The Story
When the Kingdom of CAID had finished its negotiations with the
Estrella XV stewards it found itself with the coveted permission to fund
and create the "Official" event Tee Shirt. The profit of this endeavor
would belong to the sponsoring Kingdom. A call for
volunteers went up to propose a design, budget and plan for making this
a reality. The enthusiastic Lord Miguel Esteban Franco de los
Rios, in a massive case of helium hand, dutifully stepped forward and
dived into the project.
Ideas were plentiful and the phrase "The Saga Continues" stuck as the
event planning meetings took place. It seems there were a number
of movie sequels that year and the event staff was enjoying the fact
that this was the 15th year of the Estrella War.
Running with this phrase, Miguel remembered a wonderful line
drawing the Duchess Black Aislynn Straithbaern donated to the Kingdom
Newsletter. The Crown Prints. The image of four knights upon a
high vantage point looking down upon a battlefield. [Note: This
image was even more appropriate from Caid's point of view since we were
just ending our two year boycott of this event.] Duchess Aislynn
granted me permission to use her drawing and provided me an original
copy from the master drawing. I created a mock-up of the image above,
with the line drawing in its original black line on white paper
background.
The mockup, the budget and the sales plan was presented to TRM 'Abd
al-Hakim ibn 'Abd al-Rahman Shaddad al-Tomuki and Luciana Maria Novella
Di Carlo for their approval. My proposal was accepted and the Kingdom
granted my full budget request. Our proposal was to produce 1050
tee-shirts in sizes ranging from s to 5XL. The Calvert Company of Tustin
was contracted to perform the 5 layer silk screen. An graphic
artist in Arizona produced the color rendition of the drawing. The
tee shirts were to be produced in Arizona at the Calvert's plant. The
delivery was to be direct to the Estrella XV event site. This saved us
the CA taxes and expense of transporting these shirts from California.
At this time, this was 7.25 %. Big bucks.
The Estrella XV donated a booth in the merchant text for an "Indoor
Sales Venue" and members of the Castillo Solaz de los Rios household
manned this location for the entire war. But the best part of the
negotiations was that we had permission to hawk the tee shirts in-camp.
Using a cart borrowed from Master James of the Lake, Miguel and his
entourage sold their hearts out from Thursday to Sunday. Over 50%
of the shirts sold were "off the cart".
The Caidan Majesties also grant Miguel permission to be flexible with
the sale price of the shirts once we had recouped the original
investment. We were "In the Black" on Friday by noon. Overall, 750
shirts were sold at the event, gracing Caid's coffers with a 120% profit
after costs.
Another 100 shirts have been sold in the years since.
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