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Showing posts from May, 2022

Week 3: Printing Cards!

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 It was awesome to be able to go back to POV Solutions and pick up all of the cards. The moment I got to see all the designs together it was truly an awesome feeling. They ended up printing 10 of each card out of the 20 different designs along with extras of the coaches' cards and about 200 of the team card. All the cards have a soft touch finish so they feel super smooth and are fun to touch.  Again, I am extremely fortunate and thankful to meet Lindsey Whitticar and her team at POV as they did everything I could have asked for with printing the cards and then some! Seeing all of the cards on the print sheet really brought together everything I had done for this project. I remember back to the first week when I was shown a printing sheet of some Browns sports cards and I thought it was the coolest thing.  I took one of all the cards to put in a binder and then took one of all the cards to sleeve and put in a protective case for each person. It was cool to see how the car...

Week 3: Work Experience and Valuable Lessons

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 While finalizing my designs, I would work with others at Ten 10 to complete some tasks that needed to be done. These tasks included mailing letters and packing different orders to ship out. This other new guy and I worked together to package 100 shirts for verizon. This incluced looking at an order form for the type of shirt then figuring out the size and quantity. We then had to find the shirts place them in a bag that we stuck a shipping label on. This was fun to learn about how to properly pack a larger order.   We also did some other packing of 100 electronic devices with cords. This one was easier as all the boxes had to be the same. I also got over 100 letters ready to mail out as a thank you for some company. All of these orders were neat to help out with as they all gave insight into just some of the projects Ten 10 takes part in along with understanding how to pack orders to ship.  I was also fortunate to talk to almost everyone who works at Ten 10 in Chard...

Week 2: Designs and More Designs

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 In the second week, I now had a good understanding of what I wanted most of the cards to look like so now the important part was keeping the layout consistent and repeatable with both the fronts and backs. I drew heavy inspiration from Allen and Ginter which happened to be my favorite card designs.  I wanted the cards to be personal so I noted the watercolor background and then found unique watercolor designs to use in the backdrops of the cards. I also liked the borders and signatures on the cards so included those. For example, Nick Bollinger will be attending Montana State and loves the outdoors. For his card, I included a forest background.  Another thing that Allen and Ginter are known for is their non-baseball sets of cards. These include anything from other celebrities to random objects. I wanted to include a non-baseball set of cards in my portfolio also. Here is an example of my friend Jack Spiegle who dressed up as Freddie Mercury from Queen along with the back...

Week 2: Printing Press

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 On Tuesday, I was fortunate to go down to POV Solutions and meet with Mrs. Lindsey Whitticar and Mr. Chris Yuhasz. Lindsey showed me around the place, gave me a very in-depth tour of all their machinery, and introduced me to almost everyone. Quickly, I was able to appreciate the knowledge and understanding it takes to operate the different machines. I watched as the machines cut thick sheets of paper and learned about the process that the paper goes through. There were some products being printed while I was there like a puzzle that they just put the photo on the thick cardboard material and were getting ready to send it off to cut into puzzle pieces. They also had hundreds of sheets/templates of this one folding box that had special cut lines. After the tour, we were able to print one of my designs onto a card sheet which was very cool. Next week will be focused on finishing all the designs, printing all the cards, and learning about distribution.  I was also lucky to speak ...

Week 1: Learning Adobe Products + First Design Concepts

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  Learning Editing Software + First Designs  After learning some basics in adobe illustrator, I was able to create my first product after sketching a banner and some candles along with fitting one into the text design. I was able to play with the color gradients as well to mix colors. I had some prior experience with photoshop and sniping things onto other images, but as far as creating original designs in illustrator, I was not as familiar. I began with the outline pen tool to trace some images. It was important to learn the difference between a vector file and a raster file. A vector file is essentially a bunch of small shapes that make up an image and it can be stretched as big or as small as you want without losing digital quality. A raster image is like the one you snip off google and when you stretch it gets distorted. It is best to work with vector files when composing pieces in photoshop and illustrator. In my first few mock ups of design sketches I really liked the Al...

The Most Famous Baseball Card Designs

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After getting some background experience with editing, I have looked into famous baseball card designs and what has made them stand out. In some research, these 5 card designs have stood out the most to me.   Allen Ginter Cards Concepts  Many card collectors consider the prints to be the best baseball cards of all time. They were first made in 1887 in packs of Allen and Ginter cigarettes. They put the cards in cigarette packs to try and hook the customers on their product. Their cards have a nice vintage feel that has stood the test of time. Chromolithography Process of using oil and water to create multiple layers kind of water color look. Prints are made after the original chromolithograph. The printers of A&G cards were a lithographic printing firm.  1987 Topps  Barry Bonds (rookie, Pittsburgh Pirates), Barry Larkin (rookie, Cincinnati Reds), Bo Jackson (rookie, Kansas City Royals) These cards feature a nice wood grain border design that was very popular. Dom ...

Week 1: Photography and Editing Photos

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  Through the first week, I have begun to understand what really goes behind a design project. Just being in the office and hearing the calls and sitting in on meetings, I quickly learned there are many different parts that go into a design company/team. All of the different members have something they are good at. Not everyone can use editing software and some focus on the sales aspect of the business. It is clear that Ten 10 is so successful because of everyone having an important role/skill and focusing in on it. Not to mention, the morale is super high here and everyone seems to love their job. I spent the first few days learning about what makes a good photo and how to edit one. With the help from their in house graphic designer Stephanie, I was able to learn about camera settings and how to analyze a photo to figure out the exact settings someone else used to shoot it. I then took what I knew to filter through and sort the best photos to use for the baseball cards for each pl...

Capturing Memories Through Sports Cards

       Sports have always been a large part of my life. Playing baseball at a young age and later picking up basketball and golf has helped me build many unforgettable memories and relationships that I am beyond thankful for. Along with my love for baseball, I looked up to many professional players at a young age. My parents would buy me baseball cards of my favorite players along with cards of players on former teams. This helped me appreciate and grow my love for the game. I would try to collect complete sets of players' cards and bring them to games and try to get autographs. This made baseball special for me. Along with creating these connections, sports cards hold valuable memories. I remember on my younger age baseball teams the parents would make us baseball cards to help capture the season. I still have these cards and they help me go back and remember some of the memories from these seasons.       With my senior project, I want to be able...