[BMW]

This is a poll for the 1960s cards.

I plan on writing a guide to help people create their own cards, then publish an update for my 1989 Upper Deck design. My next card will be from the 1960s, so I'm offering up a poll, plus some a topic that will be in the help guide - that is: What card designs are possible?

I've attached shots of all the major cards from the 1960s. They include Topps 1960-1969 and the lone maverick, 1963 Fleer.

Ignoring the 1961 Topps All Star variant (which I like a lot, but wouldn't be a set template by itself), there are 11 possible sets to make. Only seven of them are really viable candidates, and I'll step through each one by one.

1960 Topps

This card has two major challenges. One is the font color. The alternating blank/red letters really cannot be done for all teams (they could be done for all known major league teams, but the goal for my templates right now is to have these work with fictional teams as well).

You could easily just use black text however, and I don't think that destroys the spirit of the card. The dual photos, however, won't really work.

FaceGen, as the name alludes to, creates faces. The left hand photo is meant to be a head-to-toe image. Hence, this is not a candidate for voting.

1961 Topps

This is a good, very simple design that can be done with the card templates. The cards have varying colors for the text boxes at the bottom of the card that do not correspond to team colors.

However, the cards could be generated with static colored boxes or some tricks to change the colors for a few cards.

Plus, the All Star Variant is pretty cool, and very achievable with the current OOTP functionality.

1962 Topps

This card would be very easy to reproduce. Really zero complications here.

1963 Topps

This card would be generally easy to reproduce, except for the second photo. I believe you could have two photos on the card, but at best, they'd look so similar, it would likely just make for a silly looking card. Therefore, I don't believe this is a great option and will exclude it from voting.

1963 Fleer

The Fleer card set that spurred a lawsuit that gave Topps a monopoly for nearly two additional decades. This card would be very easy to reproduce.

1964 Topps

This card would be easy to reproduce. The font at the top would probably be in a team color rather than a random color (i.e. the Reds really aren't associated with purple).

1965 Topps

A nice looking card, but because the flag has a very odd typeface layout, it won't be easy to reproduce. You could conceivably create a more angular flag, but tapering the text as such may never be possible. Hence, this is not a candidate for voting.

1966 Topps

This card seems very simple, but the banner with the team name is at a diagonal. Currently, we cannot do this with the text. Hence, this is not a candidate for voting.

1967 Topps

A very simple design, which would be easy to do. The autograph probably wouldn't be carried over.

The 1974 Topps template does have a faux autograph, but there are two differences here. One, the autograph is on the front, not the back, making it more visible. Two, the autograph was individually placed by a Topps editor in some white-space on the photo (i.e. you wouldn't want the autograph going over the player's face).

We really won't have that kind of control. So we can do this, just lose the autograph.

The card front has text that could obscure part of the player photo. However,the text is so far at the bottom of the card and the photo takes up such a large part of the front that I don't think you'd ever have it encroaching on the face.

1968 Topps

Would be very easy. The set does have about 4 different burlap textures. You may be able to achieve this with some tricks, but it's probably not that critical to get the feel for the card.

In fact, unless you actually had some 1968 Topps cards in your hands, you'd hardly notice that there was a difference from just Googling for images.

1969 Topps

Generally a pretty easy design. I think are even some tricks that can be used to get a black border around the text. The circular shield in the upper right portion of the card could cover part of the player could be a little dangerous. But I think its positioning would, at worst, obscure a small portion of the ballcap and should be acceptable.