Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Graphic Design 101: The Cover Design of Suits
Monday, June 29, 2009
Real Life Rules to live by...
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
- Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
- Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
- Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
- Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
- Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
- Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
- Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
- Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished d failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest re semblance to ANYTHING in real life.
- Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
- Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
- Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Talk to you later...
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Free Money from Project Wonderful!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS!!!!!
Paizo is selling the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook (OGL) PDF for $9.99
Friday, June 26, 2009
Must Watch: Awesome Blood-Sucking Daybreakers Trailer!
I think somebody must have been reading my blog about Obsidian Twilight. LOL!!! Talk to you later...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Books to Read: Tilting at Windmills
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
PDF Business Wednesday: Four questions that will change everything about your industry and help you succeed…
I don’t know where I even got this, but it was important enough for me to write down so here you go. If you really want to be the number one person/company in your industry than ask and answer the next four questions:
- Which of the factors that your industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
- Which factors should be reduced well below the industry standards?
- Which standards should be raised well above industry standards?
- Which factors should be created that the industry never offered?
Answers this four questions honestly and truthfully and you will take over that market. It is that simple. Talk to you later…
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Graphic Design 101 – Understanding Fonts and Logos
Monday, June 22, 2009
It is like waiting for a baby to come…
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Hot Artist of the Week - Raoxcrew
I have seen Raoxcrew work before and what I liked most what I saw. They have a cool "look" that is hard describe. I think they have a large select of art in there gallery, so you can look and what they do and what they do well. I hope they will release more art work to keep showing off their skills. Talk to you later...
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Two issues/episodes of the webcomic, Suits...DONE
Friday, June 19, 2009
Warren Ellis is not a great comic book writer and I will tell you why…
He has the weakest ending for all of his stories.
What do I mean by this? I mean Warren Ellis ends his comic stories horribly. My god! A writer with all that talent, and he couldn’t end a story strong to save his life. I am always amazed when he gets more work from comic book companies. Do they actually read the product he produces? Forget get the persona. Forget the attitude. Forget all the bullshit. Just look at his actual writing skill. Look at the list of work he has done and just ask yourself this little question, “Did this story end with the some power and excitement that is started off with?” The issue that really revealed his inability to end a story strong was Planetary #26. While the concept and idea to create Planetary was excellent and brilliant, the execution of it was not. Global Frequency is another one. Great concepts. All of them innovative and new. How does the series end, like oatmeal bland and boring.
Now I know I am breaking the hearts of many of you out there. Your love affair with Warren Ellis is everything to you in your little world. But let’s get to reality and tell the truth, Warren Ellis is like an OK race horse; great out of the gate and horrible finish. I am sorry I have broken the hearts of some of you. Now I am not saying that Warren Ellis is a bad writer. He always brings innovation to the next level. I am just saying he is a bad closer and like David Mamet said, “Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers only.” Talk to you later…
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Books to Read: Rules for Revolutionaries
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Nothing is going on in the RPG scene, and that worries me a little bit…
So with all this stuff for Gen Con going on, I am focusing on my two webcomic series; Suits and Ghostwalkers. On the script side Suits is MORE than ready to go just have to wait until artist, Jeff Wamester, is done with some other project so he can get started on doing this one. I hope (fingers crossed) to have Suits up and running by my birthday (That late August for those that are thinking about getting me a gift). Wish us luck on Suits, we are going to need it. With Ghostwalkers I am on page 14 of 92. Unlike Suits, I have planned Ghostwalkers as a 4-issue series with 2 more 4-issue series for an “epic western series”. This one is a real personal journey for me as a writer. I hope this turns out well. Talk to you later…
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Graphic Design 101: Having Photoshop does NOT make you a graphic designer…
Now sometime you can be influenced by something without really realizing it as with NeoExodus: A House Divided. I wanted that Japanese anime / manga influence to it and I created the look and style of the game line. I thought I was being “cutting edge” until I realized White Wolf had done the same thing with their Exalted game line. Did I copy them? Maybe I did. I did not plan it, but maybe I did subconsciously. Does that make me a copy? You betcha’! But I can point to roughly 350-plus other products where I didn’t do it. So over all I am please with my work. Even Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls got bet sometimes. But if you really want to become a better designer for your products then I suggest you pick up the Non-Designer’s Deign Book by Robin Williams. I have suggested this book several times in the past, I just hope you will take a second and actually pick it up read it and use what is inside of it to make better looking products. Looking more professional is only more helpful for you to sell more copies. Stop being lazy you have work to do. Talk to you later…
Monday, June 15, 2009
Are Pirates Are Just Underserved Customers?
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Hot Artist of the Week – Chester Ocampo
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Comic Book Store Visit: Cave Comics
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Obsidian Twilight Help Save a Life Blood Donation Program Update
Behind the curtain of LPJ Design…
There are a lot of people who head’s are exploding over this topic. Many are saying, “It is not fair to pay people so low,” or “how can an artist sell away his artwork so cheap?” or my other favorite, “ You should pay people more.” So you think it is better for me to have to charge more for my product to my customer (meaning I will get fewer sales) and then pass that money to the artist is higher wages? And people wonder why 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first year. Now if that previous stuff made you head almost burst, it is about to get worse for you…
Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero is a silver level seller at RPGNow (meaning sales between 101 – 249 copies) on DriveThruRPG it does have a metal rating (meaning sales 1 to 49 copies). So if you take an average of both numbers you can “guestimate” that Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero sold about 200 copies. 200 copies at $8 each comes to $1,600 minus $200 for the artist means $1,400 in profit for LPJ Design. Why would an artist sell his artwork to me $200 and lose out on $1,400 worth of profit by not doing it himself? Good question. I don’t know and personally it does not matter to me. That is not my job. My job is to keep my business afloat. But here is an answer for those that have to have one: Maybe he knew it was better to have $200 when he needed it, instead of waiting 2 years to “possibly” get that $1,400 of profit that I made. A “bird in the hand, two in the bush” type of situation.
Now to make your head really explode: When I was kicked off of RPGnow back in November 2005 and came in late 2006; all my previous sales at RPGNow from 2001 to 2006 were erased. So my current sale info of Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero is only from late 2006 to now. So how many sales did Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero have from 2002 to 2005? Well after checking my personal records on sales units on Image Portfolio 1.03 Superhero was more than 800 copies sold. So LPJ Design really made over $4,600 on that artwork, which is still for sale today. Best of all, this product isn’t even in my top 10 most profitable products from LPJ Design. Just something for you to think about. Talk to you later…
PS: Any of you RPG publisher who are in need of good and inexpensive artists, just let me know and I will help you get in touch with them. You have seen the guys who do my artwork so you I am dealing with good guys. Your welcome!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Paying a $100 a page for RPG artists is stupid, and you’re an idiot if you do it…
- Something useful that can be turned to commercial or other advantage: "Left-handed, power-hitting third basemen are a rare commodity in the big leagues" (Steve Guiremand).
- An article of trade or commerce, especially an agricultural or mining product that can be processed and resold.
- Advantage; benefit.
- Obsolete A quantity of goods.
Any of you RPG publisher who are in need of good and inexpensive artists, just let me know and I will help you get in touch with them. You have seen the guys who do my artwork so you I am dealing with good guys. You don’t have to say it, but you’re welcome!
Book to Read: The 4-Hour Work Week
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Let's meet at Baltimore Comic-Con!!!
PDF Business Wednesday: Are you a RPG Company or an entertainment company?
"It is a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property," said Ronald Perelman. "Disney's got much more highly recognized characters and softer characters, whereas our characters are termed action heroes. But at Marvel we are now in the business of the creation and marketing of characters."
Let me just say this off the bat, LPJ Design is an entertainment company that makes RPGs. My view and planned growth of LPJ Design as a company expands to music, animated features, television shows, video games, comic books and graphic novels. RPGs are the first step in understand how to build a business correct that focused on intellectual property development. Because at the end of the day, what must of us who work in the paper and pencil field of RPG design and creation are doing is getting skills that transfer over to the video game and entertainment industry. Lee Hammock is a great example of this. Lee and I worked together in the early days of LPJ Design. Lee has gone on to work for DC Comics and now Lead Game Designer at Icarus Studios LLC. Lee was able to use his skills in RPG writing and development and use them to get himself a good position in a very profitable industry. Another great example of this is Shane Hensley of Deadland RPG fame and Cryptic Studios's City of Heroes and City of Villains MMORPGs.
So why can’t you do the same with your RPG company? Well you could, if you plan it right. First off, you have to have the right look. Radical Comics has done this very well with the help of Imaginary Friends Studios. In less than 2 years Radical Comics has gone from an unknown comic book company to a player in the Hollywood movie see with getting several of their books on the road to being developed into movies. Not bad for two years worth of work. I think the same thing could be said about RPG companies if the right actions are taken. Just something you should think about. Talk to you later…
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Enter the Shark Tank!!!
I have been waiting for this show since I heard about this earlier this year. It is based off of the successful Dragon's Den on the BBC2 and I can't wait to see the American version. This is going to be great. It starts August 9 at 9PM on ABC.
How to become an artist sensation and get people talking about you & your artwork in just 14 days…
This is a simple easy and effective way to become an overnight artist sensation and get people talking about you & your artwork in a step by step plan:
- Plan to draw 5 images. They can be of whatever you want. In black & white or full color. Large images or small images. You decide. Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, whatever. You pick the genre you love to work in and start drawing.
- Break down the quality of the images you are drawing as such: Three images with a quality of 6 out of 10 (10 being the best); one image with a quality of 8 out of 10 and one image with a quality of 9 out of 10.
- Now after you have done that, draw five more images, now do five more images. Just like before make them whatever you want. This time make quality of three images 8 out of 10 (10 being the best); one image with a quality of 9 out of 10 and one image with a quality of 10 out of 10.
- After you are done with the second set, go back to the first set and place them online at RPGnow.com as a free PDF product. You must do this at RPGnow.com only not any other PDF selling website. This is important due to the fact RPGnow.com has a lot ranking and statistics info that you can use and be more helpful. Tell everyone at any and every RPG news site and blog that you are giving away these five images for free and people can use them anyway they want. Keeps this up for 10 solid days.
- On Day 11 and 12 just relax and do nothing art related at all. Just relax and be completely free with yourself.
- On Day 13, collect the final five images into a PDF product and place that one on sale at RPGnow.com. Make it a reasonable price like $10. Then write an e-mail to all the customers who received your free five images telling them that you have a new set o five images coming out for sale tomorrow (Day 14) and if they liked the first free set, then this new set will really blow them away. Also mention to them that you are also a freelance artist who is always looking for additional work at reasonable rates.
- Day 14, you release the last art set for sale.
That is it. If you have done this correctly you will notice a few things:
- You should have a large number of people who down loaded the free images. People can’t seem to turn down things that are free. I did this with the free Initiative Cards for 4E I produced. On average, I was getting 65 people a day downloading. After 10 days that is roughly 650 people that you can directly market to. I didn’t do the cards because I like 4E, I did them for ability to contact them in the future date.
- There are going to be some people who really like your artwork as would purchase from you if you had some “for pay” images. Now, with the 2nd product you can sell it to them.
- You build up automatic goodwill with the release of the free artwork, and because of that goodwill people will be more inclined to purchase the “pay version” and even hire you for freelance work. The free version gets you easy access to you would like to do business with.
Try this plan for 14 days and see how it does. Talk to you later…
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Business of Going to Conventions
First off if you are going to do to conventions right, then you need to get How to Make Webcomics written by by Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar. Read chapter 11: Conventions (Page 158) and this will give you a lot of information on what you need to do and what you should bring. Rather that tell you what they will tell you in the book (Go get it, it is REALLY worth its weight in gold), I will tell you where you can get the sale materials that you will place at your booth. The best company I have seen and used so far for printing marketing material is Clubflyers.com. Clubflyers.com is a great service if you don’t have that much money (1,000 business cards ) or if you don’t have any money (500 Free 4x6 postcards). Most of their turnaround time on a project is 3 business days (normally within 72 hours) and if you are wondering about shipping then take a look at the shipping FAQ page. Now if you are using the LPJ Design “Starter Set method”, here is what you will need for a 10x10 convention booth:
- Full color 4x6 feet Vinyl Banner: $96.75 US (This one goes in front of your booth as a table banner)
- (2) Full color 2x6 feet Vinyl banners: $97.50 US (These two go inside you booth as vertical banners)
- 5,000 Full color, double sided 8.5x11 inch catalog sheets: $325.75 US (You can place information about products on these. You will not giveaway 5,000 sheets at a normal convention more like many 1,000. But now you don’t have to get any more made for your next few conventions.)
- 1,000 Full color Business Cards: $29.99 US (Same info as the catalog sheet. You can get 5,000 though for $69.99 US)
- 5,000 Full color 4x6 inch Postcards: $139.99 US (Same info as the catalog sheet.)
- 500 Full color 4x6 inch Postcards: FREE (You do these to promote something very special like a special discount on a particular product or an exclusive item they can only get with this card.)
- GRAND TOTAL: $689.98 US
- 1,000 Full color 9x12 inch Presentation Folder: $1,200.75 US (You can place all the above items in the folder. Very classy!)
- 5,000 Full color 12x18 inch Posters: $425.75 (Single sided only)
As you can see the LPJ Design “Starter Set method” should give you enough supplies to last 3 to 5 conventions realistically. Like I said, follow what How to Make Webcomics tells you and use Clubflyers.com and you should be off to a better start at conventions then most people out there. Talk to you later…