Preparing A New Presentation For The 64 CARDS

I'm currently working on a newly revised web presentation for The 64 CARDS, to prepare it to be assigned as a multimedia resource to FACET 64(136) ◊ DESIGN of The 72 FACETS (IN 144). The first task, which I'm currently working on, is to transplant the gallery of images from the old website into a blog post on The 64 CARDS page (which can be prominently linked to from the top of the landing page for The 64 CARDS. This will be posted as an archival gallery of a previous version of The 64 CARDS. The card face designs are current, but are destined to be redesigned fairly soon. I have two terms I use : "Soon" and "Fairly Soon". I am not exactly sure when fairly soon is in this case but it's much higher on the priority list now.

The images that I have from the previous website need to be posted as an archive, rather than a current display, because they have outdated branding under the previous name for UNITY LIFE Visionary Ecology (which was GAIACRAFT). I am not comfortable having anything that says GAIACRAFT on this new UNITY LIFE website unless it's as a clearly marked past archive. That said, it's unfortunate that there is no new and fresh, up to date presentation of the set that I now have available, because I would much rather present it in such a way which prominently features all the card images as a gorgeous gallery of eye candy which is immediately viewable on the landing page of the set, in order to inspire viewers immediately (similar to The 72 FACETS (IN 144)). 

I do have the option to photograph this set with my hands, to match my other newer displays of cards throughout the website, and use that as a way to present them with updated branding. There are a couple problems with that, though. The first is, ironic though it is as the creator of the set, I don't currently own a nice new set of my own 😂😂. As the steward of the project, I'm always stretching my budget to give these away as gifts, and so I sometimes don't have one. Right now the only set I own is pretty old and battered, and has sticky tack messing up how the lamination looks, because it was previously a display set on a wall. I would need to print a new set for this photoshoot. 

A laminated set, even home laminated on my new lamination machine, would cost much more than just printing it on paper or cardstock. There are problems with photographing laminated sets, though — the light tends to reflect off the surface, making it less visible. As much as I appreciate displaying it online in the form that it's most generally recommended to produce it at home for longterm lastingness, I may not want to pay for it and might like to take advantage of the visibility of a paper printed version. I feel that's the ideal, and I could print it inexpensively on paper to laminate at a later time for my own collection. But even the time it takes to get to the print shop and slice out the cards is a little bit consuming for me right now.

Actually — as a sidenote — I'd be a bit on the fence between paper or cardstock incase the cardstock version would make a nice gift 😂😂 since I always do love gifting these to people. But paper is much more affordable for me right now since cardstock is $40 CAD.

That alone wouldn't stop me from just forging ahead and doing that now — but also it's going to be even more time consuming to do this, because The 64 CARDS feature I Ching hexagrams for each image, so there's no way out of doing some very time consuming graphic design work to prepare 64 hexagrams (and of course titles and info while I'm at it) for all these photos if I do this. Even if I don't overlay the I Ching onto the photo, and I only put a small hexagram with the text under each photo in the web presentation to show it visually, that alone will take quite a while to prepare and lay out all those extra images. 

It's certainly not an unattainable project, but overall I must wonder if other things should be a priority right now, considering that The 64 CARDS are fairly soon going to be redesigned anyway. I try to style the website as a cozy and connected space where the direction that I provide is similar to how I would speak in person to anyone I was personally discussing these things with (though of course with a "website copy" style of speech). To anyone I was talking to in person, at this stage (since the card faces will be redesigned fairly soon), I would warn them that this isn't the best time really to download them and go through the expense of home printing, since they'll prefer the new set when it's available fairly soon anyway.

I'm not apple.com here 😂😂 — if the new iPhone is about to come out, there will be less intensity of presentation on the current one to match the organic flow of unfolding events. But at the same time, it does mean a lot to me to seem proud of what I offer here at UNITY LIFE, especially now that there is more promotion going on around all these resources as they interconnect — and for some just newly discovering it, it can be much more meaningful in other ways outside of printing it at home than anything. Sometimes visual eye candy experiences can create that depth of reception to support awareness of the larger significance just of its existence as a set (and of course the meaning within it).

I'm definitely going to add The 64 CARDS to FACET 64(136) ◊ DESIGN before that kind of a presentation would be ready, at the first stage once the landing page has been upgraded with the archival gallery and whatever else I can do for it right now. But I'm just juggling my options for how much to prioritize any further work on this right now, because I'm up to my eyeballs with The 7 of 9 and some other things I've been meaning to do on teh website too. I may feel those things should get priority. 

All that said, there is no way this photography of the set with my hands is not ever going to happen. It definitely needs to happen at some point. Even if it were to happen at the latest stage, when The 64 CARDS are redesigned, it would still happen even though it's not needed anymore for the landing page so prominently. That's partly because I have to own a good copy of this set for my records once it's out of date, and also because I pride myself on the quality of my archival galleries when I do them as well, and I'm very disconcerted by the outdated GAIACRAFT branding as a problem. The name GAIACRAFT does not accurately represent the history of this version of the set's design, as it was under the name UNITY LIFE for years without being redesigned for special promotion. For so long it was promoted just without social media emphasis and wihtout those kinds of graphics as how it was done.

Also photos of the designs for the backs are missing too because they were not as readable in social media or any online format really, but they do deserve to be archivally recorded in digital format with presentation focus.

I'll be thinking about this decision of how to prioritize my time and money over the next ilttle while. I'm very pensive about The 7 of 9, feeling it requires a lot of immediate attention as I simultaneously work on other things like stuff to celebrate Marilyn Manson's latest birthday, or other certain immediate items. But I'm torn because I really value the image of pride in my work that is emanated by the sequence and quality of the latest overhaul to the landing pages for UNITY LIFE core resources which is happening currently in celebration of Kurt Cobain's recent birthday. Let's see what happens — sometimes posting a blog about unresolved issues can really help me to iron things out as this has a psychological effect on me.