Week Thirteen

The next step is to work on the final file. With my list of items (plus and minus a few) I used my iPad and Adobe Fresco to start the illustrations. I used a vector brush so the designs were resizable and used a similar weight stroke. I made 14 different illustrations and 20 different cards.

I shared my project with my classmates to get their feedback. Thankfully my illustrations are recognizable and people enjoy the concept. I still want to use the laser cutter but I'm not sure if the substrate should be the same card stock I used for the last project or if I should use wood. The wood would be cool but I know the laser cutter tends to burn the project so I think the details will get lost. I'm leaning more towards the card stock.

Next I'm going to work on designing a box for the cards and a rule sheet. I'm going to use the template maker website for a dieline. 

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I decided to make more card variations to make the game longer and increase the likely hood of finding a match. I now have 30 playing cards total. 

I used templatemaker.nl to make the box dieline. First, I made the box 4.5" x 4.5" x 1" with a lid hight of 0.5" and added the content, however when I printed the proof I caught a lot of my mistakes. 

First, I had the icons upside down on the sides, so I flipped them around to be facing the correct direction. Next, I decided to change the box size to be 4.25" x 4.25" x 0.875". The 4" x 4" card had too much wiggle room on the sides so I decreased that by 1/4" on each side. 

I changed the height to 0.875" after measuring the overall height of the cards when stacked together. I got a scrap piece of the substrate from the lab and I cut out 31 (30 cards and 1 rule sheet) and stacked them onto of each other to measure the height the final cards would be. I made a little mark on the edge of the paper prototype and placed the little substrate stacked tower next to the paper package. 

Lastly, I noticed in the text that the cross of the lower case f and the dot in the lower case i were connecting when put next to each other. 

I tried adjusting the kerning but for some reason the typeface (Lato) locked those two letters together. So instead I outlined all the text and took an i from another part of the text and placed it in next to the f. 

Below I have my final dieline for my project and the 4" x 4" rule card. 

I figured out the math of how many cards I can fit on a sheet and how many sheets I will need. If I can get the laser cutter to engrave all the way to the edge I can fit 24 cards on an 18" x 24" sheet. Using the line tool, I measured out that the lid is 5.3" x 5.3" and the bottom is 6" x 6". With a second sheet I can fit the dieline and the remaining 7 cards. On Tuesday, when I'm in class, I'm going to meet with the lab tech and purchase two sheets of the substrate to paint so I can engrave on Wednesday.