Arrived today

The pathtags arrived today.  Counted 3 times, because I thought there was one extra.  There are 51.  And 4 clips that turn a pathtag into a keychain.

Tags look pretty nice.  Abby was happy.

If you ignore my false start with J&J, who never responded, the entire process from first email to delivery took just about 2 1/2 months.  Good to know for next time.

Final changes to final design, and ordered!

Gary sent a final design.  In the color code on the left side, the block for the red on the umbrella looked a little orange.  I asked him if he could fix it.  He did, and sent this:

Submitted to pathtags.com with the MDGPS backing tonight.

ORDER#      37389

SERIAL#     6316531

Going with this!

Confirmed with Gary and paid via Paypal.

More lost email? And a new version. And my changes.

I'm not high maintenance, am I?

I emailed Gary because I was worried that he might have sent another revision that got lost.  My mom forwarded her Southwest itinerary and I never got that.  Is Comcast a little too restrictive on what it calls spam?  Changed my on-line Comcast settings.

Got a new version from Gary shortly after emailing him.

He missed my request for colors of the canopy cells.  I'm going to try that again.

My name should be all lower case.  Still too "funky" a font.

It's close.  Really close.

Edits

Changes I asked for:


1.  There are 14 sections on the parachute (they’re called cells on the canopy so if I start to say “cells” that’s what I mean).  It really should be 9.  This turns out to be sort of a big deal for me, the more I think about it.  Not sure if the one color is dark blue or purple (I like the color, just not sure what to call it).  So I’m going to call it purple just so I can ask if the colors can go Yellow/Green/Purple/Yellow/Purple/Yellow/Purple/Green/Yellow from left to right.
2.  Two things on the “joejackson” in the canopy – I don’t really like the font.  Is there another similar font?  I think it’s the extra things hanging off the j, e, and a.  Abby (my daughter) doesn’t think the letters pop out enough against the canopy colors and the white clouds.  One idea she had was to remove the orange from the cells of the canopy and make the letters a bright red.  Would that work?  She wants it to “pop.”
3.  The image I sent you has the lines from the canopy to the guy laid out really weird at this shoulders.  This is the thing that I should have noticed before I sent it to you.  I played around with it just to see if I could make some sense of it.  Can you change that to look like the image attached?  Only better?  ‘Cuz I’m not great at this!
4.  I love the box hanging from the umbrella.  Never thought of that!  Really makes the whole thing a little better because now the guys hands are in the right place, and as you point out, the box will be large enough to make out.  Can you make the  grey handle on the top of the box a little wider?  My thinking is that it will give a better impression that the umbrella handle is under the box handle.  Or a darker color?  Not sure what would work best.

Initial design was lost in email?

Gary from Texas Dreamweaver replied.  He recalls sending me the design.  I don't recall ever seeing it.  I keep an eye on junk mail and spam folders, and it didn't show up there.  Must have just been one of those lost emails.  Initial design:

A couple of things caught my eye quick that I'm going to ask to be changed.  Hope I'm not being a pain the butt.  And I should have caught item #3 before I ever sent Gary my sketches and notes.
1.  Too many cells on the canopy.  14.  Should be 9.  Also I want to think about colors.
2.  Not sure why, but I don't think I like the font.
3.  Canopy lines should come to the shoulder.  This is from the image I sent Gary.  I really should have noticed it myself.

I want Abby's input before I reply to Gary.

Other options

Larry Potter gave me a couple of other designers today at the CAM picnic.  Abby texted them to me as Larry named them.

Chris Mackey - Aura
Jen - PinkSweets

I can look them up later if I want to try one of them.  Just wanted to get the short note down before I forgot.

Been a while

Felt like I was nagging, but I followed up with Texas Dreamweaver tonight.  It's been 3 weeks since I sent the email that he asked for requesting his services.  Is there something else I was supposed to send him?

Officially working with Texas Dreamweaver

Texas Dreamweaver responded to me today, asking for a formal request to design a pathtag, and to ask for some more details.  I sent a response.  I'm not in any rush, but it is good to know that I have a designer who is actually going to engage with me!

Goodbye J&J, Hello Texas Dreamweaver

Couldn't think of a way to nag J&J again.  Choice was between whining about them not getting back to me, begging for them to please please respond, or bitching that they suck about getting back.  All options took me down a path of not wanting to work with them.

The pathtags.com website has a long list of designers.  There's no indication of ranking or ordering, so I just took a look at some designs by a few at the top of the list.  J&J, by the way, is 3rd.  Texas Dreamweaver is at the top of the list.  Their pathtags look pretty cool.  Some with more detail than I think I want, some with less detail, so I'm probably in the right range.  Emailed them tonight.

Hello, hello again

First person to tell me what the title means can swing by the house for a $5.00 cash prize.

Still haven't heard from J&J Designs.  Friended Louis Caplan on FB and PM-ed him to ask how long it took.  He recalls they said about 2 weeks until they could get to his design.

Guess I'll hang on a few more days and follow up again.

Hello?

Not having heard from J&J Designs, I followed up.

"Just thought I’d check in, since it’s been a couple of weeks.  Are you just backlogged like crazy?

Thanks,

Joe"

Sent request to Designs by J and J

Holy crap I pulled the trigger! Sent this:

Hi J and J,

Louis Caplan (Nighthawk700) pointed me toward you guys.  I’ve been wanting to design a pathtag for a long time, but my artistic talents are lacking.  I have a rough idea for a pathtag that combines geocaching and skydiving.  I am completely at a loss when it comes to figuring out how much detail is too much or how little detail leaves too much empty space.

The picture in my head has a skydiver with a parachute over his head holding a geocache in his hands.  Some distant landscape or mountains below him and some clouds behind him.  Around the outside would be “joejackson” (my geocaching name) “Geocaching since 2006” and “Skydiving since 2009” but that might be too much to fit.

I have attached 2 files.  One is a crudely drawn stick-figure image of what I think I want, but without any background (because my hand drawing would just be clutter).  He’s holding an ammo can with the big G logo.  The other is an image of a skydiver that I downloaded from a Google image search that, for all I know, might be copyrighted.  But at least it’s an example of a cartoony skydiver.  You can see that the parachute has nine sections.  I’d like the sections to be purple, purple, yellow, yellow, black, yellow, yellow, purple, purple.

Can you help me?

Thanks,

Joe Jackson

Potential art?

My pre-kindergarten artwork:

Cartoony image of a skydiver I copied from a Google image search. This is probably copyrighted, which is why I haven't contacted Designs by J and J yet.

Maybe I'll finally start

On February 16, Cache Advance posed the question, "Do you have a signature item?" I replied that I did not, but always wished I was creative enough to design one that combined geocaching and skydiving. Louis Caplan (Nighthawk700) gave me a suggestion and a link to his blog chronicling the creation of his pathtag. Can I do this? One concern I had was that my artistic skills are so weak that it would take many email exchanges with a designer to get something that I had in my mind but could not put on paper. Could I be that annoying? Is it really annoying? Well, Louis seems to have gone back and forth with Designs by J and J several times to get it right, and it sounds like J and J was very accommodating. I'm getting a sheet of paper out and starting to search the web for an image that I like. Now I'm worried about copyrights.