Alright, so our coach and I got to talking today, and I brought up the Imagery award. And just for everyone’s reference (including my own)…
I’ve got a vague idea on how it’s done (mainly because it was hard to miss 122 at Palmetto), but I’d like to hear from the folks who actually know what they’re doing.
Thus, my questions to anyone involved in bringing home an imagery award:
Where did you integrate your “outstanding visual aethetic integration?”
How did you get your team behind the effort (especially if your team’s appearance involved specific items)?
How much time and money was used to bring everything together?
2 years ago team 647 the Cyber Wolves (Now the Cyber Wolf Corps) won the Lone Star Regional Imagery Award. Our team is located right next to Fort Hood the largest military base in the free world. Are sponsors are Operational Test Command; they test and develop the equipment that the soldiers use in the field. Are team dressed in Urban Camo to support are school colors of gray and blue. Are pit consisted of a large out door tent that we took the cover off and replaced with camo netting that was donated to us by a military unit. The cart that we carried our robot on had plywood shaped sides that were made to look like A1 tanks. The Carrier was also motorized. Each team member was also given an Id tag with there position on the team printed on it.
[li]Where did you integrate your “outstanding visual aesthetic integration?”
[/li][li]How did you get your team behind the effort (especially if your team’s appearance involved specific items)?
[/li][li]How much time and money was used to bring everything together?
[/li]
MOE 365 won the Imagery award at the Philly regional and at the Championship last year. In my opinion, the main factors are:
Consistency. Everything we have is always bright green and black (other adjectives have been used to describe the green of our shirts!). The robot is green, the pit, the buttons, the cart as well. We have various green colored headgear and accessories (the infamous MOEsticks and wobblies), even have green shoelaces. And some members dye their hair green - more would dye their hair but some schools have a problem with this.
Integration. This year since the robot had “kilts”. Originally they were called “skirts”, but some of the males on the team objected to a feminine robot, so they became kilts. The kilts were painted in a green and black plaid pattern. Someone on the team - don’t remember who - suggested that the operating crew wear kilts as well. Two of the mothers found a green and rust colored plaid material and made kilts for the operators and pit crew. There was a picture of Dave Lavery wearing one of our kilts posted somewhere in an earlier note - long story as to why.
Time and cost. Most team members buy their own green headgear and accessories. The green shoelaces were donated last year - another long story. The team did pay for the kilt material, which wasn’t much, and the mothers did the work for free. Painting the wobblies does take time but that is usually done after the bulk of the mechanical work is done, in the lull before regionals start. We do have a large team so there are usually extra hands around. The cost of the paint can add up but we buy in bulk and people are always on the lookout for specials. Some of the team members, especially some of the mentors, are very good at scrounging scrap or very cheap materials. Large companies tend to throw out a lot of stuff, and if you have an “in” you can get a lot this way.
Team effort. This is an important part of being MOE so the team is always involved and trying new ideas. We have some creative members who have great ideas. I think the extras all add up too, such as the pit tower and camera we had last year. And the various mascots we’ve had. Over the summer some team members came up with something new, and prototypes were tried; this will be premiered at one of the regionals. Stay tuned.
my old team just had a cool red and black scheme to our robot and shirts and pits. our robot also had a set of “eyes” multi colored leds that flashed when a button was pushed.
In terms of cost, many of the materials are donated. We tend to do fairly well with sponsorships, and the uniforms themselves are donated by Choko Motorsports (http://www.choko.com); but some of the more creative and well-noticed things like the mascot and mascot on a stick, and face painting were relatively less expensive money-wise, but required a significant time investment.
Team 233 has won the imagery award a number of times including last year’s UCF regional because we are PINK. We have pink robots, pink shirts, and in some cases, pink bodies. Last year our NASA techs came up with some exceptionally nice Screaming Fluorescent Hot PINK powder coat for our robot. There are other awards we would rather win, like quality awards, etc. but I think that we may be destined to win more than our share of imagery awards.
