West" is probably better).

 

FYI, Britannic looks like this (I think Britannic Medium, shown, is probably better than Britannic Bold, though that may depend upon what's done with it)

Edited November 24, 2005 by supercat

[pmpddytim]

Maybe a dumb question what do you mean by saloon style font?

971030[/snapback]

 

By Saloon-style, I specifically meant fonts which feature overly-thick horizontals, like Linotype Playbill, shown below:

I'll admit the term "Saloon" probably isn't the best (I was originally going to say "Western", but that's not very helpful; "Old West" is probably better).

 

FYI, Britannic looks like this (I think Britannic Medium, shown, is probably better than Britannic Bold, though that may depend upon what's done with it)

 

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Gotcha. My computer dosent have Britannic though. Could someone send me a copy?

 

-Tim

[supercat]

Gotcha. My computer dosent have Britannic though. Could someone send me a copy?

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For the purposes we're dealing with here, you can go to myfonts.com, find a font, and get a sample with some short text you specify. Here's a sample of Britanic. If it doesn't get you to 300dpi at the size you want, you can always smooth it a little bit.

 

[btw, AA seems to have trouble with thumbnails sometimes]

[jferio]

Here's an update; same layout, font Britannic Bold used whereever applicable.

[supercat]

Here's an update; same layout, font Britannic Bold used whereever applicable.

971098[/snapback]

 

I've never been involved with one of these contests before, so I don't really know how active a role I should play; I don't want anyone to think "Oh, he likes such-and-such design, there's no way I'll beat that", nor do I want to make everyone start trying to imitate any design I seem to favor.

 

I do like your layout, in that it shows what the game is about and does so compellingly. I liked the color shading on your earlier one (the one with the Chicago font). The horizontal striping is somewhat like one of the ideas I had in mind, but it seems to get darker toward the center instead of the edges which is the opposite of what the screen logo does.

 

Also, perhaps I need to reiterate for people that it's not necessary to copy the exact colors from the Strat-O-Gems logo. Perhaps I should go further and suggest that it would perhaps be better not to. On screen, I used exactly four colors because of hardware limitations; I used colors of differing brightness to make the animation look more interesting. Having the first "S" be bright yellow is not a bad thing, but the "T" and the "M" draw undue attention to themselves.

 

I would suggest that it may be good to color "STRAT" with five colors that start bright and get dimmer, then color the gem interestingly, then "GEMS" with the first four colors or else four colors interpolated to fit in the same range as the first five.

 

Finally, I'd be interested in seeing some different 'angles' if you can do them conveniently. Incidentally, I don't have any screen shots handy, but the original 1994 kernel featured something of a "Greek temple" design. Since then I lopped off the top to free up more scan lines, but I may put it back in the PAL version. Don't know if that'd look good on the label, but it's something to consider.

[supercat]

Here is what I just sent.

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Thanks for your submission. I do like the "O" in Strat-O-Gems, but the background jewels mostly seem rather flat--more lik1e poker chips than jewels. I am nonetheless glad that my game is of interest to you.

[supercat]

heres 2 i submitted

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Both of those are sorta pretty. As I've said elsewhere on this thread, I really like the neon effect in the second one.

[supercat]

Bored tonight so I tried another.

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Of the three you've posted, I like the last one the best. I don't particularly care for the lens flare, though.

[jferio]

Here's an update; same layout, font Britannic Bold used whereever applicable.

971098[/snapback]

 

I do like your layout, in that it shows what the game is about and does so compellingly. I liked the color shading on your earlier one (the one with the Chicago font). The horizontal striping is somewhat like one of the ideas I had in mind, but it seems to get darker toward the center instead of the edges which is the opposite of what the screen logo does.

 

Also, perhaps I need to reiterate for people that it's not necessary to copy the exact colors from the Strat-O-Gems logo. Perhaps I should go further and suggest that it would perhaps be better not to. On screen, I used exactly four colors because of hardware limitations; I used colors of differing brightness to make the animation look more interesting. Having the first "S" be bright yellow is not a bad thing, but the "T" and the "M" draw undue attention to themselves.

 

I would suggest that it may be good to color "STRAT" with five colors that start bright and get dimmer, then color the gem interestingly, then "GEMS" with the first four colors or else four colors interpolated to fit in the same range as the first five.

 

Finally, I'd be interested in seeing some different 'angles' if you can do them conveniently. Incidentally, I don't have any screen shots handy, but the original 1994 kernel featured something of a "Greek temple" design. Since then I lopped off the top to free up more scan lines, but I may put it back in the PAL version. Don't know if that'd look good on the label, but it's something to consider.

971115[/snapback]

 

 

I fixed everything I could, and tried a 'from below' angle on the gems this time. There's not many angles that the 'playfield' works, due to the vertical nature of it. The logo still has the same number of lines in my master file, they just don't come through when munged into the PNG files. I did change them to larger (darker) towards the outside.

 

I also killed part of the glow on the gems being removed, as it really killed the angle otherwise.

[supercat]

I fixed everything I could, and tried a 'from below' angle on the gems this time. There's not many angles that the 'playfield' works, due to the vertical nature of it. The logo still has the same number of lines in my master file, they just don't come through when munged into the PNG files. I did change them to larger (darker) towards the outside.

 

I was wondering if there might be some resolution funniness with those lines. The striping does pretty well go along with my original idea, though it's not the only possibility.

 

I wonder why I have such a hard time making myself understood sometimes? I wasn't trying to suggest that the logo shouldn't have individually-colored letters--just that the particular color scheme depicted (with the "T" and "M" bright yellow) may not be the best.

 

As for the angle, your earlier angle is better than this one, but I still find myself wondering about what the possibilities are, especially if you "zoom out" a bit and add some other surrounding detail (like the pillars). I don't know whether that would work well, or would just get too small.

 

One thing I'm picturing in my mind's eye is a picture of a Greek-temple-style building shown with a pitch of maybe 15 degrees up and yaw both around 15 degrees left, with a "STRATOGEMS" neon sign on the front of it (placed roughly as shown on the title screen). The "O" would be a three-dimensional round faceted gem (half sticking out of the sign), and the other letters would be zig-zagged neon. The word "Deluxe" would be in a brighter, contrasting color neon script in front of and running diagonally over the upper part of the "MS".

 

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell whether a design like that would really work for a picture as small as the game cart. And I wouldn't want to promise that I would select such a design even if it were perfectly rendered, since someone might come up with something even better that I hadn't thought of.

 

I also killed part of the glow on the gems being removed, as it really killed the angle otherwise.

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It's hard to get things like glow right. What looks good on screen may not look good on paper and vice versa.

Edited November 24, 2005 by supercat

[jferio]

I fixed everything I could, and tried a 'from below' angle on the gems this time. There's not many angles that the 'playfield' works, due to the vertical nature of it. The logo still has the same number of lines in my master file, they just don't come through when munged into the PNG files. I did change them to larger (darker) towards the outside.

 

I was wondering if there might be some resolution funniness with those lines. The striping does pretty well go along with my original idea, though it's not the only possibility.

 

I wonder why I have such a hard time making myself understood sometimes? I wasn't trying to suggest that the logo shouldn't have individually-colored letters--just that the particular color scheme depicted (with the "T" and "M" bright yellow) may not be the best.

 

As for the angle, your earlier angle is better than this one, but I still find myself wondering about what the possibilities are, especially if you "zoom out" a bit and add some other surrounding detail (like the pillars). I don't know whether that would work well, or would just get too small.

 

One thing I'm picturing in my mind's eye is a picture of a Greek-temple-style building shown with a pitch of maybe 15 degrees up and yaw both around 15 degrees left, with a "STRATOGEMS" neon sign on the front of it (placed roughly as shown on the title screen). The "O" would be a three-dimensional round faceted gem (half sticking out of the sign), and the other letters would be zig-zagged neon. The word "Deluxe" would be in a brighter, contrasting color neon script in front of and running diagonally over the upper part of the "MS".

 

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell whether a design like that would really work for a picture as small as the game cart. And I wouldn't want to promise that I would select such a design even if it were perfectly rendered, since someone might come up with something even better that I hadn't thought of.

 

I also killed part of the glow on the gems being removed, as it really killed the angle otherwise.

971175[/snapback]

 

It's hard to get things like glow right. What looks good on screen may not look good on paper and vice versa.

971217[/snapback]

 

Adding the Greek temple roof would likely interfere with the design, unless it was done from a 'dead on' angle, which I don't think gets the nature of the game across. I can play with colors of the logo at this point. And the loss of the lines is a resolution issue, I rendered the final at 200dpi.

 

I also think that zooming out would lessen considerably the impact of the original piece, but I can put up some samples once I've got my machine set back up; I've been dogsitting for a friend the past few weeks, and I just tore my main machine down to move it back to my apartment. (I'm posting from my friend's machine right now.)

 

Otherwise, you do better than 80% of the customers I get at work (I'm a graphic designer). At least you're able to articulate what you want in the piece. It actually makes it a pleasure.

[supercat]

Adding the Greek temple roof would likely interfere with the design, unless it was done from a 'dead on' angle, which I don't think gets the nature of the game across. I can play with colors of the logo at this point. And the loss of the lines is a resolution issue, I rendered the final at 200dpi.

 

As I said, I'd imagined a much slighter angle though I'll admit the steeper downward angle is quite visually compelling. Loss of the lines would be a problem; perhaps rendering at higher resolution and then downsampling with a good interpolating program might improve that, but you'd probably know more about that sort of thing than I.

 

I also think that zooming out would lessen considerably the impact of the original piece, but I can put up some samples once I've got my machine set back up; I've been dogsitting for a friend the past few weeks, and I just tore my main machine down to move it back to my apartment. (I'm posting from my friend's machine right now.)

 

I think my biggest complaint with the steep angle is probably that the "STRAT-O-GEMS" logo is 'detached' from the rest of the picture rather than being integral to it. Perhaps there's no really good way to make it be part of the picture.

 

BTW, what do you think of my logo ideas?

 

Otherwise, you do better than 80% of the customers I get at work (I'm a graphic designer). At least you're able to articulate what you want in the piece. It actually makes it a pleasure.

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Thank you. I will admit that while sometimes I have good ideas, sometimes I have bad ones. So don't take my word as gospel.

[Dangerboy670]

Wooo! Any game that can call Columns a distant cousin is a game I can support!

 

First entry!

 

 

 

Just sent that into Al...I have a possible 2nd entry in the wings, but I need confirmation from AA on something first.

 

Jason

Edited November 24, 2005 by Dangerboy670

[jferio]

As I said, I'd imagined a much slighter angle though I'll admit the steeper downward angle is quite visually compelling.  Loss of the lines would be a problem; perhaps rendering at higher resolution and then downsampling with a good interpolating program might improve that, but you'd probably know more about that sort of thing than I.

 

I think my biggest complaint with the steep angle is probably that the "STRAT-O-GEMS" logo is 'detached' from the rest of the picture rather than being integral to it.  Perhaps there's no really good way to make it be part of the picture.

 

BTW, what do you think of my logo ideas?

 

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I'll see what I can do over the weekend to come up with something closer to what you envisioned. Just going to stuff myself silly today, and start on the next version tomorrow.

[galaxy warrior]

cool got it now

[jferio]

Give this one a shot. I can interpolate properly if one of my designs is approved.

[supercat]

Give this one a shot. I can interpolate properly if one of my designs is approved.

 

I think I prefer the downward-angle view, though this one is not without promise. The rightmost 'vanishing' gem needs to be brigher, though.

 

I'm not really happy with the 'STRATOGEMS' colors yet, and while the middle gem looks nice it doesn't really look like an "O".

 

Any possibility of doing a neon logo or a diagonal script "deluxe"?

[Albert]

I've posted all of the label submissions received thus far to the contest page. You can find them here:

 

Strat-O-Gems Deluxe Label Contest Submissions

 

You can click on any of the thumbnails to view a larger version of the label.

 

Just a reminder that the contest ends at Midnight, Sunday!

 

..Al

[Albert]

I've just posted six more label submissions, from Tim Lehner, Manu Pärssinen, and Hernán Callo. You can look at all the submissions here:

 

Strat-O_Gems Deluxe Label Contest Submissions

 

Enjoy!

 

..Al

[Dangerboy670]

2nd Entry with a twist:

 

 

 

The twist is that I have this variation for all 5 colors, so technically with the 3 case colors that AA offers in the store, you could make your cart look like any of the 5 jewels:

 

 

I'm all for the purple gem.

 

*edit* - Er...Looks like I'd need a yellow one too...oops!

Edited December 3, 2005 by Dangerboy670

[galaxy warrior]

2nd Entry with a twist:

 

 

 

The twist is that I have this variation for all 5 colors, so technically with the 3 case colors that AA offers in the store, you could make your cart look like any of the 5 jewels:

 

 

I'm all for the purple gem.

 

*edit* - Er...Looks like I'd need a yellow one too...oops!

975640[/snapback]

 

 

nice idea

[uosipa llamxew]

My two favorites so far:

 

1) Jeff Crouch's - #1

2) Dangerboy670's - all five

[Dangerboy670]

Thanks guys

 

I may have one idea left...depends if I have work on Sunday >_>