Assembly Update #4 - Final Stretch for the Color Cards
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 11:08:16 PM
*cue Professor Farnsworth's voice* GOOD NEWS EVERYONE
QA is now finished for the color cards, which means that the next step is stuffing boxes with cards and booklets and then packing them for shipping.
WHAT THIS MEANS:
If you have ordered ONLY a color deck, or multiple color decks (but no black decks), you will be getting yours first. I will begin sending them out next week to Kickstarter backers.
If you have ordered a color deck and a black deck (or any combination that also involves a black deck), we are still waiting. For cost's sake I will be shipping multiple decks out together, so if you ordered two or three (or more) decks, you will be getting those all at once.
THE BLACKOUT CARDS:
Basically what happened with the black decks is as follows: The printer who made them is different from the printer who made the color decks, and unfortunately they made some mistakes that - while not necessarily super noticeable to everyone - are very obvious to me. Several of the sheets were printed drifted (over half of them), and all the ones that were not drifted were ever so slightly crooked, which means that while the top row of cards on the sheet looks great, the lower rows were slightly drifted.
In the words of my contact at the Paper company: "We are not going to settle for anything less than perfect". This means that they are totally re-printing and re-cutting the black cards at their own expense, and they are adding an extra person to the process to make sure this does not happen again. They are also adding specific anchor points on the sheets so that the drift is avoided.
This should not take too long, my guess is (and I do not have a definite time frame yet but rest assured I will update you all when I do) I should have all the black cards in the next two weeks. Judging by how long the colored cards took - and since I learned some new techniques along the way - I'm guessing that I can get all of the cards punched out of the cut sheets within two weeks, and we can get all of them QA'd in about two weeks, which means once I get the cards in my house we're looking at one month before they'll be shipping.
In the meantime, I'm going to prepare all the packages for those of you who ordered both a blackout deck and a color deck, or multiples of any combination. Once the Blackout decks are ready to ship, we will be stuffing the rest of the envelopes and mailing them out.
All of that said - sorry I'm always so long winded, but information is important - I'm very excited about this, and to be honest I'm kind of glad that it's going to be staggered like this, because it gives me a little breathing room.
A very very big thank you to my family for helping me QA the color cards, and for all of their support. And of course, thank you all so much for following along this journey! The end is nearly in sight.
-Taylor
Assembly Update #3 - Black Cards Comparison
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 10:54:43 PM
Hello one and all, and a happy Saturnalia to you (or whatever other wintery holidays you celebrate),
Just wanted to drop by and give an update on the assembly process. As mentioned before, all Spectrum cards have been sorted into individual boxes, and now they are being checked for quality control: In the process of stripping the cut sheets, some cards were damaged, so we're going through each box and making sure every card in them are up to snuff.
Once this is complete for all 80 boxes (of roughly 1000 cards per box), we will begin stuffing boxes with cards. We have several tall book shelves upon which we will place the finished product.
I also wanted to share a video comparing the Blackout Cards of yore (the test samples) with the final product. In this video, the old card stock is on the left and the new card stock is on the right. I used the Death card because it's one of my favorites both in Tarot in general, and in these designs. You will notice that the new stock is much smoother, and light reflects off them more consistently. I am so absolutely pleased with how these turned out. The card on the right is a little bent because this is one of the scrap cards (not going to make it into a final deck) but it was the first one I took off the pile and I was super excited to share with everyone.
Thank you all once again, for supporting this project, for your boundless patience, and for believing in me.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever,
Taylor
First Half Sorted - Assembly Update 2
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 12:56:24 AM
Greetings once again!
About 5 minutes ago I finished sorting the last of the 2nd stack of Spectrum Edition cards. That means that we can move onto quality control for these cards while the Blackout cut sheets are punched and sorted.
Next Monday we will begin assembling the Spectrum decks, and once we have several boxes assembled, shipping will begin. This means that I will be locking in addresses on the Solstice, December 21st. If you need to change your shipping address, send me a message here on Kickstarter through this page with your new address.
I will definitely be posting more pictures as the process unfolds!
-Taylor
PHOTOS - Assembly Update 1
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 01:04:40 AM
Hello one and all,
First of all I want to thank you all for your patience and support with this project, and I also want to thank my friend Ryan for coming over today and working with me for 6 hours to get through part 1 of 4 of sorting these cards.
I also want to thank Peter and Hannah from Fresh Water Game Co, who brought their experience as Kickstarter creators who've gotten their hands dirty to help me come up with a game plan for tackling these cards; as well as for staying with me for hours to help me get things started.
We are now through a quarter of the sorting process, and once the second quarter is tackled, we will begin packing Spectrum decks (The color version). I currently have half of the black cards (the third quarter), and will be getting the last portion of black cards after Thanksgiving, so my hope is to have all the Spectrum decks done being sorted by the beginning of December.
Here's some pictures of the progress, and the paper waste which Ryan has graciously offered to recycle for me.
Good News
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 01:39:37 AM
Printing is done.
Production has begun.
I received about 75% of the materials for the decks, which includes all the boxes, all the booklets, all the colored decks, and the first half of the black decks. They are finishing the rest up this week and should have it to me either early next week, or after Thanksgiving.
What this means is that I will begin actual production of the decks - collating cards, stuffing boxes, etc. and when I have some done I will begin shipping!
Keep in mind, this does not mean shipping has begun. I will make another update about that. At least now the cards are in my hands and I can start working on assembling decks. For now I am separating the cut sheets into stacks of individual cards, so I currently have a grid of boxes laid out on my living room floor.
The cards turned out great, the colors are perfect, the stock is exactly what I was looking for, and they're sufficiently glossy. I can't wait to share pictures, which I will be doing this weekend once I've had a moment to settle down and breathe.
Thank you all for your tremendous patient, the wait is almost over!
-Taylor
