Speculative ideas: New Tabletop Trophy of Awesome

This year I have been totally hooked on Wil Wheaton's Tabletop show. At the end of each episode the winner is presented with an award however, they can only afford one trophy so have to ask for that trophy back because they need it for the next episode.
This got me thinking…

Been trying to figure out what a proper Tabletop Trophy might look like, so doodled a few ideas and started to mock up a few of them in SketchUp. One thing led to another and I have created a paper craft trophy design specifically for Wil's Tabletop show.

Have just emailed my finished design the (nets & instructions) into the show. I was planning to illustrate this design too but decided to let the creative Geek & Sundry community do that with the simple instruction - 'make it look Awesome'.

Not sure if this will become a 'thing' or not but was a fun project to explore. What do you think of my solution for Tabletop's champion meeple?

Project: The Baconeers

"What's this"?  I hear you say.. 

Well, most of my readers won't know this, but at the start of this year (2013) my home was burgled. Luckily, the only things taken were two of my Apple Mac computers. Unfortunately, I had to come to terms with the loss of a few cool projects that had not been backed up at the time. 

I have managed to find a few older files since then, so should be able to come back to this project in the future, but it's only a fraction of what I had been working on. I tried to re-do the logo today (pictured above) but it's just not quite as good as I remember it, which is truly depressing, then I start thinking about how much of this particular project has been lost - ( I really love designing logos).  I think I'll stop working on this altogether for now - (still feeling a bit raw over the loss I guess)

Anywho, So I don't forget about this great idea all together, I though it best to post it on my blog for now and reminisce for a little.  Inspired by designer vinyl toys I decided to developed a generic shape that could incorporate lots of other colour combinations, so although it's the same base model you could literally make hundreds of different themed combinations/characters. I was getting really engrossed in this project prior to the burglary and had come up with some really interesting character backstorys which helped to solidify my main theme.  

I decided to call this project, "The Baconeers". and also planned to run this particular project as a exciting paper craft workshop for kids of all ages to book a place on. With lots of different coloured papers to choose from and stickers/ink stamp designs they could make one of these characters for themselves and personalise it plus read all about their particular pig's 'back story'... 

I was playing with the word "Bacon" in reference to Sir Francis Bacon and his Baconian method.   

My premise, (from what can I remember), followed a herd of pigs in a farmyard who were attempting to develop an alternate fuel source (bio-fuel) to help change their farms fortune.  

To test the pigs fuel mixtures they were inspired by the idea of making rocket packs, having observed the farmer watching an episode of Rocketman on TV. I remember redesigning their rockets in the end because I had thought the shapes of milk churns and butter churns would look cool if they were flipped upside down and converted into strap-on rocket packs. These things would also be the type of objects available to the pigs on a farmyard anyway as opposed to a custom gleaming chrome ACME style rocket that I had initially started to work on. 

Plus their corrugated metal Pig arks/huts also resembled those old aircraft hangers too, so the visual themes were really starting to gel together and make sense. The colour combinations also got refined down in the end to correspond to all the different types of pig breeds if i remember correctly.

Were the pigs able to turn around their farms fortunes?  One day I'll sit down and piece this project back together again so that you can find out... ;-)

What do you think?    

  

Speculative ideas: My Weetabix cut out model

Before my time making greetings cards I had sent several speculative designs off to Weetabix, in an attempt to get cut out models back onto cereal boxes. Excess waste was fast becoming a public concern who's focus seemed to settle on the food industry. I thought that cut out and make models seemed an ideal way to re-use the cardboard packaging...

One of my ideas was based on the popularity of the TV show "The X-Files." I dubbed it, The W-Files... Utilizing the whole box and not just the back of it, you could cut out and make a filing cabinet. In each packet of Weetabix would also be cards and stickers to collect so you could build up your case files of the wired and supernatural...
I even played with the logo to suit the X-file theme - crop circles seemed apt.

This and my other designs for Weetabix were forwarded to Jones Knowles Ritchie Ltd, a London based design consultancy firm responsible for the Weetabix account. I had no idea at the time, but they were updating the Weetabix branding as well, to the new lozenge shaped logo you see today.

They sent me a nice letter in reply - and I quote...

"In general we thought you had some very imaginative
ideas and the thoughts behind these concepts show a
genuine passion for the brand..."

"Your ideas show clear thinking and it is nice to see
that you have thought beyond the pack itself and
transferred the branding onto other things
such as the filing cabinet...."

John Ewles, Jones Knowles Ritchie Ltd, 25th/10/2000.

Never fear... I'll get one of my paper models onto the back of a Weetabix packet one of these days - mark my words!!! :-)