Teefury

I understand the font is consistent with the show but I find it hard to read. Also the bottom seems busy with the addition of the mandarin (which most people wont be able to translate). Hope this helps

Maybe it's not the font.. i think it's because the words are too close together. Maybe add space between them, just a little bit.

Words look a little too close together, but an allover good design.

To do over the next day or two:

1 - add the four-pointed star.

2 - words: separate the words (and see if changing the kerning setting of the letters to separate each letter from its neighbor helps too). Knock out the Mandarin (aw, I really like the Chinese in there, it's a proper translation of the English and everything!).

3 - I think I could do a single color one, just white on the gree shirt color. It couldn't have the flag, but the logo and the words don't need them. memo to self: it means adding an extra band of white around the outside of it.

As always, thanks for the input.

personally I like the mandarin and if you're going to get rid of the flag for a single color design it might give you the room to keep it

I'll be throwing a few ideas up in the next few days (getting ready for a vacation in Canada, so I'll be incommunicado for a week).

This morning before I had to leave for work, I took out the Mandarin (beware1984's suggestion) but I haven't kerned the text yet. Moved the word 'celebration' over. And the star has been added. Let's see how it looks (Ironwings) in monochrome.



I still think there's room for the Mandarin (I like it too, it goes with the whole ethos of the show. And who here didn't watch the show because they didn't understand the cussing?!?) when I spread the text out (AlphaHotel), but monochrome is not just feasible ...with Teefury's preference for fewer-color designs, it might be a tipping point in deciding which version I submit.

Of course, any of the versions will be available if it's selected (fingers crossed).

I loved the original design, not so sure how I feel about the monochrome version. I could read the words fine and while it was busy, it looked like what a real shirt would look like for U-Day.

However, a proud Browncoat like myself would have a real hard time wearing a U-Day shirt...and the font does make it look like it says Unification Pay, by the way.

SeckzBobOmb said: I loved the original design, not so sure how I feel about the monochrome version. I could read the words fine and while it was busy, it looked like what a real shirt would look like for U-Day.


However, a proud Browncoat like myself would have a real hard time wearing a U-Day shirt...and the font does make it look like it says Unification Pay, by the way.

So what would Mal or Zoe do to deface such an announcement? Jayne wouldn't do it, he didn't fight in no war!

You're right about the D looking like a P. For some reason, the font puts a tail on some upper case letters, and it messes up the D. If it's a pronounced problem on the lower case D too, I can manually fix it with a quick cut and paste in GIMP, or change the text to a path in Inkscape and make sure the Y-axis measurements tally on a line with other letters.

Mal wouldn't need to deface the announcement...war's long over, we're all just folks now.

But he might find himself wearing a particularly brown coat in a particularly alliance friendly bar on U Day...just well...just for the fun of things.

I think the new version looks good. Fix the type nuances you discussed and save it. Then add colors back in one at a time. Maybe a 2 or 3 color version will look even better!

Lose the space behind the wings. Try Gold, Red, and Blue as colors mimicking the patch, White only as an outline/stroke if needed and make it for a black tee.

Possibly graffiti tag "Remember Miranda" as an overlay or under the text, with the other text crossed out with the same spray paint or marker style used to make "Remember Miranda"

Spotlighter said: Lose the space behind the wings. Try Gold, Red, and Blue as colors mimicking the patch, White only as an outline/stroke if needed and make it for a black tee.

Possibly graffiti tag "Remember Miranda" as an overlay or under the text, with the other text crossed out with the same spray paint or marker style used to make "Remember Miranda"

I am going to change the colors (which would still mean the flag is possible), but I can't use the Miranda reference. The sixth anniversary of U-Day sees Mal, Zoe, and Jayne in a bar on a tiny terraformed moon in Season 1 Episode 2 (The Train Job). According to the Firefly timeline, this happened in the year 2517. The crew are seen still dealing with issues from the first episode--Kaylee is still asking for a compression coil, the crew speaks of Simon and River as if they have only recently come aboard the ship. The onscreen caption "2517 A.D." during the opening narration indicates the year in which (most of) the series takes place. Jayne also acknowledges how hard it is to keep track of time in this episode by asking, "What month is it?" ...but the Fruity Oaty Bar kicking that River delivered in the bar happened the year after, in 2518. Mal says that Simon and River have been on the ship for "eight months" in the film Serenity ...he may have lost track of time like Jayne had in The Train Job, but there's no way he's out by more than a month or two!

So sorry: no mention of Miranda. It's a secret only the Alliance high military (and the Reavers) know about.

Before I begin: Hell's teeth, I am an übergeek!

beware1984 said: I think the new version looks good. Fix the type nuances you discussed and save it. Then add colors back in one at a time. Maybe a 2 or 3 color version will look even better!

I hope I can get this squeezed in before I leave for Quebec for the week.

I wasn't sure of the exact timeline as all is after the war , Maybe use lines from the lyrics. "Can't take the sky from me"

OK: a few changes have been made.

The Chinese is back, because it's central to the show (Ironwings). The problem with the font adding trailing stalks has been rectified (SeckzBobOmb) with use of upper and lower case versions of letters. The space has been lost behind the upper part of the wings, and the colors changed to more accurately depict the original patch (Spotlighter). This enabled me to make it a three color design (beware1984), when it's on a black shirt (Spotlighter).

This is the third iteration of Firefly: Unification Day.



The flag has been rotated 90 degrees to hang vertically (there's no canton on the flag to worry about what should be closest to the top of the pole. Or a pole, for that matter). That freed up some space. And I added more variation to the texture on the red planet to the bottom-left of the star (so that it will add variation if I do a monochrome version, which I think I will).

I'm not sure I should deface the design. There are designs for the bad guys in other genres (Death Eaters, anyone?), so I think just having an Alliance design will be a nice addition.

As always, comments and suggestions and offers to buy me beer are appreciated. I'm going to Quebec for a week, but I'll try to find a wi-fi connection somewhere in Quebec City and Montreal and drop a line.

Oh, forgot to add: changed kerning of the text t make it clearer which letter is which (noelpenn).

I took one look, and thought "the flag. Has to go." It was throwing off the symmetry set by the bird of prey in the crest.

So: flag's gone. Text centralized. Dark blue background (which means the blue of the planet could be removed to make it a 2 color shirt, at TeeFury's discretion).

I don't mean to be negative, but the Text is really hard to read.

MagicZipper said: I don't mean to be negative, but the Text is really hard to read.

It is. Very. And that's a problem in its current state.

The problem is one I've mentioned before: a -shirt design is always in Portrait mode, never in Landscape. To do a banner that says "Unification Day" would be fine. I could stretch it. But I'm trying to fit fourteen letters and a space in a 12 inch / 30cm space.

Thankfully, there's a way out. Unification Day was also referred to as 'U-Day' in the Firefly 'verse!

The day that the Unification War ended is known as "Unification Day" (often abbreviated to "U-Day") and is celebrated as a holiday throughout the Alliance. Alliance military officers like to drink a toast to Unification Day and enthusiastically encourage others to join in the festivities.

I'm still having the Chinese text, but on one line. Apologies if you can't see the Mandarin characters here.

為慶祝六週年的統一
Wèi qìngzhù liù zhōunián de tǒngyī
To celebrate the sixth anniversary of unification.

You can see them on this version (version 4b)...



Again: is this fit for submission? Any other changes needed?

I think it looks great! Now the mandarin works visually even if I don't know what it says. Final critique for me is have the text consistent. Either have all the letters clear with white stroke or all with white fill

beware1984 said: I think it looks great! Now the mandarin works visually even if I don't know what it says. Final critique for me is have the text consistent. Either have all the letters clear with white stroke or all with white fill

Text all as an outline, just as shown in the screenshot with Jayne Cobb above.

Tomorrow I set off for a week. I'll leave it open for any more suggestions, then I'll tweak anything when I get back and submit it.

I have to disagree here and say the word V-Day looks better with a white fill. In the final design so far the word V-day becomes lost amongst the other text, despite it's larger size.

It's perfectly consistent with typography to have the title wording or key items in bold or reversed colors or indeed in a different complimentary type face.

You could simply fill V-Day with white. And perhaps even add a fine thru color inner line around the edge as you have done on the text of some of the previous versions.

Much better. Clean and direct.

Maybe fill in "6th annual" and "celebration"
then sell it and make some beer money.

You guys!!! I have tried all combinations of filled out outline, and so it only looks like this is a cosmetic change. I personally like the U-Day filled in too (Chuffy), but doing so will leave the text unsymmetrical (two unfilled lines below, only one above). Filling in the smaller English lines would be symmetry (Spotlighter), but it makes them look a little blocky (and distracts from the main 'U-Day' text, meaning you see the smaller text at a distance before seeing the main text).

It's being submitted ...but if it's accepted, I can't send the larger version until my return from The Great White North.

Just putting this here: the roll call of people that helped, added to the design, gave great advice and info.

beware1984, noelpenn, AlphaHotel, Ironwings, SeckzBobOmb, Spotlighter, MagicZipper, Chuffy.