New 180GO! Team Kites

[Mike]

How about making a stencil and painting the team logo on one of the wings? I could get laser cut stencils made.

I like that idea!

[Mike]

I like the stripes pattern, but what about flipping which stripes are red and which are black on each kite. A little subtler difference between even and odd kites, but I think it might look neat. Also, white is harder to spot in the sky a lot of times, so I lean towards keeping it just black and red.

I think it looks neat too, but as you said, subtle. A bolder difference between the kites is important to my vision of how it will look in a routine.

[Mike]

I'll throw this into the mix too, though it's not my favorite.

[Mike]

How about a retro look?

I'm afraid the difference between the kites wouldn't be clear enough. Maybe if the kites were red & white and black & white.

[Jeepster]

How about a retro look?

I'm afraid the difference between the kites wouldn't be clear enough. Maybe if the kites were red & white and black & white.

No, not really. The thought was that the vented and non-vented kites would look the same. But, unless some one has red screening, the idea is a bust.

-tom

[prairierose]

How about a retro look?

I'm afraid the difference between the kites wouldn't be clear enough. Maybe if the kites were red & white and black & white.

No, not really. The thought was that the vented and non-vented kites would look the same. But, unless some one has red screening, the idea is a bust.

-tom

If we're looking for the vended kites to look more like the standards, what about a simpler design like this (the grey being the vents)


I also think an asymmetrical design would look unique

[prairierose]

Another asymmetrical idea. I might like this better:

[prairierose]

Alright, last one I promise...

[Mike]

I like the asymmetrical design in post #27 too. I'm not sure there's enough contrast, but I mean that literally--I'm not sure yet.
The vented kites can have an entirely different design than the non-vented kites. So working up a separate vented design is a good idea.

[RevJB]

I'm also going to add one more kite to the team set. When we fly an odd number of kites, it might look cool to have the center kite be different since it usually does something different than the others, e.g weaving between the kites, spinning in the center.

I like the concept of a center kite that is different than all the others. Makes odd numbers work. Also can be used as the lead kite to show the crowd the leader in complicated maneuvers.

I also like the asymmetrical look of the bottom #26 and #27. I agree with Mike that #20 might be too similar from a distance.

Mike's ball and vertical line on a blue background is really nice for comparisons.

[cadguy]

OK kids, after seeing all these cool layouts, here's my samples...

[Darkspark]

I like Cadguy's, but make the section in the middle of the white, white also. Then paint in the team logo in the white on both designs.

[Jeepster]

I like Cadguy's, but make the section in the middle of the white, white also. Then paint in the team logo in the white on both designs.

I like the non-white centers. The team logo could be painted, at an angle, on the lower left-hand white triangle.

-tom

[BillLamm]

I think prairierose and cadguy are on to something... I also like the idea of the team logo screened on

[RevJB]

I wanted to see what the kites would look lilke in motion. I've never animated GIFs before, but found a program and gave it a try.

Click on the the picture to see.

Maybe Mike could take the Flash he did of a compound blender and insert a set of proposed kites.

[Mike]

I like Cadguy's, but make the section in the middle of the white, white also. Then paint in the team logo in the white on both designs.

I'm not positive which triangle you mean.
Here's a generic template with numbers. This will help in text descriptions.

[Jeepster]

I build and fly RC aircraft. One of my planes had a red stripe on the top of the wing from tip to tip. The bottom of the wing had a row of red diamonds from wing tip to wing tip. When working on it, it looked fantastic. The stripes and diamonds yielded great distinction between top and bottom ... you really want to know the up from down when flying. Unfortunately, at 100 feet in the air, the diamonds blurred into a fuzzy stripe. All remaining distinction disappeared at 200 feet. I have since replaced the red diamonds with blue ones. Problem solved ... looks like a red stripe and a blue stripe at distance!

Thus, my advice is to stay away from a great amount of red/black/white detail ... keep the differences in the kites bold. Once the kites start moving, the crowd will lose the visual distinction if the differences aren't major.

Having an odd kite available to use as a lead kite will only be useful when there are five kites in the air. With three, it's a given that one will be odd. Probably won't have seven flying in a performance, so that condition is out.

-tom

[Mike]

Good advice Tom.
I've been looking at the kites on my screen from across the room and I haven't been enlarging the thumbnails either.
You're right about the odd kite coming up only with five fliers. But that comes up often enough that it may be worth having the extra kites.

The contributions have all been great. Thanks everyone and keep 'em coming!

John: pretty interesting how it looks different in motion.

[Mike]

For some reason the background sky-color didn't come through.
But here ya go John, a blender:
[flash width=360 height=480]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/539126/Blender-4a.swf[/flash]

[Mike]

[flash width=360 height=480]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/539126/Twin%20Radars.swf[/flash]