I'll weigh in with my thoughts on the design for Topps base set in 2011:
First, I still think its pretty wild to be even looking at the design for 2011 while the 2010 season isn't even over. Though I like the early preview, it does take away from what used to be one of the first signs of spring, the appearance of the new baseball cards at the grocery store. Of course, you can't find baseball cards at the grocery store anymore, and Series 1 comes out in January, so I guess all of that is out the window.
I do like what Topps has come up with. Having the team logo on the front is always a plus for me. I didn't care much for the team wording that was on the front of this year's cards. The Cubs font that was used just isn't very identifiable to the team. That's not the case for a team like the Dodgers of Cardinals, but for the Cubs, it the circle logo that most identifies the team.
I haven't seen any Cubs players featured on any of the 2011 mockups, but I would assume that the team logo will have a blue border and the arc containing the player's name will also be blue. All of the matching blue always looks nice
The only complaint I have about the design is that the name arc will be very difficult to copy for anyone (like me!) who wants to make their own cards. Curving the letters and getting the variations in shading will be a real challenge. It looks like it will be even harder than the 2010 cards, and they were a big enough pain.
I know there are plenty of bloggers who make cards with older designs, but I don't recall seeing anyone else attempt 2010 cards. Is that right, or did I miss some? I have made several, but getting the player's name to look right was very time consuming.
Here is my 2010 Starlin Castro card. Since the cards seem to have become more difficult to copy, I wonder if that is intentional on Topps' part? Do you thing the are purposely making the designs more complicated to foil us amateur photoshoppers? Or should I just take off my tin foil hat and forget about these conspiracy theories?
If Topps cared about the amateur photoshopping, they'd probably be sending out cease & desist notices. :)
ReplyDeleteI like next year's design, but I wish Topps would have waited until after the World Series to unveil it. (Then again, November is probably a little too late to start soliciting cards that will be in stores in February.)
Shhhhhhhh!!!! Don't give them any ideas!!
ReplyDeleteI like the logo on front, too. I don't really care for the shading on the name, though. I always prefer a simpler design.
ReplyDeleteI guess when I saw them on Topps site, I thought the base cards were going to be full-bleed. Now that I see they're not, I'm slightly less thrilled about the design. Still nice-looking, though.
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