New VTES Art Director...

Hi there, I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and I am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. The first set you'll probably see my "handy work" will be the new Legacies of Blood set...although I have had a hand in the design and layout on every set since Camarilla. I hope to be posting a "preferred artist" thread in the upcoming weeks, so be prepared to list your 10 favorite VTES artists. Mike Chaney Art Director Vampire: The Eternal Struggle & the World of Darkness

"Mike Chaney" <mi...@white-wolf.com> wrote in message news:1116984661.6...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com... > Hi there, > I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and I > am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. The first set you'll > probably see my "handy work" will be the new Legacies of Blood > set...although I have had a hand in the design and layout on every set > since Camarilla. > > I hope to be posting a "preferred artist" thread in the upcoming weeks, > so be prepared to list your 10 favorite VTES artists. Hi Mike! PLEASE promise us you'll leave the card layout ALONE!!! (My one and only important request from WW's Art Director.) Fred

>> Hi there, >> I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and I >> am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. The first set you'll >> probably see my "handy work" will be the new Legacies of Blood >> set...although I have had a hand in the design and layout on every set >> since Camarilla. >> I hope to be posting a "preferred artist" thread in the upcoming weeks, >> so be prepared to list your 10 favorite VTES artists. Fred spoke thusly: >Hi Mike! >PLEASE promise us you'll leave the card layout ALONE!!! >(My one and only important request from WW's Art Director.) I almost agree with that sentiment. When you have 10 minutes, please get Oscar and open a Kindred Most Wanted starter, Anathema for example. Find the following cards from that starter: Media Influence Pursuit Soak Thrown Gate Skin of Steel Enchant Kindred Forgotten Labyrinth Aire of Elation Stunt Cycle Restoration Line them up so that the tops and bottoms line up exactly. Line up the left hand side so that you can see the discipline symbol for each of these 10 cards. Observe that every card has its discipline symbol in a different location. Please leave the rest of the layout alone, but prevent this issue from ever occuring again. The cards should look like they were laid out by a professional, ie someone with enough attention to detail to not only look at each card alone, but at the cards in the set side by side and as a whole. The interns that have been allowed to layout the last sets need to move on to tasks more suited their skills, like broom pushing. Thank you for your time. Carpe noctem. Lasombra http://www.TheLasombra.com Your best online source for information about V:TES. Now also featuring individual card sales and sales of booster and starter box displays.

The layout won't be changing...no worries. As far as the cards lining up, I will make every effort to make the line up a much as humanly possible. [ quoted text not captured ]

"Frederick Scott" <nos...@no.spam.dot.com> wrote > PLEASE promise us you'll leave the card layout ALONE!!! > (My one and only important request from WW's Art Director.) I liked the original layout but can live with the current one. But a third would just look tawdry.

[ quoted text not captured ] Well, that's arguably a bit belated wish. Still, it would be nice to see some consistency at least in the upcoming sets... -- Bye, Daneel

[ quoted text not captured ] I humbly request that you hire a professional copy editor to review the texts for all cards in any subsequent set. Perhaps that is done already, but invariably it seems like there are small mistakes in every set. By the way, my wife is an excellent choice if you're looking for a freelancer. ;) Jeff

I'd like to suggest reviewing the font size. IMHO there's no reason to use the same font size on all cards (in the text field), when text length differs between 1 and 30+ words. In some circumstances its painful to decipher the text due to the chosen small font, but might not be necessary if it's only something like 'Press, only usable ...'. Alf

"Daneel" <dan...@eposta.hu> wrote in message news:opsrbj90...@news.chello.hu... > On Tue, 24 May 2005 19:25:51 -0700, Frederick Scott > <nos...@no.spam.dot.com> wrote: > >> "Mike Chaney" <mi...@white-wolf.com> wrote in message >> news:1116984661.6...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com... >>> Hi there, >>> I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and I >>> am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. ... >> Hi Mike! >> >> PLEASE promise us you'll leave the card layout ALONE!!! >> >> (My one and only important request from WW's Art Director.) > > Well, that's arguably a bit belated wish. It would have been better had it not changed in the past, it's true. (Not because the existing layout is bad; just that ANYTHING looks terrible when you mix two different layouts. And since this is a COLLECTIBLE card game, mixing layouts becomes a necessity if the company prints different layouts in different expansions.) But yet another change in the future would be even worse still. So in order for him to know there's an issue, it doesn't hurt to actually tell him there's an issue, IMHO. "Mike Chaney" <mi...@white-wolf.com> wrote in message news:1116991872.2...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > The layout won't be changing...no worries. Thank you thank you thank you thank you....(virtual "we-are-not-worthy" bows in your direction...) Fred

jeff...@pacbell.net wrote: > I humbly request that you hire a professional copy editor to review the > texts for all cards in any subsequent set. Perhaps that is done > already, but invariably it seems like there are small mistakes in every > set. I am unaware of any that crept into, for example, KMW. What am I overlooking? -- LSJ (vtesr...@TRAPwhite-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep (remove spam trap to reply) Links to V:TES news, rules, cards, utilities, and tournament calendar: http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/

On Tue, 24 May 2005 23:04:40 -0400, The Lasombra <TheLa...@hotmail.com> wrote: >Please leave the rest of the layout alone, but prevent this issue from >ever occuring again. The cards should look like they were laid out by >a professional, ie someone with enough attention to detail to not only >look at each card alone, but at the cards in the set side by side and >as a whole. The interns that have been allowed to layout the last >sets need to move on to tasks more suited their skills, like broom >pushing. Heh. Funny to see that the "internship folklore" (i.e., they serve just for simple work that "real pros" don't want to do anymore) suits other cultures ;) Jokes aside, for the little I know of design and printing issues, the misplacement of the discipline symbols could be as much a result of a bad choice of publishing bureau than a lack of organization or clear and tight template in the designer/art director's part. So no matter how much I don't like these misplacements too, some leniency (nice to learn another cool word...) is needed in these cases. best, Fabio "Sooner" Macedo V:TES National Coordinator for Brazil Giovanni Newsletter Editor ----------------------------------------------------- V for Vendetta on the big screen! http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/

LSJ <vtesr...@TRAPwhite-wolf.com> wrote: > jeff...@pacbell.net wrote: >> I humbly request that you hire a professional copy editor to review >> the texts for all cards in any subsequent set. Perhaps that is done >> already, but invariably it seems like there are small mistakes in >> every set. > > I am unaware of any that crept into, for example, KMW. > What am I overlooking? You misspelled 'targeted' on Warning Sirens. ;) > LSJ (vtesr...@TRAPwhite-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas "Know your enemy, and know yourself; in one-thousand battles you shall never be in peril." -- Sun Tzu, *The Art of War* "Contentment... Complacency... Catastrophe!" -- Joseph Chevalier

Mike Chaney <mi...@white-wolf.com> wrote: > Hi there, > I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and > I am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. The first set > you'll probably see my "handy work" will be the new Legacies of Blood > set...although I have had a hand in the design and layout on every set > since Camarilla. > > I hope to be posting a "preferred artist" thread in the upcoming > weeks, so be prepared to list your 10 favorite VTES artists. What happened to the Goth chick? > Mike Chaney > Art Director Vampire: The Eternal Struggle & the World of Darkness Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas [ quoted text not captured ]

Kevin M. wrote: > LSJ <vtesr...@TRAPwhite-wolf.com> wrote: > >>jeff...@pacbell.net wrote: >> >>>I humbly request that you hire a professional copy editor to review >>>the texts for all cards in any subsequent set. Perhaps that is done >>>already, but invariably it seems like there are small mistakes in >>>every set. >> >>I am unaware of any that crept into, for example, KMW. >>What am I overlooking? > > You misspelled 'targeted' on Warning Sirens. ;) Nice one. Thanks. [ quoted text not captured ]

[ quoted text not captured ] I would not really like to have different font sizes depending on the amount of text in card textboxes, since that would give a less professional look to VTES cards (like happened in Jyhad). I think unity should take precedece in this case. -- Damnans http://www.almadrava.net/damnans http://www.vtes.net http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/vteshispania

Damnans wrote: > A.J.Behrends wrote: > > I'd like to suggest reviewing the font size. > > > > IMHO there's no reason to use the same font size > > on all cards (in the text field), when text length > > differs between 1 and 30+ words. > > > > In some circumstances its painful to decipher the text > > due to the chosen small font, but might not be necessary > > if it's only something like 'Press, only usable ...'. > > I would not really like to have different font sizes depending on the > amount of text in card textboxes, since that would give a less > professional look to VTES cards (like happened in Jyhad). > > I think unity should take precedece in this case. If you really want them to look nice, then maybe we should remove that whole ugly text box thingie altogether and just display the art! :) It's always nice when an art director recognizes that the top priority is for the cards to be functional in the game. Generally, I think art directors aren't familiar enough with the TCG functionality and make decisions for the look of the cards (such as the new clan backgrounds, small group numbers and large set symbols, uniformly small card text even when space permits larger and *more visible* text, card names not flush with the left side of the card in CE, and so on). Like A.J., I'd have preferred the card texts to grow when they have room to. -Robert

On 26 May 2005 09:43:38 -0700, Damnans <damna...@ono.com> wrote: > > > A.J.Behrends wrote: >> I'd like to suggest reviewing the font size. >> >> IMHO there's no reason to use the same font size >> on all cards (in the text field), when text length >> differs between 1 and 30+ words. >> >> In some circumstances its painful to decipher the text >> due to the chosen small font, but might not be necessary >> if it's only something like 'Press, only usable ...'. > > I would not really like to have different font sizes depending on the > amount of text in card textboxes, since that would give a less > professional look to VTES cards (like happened in Jyhad). > > I think unity should take precedece in this case. I agree. Whether the individual cards look cool or not is one issue. But in your hand, in the play field you will likely have more than a single card. In that case consistency in looks (or what's left of it) is important. -- Bye, Daneel

On 26 May 2005 11:26:49 -0700, "Robert Goudie" <rob...@vtesinla.org> scrawled: > large set symbols, this is one thing i haven't liked about recent expansions (KMW seems to have toned it down a little). especially on crypt cards. looking at them, you'd think the set the card came from was more important than the clan they were in.... salem http://www.users.tpg.com.au/adsltqna/VtES/index.htm (replace "hotmail" with "yahoo" to email)

> to have toned it down a little). especially on crypt cards. looking at > them, you'd think the set the card came from was more important than > the clan they were in.... > salem ditto!

salem wrote: > On 26 May 2005 11:26:49 -0700, "Robert Goudie" <rob...@vtesinla.org> > scrawled: > >>large set symbols, > > > this is one thing i haven't liked about recent expansions (KMW seems > to have toned it down a little). especially on crypt cards. looking at > them, you'd think the set the card came from was more important than > the clan they were in.... Agreed. Clan symbols should be larger than expansion symbols (which should not draw too much attention, since they have nothing to do with the game mechanics). -- Damnans http://www.almadrava.net/damnans http://www.vtes.net http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/vteshispania/

> I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and I > am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. I'd like to make one request. Ability text on Malkavians can be almost unreadable. Any text in bold (titles, Red List, etc) is fine. But taking Petaniqua for example, the background pattern washes out all other text. I have to strain my eyes to read it. Some of the other Malkavians have this problme as well. The more text in the box = the smaller point size on the text = the bigger headache gained reading the card. This probably occurs with other clans and their background art as well, but the Malkavian's background art is among the busiest. Kelly

"Kelly" <texas...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1117305407.1...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... [ quoted text not captured ] FWIW, I heartily agree re the text box on Malkavians... new Lasombra are the second worst offenders in this regard, IMO. Pat

Kevin M. a écrit : > Mike Chaney <mi...@white-wolf.com> wrote: > >>Hi there, >>I thought I'd pop by and introduce myself. My name is Mike Chaney and >>I am the new Art Director/Graphic Designer for VTES. The first set >>you'll probably see my "handy work" will be the new Legacies of Blood >>set...although I have had a hand in the design and layout on every set >>since Camarilla. >> >>I hope to be posting a "preferred artist" thread in the upcoming >>weeks, so be prepared to list your 10 favorite VTES artists. > > > What happened to the Goth chick? you must mean "Goth Chic" ...