Robot Numbering, Attractive Solutions?

[Gregor]

I've seen some discussion on Facebook about teams struggling to make the required numbers look somewhat attractive.

We're not even at that stage in build season, but we'll probably end up with a freshman going crazy with paint and some polycarb.

What are your solutions? If you're ahead enough to actually have this finished, pictures would be appreciated!

[mrnoble]

The student in charge of our decor and theming has drawn up a half dozen design options, including some really unique possibilities. License plates, among others. We will have his design finalized in illustrator, and printed on vinyl.

[EricH]

Just as a point of reference:

You are allowed to have more numbers than required, go crazy with those extras. But...

The GDC specifically stated a color scheme and size. You will need to meet those. As one of the Texas teams found out, even a license plate (which, in Texas, ARE black on white) might not be legal. Even simply reversing the color scheme won't fly, per the GDC.

I'm guessing that "attractive" is about a zero/ten on their list of "criteria we want these numbers to meet" and "standard" is about 11/10.

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by EricH

Even simply reversing the color scheme won't fly, per the GDC.

I'm guessing that "attractive" is about a zero/ten on their list of "criteria we want these numbers to meet" and "standard" is about 11/10.

Even though it hasn't been asked in q&a, I assume that black text on a transparent background also wouldn't fly (though maybe the rules should explicitly ask for opaque black and white).

We're considering (or at least I am) printing "857" in "our" font on paper, and doing some kind of lamination to make a stiff number, and then attaching that somehow.

[Anupam Goli]

White Acrylic withe a cut out of the numbers, and then glued on top of a sheet of black acrylic; that or cut the numbers out of black acrylic and glue them in the outlines of the white acrylic. Both of these methods should be legal since the stroke will be black on a white background.

[GeeTwo]

I'm not part of our style crew, but I did overhear something about integrating the number with the sponsor panel on one side and with our logo and colors (outside the rectangle) on the other three sides. We'll probably end up posting these on the outer panels of the drive chassis, in about the same place that they would be if we had bumpers. W also plan to have RGB lighting above and/or below this area so we can show alliance colors, game phase, and so forth.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just as a point of reference:

You are allowed to have more numbers than required, go crazy with those extras. But...

The GDC specifically stated a color scheme and size. You will need to meet those. As one of the Texas teams found out, even a license plate (which, in Texas, ARE black on white) might not be legal. Even simply reversing the color scheme won't fly, per the GDC.

I'm guessing that "attractive" is about a zero/ten on their list of "criteria we want these numbers to meet" and "standard" is about 11/10.

The most important thing is to pass inspection of course. Without violating the relevant rules, teams can still make the numbers interesting and creative.

[Addison4300]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just as a point of reference:

You are allowed to have more numbers than required, go crazy with those extras. But...

The GDC specifically stated a color scheme and size. You will need to meet those. As one of the Texas teams found out, even a license plate (which, in Texas, ARE black on white) might not be legal. Even simply reversing the color scheme won't fly, per the GDC.
I'm guessing that "attractive" is about a zero/ten on their list of "criteria we want these numbers to meet" and "standard" is about 11/10.

That was my teams question . We are probably going to use the new Texas License plate with the white background and black letters. We have to get it custom made to fit the size requirements however.

[PurpleInk]

My husband and I own our own vinyl cutting business and we have been cutting black vinyl on a white background for teams in our area. These stickers can then be put on any surface. Picture here. They're made of a vinyl rated for outdoor use for 5 years so they should stand up to two or three events

The team I mentor is sticking them on colored, corrugated plastic.

We had to update our branding and design standards to accommodate for them, but we're looking at them as license plates - you don't put it on your car because it looks good, you put it on because you want to be able to legally drive it.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by PurpleInk

We had to update our branding and design standards to accommodate for them, but we're looking at them as license plates - you don't put it on your car because it looks good, you put it on because you want to be able to legally drive it.

Ah....someone who gets it.

[K-Dawg157]

Originally Posted by PurpleInk

My husband and I own our own vinyl cutting business and we have been cutting black vinyl on a white background for teams in our area. These stickers can then be put on any surface. Picture here. They're made of a vinyl rated for outdoor use for 5 years so they should stand up to two or three events

The team I mentor is sticking them on colored, corrugated plastic.

We had to update our branding and design standards to accommodate for them, but we're looking at them as license plates - you don't put it on your car because it looks good, you put it on because you want to be able to legally drive it.

You know, out of all the explanations of why, I understand and like this one most.

[TedG]

Originally Posted by PurpleInk

My husband and I own our own vinyl cutting business and we have been cutting black vinyl on a white background for teams in our area. These stickers can then be put on any surface.

Similar situation here, I own a small sign shop where I do signage and graphics part time.

For years I have been sponsoring / supplying the necessary graphics for our team whether it be stencils for bumper numbers or sponsor logos for the robot and sponsor board etc. This year we plan on simply putting the required black numbers on white background in vinyl and applying them to (4) sides of the robot.

Sure it won't be fancy, but the team and sponsor logos should shine.

This isn't a fashion show, it's a piece of machinery that needs to pass inspection.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by TedG

This isn't a fashion show, it's a piece of machinery that needs to pass inspection.

It's FRC man! It's a bit of both.

[TedG]

Originally Posted by marshall

It's FRC man! It's a bit of both.

Touche`

I agree we should make our robots as nice & fancy as possible, with whatever branding we can pull off.

My comment was more aimed at the number limitations this year, and so instead of over thinking it, my opinion is to just follow the rules as written and put your design effort in other aspects of the robot. I would just hate to fail inspection because we "got fancy" with our numbers.

But you know we will see some robot numbers that have some style, are readable and pass inspection.

And we'll probably see some numbers that should not have passed inspection out on the field. Like we have with bumper numbers that have stretched the rules.

~shrug~

[marshall]

Originally Posted by TedG

And we'll probably see some numbers that should not have passed inspection out on the field. Like we have with bumper numbers that have stretched the rules.

~shrug~

Indeed! Last year we saw a lot of teams with bumpers left on the field for week 1... it was sad. Building robots is hard though... I don't think anyone does it because it is easy.

Personally, we like white and black paint schemes.