25/08/2016

Ads of the future

I've been thinking lately, and I've come to a resolution. I need to place some ads on the blog.

...

More exactly on the buildings of my board :D

When I posted this pic some weeks ago it was so obvious:

Fifty shades of grey
This city looks too dull and dark. You could argue there's nothing wrong with that given that, even in a RT setting, all the WH40K environment is supposed to look gritty and gloomy. Yes, I'm OK with that and it's an essential part of the ambientation. But that doesn't mean I have to play on a boring board! Part of this project is bringing a city to life, not having just a generic board with generic obstacles. Visually I need this board to have some more colour, and background wise I need it to look like a real city (or at least as a plausible one; I pretty much prefer that adjective). Dark, anguishing, oppressive, yes whatever you want. But part of modern life in any urban environment is advertising. That works for sci-fi too.

I had done one sign when I made my follow-on milk building, so I just had to follow the path:

This actually exists, it's Chinese toothpaste. Honestly
I then rescued a couple of pieces I had forgotten. When I got my LaserCutcard buildings, they both had huge billboards, but I never placed them, as I didn't know what to do exactly. Now it was time for it. I gathered a few card tokens. All of them actual labels from clothing (the wife got kinda suspicious when I volunteered to take all those card pieces apart for her...). They are rigid enough and some even have nice shapes. I then painted over them and got this:

Suber art unleashed
Well, I didn't need them to look nice or realistic. They didn't have to accomodate to our current vision of advertising nor even look visually pleasant. They serve a purpose, which is giving the impression of actual ads in a sci-fi context.You may notice a Blue Sun sign and other Mandarin inscriptions. If I ever dare to begin my Firefly/Serenity project, I wanna get sure I have some proper settings ;)

OK, so now they need some weathering. That's the dirty Warhammer touch. The first big billboard is one of the LaserCutCard ones. I wrote Ludi (Games in Latin Gothic, for a correct 40K ambientation) on one side and the same in Mandarin (according to Google Translator) on the other. If any Chinese speaker ever reads me, please correct my mistakes!

Ain't a rusty, dirty sign a perfect invitation for games and fun?

I'm not even trying to pronounce that
I really didn't know what to advertise on the other big billboard. I thought of a giant Arbites sign and something in the "we are watching" mood; but I thought it would be preposterous being the size this sign is. I went for something more universal...

Adeptus Mechanicus approved. It also works fine for any post-apoc setting
For all the rest I used pieces of card, as told before. No serious planning, just the first thing that came to mind for each one:

Oppidum. Obviously a construction company
I've used the white/orange scheme before, so I thought it would be OK relating it to some port company
Absolute retro looking. No idea of what I'm advertising, but seems to work here
Kind of an late 80's/early 90's look. Works for me
The label was already 'B' shaped. If it's good enough for real stuff, it's good enough for me
My concession to Firefly
All this large space just for this. Less is more
Oh, come on! This is totally justified and needed
They needed somewhere to stand. Cheap & easy solutions, as always. For example:


Others were made of wood pieces and rubbish stuff
So the final result was like this:

Casual bystander for scale
They all look like reliable companies and products
Not only I can use them for my urban setting, but for any post apoc wasteland fallen into oblivion
They were supposed to encourage customers. Yikes
Oops! I didn' t take a solo pic of the one below
Sorry, yesterday I had no time to deploy my whole board and buildings again for a proper shot. What I did is just taking a pic of some buildings so you can have an idea:

When on a complete board these are supposed to look better
Of course this is but an approach, I'd like to make some more stuff in this fashion. I'm thinking of signs hanging on the walls. They are much more usual to see and will also add visual impact.

From Ghost in the Shell. You get an idea of what I envision in my mind
 This is all for now. The town keeps on growing...

28 comments:

  1. Excellent stuff, they look perfect. I want to see pics of the whole board now

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    1. Thank you! I do have to assemble it all!

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  2. Love the Red Ambull sign Suber :DDD

    Great work man :)

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    1. Haha, that was absolutely necessary! :D I need to develop some more concepts, hehe. Thanks!!

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  3. this is excellent. Our graphic environment is definied in good part by those visual elements so this makes a lot of sense.
    The notes of humour (had a laugh at red Ambull) are icing on a tasty cake amigo.
    Totally stealing this !

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    1. Thank you! I believe so, ads are quite an important part of how we perceive our own reality, I thought it was a touch this board was needing, just for some depth (well, just for fun in fact!)
      I'd love to see ads of your own, I'd most probably steal them back! :D :D

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  4. jajaja tremendo!!!

    Pero creo que te vamos a tener que denunciar por publicidad encubierta. Ya sabes que aqui estรกn al quite con eso :P

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    1. ¡Glups! ¿La SGAE estรก mirando? :O

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  5. sooooo cool!
    i love it!!
    (I want something similar in my house XDD)

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    1. Haha, thank you! You can see, they are ultra easy to do. I may print some real stuff and stick it to card for the next batch...

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  6. Excellent additions there with the signage. Now I say you need posters and handbills plastered everywhere.

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    1. Hehe, I'm afraid you're right, and that's extremely terrifying, I shiver under the perspective of extending this to the infinite!! :D

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  7. It all looks great. The Blue Sun ad brings a tear to my eye

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    1. Thanks! Blue Sun was a must, for sure it's not the last time you'll see that over here...

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  8. Nice work! Agree with Cj Killbride above, handbills and posters will also add to the look, and you could advertise other companies, or repeat these themes.

    And Red Ambull! Perfect.

    Something I would like to do for my own (eventual) board is to use the large range of day-glow acrylic signs that the various laser cutting terrain companies put out. I suspect that with the right touch ups they would make a great holographic sign.

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    1. Thank you! I've had a look over some of those signs you talk about, I also think of them with love ;)

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  9. oh, looks really fantastic mate!
    All of them I love:)

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    1. Thank you! As said before, really easy to achieve and fun to design!

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  10. Some great ideas for signs and well executed.
    Also, I love your taste, ...
    Ghost in the Shell is also a favourite of mine and any project trying to mimic the unique atmosphere of the series/movies/manga gets a big thumbs up from me! ๐Ÿ˜‰

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    1. Oh, a man of taste :)
      I have lots of different influences, but you can see they all go roughly in the same direction :D

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  11. Red Ambull - brilliant :-) Does it mix well with Vostroyan Vodka?

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    1. Hahahaha!! There's only one way to find it out...

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  12. Excellent! Love Red Ambull

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    1. Haha, thanks! It was totally fun, one of those absurd ideas that came from time to time :D

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  13. These are great Suber. You must have had fun coming up with them. Blue Sun is a lovely nod, but Red Ambull has got to be the funniest of them. Love your rust work on them too.

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    1. Thank you! I think I'll google some more Firefly signs and ads to print and glue, this stuff is addictive! :D

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  14. Very very very very very very well done Suber! Those are really cool pieces you have painted up. Love them! ^_^ And the easter eggs/homage on the ads ... BRILLIANT!

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    1. Wow, thank you so much! I just picked up some weird, funny ideas, and mixed them all. I'll be needing more ads! :D

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