Whenever the EP or the 7-inch or the album is released, are we going to see some new stickers/t-shirts/buttons to go along with the glorious arrival of sacred Features' ditties? I would like more than just the T-Shirt that I have...I'm probably going to make a sticker for my car until the opportunity arrises to buy one.

Really, I think the Features need a button. Ray, Sadie and I stumbled across an interesting idea for a button while doing some more last-minute chalking last nite...

Though I don't care for the song (as discussed elsewhere), I would like to see a bumper sticker that has "The Features" on it with "God Save Rock'n'Roll" on it, too.

Ah thank you for the inspiration. I'll make one up...I've been thinking of designs. I want buttons so bad that I'm considering making like, 10 designs and just handing them to one of The Important Features People and saying "use them, change them, get inspired by them, whatever...just please try to get it done!" My friend who saw them last nite for the first time said (after saying "That drummer was fucking awesome) said "Do they have any buttons?" It's a goldmine, people!

Just out of curiosity, have you ever thought of making your own? I think that button-making equipment is rather inexpensive. If you got a design approved by the band, you could really help them out by manufacturing merchandise for them. Maybe you could sell them at shows and give proceeds back to the band, or just give them away to help promote the Sparta boys. Either way, I would be willing to donate to such a worthy cause.

You know, I have actually thought about doing that. Button makers on Ebay are kind of costly, but I would be more than happy to contribute to the needs of the fans. Maybe when I actually move to Middle Tennessee next year I will invest in that.

Yeah, button presses are quite expensive. I wanted to buy one last year, but decided I was too cheap whenever I found out the decent ones were a few hundred dollars. You can get cheap, dinky, plastic presses pretty cheap, but I don't know how well they would work. However, I feel Digsy would do a great job and should pursue this project.

I would so be down for selling buttons for them IF I could acquire a button-maker. Also the button-maker would have to make the smaller kind and I've rarely seen those. But I will get to work on the design since I have 2.5 hours to kill today at my campus job.

Okay I've been recently (as in 10 minutes ago) informed of a possibility to get the buttons made. My friend informed me of indiepins.com which is a site that makes buttons out of pictures that you send them. The cost is $18 dollars for 50 buttons.

So here is my idea: I plan on designing about 5 or so buttons and, if it's possible, I'd like to upload them to our MP3 site so that everyone can look at them and vote on which one is the best. If that is not plausible, then I'll just e-mail all the images to the people who are interested in voting. I'd really really like the band/management to also throw in their two cents. Each button will cost approximately 36 cents to make so I'd assume we could sell them for, what a dollar or 75 cents at shows or through mail or something with the band getting all/most of the profit. The buttons would be payment enough for me.

I'm really just brainstorming right now so if anyone has any ideas or business knowledge please help refine this idea.

Seriously, I'll send you $20 to have the things made. Then you can just give them away instead of messing around with selling them. But I would give them away at shows instead of just random people that you know that may or may not have any interest in the band.

Good idea, Digsy. I would be interested in voting. And yes, TF, I also think that the buttons should be free. I'll chip in $.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 6:26 pm on Sep. 27, 2002)

Oh belive me, message board members and people who own 20 features songs at least are the only people that I would give these to. I just want the band to also make some profit off of this but I would like the idea of not having to worry about selling them. If enough people are interested there could just be a mass split of the 20 dollars or so.

I have my first button designed. It's a mere practice run since i'm not at home and don't have access to my "tools" but it is based around the picture on the contact page of this site. Anyone have any suggestions? There is a Mod Target design that I toyed around with the other night while chalking that I may try when I get home...as well as maybe converting some of the latest flyers into buttons or some of BrianW's pictures as well. Okay I'm flooding with ideas now...this is good.

So what is the best way to show these to everyone?

(Edited by DigsySlattery at 12:37 pm on Sep. 27, 2002)

The band still profits if you give the buttons away for free. To begin with, they don't have to pay anything for them. Second, the buttons are promotion for the band. You wear a button. People in the course of your life see the button, and perhaps ask you about the band. You tell them about this great band that they just have to see...

I don't know. Maybe the band/management would insist on making some money off of something that has their name/likeness on it. But I bet they'd just be happy for the publicity, as long as you were giving them away for free.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 7:23 pm on Sep. 27, 2002)

Fabulous idea & count me in on production costs. I think at least 100, if not many more, since they'll be on tour soon. It can be like our send-off present for them. Might want to check on the turn-around time to make sure they have them for the tour, though

I didn't mean to imply that only hardcore fans should be given a button. I just don't think you'd want to stand on MTSU's campus and give them to random students passing by who would look at it, ask "Who the [expletive removed] are the Features?" and throw it away. Give 'em to people who might actually wear them.

As for the profit, we're not really talking about much. jamiecarroll, who is a business major, will tell you that you're looking at $32 of profit if you sell them for $1.00 each as the following formula shows:

($1.00 revenue - $0.35 cost) * 50 buttons = $32.00 profit

Instead, we can all chip in and buy the guys a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. That should about cover it.

Just out of curiosity, to what "tools" are you referring? I dabble (in the loosest sense of the term) with graphic arts. Are you doing it with a computer or on paper?

The easiest way to share them would be to set up a free website somewhere (like Yahoo! or something). Then just post the URL for us.

Yeah you are right about that. After the Boro show, Rollum thanked us for chalking the campus and whatnot for them. They probably would just like the publicity...I have about 4 designs sketched out that I will work on tonight.

About getting them ready for the tour, though, I don't know if there's time. I can definitely try but the whole voting process/money situation will have to be solved quick. And I also would like everyone on the board to be sure to get one before they take them on tour.

I've never used a button maker, so what size and shape should the image be and I'll make a couple for consideration. Obviously at least one will include the long since passed Features Head that has made up all of my avatars, but I'll make plenty that won't.

Will

I use paint and adobe photodeluxe, but I've been doing stuff with those two tools for about 3-4 years now so I've mastered them beyond what I think the manufacturer's intended them to do. I've tried PhotoShop but I'm set in my ways.

I'll try to figure out how to set up a free website. I'm pretty retarded when it comes to URL etc so we'll see how this works.

I just did a test & one can upload pictures (at least .gifs) to the mp3 site. I wouldn't want to take up space on that site for more than a couple of days, but it seems easier than setting up a new site. Plus, graphics files are pretty small, so it wouldn't fill up the site as quickly. If khautala is amenable, maybe this is a good solution?

That's what I thought. They could be taken down after 4 days or so after everyone who wants to vote has voted. Okay I have successfully uploaded the first choice. Um...some more should follow....and these are all trial runs so they haven't been perfected...um...

(Edited by DigsySlattery at 6:00 pm on Sep. 27, 2002)

I put up three options, two of which are VERY similar. I don't have any photos of the band, but the website listed said they were all one inch buttons, and I dunno how well any photos would come out anyway.

Sorry the images are so large. The website said that 3 inch by 3 inch at 300 dpi was what they wanted, so that's what I did...

Will

I have them saved as 3 X 3 on my computer but I sized mine down to 1 X 1 for the site.

Of course this creative spurt has lowered the RAM in my computer (see, Damon, DJ Chaz has taught me something despite our heckling) and I am now waiting to get going again...

Clever. Me, I'm a lazy bastard.

The four color one is nice though. I really dig it.

Will

Why thank you. I tried to capture the live Features experience...on a button...okay I'm weird.

Also, what does everyone assume the copyright laws are? The stork one is a drawing I found on the internet and I just found a circular badge with a Buffalo Head in the middle that actually says Buffalo Head. All I'd have to do is alter it some but I don't want us to all get hauled off to jail because Buffalo Head Barbecue doesn't want to be associated with the band.

I dug it so much, in fact, that I was like "hmmm... could I do that?" I often see something and try to recreate it in photoshop. So I added my version of your idea Digsy. Don't be offended, I just tried to copy you and liked it enough to think it might be a good one.

Will

Wow, I've been covered, what an honor

Anywho, what font is that that you use? I've just been using the logo from the site.

Huskystash is the font. I got it on Larabie Fonts (www.larabiefonts.com)

Suits the band pretty well, I think.

Will

The Buffalo Head button that I would like to make looks like this:

http://www.gourmetworld.com/ks01/art/buffalo.jpg

That is an actual picture that I found on the internet. Hilarious.

This is great, I would definitely get two of each and wear them every day. Next up...embroidered patches! Anyone know Martha Stewart?

Digsy (and whoever else is interested):

I'm uploading a couple of images that I used to make Features fliers one time, one of which is a buffalo head. Do with them what you will. I'm a dumbass and could never rightly design anything like a button on a computer.

Actually...I don't seem to have the files of just the pictures, so I'll just upload the Word files of the fliers, and you can maybe deconstruct them? Oh well, use them if you want.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 7:04 am on Sep. 28, 2002)

jamie...

My fifth design is what I did with the Buffalo Head. Thanks for the image.

Will

And I added mine. I'm in a hurry and PhotoDeluxe shut down before I could convert it to JPEG or the right size but it's up.