Some of you might have seen my PR project as presented here :
http://forum.alienslegacy.com/viewtopic.php?t=2982
making my way thru that project, I discovered D. Baena's case, and decided to make my own.
Derrick Baena's PR case
Then I saw some stickers on ebay here :
PR stiker set
I've been REALLY disapointed by the stickers. I'm talking about the 7 piece set. The other ones he's selling are made of quality glossy vinyle and are based on vector artwork. The little stickers going in the case are an ugly mixture of microsoft word text + some graphic (that are ok) on which 72 dpi graphics were pasted. Some even have some compression artifacts and the black background isn't the same black as the rest of the sticker. Add to this that the 2 sides view sticker has a pixelized PR that has been mirrored for the 2 sides (the PR isn't symetric, ahahah), typo / spelling mistake, my favorite is "Butt stock ass." (baenna used "assy", the shorten version of assembly). The whole thing is a total improvisation.
I talked to the seller, he said I was the first to complain. My guess is that it's "just" a buisness, and he thought he could make money by spending one afternoon to build up those cheap and dirty stickers. The price is ok, the cost of a sticker is the same whatever you draw it good or bad :b
So... I don't care about the $16 I've spent on that, but I've decided to make my own stickers, so I've re drawn EVERYTHING using 600 dpi vector graphics in paint shop pro (I'm not a fan of illustrator). Took an average of 8-10 hours for all that, spread on 2 weeks, everything made on my laptop, in the train, using the track pad
Here is an example :
2 side nomenclature (partial view)
Then I started exchanging with olosnay about the possible interest for such stickers in this base. I'm also going to post on alien legacy.
We have an online compagny in France that can make even just 1 sticker, and up to 1000 or more. However, with little quantities, it's quickly expensive to make a set. The interest for those stickers will never be really high, nothing compared to the number of people making lightsabers for instance. I therefore looked for a simple solution to print those stickers, with a good quality. Sure, they won't be pre-cut, the user will have to cut the sheet himself, but that acceptable I think.
I currently have the following options :
- sticker paper : high quality sticker paper, but quite thin. Accept inkjet or laser. I've used a laser color printer for those. The print at 1200 dpi is awesome. The back is easy to peel. The sticker has to be tranfered to a thicker surface, plastic board, cardboard (bristol) etc.
Advantage : the ink is baked in a laser printer, it's really durable.
- ink jet outdoors plastic paper. That's a really recent product that allows anyone to print durable plastic sticker (not vinyle but polester) with an inkjet. Thicker than paper and really "plastic". A friend of mine uses that to make rebel legion stickers on his car. They stay like 2 month facing wind, rain and a lot of sun during the summer, then depending on the ink used, colors migh change. The thing is that we use those only for indoors without a lot of UV. Second, my inkjet printer is quite recent (canon pixma 2000) and recent ink pigments are really durable with UV exposition.
Advantage : less fragile than paper & beautiful flat black.
"drawback" : inkjet ink, non baked.
- metalized sticker : I've found another special paper for laser printer, meant to print custom rack mount pannels for instruments, electronic hardware etc. Desing / draw the panel, print, cut, stick. It's made of a thin metalized plastic sheet covered with a matte finish. The look is a matte grey finish, like anodized aluminium, still slightly metalized but clearly not like polished metal. On this sheets, I'll print the case plate (USCM logo, ARMAT, PR label & serial), the item serial plate, and an extra thing I got with the ebay sticker set : the serial plate to be sticked on the PR itself (left side).
Advantage : quite nice simulation of a "real" anodized aluminium plate with serigraphy.
Drawback : laser printer ink does not bake exactly like on regular paper, on this surface, the black is not a perfect flat black. It looks good though, but it's not comparable with a paper printout.
Those 3 will also be printed on the first sheet with all the rest of the sticker, this way people will have the choice, either using the metalized paper, or the other one (on which the metal simulation is a light grey color).
I'm going to picture the result very soon and post here. It's really difficult to see the difference between the different techniques, that's why I'm sending samples to olosnay (I don't know his handle on this forum).
But first, let's see if you guys have some interest about that. Price has been targeted to 11 euros (16$) + shipping, for a color sticker sheet (A4) of 8 stickers ("danger high explosives" is doubled) PLUS the 3 metalized sticker (serial, center USMC plate & PR serial plate)
Any thoughts ?
Erv'
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