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LaunchBox Merch T-Shirt Design Contest!


Jason Carr

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I have a few ideas but I know they aren't feasible because they would require licensing like a Pac-Man shirt where the dots are LaunchBox cubes and the Power Pellets are BigBox cubes. The LaunchBox cube with the top swung open like a chest with a glowing light inside and console logos or game sprites shooting out in all directions with something like LaunchBox See what's inside or something like that but like I said since you can't use the logos or sprites and probably even the names of any of the platforms it isn't doable. Think inside the Box. I don't know I'm just kicking shit around in my head.
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Cadet Stimpy said Okay, since people in Colorado sometimes think 'differently' (must be the thin air Wink), I was thinking on these lines (for my first pass): You're looking over the left shoulder (a few feet back and somewhat elevated) of a cartoonish looking person in front of a screen that has BigBox on it, and the top of the Gamer's skull is missing, and instead of a regular brain, it looks like a LaunchBox mini-Rubik's Cube is their brain. Laugh And, of course, this Gamer will be wearing a T-shirt with that picture on it, so in theory, you'll get the 'infinitely smaller picture' thing going. Laugh
Ha, I missed this at first Stimpy. I really like this idea too. :) Anyone got any primarily text-based ideas? That could be another good option.
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dhobo said Thanks for the reasonable responses, it's a touchy subject amongst professional designers as design "contests" get to be more commonplace and hurt the design industry as a whole. I too don't subscribe to the "never do anything for free" mindset, I am a firm believer in donating my time and efforts to support people and projects that I feel are deserving who could use it! I also agree the idea of getting your fanbase involved in the process, as it helps foster a great community. If people are fine with donating their time so you can sell merch based on their efforts, then great! That's their decision to make and I fully support that. If you're interested in a relatively low-cost alternative in the future that still gets the community involved, consider paying some small-time designers with portfolios you like to do some concept work for you and then have the community choose the designs they like best and take it from there. You get the best of both worlds this way.
I've done some part-time / freelance design work, and I strongly agree with dhobo. Great input. The contest is fine for now, but consider commissioning some designs in the future. If you don't know what you want, consider this: what is the purpose of this merch? What are your goals, or your reasons for selling it in the first place? Who is it for? Is it... 1. ...for your loyal community members, so we have something else we can buy to show our support? 2. ...to help promote LaunchBox to new users, growing the community, and potentially driving Premium sales? 3. ...or both? A good design should be for both. I support you directly by buying a shirt, and then by wearing that shirt I promote LaunchBox to others. Your current merch selection with just the logo is great for #1 but bad for #2. The logo is fine, but it's very generic. It says nothing about what LaunchBox is, or what it does. For all I know, you could be a cloud storage company-- maybe a competitor to Dropbox. How else can you convey something about what LaunchBox is without a lot of text? What can you put on a shirt that will capture someone's attention, and maybe start a conversation? These are some questions a good designer will help you answer. ... All that being said, I do have some ideas. 1. Pixel art, and bitmap fonts. Nothing clearly says "this is a video game thing" like pixels. Try putting LaunchBox in one of these fonts: http://www.dafont.com/bitmap.php?text=LaunchBox&fpp=50 2. Something like this shirt, where different logos or game icons spell out LaunchBox. Goes with the idea that LaunchBox brings all these games & systems together in one place. 3. "Don't forget your LaunchBox" - illustration of a lunchbox packed neatly with various game controllers. (It's portable!) 4. Old game references or jokes... like "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." from Zelda, but he's offering you the LaunchBox logo. Or the logo is another kind of power-up. Actually, yeah. This will be my contribution. I like the idea of getting it as a power-up. Something that every gamer wants. So here it is, Mega Man style. I first thought of it being on black, but I'll upload it with transparency so it can go on any color. mm-black.png mm-blue.png Large with transparency https://www.launchbox-app.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/jmdbcool/2016/01/Megaman-LaunchBox-shirt.png
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This one was inspired by jmdbcool's Megaman idea. I'm not sure if there are copyright issues, but I think that's doubtful, as I've made changes to the trophy logo. I realize its only 800px wide, but the art isn't designed to cover the whole shirt. I can scale it up if needed. Font is Convection, found here. achievementunlocked.png
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My ideas are no doubt impractical because of their complexity (and they're kinda lame, too Smile), but what do you thing of this crazy-ass one?: The LaunchBox logo is the nucleus of an atom with a handful of 'electrons' orbiting it. The 'electrons' are maybe a little-bitty Super Marion, another one is Sonic, etc. LaughLaugh But, alas, as Derek pointed-out, the 'electrons' would cause licensing issues. Frown
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Cadet Stimpy said Perhaps you could do the Merch in a KickStarter fashion? If ya want one, contribute to the 'development/design/manufacture' of it. If enough money is drummed-up, then proceed.
We don't need to go that far. We didn't purchase a stock of shirts, they're printed on demand. We can afford an artist to make something though so Kickstarting doesn't make sense for us right now.
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Wow, great ideas everyone. My favorite two ideas are @jmdbcool's "You got LaunchBox" and @Cujo777's "Achievement unlocked" ideas, though they're fairly similar. The merch has been a bit of an experiment and has not really taken off at this point, but I agree with @jmdbcool; it might be more popular with a better approach, and it's certainly worth it at least with those two designs. @jmdbcool and @Cujo777, if you would please email me at jasondavidcarr@gmail.com and I can get you both a license, and hopefully move forward in making some shirts. Hopefully we can see how well the merch does with some better options and if there is interest then we can look into getting a designer to work with some of the other great ideas in the thread. :) Thanks again to everyone; I know I've certainly learned something with this and I've enjoyed all the great ideas.
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It only took several other people to get Jason to change his mind about font and styles. I've been wanting to do other designs, so I am happy this is working. As per the Pixel Art shirts, I am a strong proponent for anything Pixel Art, so I will personally make sure that some of these Pixel Art shirts will make it. I'll talk with Jason about which ones specifically and I will let the users know if he hasn't already. I also do Pixel Art builds and I want to make some of these now... I have been trying to create my own Pixel Art LaunchBox logo but it hasn't been coming out right, this one looks really good.
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Here is something I have came up with. One design with small differences. Since LB is used to launch retro games up to the latest next gen, I thought to try to some way convey that with the design. Let me know what you guys think. Tried to keep it simple. I also thought of maybe having a controller cord coming out of the LB Box logo or something. LBart1.jpgLBart2.jpgLBart3.jpg
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dmdbcool's shirt is up in the shop, ready to be purchased. We're working on Cujo's but we are having some issues with the image provided so that one is going to take a little longer to get up. Thank you again to everyone who posted Idea's for our shop, we really do appreciate it. We may even use some of these in the future too.
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I can't draw stick figures and I've never used photoshop, and I may be beating a dead horse, but my vote goes for Acheivement Unlocked: Installed LaunchBox. It appeals to the gross hipster in me, so if anyone EVER asked what my shirt meant I could be like: "I only play the finest of retro video games, you wouldn't understand." Also, I would say this at a Street Fighter or Halo 5 tourney I'm participating in. Also, someone there WOULD understand and we'd be lifelong friends after that. I made myself sad just now.
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