Federation Commander

Hi guys,

I haven't seen a specific place to talk about the Cafe Press SFU items available.

I recently picked up the:
SFU Calendar
http://www.cafepress.com/starfleetuniv.481897067

Federation 2010 Mug
http://www.cafepress.com/starfleetuniv.470518836

I was slightly disappointed by the Calendar. There's some great artwork out for the SFU, and had it had full size artwork for each month, I would have been pleased. Instead, the only fullsize piece of artwork is on the cover. Each month has half (or slightly more) of a panel with the cover artwork for a major line in the SFU, and the other part devoted to describing the game or supplement. It comes across as a large advertising brochure as much as a calendar. I'm not sure who the intended audience is: as a SFU player, I'm aware of all of the games in the calendar and would much prefer full size images that would get people to ask what they were from if I displayed it. It might be decent for a FLGS trying to sell copies of the games, but for myself, I'll likely be looking for a different display calendar for my office. Still, I'm happy to pay the money to show there's demand for such a product... and hopefully it will be more calendar like and less brochure like in 2012.

The Federation 2010 mug is awesome: the Federation logo is one of my favorite pieces of work for the SFU. I really like the quote from the "Prime Directive" on the back.

I'm still hoping for coasters with the Gorn logo (the new, circular one).

According to the Facebook page, it appears that the calendar was intended to be like that.

See the Facebook post "October 28, 4:50pm"

Cafe Press is sort of a Catch-22 for us. We don't make much per item and we don't sell many items, so realistically we cannot spend a lot of graphic design time on it. Our covers are portrait-oriented layout while the calendars are landscape-oriented layout. The only way to have a "fully art" calendar would be to take a slice out of the middle.

We decided not to do that and we also didn't want a bunch of "border", so we went the direction you saw. I did try to have up pictures of the caledar art on our page on FB and I'm pretty sure you can leaf through the calendar on Cafe Press.

I'm sorry you less than happy with it.

Still, I am glad you like the mug. Xander is so talented and we're fortunate that he created that for us.

Hi Jean, thanks for the reply.

Hmm, yes, there are indeed links to each month under the calendar which I'd missed.

I can understand the business realities of Cafe Press and the problems with the format of most of the SFU art.

It may not end up my 2011 office calendar, but it'll probably find its way into the game room at home at least.

Robert

Jean wrote:Cafe Press is sort of a Catch-22 for us. We don't make much per item and we don't sell many items, so realistically we cannot spend a lot of graphic design time on it. Our covers are portrait-oriented layout while the calendars are landscape-oriented layout. The only way to have a "fully art" calendar would be to take a slice out of the middle.

We decided not to do that and we also didn't want a bunch of "border", so we went the direction you saw. I did try to have up pictures of the caledar art on our page on FB and I'm pretty sure you can leaf through the calendar on Cafe Press.

I'm sorry you less than happy with it.

Still, I am glad you like the mug. Xander is so talented and we're fortunate that he created that for us.

Jean wrote:Cafe Press is sort of a Catch-22 for us. We don't make much per item and we don't sell many items, so realistically we cannot spend a lot of graphic design time on it. Our covers are portrait-oriented layout while the calendars are landscape-oriented layout. The only way to have a "fully art" calendar would be to take a slice out of the middle.

I'd promised to buy two calendars if they ever came out; one for me and one for my brother!

I do a yearly review of a starship calendar by "the other guys":
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts ... b14232ab14
so I also posted a review of yours:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts ... bfd4cdb402
Alas, the group is mostly dead at the moment.

Still, you could take an idea from the other calendar and take up most of the month with your pictures! The only two questions would be:

1) can Cafe Press print on double-sized paper, and fold it rather than spiral bind it?

2) does your art have the resolution to print out 11*17 inches?

As it is, I foresee taking a paper cutter to the sheets at the end of the year.

--
-Jack

Cafe press only has the one calendar option you see, so, no, they cannot do anything else.

Since we're making about $3 per calendar, we cannot pay somebody to invent entirely new art which completely fills an oddball size page.

Once there was only one option (put a game cover in part of the page area) it came down to what to do with the "empty spots on the sides". One option was to leave them empty, but what we did (which at least includes more art!) seemed better. You're getting two pieces of art per month instead of just one and a bunch of blank spots.

Oh, well, then.

Keep on doing what you're doing. I'll be back for next year's.

(If you still have the painting for CL9/The Captains Rulebook box... )


[edit: That's CL8.]
--
-Jack