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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 1393176, member: 19065&quot;]The new cards for the B.E.P.&#039;s 150th Anniversary are a nice concept and commemoration idea. The selection of vignettes for each card seems appropriate as well. I personally like the Lincoln (Blue) card the most of the three. I note that this card, in particular, doesn&#039;t have the distracting background image under the vignettes that the other two do have. I assume the background images on the other two cards were <i>not</i> intaglio printed. Those two cards that do have a ghosted background image are too &quot;busy&quot; looking with their multiple layers of images and text encroaching on vignettes. I think it&#039;s a little beyond the explanation that they layer vignette images over ghosted background images for foiling further reproduction, and equally, they have the warning printed on the bottom of each of these cards not to do so. </p><p><br /></p><p>I am interested to hear which elements were intaglio printed. Probably only the vignettes were, but maybe the boarders are intaglio printed elements as well. I assume that the text around the Green card portrait wasn&#039;t intaglio printed either. I would be interested to hear about the two portraits (Green and Brown) to know if the faded area at their outermost parts were in anyway altered from their original dies. They do seem somewhat pulled back to allow the text wrapped around the Green card and faded near the head of the portrait in the Brown card, which is bumping into the corner of the building vignette.</p><p><br /></p><p>The unfortunate inconsistency in design elements of these comes with the application of various 150th Anniversary logos. They used a different one on each card! The designers seemed not to know where best to place this logo based on available space for balancing multiple vignettes on each card. The choice to use the heavy boarders really takes up a lot of available space on these cards, too. I personally think the 150th logo works best in the Green card, as a header for each card. It&#039;s arched design allows it to fit well in that top center boarder notch.&nbsp; Had they placed them all in the same position and at the same scale their consistency would lend better to the overall montage of vignettes being the focal points, and the logo wouldn&#039;t be as much of an intrusion, nor distraction to the vignettes. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sadly, on these cards the pale yellow 150th logo is very weak as a design element, particularly compared to the boldness of the borders and vignettes. The yellow logo gets lost on these cards since they choose an &#039;antiqued&#039; yellowish paper stock to emphasize age and the B.E.P.&#039;s long standing in this sesquicentennial commemorative concept. That the yellow logo is hard to see on this paper stock accounts for their using the black/yellow 150th logo on the Brown card. That logo is floating over open space and wouldn&#039;t contrast enough from the color of the paper stock had they not put some black into the design. The same logo would stood out more on the Green card where it is located if they used the black/yellow logo. The inconsistent scale and different logos on each card: one in yellow, one in yellow/black and the other with muted red and blue flanking it really diminished the attempt to add an additional design element, and one that is pretty important given it&#039;s the theme of these cards. </p><p><br /></p><p>The B.E.P.&#039;s digital layout skills don&#039;t show as one their strong points. It&#039;s clear that the old vignettes are still more powerful and maintain a dynamic presence on the paper that they are printed on. I hope I am wrong and the designers were not fiddling with the faded edges of the portraits. I wonder how prevalent the noodling with vignettes is with the capabilities of digital layout? Do they alter the original dies or still print the vignettes from originals at 100% scale? I know they used to but maybe things have changed without much being said. A comparison from earlier prints of these vignettes to that of the new prints would have to be made to see what if anything were altered for the sake of producing these cards.</p><p><br /></p><p>While it only would have made the overall design of these cards more busy, the B.E.P. might have used this stronger color flag version of the 150th logo that they have up on the main page of the B.E.P. site:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]166600.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I do like the logos they created and the choice of vignettes, I thing these cards just show there were too many hands in their creation and not enough pull back to add so many elements to the final design, even doing so with such wide inconsistency.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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