[Sidepot]

I just want to put in my concept for submission. I don't have the artwork available just yet but I do have a specific concept in mind.

While thinking about a classy or elegant theme I decided to utilize a classic theme with a strong sense of history and symbolism.

The centerpiece of the inlay will consist of two profiles of the face of Janus, who is the ancient Roman god of good beginings. The dual face theme of the profiles also ties into poker players who often show two faces at the table. On top of the heads will be a single crown which will signify wealth and success.

Underneath the faces of Janus will be a crest in the shape of a shield which will display the chip denomination.

At the top of the inlay will be a laurel wreath which is a classic symbol of victory.

On both sides will be ornamental Roman war banners which were carried into battle. The banners will be a decorative touch which will include twisting ribbons that will flow along the edges and form a banner across the bottom of the denomination crest.

The banner will read AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT which is Latin for "Fortune favors the bold".

*****
This first post represents the "original submission" only, and enables the initiation of the discussion thread on this chip submission. This thread now belongs to DoubleDeuce, and he may use his first post within this tread to post updates/changes to his submission, which will ultimately be the design of his that gets submitted into the voting rounds on July 17th.

Feedback, comments, & constructive criticism encouraged!

[STANK1000]

sounds very nice, but i think it may be too detailed for such a small inlay. have to see it drawn up. (i'd help, but this sounds like it's way out of my talent range!)

[Wedge Rock]

I like the concept... I'd really like to see a graphic representation.

[Magus 23]

I can see the concern that the inlay will be too detailed, but I suspect that the design could also be made more simply.

I'd really like to see where this goes! Great idea!

[Sidepot]

Looking forward to images!

Originally Posted by Sidepot

I just want to put in my concept for submission. I don't have the artwork available just yet but I do have a specific concept in mind.

While thinking about a classy or elegant theme I decided to utilize a classic theme with a strong sense of history and symbolism.

The centerpiece of the inlay will consist of two profiles of the face of Janus, who is the ancient Roman god of good beginings. The dual face theme of the profiles also ties into poker players who often show two faces at the table. On top of the heads will be a single crown which will signify wealth and success.

Underneath the faces of Janus will be a crest in the shape of a shield which will display the chip denomination.

At the top of the inlay will be a laurel wreath which is a classic symbol of victory.

On both sides will be ornamental Roman war banners which were carried into battle. The banners will be a decorative touch which will include twisting ribbons that will flow along the edges and form a banner across the bottom of the denomination crest.

The banner will read AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT which is Latin for "Fortune favors the bold".

*****
This first post represents the "original submission" only, and enables the initiation of the discussion thread on this chip submission. This thread now belongs to DoubleDeuce, and he may use his first post within this tread to post updates/changes to his submission, which will ultimately be the design of his that gets submitted into the voting rounds on July 17th.

Feedback, comments, & constructive criticism encouraged!

[Magus 23]

In the interests of "focused feedback", I would suggest that you first start looking around for representative icons of Janus. That will give you an initial building block to work out the other elements of the design.

There's obviously the Janus Mutual Funds version, which is a really nice, line-art representation (not surprising, as they've got more than a bit of cash to throw around in coming up with designs).

There's a Vatican statue displayed at the Wikipedia entry on Janus, or even just the results of a quick Google image search bring up some intriguing choices.

Yes, you might have to worry about copyright concerns at the production stage, but you might want to try slapping together some quick mockups (or working with an artist to do so) just to get your ideas more into the visualization stage. Once you've got some initial mockups to work from, I think there'll be a lot more potential for more directed feedback. Not to mention generating some excitement around the idea (which really is a good one).

[DoubleDeuce]

Thanks Magus, I'm working on sketch from a Janus statue to avoid any copyright issues. A bit of a challenge for my meager artistic talents but thats part of the fun. Hopefully I'll have something to show in the next day or two.

[DoubleDeuce]

Well for sake of getting some feedback here is a rough mock-up:




I'm still working on the crown (tougher than I thought) and need to add the ribbons which will twirl from the side banners down the edges and finishing near the bottom banner.

For the sake of room I decided to nix the laurel wreaths on the top. I realize my design is risky enough with too much detail to try and cram the wreaths in there as well.

Anyways this mock-up is intended for the $5 blood red chip. I'm having trouble reinstalling my ancienct version of Photoshop so I wasn't able to figure out an (easy) way to include a mock-up with the mold and chip colors.

Basically I intend to have the crest with denomination to fade from white into the base color of the chip, hence the blood red in this mock-up. The denomination has a cross fade with an outline and I'm curious how that will look.

Any feedback is appreciated. All of this was done in Illustrator so resizing and color changes shouldn't be too much of a trouble.

[DoubleDeuce]

Hmmm...just checking out my thumbnail version. Text size is too small but the faces actually turned out better than I thought at such a small size.

[Magus 23]

Ah, crap. Sorry, I've been away, and now it may be too late... but do with it what you can!

You're doing great, but you've got to increase the size of the ribbon text on the bottom -- it won't be visible at all as it stands. The two side ornaments are a little vague -- we can't be sure exactly what they are or what they stand for. And I'm not sold on the denomination typeface; I know there's not a lot of time, but you might want to try something different.

Sorry this isn't more helpful -- I've been driving all day, and I'm a little punchy. But I hope it's at least a little helpful!