Current location:	Santa Ana CA
Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Robin Williams/Bobby McFerrin - "Come Together"
Entry tags:	ribbons

...Just when you think you've caught her, she glides across the water...
I'm working on a web page for some of the ribbons I've printed. Here's the second installment. I've decided to not re-order any more Fan Boy, Gender Outlaw, Star Wars Chicks, or Sunnydale Visitors Bureau.



"Fan Boy" was an idea that Rod O'Riley had, about a decade ago, and sold the ribbons for a buck when he was sitting at his ConFurence table. He picked light green ribbon stock for them. When he used up the supply, he felt the joke had run its course; I thought there might be a little more life in the gag. But since then, even though I went to the effort of having the custom art made for it, I've decided that the reason they're not terribly popular is because self-deprecating humor doesn't have broad appeal. Strangly enough, though, the "Fan Girl" ribbons seem to be popular, and the term doesn't seem to be as derogatory a phrase. I suspect it's because "fan boy" is a noun, while I've heard "fan girl" used more often as a verb...

Typefaces: Clarendon Bold. I've settled on the Clarendon family for most of my typeface needs.


"Gender Outlaw" is a ribbon idea I copied from 'Rain Donaldson. I met him/her at Confusion, in Detroit. (Not to be confused with "Further Confusion" in San Jose, by the way.) But my heart's not really in it; I'm thinking I'll put the ones I have left in an envelope and ship them to Michigan.

I did the same with some "FOMS" ribbons I'd made, inspired by tammylc -- there wasn't much point to bringing them to conventions where she had her own, and they weren't really my ribbons to give away without her. So I boxed them up and sent them off. I got a nice thank-you note from her; she was a little surprised to see them turn up out of the blue. They don't match the ones she'd had made, so you can tell if one of her purple FOMS ribbons is from her supply or mine. (Tammy, are you getting good use out of them?)

Oh, and if you arrived late, FOMS means Fear Of Missing Something. Or it's the inverse of SMOF. Or (at Con José) they were interpreted as Friend Of Michael Siladi, or something like that. Come to think of it, 2002 was the peak for giving those away, if I recall correctly...

"Star Wars Chicks" is a different situation. These were completely unauthorized; the "Star Wars Chicks" website is tolerated by the Star Wars people, probably because their main focus is encouraging support for breast cancer research. But the SW Chicks people only are allowed to use the Star Wars name on the main website; any doodads they sell (like the nifty pink ribbon pins) have to marked "SW Chicks" instead of spelling it out. So I just had a few of these printed, and they were given away at two conventions. That was it.

Typefaces: Obviously these are exceptions to my rule about using Clarendon for everything. "Gender Outlaw" predates my decision to standardize on Clarendon, and I liked the Old West "wanted poster" look of Figaro. And the "Star Wars Chicks" ribbon was deliberately laid out to mimic the website's logo, using "Star Jedi" which is one of the many Star Wars knock-off fonts you can find online. Thanks to obishawn for geting me the typeface.


"Sunnydale Visitors Bureau." I had it set with their standard typeface, and asked them to print it in white on black. That's when I learned that they don't have a good system for printing white on ribbons, and they asked me never to ask them to try it again. (Nor black.) So when I had the custom art made, I asked them to print it in blue, on black. It makes for a sinister-looking ribbon, actually. Sunnydale is the fictional California town where Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set. The ribbons were fairly popular in the first (non-special art) printing, and have been moving slowly since; there aren't as many active ardent Buffy/Angel fans since both shows went off the air.

And those who followed Buffy/Angel's creator Joss Whedon to his short-lived show Firefly and the recent film Serenity just love the hell out of the browncoats ribbons.

Typefaces: I love "American Text." It's an Old English typeface (not "Gothic" -- in typography, Gothic just means sans-serif, like Helvetica or Arial) but it's not overly fancy with too many flourishes. It really speaks to me. So for things that need this kind of mood, this is the typeface I use. Trying to duplicate the "Buffy" typeface would just have made it look crude... And "Browncoat" is good old Clarendon Condensed.