Reconstructing a 1956 Oak Premier Card/Gumball Machine Decal

[UKCardGuy]

I recently picked up a 1956 Oak Premier Card vending machine. It's in really nice condition but the decal on the machine has had a bit of wear.

So, being a tinkerer, I've been working to recreate a replacement decal. My plan is to keep the original glass and decal and store it safely but recreate the decal and apply it to a replacement glass piece. Then I can display the machine with the new glass and decal but still retain the original should I ever come to sell it.

I wanted to share my progress. It's taken a while to perfect my skills in Photoshop. But so far, it's coming along nicely.

Step 1: I scanned the original and imported it into Photoshop.
Step 2: I checked that the image was the same size as the original and had a resolution of 600dpi.
Steps 3-1000: I recolored the scanned image, filling in the missing bits. The hardest part was the letters. I had to manually recreate these. The original scan didn't work great when they were zoomed in so I became a bit of an expert with the Photoshop Curvature Pen Tool.

My first attempt wasn't bad but I needed to thicken up the lines. I think attempt 2 looks pretty darn good. When I print these on waterslide decal paper the image looks good against a light surface but against a dark surface (or when it's in the machine the colors don't show up great). You can see this from the photos below - you'll see that the grain on my desk, doesn't show through the yellow on the original decal but it does on my attempts.

I also noticed that the red on my 1st 2 attempts wasn't red enough. I've fixed this in my 3rd version.

I've also found out that professional printers apply a white undercoat to the areas where color are printed. That makes them stand out more.

I found a printing house on-line where they do this technique. I should receive my decal back from them next week. I'll post the results.

Let me know you're thoughts and if you have any tips, I'll be happy to have those too.

[NiceDocter]

I kind of like the look of the original myself…. looks authentically aged. But the redo is pretty good also… however the “a” s have been altered as I’m sure you noticed. Either way is good, so whatever makes you happy. Any way you could get the “a” letter back to the original style? Very nice and fun piece by the way…. Congrats on the pickup!! Rocky

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

I kind of like the look of the original myself…. looks authentically aged. But the redo is pretty good also… however the “a” s have been altered as I’m sure you noticed. Either way is good, so whatever makes you happy. Any way you could get the “a” letter back to the original style? Very nice and fun piece by the way…. Congrats on the pickup!! Rocky

I like the improved version but, yeah, the “a” needs to go back to original and I noticed the red on the 1¢ is more vivid in the original.

edit: I see you also noticed the red. I don’t think you’re quite “there,” yet.

[UKCardGuy]

Thanks guys. Good spot on the "a". I actually had the matched on a n earlier version but that's clearly been lost somewhere between versions 3 and 900. :-)
That'll be easy enough to correct.

I figure I'll need a few more attempts to get it right. One of my pet peaves is that the transparent areas should be transparent. I've seen a number of Oak Premiers where the area between the lines is colored white where it should be transparent. The photo below is one I found online to illustrate my point.

I post updates.

[jerseygary]

Hey Gary, if you'd like, I can take a crack at it – one of the things I do is create graphics props for movies and TV. My specialty is "period correct" graphics for posters, packaging, etc. I use the type and typography of the period and I do recreations like you are doing here. If I can't match the exact typeface, I can recreate it pretty easily, especially the san-serif ones like in your piece. As long as I have the exact dimensions and a good photo I can recreate it pretty accurately and quickly. Can't help you on the white background though. But I would look into custom scale modeler websites because those guys get custom decals made that don't have to have the white background.

[BobC]

One more thought/suggestion, if possible. The 1 cent designation printed in the big red dot has much thicker yellow lines in the original decal than in the newer versions. I think it would look much better if you could somehow thicken those yellow lines, and make the 1 cent designation stand out so much more.

[BobC]

Great item by the way, Personally, I probably would have left the decal as it was. Gives it more of a sense of age and characrter IMO. Still, a great item and pickup.