Belegarth

Something I have been thinking about for some time is a recognizable logo that can be put out to the masses. I think I have mentioned this before but I want to bring it up again. What I would like to do first is ask for volunteers within the community to come up with a logo that we can stick on everything and really get our name out there. This is going to help us with a couple of other issues as well. There were discussions on this earlier this year about how Belegarth can make money, and one way was to charge a percentage for each event. This idea has some merit but I think this may drive folks away since budgets for events are tight to begin with. If we have a logo, we can put that logo on merchandise and sell that merchandise. If you had t-shirts up at Troll...I am sure more than a few people would by one. Or maybe a beanie hat, baseball cap, hoodie, car decals...you get the point. If the money from that is used to help fund our sport then we could used the money we have to better our events. These are all just thoughts here, and I welcome any and all feedback.


Thanks,
Swordbrother Bam

I'm going to put some work in on logotype design for Bel over the course of the semester, as I get time and inspiration.

I'll keep y'all posted.

I can't promise much from me -- going in to my full-time student teaching -- but I support this idea and will do what I can, if I get a chance and the inspiration.

I support this idea because A) it raises money without mandating that anyone pay money, and B) it gets more people seeing and asking about our name/symbol.

I am not sure about this idea because if there simply one official symbol, it would kinda feel.... too much like a commercialistic copyrighted packaged deal, rather than a growing and developing community that has come together to interact with padded swords.

If that makes sense... basically, I like the idea as long as it comes from the ground up rather than from the top down. If there is a symbol that everyone uses because they like it -- that's good. If there's a symbol that no one really feels represents them that starts popping up everywhere and we're told that it represents us even though we feel it doesn't -- that's not as good.

But I'm being picky. Carry on. I'll throw in my hand at a logo sometime later.

Oh, here's something I did a while ago (I stole the writing. I just added the sword):

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/ ... /logo1.jpg

I understand what Magpie is saying and I like his idea. Now my two cents just to critique your design would be the lettering. They are very fancy and flowing. And truthfully mainstream media doesnt support that, I understand that nobody really joins **** sport to be cool but there is that one jock from high school that may come out cuz it looks interesting but seeing "girly" handwriting may turn them off to the idea.

Take this for what its worth, just my $0.02

#1 until we get rid of goblyns and knights we are a game with sport like tendencies...

#2 didn't we try this with cafe press and such

not trying to nay say but dont we already have a sport logo?

Well I say that on Cafe Press, and we could use that as a logo but it seems dated. As far as selling stuff on Cafe Press, I am not so crazy about that idea. I helps as we do not have to keep inventory, but the cost of the items seems to drive people away. If there was something in the middle, that would work. Essentially, to make this work here is what we need:

1. A well designed logo that is going to make people ask, "What is that!" and "How can I get into that!"

2. We need a supplier that can make the items we would like to sell, and be able to put our logo on.

3. This supplier also needs to be able to drop ship items to clients. In other words, the company with our logo'd items must be able to ship directly to the customer. The money would come to us and we would pay the supplier. The other options one or own does the merchandising.

I am sure this more to it than just this but these are the basics at a high level.

The logo does not have to be just a picture of fighers and swords. It can just our name with like a sword underneath it like an underlining. This way we are not stuck with a picture we don't like or want to change often.

Keep the ideas and thoughts flowing folks! Good stuff!

B.A.M. wrote:We need a supplier that can make the items we would like to sell

That is the hard part, I mean, who sells tunics, knee pads, gloves, etc.

I think Bam is talking about Tshirts, hoodies, bags, etc.

cafe press may seem expensive but it removes liability from the person who is the contact point... and one can be made in the name of belegarth... and if bumped and sported enough it could go over well....
also depending on the cut recieved from cafe the shirts could be resold at a profit ...

the idea of cafe press is nice because it removes a ton of stress

Very true, and I haven't dealt with them much maybe if we have bulk orders or something they will work out better pricing with us. I would have to investigate that with them, and I am not opposed to that just going off my one past experience with them trying to sell some shirts. If someone has better experience working with them, please feel free to contact them about this.

I thought to myself, "Hey, you know what I want? One of those oval stickers for Belegarth!"

So I made one.

http://www.cafepress.com/BelArrakis.350517076

They're priced at cost, right now.

I can put it on single stickers if you guys want.

That looks great and not a bad price for a 10 pk of stickers! GJ Arrakis!

See I know Ora does this kind of work as well. Ora if you see this can you give us some feedback?

Go with the universal sports logo... the red and blue with the white figure in the middle. Make it universal for foam fighting maybe, then put BMCS or something to identify it as specifically Belegarth.

B.A.M. wrote:There were discussions on this earlier this year about how Belegarth can make money, and one way was to charge a percentage for each event.

This idea is horrible. I’d say more, but I’m sure I’d only be preaching to the choir. While the merchandise idea is much better than an event tax, as pointed out the overhead and management of such a project is cumbersome to say the least. The last event t-shirts I bought (Rag XVIII I think) were way over priced ($30) and lasted through one washing. I’m not sure I would buy another event t-shirt unless they were dirt cheap ($10 - $15); I fear being ripped off again. And really, if it came down to it… I could make my own Belegarth t-shirt at Café Press, or with an ink-jet iron-on and be accountable for the (lack of) quality myself.

People are going to make t-shirts and other merchandise anyway. There is a demand for it, and volunteers step in and fill that demand. Gumming up the works by taxing them, creating a system to track them, and finding and crushing out counterfeiters is more trouble than it is worth (and smacks as the same kind of things that split us from Dagorhir in the first place).

Why not use a donation system? Wikipedia does it. Most of the torrent sites I go to do it. Every ‘free’ podcast I listen to does it too. A link at the top of the belegarth.com and geddon.org pages and a Pay-pal account are all that would be required. I’d want to know what my money was doing, so open books would be a must… but if I were paying an event tax or buying t-shirts I’d want that anyway. And the possibility of voluntary merchandise linked donations would still exist, i.e. “$1 from every t-shirt purchase goes to the Belegarth National Organization Fund.” So you are taking care of your overhead problems (your volunteers, i.e. event coordinators, realm leaders, etc. make, house, and manage all of the product), and growing the sport/brand (your image gets out there in a peer created and reviewed format) all at the same time.

My two cents.

eeach wrote:Why not use a donation system? Wikipedia does it. Most of the torrent sites I go to do it. Every ‘free’ podcast I listen to does it too. A link at the top of the belegarth.com and geddon.org pages and a Pay-pal account are all that would be required.

Scroll to the bottom of your page.

Actually, we had a several month discussion on this about a year ago, and you've pretty much just summarized the consensus.

Scroll to the bottom of your page

I actually don't see the donate button anymore -- anywhere. Where should it be?

It depends what theme you're using. Some (like subSilver) don't have the button.

Derian wrote:

eeach wrote:Why not use a donation system? Wikipedia does it. Most of the torrent sites I go to do it. Every ‘free’ podcast I listen to does it too. A link at the top of the belegarth.com and geddon.org pages and a Pay-pal account are all that would be required.

Scroll to the bottom of your page.

Wow, way for me to be oblivious. ~.~

Derian wrote:Actually, we had a several month discussion on this about a year ago, and you've pretty much just summarized the consensus.

Good. Everyone is finally on my level. What else can I clear up for everyone? :-p

Wisp wrote:Go with the universal sports logo... the red and blue with the white figure in the middle. Make it universal for foam fighting maybe, then put BMCS or something to identify it as specifically Belegarth.

something like this???



winfang made the logo a long time ago

That could almost be branded for all foam fighting sports, and I like that it has no words on it either. I knew this was around some place...hehe

Yep, just like that. Except for the figure, I'd ditch the guy with the Jav in a skirt and go for a sword and boarder or at least single sword. Wearing pants.

Will

Wisp wrote:Yep, just like that. Except for the figure, I'd ditch the guy with the Jav in a skirt and go for a sword and boarder or at least single sword. Wearing pants.

Will

basic rule of character design is always a dynamic pose. Sword and board is rather all on the mid line the silhouette doesn't read well. That's why the Javy pose looks alright because it has that strong cross line. I agree sword and board is better but it is rather boring to look at the outlines most of the time.

One of these days, I'll make a few more new ones like that at mad high resolution.

http://albertabelegarth.googlepages.com/logopack

Nice Cib!

I personally like whisps idea earlier on in the post, but the work Cib came up with looks pretty spectacular as well. If those shirts were sold at Winter War heck I'd buy one.