Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

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Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:41 am

I really like the poster level badges we have (Fresh Reacher, Junior, Senior, Expert and Gold Boarder). However, without offending the original designers, the graphic designs of those badges are somewhat rough and leave a bit to be desired (I'm no graphics expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once). We have a team of talented graphic artists over on the site I help run (RPG Geek) and I asked one of them (his name is Geert) to redesign the badges from the ground up.

Here are the originals:

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And here are the potential replacements (exactly 70x16 ... the very same dimensions though the enhanced detail means they are roughly twice the paltry 1.5k size of the originals):

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You can see the drop-shadow below the stick and anti-aliasing on the corners really makes these look amazing.

I've also had a silver border added. My recommendation would be:

0-49 Fresh Reacher
50-99 Junior Reacher
100-199 Senior Reacher
200-499 Expert Reacher
500-749 Silver Boarder
750+ Gold Boarder

Thus still yielding our most prolific poster, Bart, his Gold Boarder. With GIF or PNG files, we can add very slight animations as well. A subtle sparkle can be added to the Gold Boarder, for example, when a poster reaches 1000 (giving Bart something to aspire to!).

Who would I talk to about getting these installed into the system? This is an amazing site - and looks professional all-around with the exception of these rank badges which have always looked a bit rough. I think this small change (which was a non-trivial amount of work for the graphic designer) would go a long way to improving the site (cosmetically anyway). It's the little things that add up!

As an aside, there still hasn't been any traction on the FavIcon we had designed many months back. The forum section still has no favicon. My browser weeps gently at night - crying itself to sleep :(
Last edited by wavemotion on Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:00 pm

That's a nice initiative!
But I'm afread the silver stick would look too close to the platinum one.

Who would I talk to about getting these installed into the system?
I guess you should ask to the site's owner, Jenn.
(I've aldready emailed her about it.)

this small change (which was a non-trivial amount of work for the graphic designer)
I'm amused he/she agreed on doing it for free without any guaranty it would be used.
By the way, it would be nice to have his/her name for the credits, and an authorisation to edit his/her work to complete the set with admin, pro and platinuim rank (and maybe add new ranks).

As an aside, there still hasn't been any traction on the FavIcon we had designed many months back. The forum section still has no favicon.
The forum favicon should show up eventualy (when Jenn or "the tech guy" finds how to, or if I get a total control on the world), but it will certainly be the site's favicon that already exist long ago (and which is currently improperly linked to the forum), and not "the FavIcon you had designed".
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:12 pm

Shirluban wrote:That's a nice initiative!
But I'm afread the silver stick would look too close to the platinum one.
We have a platinum one?! Hmmm... okay, I can have a platinum one designed though it tends to just look like dirty silver :) We've never been able to get platinum right over on RPG Geek. Partly because of the light background we use. We've generally stuck to Copper, Silver and Gold as our primary color levels.But if you would rather have Gold followed by Platinum that's fine.
this small change (which was a non-trivial amount of work for the graphic designer)
I'm amused he/she agreed on doing it for free without any guaranty it would be used.
I've built up a lot of goodwill on RPG Geek - as a community there is no equal on the surface of the earth. By the way, this same person did the favicon redesign. In any event, as the community manager over on RPG Geek I always prefer people come to me with a potential solution along with any problems. So, I felt presenting redesigned badges was better and more tactful than simply saying "our current designs suck" :D
By the way, it would be nice to have his/her name for the credits, and an authorisation to edit his/her work to complete the set with admin, pro and platinuim rank (and maybe add new ranks).
PM me your email address and I'll have Geert send approval to use these in any way you see fit. If you like, Geert can design ADMIN and PRO badges as well with the same level of clean detail.
but it will certainly be the site's favicon that already exist long ago (and which is currently improperly linked to the forum), and not "the FavIcon you had designed".
As you wish. It's not quite as nice, IMO, but at this point I'll take anything and it probably makes sense to keep this consistent across the domain.

Edit: Added the PRO and ADMIN to the set above.

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by deJENNerate » Mon Apr 08, 2013 7:40 am

I am definitely on board!

Anyone who wants to help redesign things or help with coding, etc. is more than welcome. Our budget is just limited (T.T)

So let me know what needs to be done. You can always e-mail me at jenn@reachmahjong.com

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:53 am

deJENNerate wrote:I am definitely on board!

Anyone who wants to help redesign things or help with coding, etc. is more than welcome. Our budget is just limited (T.T)

So let me know what needs to be done. You can always e-mail me at jenn@reachmahjong.com
You have e-mail. :D
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:20 pm

Woot! Is there anything more you need, specifically, from me? I don't want to be the one to hold anything up, progress-wise.

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Mon Apr 29, 2013 1:33 pm

Just a quick PING to see if this has gained any traction or if there is anything I can volunteer to do to push this along.

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:09 pm

wavemotion wrote:Just a quick PING to see if this has gained any traction or if there is anything I can volunteer to do to push this along.
It's all on Jenn's hands, I hadn't got any life sign of her since her 08 April post.
I've e-mail her the procedure to use the new images on the 08 April, sent her further documentation on the 12 April, and sent a reminder on 19 April (copy to Gemma and Garthe for the last e-mail).
I'll re-remind her.
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:01 pm

Shirluban wrote:
wavemotion wrote:Just a quick PING to see if this has gained any traction or if there is anything I can volunteer to do to push this along.
It's all on Jenn's hands, I hadn't got any life sign of her since her 08 April post.
I've e-mail her the procedure to use the new images on the 08 April, sent her further documentation on the 12 April, and sent a reminder on 19 April (copy to Gemma and Garthe for the last e-mail).
I'll re-remind her.
Okay - thanks for carrying the torch on this!!

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:04 pm

Jenn is alive! :D

The situation should be unlocked "tomorrow".
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Fri May 10, 2013 10:41 am

Done!

I've added the silver rank, and also added a copper rank.
Sorry Bart, you've gone down to the silver rank, but you should get back your gold rank pretty soon.

I've also redesigned the mysterious platinum rank image.
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Fri May 10, 2013 12:03 pm

Nice!

Any chance we can see the whole set in ascending sequence? Mostly just because it will look cool :)

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Fri May 10, 2013 2:00 pm

  new       old
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But I won't tell the post-count limits. :P
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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by wavemotion » Fri May 10, 2013 2:58 pm

The new ones look fantastic! Good work all-around.

I also noticed we finally got our favicon as well. My bookmarks no longer weep at night!

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Re: Reach Mahjong Ranking Badges Redesigned

Post by Shirluban » Fri May 10, 2013 3:26 pm

wavemotion wrote:I also noticed we finally got our favicon as well. My bookmarks no longer weep at night!
I did made the change for that, but it's not supposed to be effective yet.
It looks like it depends on your web-browser:
- IE seems to take the favicon from the site's root folder.
- FF seems to show the favicon only if the page asks for it (this need some buffer refresh server-side to be on).

So, not everyone can see it for now.
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