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Sunday 22 March 2009

Solferino in Twenty Minutes – problems with the playing pieces

I designed the playing pieces for SOLFERINO IN TWENTY MINUTES so that when they were printed on A4 card, all I would have to do was fold them along the middle, glue them, and then trim them. I tried to do this on Friday evening … and discovered that whatever glue I tried to use (including PVA and Pritt Stick), the card absorbed it in such a way that when it had dried the playing pieces were warped or distorted.

I persisted, and several attempts later I had some playing pieces cut and ready to put into the plastic cards stands I had bought. Then my second problem reared its ugly head … they were too top heavy for the stands and would not stand upright!

By now I was beginning to feel a bit desperate. So I did what my wife always advises me to do when this happens … walk away from the problem and give it some ‘think time’. I went to bed and tried to sleep. As I was just dozing off I had an idea; print the images and text from the original playing pieces on to small labels, stick the labels to both sides of a blank business card, and then laminate them.

On Saturday morning I set of for the local business supplies store and bought everything I needed. The labels took a bit of time to get just right, but once I had set up the template correctly everything went like clockwork. By just after lunchtime I had a very neat pile of laminated playing pieces and activation cards (also printed onto blank business cards and then laminated) that fitted into the plastic card stands perfectly.

To all intents and purposes everything is now ready for Salute … but the feedback from visitors to my blog about the built-up area ‘boxes’ I have made has given me food for thought and I may have a re-think about them.

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