7 Deadly Pins
Added 2024-04-02 21:39:45 +0000 UTCSo I know I normally post WIP type stuff to patrons only but I figure this is the kind of project I can post public because hey there's 173 of you following us?? I'm shocked!
Consider this a taste to what goes on in our 'What's in the Back' tier & if you like what you see, consider pledging your support--to our patreon or the campaign! Totally up to you no pressure ;>
Alright so where do we start? How about at the beginning.
Way back in February this year (it's only been 2 months and yet it feels like a lifetime ago) we got a funny little email from Backerkit in our inbox talking about a fun little prompt they were developing called PINTOPIA 2. Last year the team did the first edition... I'm not sure what the parameters of the event were exactly because we weren't a part of that one. BUT THIS YEAR--every project was to be paired up with another project. A partner-project if you will. Both projects, upon funding, would have to produce 2 collaborative pins (one for each project) both of which would be given to backers of both projects for free.
Well the two of us thought it was a pretty interesting prospect. We're both always working on a lot of things but it had been almost 2 years since I'd designed pins and was starting to feel the itch again. We were definitely at a crossroads and a bit stressed about working with another project but excited at the idea of collaborating on some unique designs.
I was playing with the idea of a smaller pin-set. I think the two of us are a little bit tired by the Monster that is the Greek Mythology set(s) we currently have. (Sorry to folks who love them & would love for us to restock some of the ones that have sold out but some of these guys are over 5 years old and could use a rest LOL).
So I settled on 7 Deadly Sins as 7 Deadly Pins! It gives me a bit of a limitation to only really have 7 proper designs. It felt like a pretty manageable task. And... then of course, like everything I went a bit merch-design-crazy.
BUT FIRST THE PINS
These guys admittedly took me a little while to really hash out and the pin I started with didn't even make it into the original set! As I was sketching and refining and working on all of these there were a few elements that kept cropping up.
the halo
eyes (naturally, are we surprised)
hands
blood
recessed metal
'floating' elements
gooooold
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THE SINNER
As you can see, this pin isn't a part of the original roster BUT it was the original Sloth design i was picking at!
At first the designs were going to be in rose-gold and were leaning a lot on my favourite design elements from the Underworld pin sets (the many-layered 'swirling' effect on the eyes for both Hypnos & Helios were a big inspo). But it was just feeling like it was Missing Something.
I started shifting the design a little bit more 'Iconic' using bolder shapes and imagery At first the designs were all going to be stand-alone pins but setting up limitations (there HAD to be at least 1 hand and at least 1 eye in each pin) meant a bit more of a challenge but one that could keep my vision secured.
I set this pin aside and moved on to a couple others to start getting a feeling for them.
(This design came out cool enough Tas wanted it in the campaign but my sloth-design later uhhh was a lot more My Style so we settled on turning this guy into a stretch goal and added it as a general 'sinner' pin).
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WRATH
So maybe this is a very random pivot but I had a bit of an idea and vision for wrath. It was not exactly like the image above though this final design does take the vibes from the original sketches pretty good.
(I don't know what I want to do with this sketch.... yet... I really like it, maybe a print? Maybe a Tote bag? I don't know!)
This was before I wholly settled on creating a more icon-based series, playing a lot with fluid motion. There's something captivating to me about taking a hard solid medium like metal and giving it flowing curving lines. It's like this is a feat that shouldn't be possible but it is. This design was also going to play a lot with cut-ins and 'floating' elements or elements that look like they can't possibly function as one single pin. Eye-trickery. I owe that line of thinking to my buddy, Corv (aka ghostsofcrows) whose work is a huge inspiration. They played a lot with that sort of thing in the early pin-making-days! It's really infected my brain!
Then this guy came along. As you can see its VERY close to this more finalised design above! This was before I decided with more certainty that every design had to have at least 1 hand and 1 eye in the mix. I really like this design but I'm glad I was able to rehash it into its final look. (Fun fact: this design is the one that originally inspired Adam & Rob's Coffee is For Closers space ship you can find on the Infinity of Pins project (this is our partner project btw). That ship was originally supposed to be the freebie pin BUT it was uhhh a bit bigger & a bit pricier than anticipated, so they decided to keep the ship & design a drone for it instead)!
Next-up that leads us to:
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LUST
Oh she is beauty she is grace. Lust went through a few mental loopholes, I don't think I sketched any or all the alternate ideas I had for her in my head. There was originally going to be a bigger 'gore' emphasis on the series. I think the two of us brainstormed about the designs having each a different, 'body part' affected by each sin. We ran into a couple where multiple options would have worked and others would be repetitive or a major stretch they would be hard to justify or explain to people who bought them. This is about where we settled on 'eyes and hands' being a bit more of a central focus.
Lust's design in particular was going to go a lot more organic and flowy in the same way that wrath was shaping out. This is about the point where i had to sit back and make the decision to err on iconography or this more fluid style for the pins. I know fluid works. I've done it before for many other designs. So I figured I would push for something more geometric and streamlined. I think it was a good call in the end!
(Lust is also one of the pins we decided to prototype and get a feel for the set. The red is translucent enamel so you can see the metal behind it. The red in the prototypes really pops but we are going to be looking into darkening it to really get that gothic/blood vibe going <3)
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ENVY
Let's swoos on over to envy here. Envy is probably one of my favourites although I know its a bit of a more abstracted version of this sin. Admittedly, how DOES one go about visualising envy as a concept huh? Especially since I'm not playing with green here as a colour yeesh!! I remember struggling a little with this one, trying to get it to be a bit different than the others in the roster. I didn't struggle for too long though. This design only has one alternate:
Really only the eye is different here! Mostly for legibility's sake, this one while to me, can read as a sideways glance, it felt like that might have been a stretch. Not to mention I was streamlining a lot of the pins to have almost the same if not the exact same imagery (the open, half-lidded or closed eye motifs) which mean that this one needed to be tweak anyway.
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PRIDE
A bit of my nemesis here. This one gave me a bit of hard time with its design. I always liked that Pride & Vanity tended to alternate depending on who you talk to. I always like mirrors as images for pride itself so I thought, honestly, what better way to utilise something like that than in an actual pin made of metal?
Some of of the residual energy from the concept stage where I was playing with these pins having each their own body part stuck with this one as it did with lust because lungs & blowing hot air just kind of made sense to me. The real trick was trying to get the halo in there in a way that felt like it worked & didn't clutter the design too much. I think this worked out in the end. The pin itself is pretty impressive when you hold it.
Another funny thing I noticed, unintentionally, this pin kind of looks like a cicada in its silhouette. I didn't mean for it but it feels... a propos here~
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GLUTTONY
Absolutely unproblematic. This design, like lust & wrath had a few more organic looks I was working with in my brain, rotating it around on high though I never sketched them out. A lot of my concepts just get worked in my brain and don't always make it to paper. But hey, it all worked out! It seems like this one is the campaign's favourite so far!
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GREED
Ohhhhhhh boooyyy this one gave me a hard time. But only because I think the original sketch was really good. I could have gone for something similar to my Charon pin design but I didn't want to rehash an old idea directly.
This pin started off as this sketch which I'm still in love with but its waaaay more detailed than any of my other designs in the series. Maybe this sketch can live on as a print design. Still thinking about it! 7 Deadly Prints? Maybe maybe. The pin design itself is good. I think it still needs a slight push, a small tweak maybe before I commit to it's final design.
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SLOTH
Oh my baby oh my darling. I'm a huge sucker for dreamlike imagery, stars and sparkle and SPACE and dreams and sand and-- yeah okay this is my pseudo sandman pin to go with my Hypnos pin which is one of my own favourites though folks disagree vnv.
This one plays a lot with imagery and abstract. The general shape is definitely supposed to invoke an hourglass with the sand pooling out both ends. This is the only design in the series that's flippable, lending to the weird nebulousness of napping/lazing about during the day, losing track of time. The eyes in the middle also play off moon phases too hehe.
I also really enjoy how the floating elements and the chunkiness of the halo in this one. It's one of my favourite designs to day but I'm juuuuust biased.
Now, I was going to go on and on about our stretch goals and everything we have planned for the rest of the merch but I think I've run on long enough here! I'll post again a little later when a few more goals are unlocked!
So hey if any of this peaked your interest consider backing our campaign for a set of your own.
And if you like reading deep-dives like this I already have a couple posted to patrons only! Take this as a peek at our 'Whats in the Back?' tier! You like it? Pledge and give me even MORE reason to go on long-winded rambles about our OCs and merch and stories!
