New Year, New Design On Deck

Belated Happy New Year to you all. Though you may not have noticed, I have started unveiling the 2017 Spirit card designs. In previous years, I've done as little as showing a handful of base cards to making one for EVERY card in series 1 before finally settling on doing one card for every team the last two years. I've decided to change it up again this year, releasing a smattering of base cards in a box break format. So 11 cards per pack, featuring nine base cards, one gold parallel and an insert in every pack.

The idea mostly came as a way to lighten the design workload on me throughout the season. If you've been following me here for a few years or so, you've probably noticed how the posts come a lot more frequently as the season starts and then dwindles down to cyber whispers as the months roll along. With the box break format, I've been doing a lot more designing in this dead period between the postseason and spring training. Having most of the Spirit inserts already taken care of, this will free me up to spread the love more evenly across the Clubhouse, Pennant and Deluxe releases.

The other big change is that I've been posting these "box break" packs on Tumblr instead of here on Blogger. Over the years, I've noticed myself being less excited when it comes to "writing" the posts vs. designing the cards and showing them to the world. Tumblr is a more visual place whereas Blogger really caters to the written word. So far, I've really enjoyed the ease of posting the packs there. What I haven't enjoyed is the fact that there's absolutely zero collecting presence on Tumblr. Not only are all of you not on there, but nobody else seems to be either. So, short of some spontaneous mass migration, I'm basically posting into the abyss on Tumblr.

I'm wrestling with what I should do going forward. Just plug along on Tumblr, tweeting out links to my new posts? Double my work and post on Tumblr and Blogger? Use Tumblr as a catalog then do "digest" posts here? There's no perfect solution. I enjoy getting actual feedback here on Blogger (versus zero on Tumblr), but my excitement about putting together posts here is dwarfed by the ease of posting on Tumblr. I guess I'll keep moving along for a bit longer before I go about changing course.