Cactus Game Design Message Boards

--EDIT--

My I/J have arrived. My thoughts are posted further in this thread.

--EDIT--

After having some time to analyze and dissect this new card layout, I've come to a couple conclusions.

Outlines: One thing that really struck me as I built my new custom template, I really like how they made outlines consistent. Everything is a 1 point black stroke now. That helps with visual unity.


Fonts: I'm okay with the use of Helvetica for identifiers, abilities, verses, artist name, and cactus copyright. Yes, it's not the most exciting typeface, but it is one of the easiest to read. They used various weights and sizes appropriately to divide information. My one suggestion here is to add a slight drop shadow to the identifier, like the one the title currently uses. I like how the icon box still uses Grail for the numbers. The one font I still do not like is the title. After some thought, I have found my reason. The letters themselves are shaped quite oddly and the thickness of each letter is not consistent. My font suggestion: Futura Bold. Here is a comparison of the two (Yes, the title is goofy, but this is a phrase used to see the visual relationships between letters):



Symphony is on the left, Futura is on the right.

The  two fonts look quite similar, but futura is a much better designed typeface. The one letter that seriously bugs me in Symphony is lower-case e. It is WAY too thin compared to everything else.

Backgrounds: These seem to have stayed pretty similar to before, with a couple new variants like on Son of God. No complaints here.

Layout: I'm very happy to see that the special ability is finally taken off of the artwork. This helps readability SO much. One minor complaint about the new layout: I feel the title has a bit too much space around it. The top of the image box could be brought up slightly and fix this problem. Also, and Browarod has brought up, the image box sometimes does not sit centered within the card frame.

Overall, I am growing to like it a lot, it just needs a few minor tweaks to really shine. 

I think I agree on all points with Lambo (and thanks for the shout out ). The font you've found for the second image cleans up the title and I just love the new design even more with that very slight fix. I think it would have been cool to keep the scroll underneath the verse (and now the special ability) but this by no means makes the current design any less awesome.

I agree, except that the font really is truly terrible especially in the ability box.

Why do you think Helvetica is terrible?

It may not be the most flashy font, but it's arguably one of the easiest to read.

Now that I'm seeing the new cards in high quality, they actually look great. If only the art was a bit better, tho.

Comic sans is the easiest to read.

No

One more example that turned out quite nicely. I used ITC Officina Sans for the ability, and Caslon (semi-bold italic this time) for the verse.

Well, my I/J cards showed up this week. Now I can really give my thoughts on this design.

Having seen them in print, I like it a lot more than the original layout. After just looking at them on screen for so long, I had forgotten how small the type ended up on redemption cards. The Helvetica is MUCH clearer than Grail at this size. The design as a whole just looks a lot cleaner and more unified.

Also, the print quality is MUCH higher than before. The DPI seems to have doubled at the least. That may not be immediately noticeable when you look at the cards normally, but I have been scanning these in for my template, and it makes a HUGE difference there.

Two of my thoughts have not changed however. I still believe Futura Bold would be a better choice for the card title font, and the identifiers and Illustration/cactus credit would benefit from having a very small shadow.

All in all, this redesign and change in printers is a major improvement. Good job Rob!

*EDIT*

Here is a comparison of Fountains of Living Water (E) and Sword of the Lord (J)

Also, as Tim 'SirNobody' Maly realized the lamb on the good dominant icon is smaller. I'm not sure if all the icons are smaller but the boxes are the same and the lambs are different sizes. If you want you could post another close up of icons to show it clearly for those who don't have the cards yet.

I like the new design as well. One thing I thought of, (and this is getting really picky) is if the special ability could be centered between the top of the box and the top of the verse. With all the one-line special abilities there's just so much blank space. Lambo, could you possibly do an example of how that would look? Or maybe we just need to include more scripture when there is a shorter ability. Nothing wrong with including more scripture. 

You mean like this?



This is very easy to do if Rob is using InDesign for card layout, as you can tell the program to vertically center text within a text box. Illustrator does not have this as far as I know (My copy of Illustrator CS4 can't do it).

Personally, I prefer having the ability fill from the top, and the verse fill from the bottom. That gives cards a more unified look, as the text always starts at the same point.