Artwork Request

[+cubanismo]

Saw @Jag64's offer for artwork in that other thread that went off the rails, and I remembered there is some artwork I'd been looking for, so I thought I'd put the request out there for anyone with free time: A cartridge label for the "CD Verification Utility" cartridge. Not the most exciting project, but it's what I could use at the moment. I was thinking of something with a similar theme to the Memory Track and/or Developer Bypass cartridge labels (I like the cheesy 90's high-tech feel) but feel free to get creative:

 

 

At one point, I had been planning on making this myself, but I have so many other Jaguar projects in the works, I haven't gotten to it for over a year, and I'm not the best at graphics design so it'd probably take me a few evenings to put something decent together, while I'm sure it'll take the pros and semi-pros minutes.

[Atlantis]

?

[Jag64]

10 hours ago, cubanismo said:

... so it'd probably take me a few evenings...

Sure! I'll take a stab at it. I'll use the two carts as "inspiration." Tacked on the official template (to scale, not to size) if anyone wants to play with that. I'll doink around and see what comes up by lunch probably.

[Jag64]

Whelp, had a few minutes with my coffee and threw together a couple label mockups. Just some ideas to get ya started ... or finished. I dunno. ?

 

[Jag64]

Cheese and biscuits, I can't spell.

 

"Accessory;" I was missing an "s."

[Jag64]

Whelp. Guess neither were good enough. If anyone else wants to use them, have at it. I can't keep checking for updates and feedback for days when doing favors. ?

Edited April 26, 2022 by Jag64

[+cubanismo]

Oh, sorry, they look great! I was waiting until I had a chance to print one out to see how it looked IRL before responding, but I'm probably going to go with the first one. I like how it implies an assembly line of CDs, which is roughly the step where you'd be using the verification cartridge.

[Machine]

On 4/24/2022 at 7:55 AM, Jag64 said:

Cheese and biscuits, I can't spell.

 

"Accessory;" I was missing an "s."

 

Those look great!!!

 

Now you need to make artwork for the "Atari Jaguar High Score Club" patch!  

[sirlynxalot]

Looks cool.

 

Btw, the memory track artwork with stuff radiating out of the CD kind of reminds me of the artwork for Sega's game Rez.  I don't own the gamedrive yet, but I kinda wanted to take a rectangle out of this artwork because I thought it looked cool and fit the idea of a flashcart, rad technology that unlocks a wealth of possibilities from one focal point, the cart. Gave me a Tempest 2K vibe as well.

 

 

 

[Jag64]

2 hours ago, Machine said:

 

Those look great!!!

 

Now you need to make artwork for the "Atari Jaguar High Score Club" patch!  

Hmmm, well, are we talking a patch, like embroidery, or like a label for a cart with patches/code? I'm still learning the Atari Age community, and my sewing is amateur at best. (I can design the patches, though. ?)

 

Maybe flip a coin to decide....

 

2 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:

Looks cool.

 

Btw, the memory track artwork with stuff radiating out of the CD kind of reminds me of the artwork for Sega's game Rez.  I don't own the gamedrive yet, but I kinda wanted to take a rectangle out of this artwork because I thought it looked cool and fit the idea of a flashcart, rad technology that unlocks a wealth of possibilities from one focal point, the cart. Gave me a Tempest 2K vibe as well.

I don't have the dimensions for the GD cart label, but could take a stab at it.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Jag64

[UHATEIT]

On 4/26/2022 at 4:28 PM, Jag64 said:

 

hey man, it was me in the other thread mentioning about the custom artwork page on here that had a bunch of cart and CD cases in them for people to print. I know there was one that had a TON of CD covers in it I just can't seem to find it but this was the one with the artwork for some of them:

 

 

Anyways yeah man I have seen your work on the Atari Jaguar Fans page on facebook and know you do a bunch of custom stuff and it is totally cool for those who want some custom stuff to spice up their display or shelves! Back when I got my Jag CD I was making a ton fo the CD inserts with a really good printer that I had access to and made a nice display on my shelf. I attached a picture below of them, some were the real games, others were just burned blank CDs. I wasn't like the guy in that "other thread' that was trying to make CD burns and then sell them for a profit which pisses me off as well as others who noted in that thread. These were entirely for my own display and usage. There were a grip of really nice CD cover inserts out there I ended up printing and then buying blank DVD cases and putting them on my shelf.

 

This was all prior to the Game Drive where you can put all the roms onto the Game Drive and just play them there. Back then I was using the JIFFI application people mention on here to confirm the rom to a .cdi file and then burn them to a CD. I love the Jaguar and even if people think the time spent or the money spend for the cases and inserts was a waste, I really enjoyed making them and did some custom ones for games I couldnt find (like Frog Feast, Big Buck Bunny, Gone Nutty, etc.) but here is a picture of what I ended up with after making a bunch of them from cases either I custom made in photoshop or ones I found online here in various threads form searching.

 

[+cubanismo]

Nice collection!

[+cubanismo]

OK, I finally got around to getting some decent label inkjet paper and printing one of these out. If you're looking for some good paper to label your home-made cartridges, try Koala Glossy Inkjet Sticker Paper (No affiliation). I've tried a few, and this one doesn't smudge and actually comes out glossy, not dull like others that claim they are glossy. Here's the finished product:

 

 

The knife dragged a little on the upper left corner when I tried to bevel it. If you're hand-cutting your labels, whatever you use for the main cuts, use scissors to bevel the corners. My cutting skills aside though, I'm very happy with how the artwork looks. Looks right at home next to the example labels I shared, yet higher quality IMHO. Can't thank you enough @Jag64. I've been waiting a long time to have this cartridge properly labeled instead of just looking for "the blank one" when I have to dig it out.

 

Now that I've printed this, I do have some (hopefully) constructive feedback in case you're going to continue offering this free high-quality artwork to the community!

1. Could you share the files in some print-ready format like PDF? The DPI was off and by default these opened up as massive (Something like 20-inch wide) images and wanted to print that way as well. I had to overlay them on the original illustrator cartridge template and resize before printing. Not sure if this was something that could have gotten lost in the upload process with the forum software or when my browser saved them, or what, but it took a little extra work.
2. Add some bleed. With the compression artifacts, there was a bit of a grey border in the target area as-is. I just cleaned it up when overlaying on the template and added my own bleed fills.
3. These use true black for the background. After printing it out, I think this looks great and prefer it, even on the grey-style cartridge shell I used, but just a note. The Atari templates use RGB (35,31,32) or CYMK (0,11,9,86) (both decimal, not hex values) for the background.
4. The content is a bit close to the edge. I cut mine a little on the narrow side, but the height was a bigger issue. If I'd cut it to the template marks, I would have taken off the top of the main CD image, and I wanted as much of that as possible, so I cut it a little on the tall side, but that means it has to overlap the ridges on the bottom of the label area (See pictures below). Even then, the "Made exclusively for..." text is right on the edge.

For comparison, here are some side-by-side pictures with another recent pickup of mine that I thought had a particularly well-fitting and good-looking label (Cheers @Songbird!). Again, do note that the majority of the poor fit here is my cutting skills, not @Jag64's art. Only the height was off, and just by a bit.

 

 

 

For reference, the label template I use is from here

 

 

Which in turn appears to just be a modern-format version of the one here:

 

https://www.u-235.co.uk/jagarchive/Jaguar_Artwork/Cartidge Label/

 

But I can't get Inkscape to open the old .eps one, and I don't have Illustrator anymore. Note when scaling the image into these templates, it appears a good deal taller than expected when using proportional scaling to the target width.