Sunday, July 13, 2014

Odd'l Rockets Blog Improvements

Last night I stayed up and added:

   *  Art topper logo (it's not showing it all, just the left side)
   *  Kits Pages 1 & 2
   *  Accessories Page
   *  Dealers Page
Give me a few weeks to get these pages up to speed.
(I know, where's the Pigasus kit?) Fixed!
I still want to add a "Coming Soon" Page

Getting a new blog to look right takes some time.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Developing A Logo, Picking A Font, Part 2

The middle font reminds me of the old Irwin Allen Sci-Fi television shows.
In this revision, the second doubled "T" and "E" were flipped over so they didn't look the same.
Look at the second picture above to see how the letters look when two of the same Es are right next to each other.
To make it little more chaotic the ends of the two "N"s were extended above and below the baseline.
Some other letters got slight adjustments for better visual weight.
The emphasize the initials, the L, G and M were set larger than the rest of the letters. That's one way to make a capital letter when the font has no lower case.

Here's how the font will appear on the kit face card.
The word "Little" was thrown out and set smaller above the recess in the word "Green". It's now in white to stand out against the star background.
The words ""Green Man" got a white border for better contrast.

The end result works. It's easy to read and conveys a goofy 1960s space theme. The starry background also helps.

The years I sat setting type on the print shop VGC Phototypositor at the have paid off again.
The next time you throw away the instructions after building a kit, take a moment to realize it was one of the most time consuming and expensive parts to produce.
And this was just for the logo!

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Developing A Logo, Picking A Font, Part 1

Unless you've drawn up instructions before, you might not realize the work that goes into it. Here's a few hours work trying to come up with the right font and logo development for the new Little Green Man project. Take the time to find the right font for your design.

First pick out possible fonts:
www.1001freefonts.com
After you pick some favorites, set the name of your model using them. When you see the model name in different fonts, your first choices might change.
These six looked like they were workable, but they should convey the right look for the model. Enlarge the picture to see the comments.
The Little Green Man design is silly and should reflect the era of the UFO scares, the late 1950s and 1960s.
Three fonts were knocked out immediately. Whether they were set in all caps or in upper and lower they were too hard to read at a glace, the wrong era or seemed too scary for the look of the model.

Here's the three I was left with. The reversed letter angles in the top font just don't work and it's all caps.
The lower font is "Hippy-ish" and not the right feel.
More tomorrow - 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Kit Instruction Progress

While I was in Mexico, I worked on the Little Green Man Instructions They are almost done!

I continue to test fly the prototype model with good success.
This last Saturday the L.G.M. had a stable flight and good recovery with an Estes C6-5 engine. It has already flown once with A8-3, and four times with B6-4 engines.

Every new kit design goes through revisions.
A new prototype is being built with slight changes to the arms and legs.
While the slight changes probably won't effect stability, there will be additional test flights.

BMS is making up more custom nose cones they should arrive in a week. A few days ago I got a big Semroc order of ST-7 and ST-18 tubes.

I've heard it before: "Why does it take so long to produce a kit?"
Odd'l Rockets is a one man operation and these aren't simple 3FNC, RTF rockets.

www.oddlrockets.com New Address!

July 8, 2014
Thanks to Roger Smith -
(JonRocket.com and RocketReviews.com)
The old Odd'l Rockets website address is now directed here to the Odd'l Rockets Blog.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Welcome To The Odd'l Rockets Website - Blog


While I still own the domain name, I didn't renew the Odd'l Rockets website. Why?
If I sold products directly it would be worthwhile to keep the website. All kits and accessories are sold through vendors.

The Odd'l website is now Odd'l Rockets blog.
Believe me, doing a blog is much easier than updating and maintaining a HTML website.
The Odd'l blog will be developed and expanded when I am in Mexico in June and July.

I have some new ideas for Odd'l products. 
The new Odd'l Rockets (generic) parachute is getting good reports from vendors.
Models like the BreakAway are being redesigned using BT-50H heavy wall tubing. With Semroc leaving, it's getting harder to buy the older ST tubing. New BreakAway instructions will be drawn up on an upcoming cruise.
A new design to follow the popularity of the Pigasus kit is being explored.
The Flic Shuttle in the Combo Kit will be replaced with a conical stability model. It's a better match next to the Corkscrew design.
The FinTool might finally be available!
Revisions and improvements to the Odd'l kits and instructions.

Odd'l Rockets is still here! Things are just in "flux".