Then it would be sort of redundant to have it implanted.
Clean Slate: Uniforms!
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Then it would be sort of redundant to have it implanted.
Just noticed: some of my monitors display the "Grays" as pretty much khaki although the machine on which I do most of my design stuff shows them as shades of off-gray!
What colors do you guys see? The intention was that they should appear as a kind of warm-ish, slightly yellow gray.
What colors do you guys see? The intention was that they should appear as a kind of warm-ish, slightly yellow gray.
Except they couldn't be so easily taken or misplaced. And many times they didn't press the combadge but just started talking....
I would call most of your uniforms greenish. But I have a terrible time confusing red, green, and brown. I'm partially colorblind, and I certainly don't see nearly as many distinct colors as the typical person does.
It makes for a horrible time when I'm in a meeting and someone's presenting a graph with lines of different colors. I spend most of the time trying to read the legend and figure out which is which! It's especially hard when the colors are rather dark or light.
I like the size if the rank insignia on the class B's better than those on the class A's. The officer's pips are fairly small and the enlisted insignia should be the same. The class A's seem a bit garish.
Might just as well ask why Humanoids need a uniform. Uniforms have a function in terms of unit cohesion and group identity, this is likely the primary reason Jellico required Troi to put on a standard uniform in stead of dressing as she saw fit too. She was part of the team.Maybe so you can tell him apart from all the other dolphin crewmembers?Why would a dolphin crew member need a uniform?
A dolphin crew member, aboard ship and on a away mission in a some planets ocean, would be wearing some kind of garment to identify them as Starfleet.
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The problem with a implanted communicator is that no one could easily take them away.
Years ago, parent's in Mexico, worried about kidnappers, were implanting RFID transmitters in their children's bodies. Problem was if they were then kidnapped and the child couldn't tell the kidnappers where the transmitter was, the kidnapper would go looking for it with a knife.
Implanted communicators equal bad idea.
Hi - what you might have missed is that the Blue Class A that you have shown is very much a formal/dress uniform and the officer rank markings for this variant also include traditional full-size gold lace cuff stripes as well as the shoulder straps; the NCO insignia for the Blue Class A were therefore sized to match the officer cuff stripes.
For the Gray service/working dress uniforms, however, I'd agree that the full-size NCO insignia are probably too large. One of the reasons I originally developed alternative shoulder-strap insignia for the Chiefs was that I intended to use only shoulder straps for all but the most formal uniforms. Commissioned Officers, Warrant Officers and the Chief Petty Officer grades would wear the shoulder straps alongside their sleeve insignia on the formal Blue Class A but the junior enlisted grades would only wear sleeve insignia on this variant and their shoulder-straps would only be seen on less formal uniforms.
I've updated the shoulder rank insignia to include those for the junior enlisted grades (note also some small modifications to the Chiefs' shoulder insignia so that they now parallel their sleeve insignia more closely). I've also adjusted the color tones of the Gray uniforms a little so hopefully they now appear less "khaki" and are somewhat closer to what I originally intended!
For comparison, here are the Blue and Gray uniforms for a Captain and a command-grade Master Chief:
Here also are some first-pass thoughts on possible branch colors and a rough sketch of (hopefully) a very practical approach to a utility uniform - note the different approach to displaying branch color and rank insignia for all grades.
For those of you with difficulty differentiating these colors, (1) I apologise! and (2) I would hope that by the time of Trek clinical science would have come up with a relatively simple way of restoring you to unimpeded vision!
For the Gray service/working dress uniforms, however, I'd agree that the full-size NCO insignia are probably too large. One of the reasons I originally developed alternative shoulder-strap insignia for the Chiefs was that I intended to use only shoulder straps for all but the most formal uniforms. Commissioned Officers, Warrant Officers and the Chief Petty Officer grades would wear the shoulder straps alongside their sleeve insignia on the formal Blue Class A but the junior enlisted grades would only wear sleeve insignia on this variant and their shoulder-straps would only be seen on less formal uniforms.
I've updated the shoulder rank insignia to include those for the junior enlisted grades (note also some small modifications to the Chiefs' shoulder insignia so that they now parallel their sleeve insignia more closely). I've also adjusted the color tones of the Gray uniforms a little so hopefully they now appear less "khaki" and are somewhat closer to what I originally intended!
For comparison, here are the Blue and Gray uniforms for a Captain and a command-grade Master Chief:
Here also are some first-pass thoughts on possible branch colors and a rough sketch of (hopefully) a very practical approach to a utility uniform - note the different approach to displaying branch color and rank insignia for all grades.
For those of you with difficulty differentiating these colors, (1) I apologise! and (2) I would hope that by the time of Trek clinical science would have come up with a relatively simple way of restoring you to unimpeded vision!
Short addendum to the above:
If the new upper-arm sleeve strips for displaying branch and rank look like they might work, then I would consider using this approach for the Gray service dress coats too (but probably not for the shirts - yet). I would also ditch the metal pins for the chest insignia in favor of the patches including the branch color for both shirts and coats.
A word about the branch colors - these are intended to identify only very specific specialty areas; most are self explanatory but I think it's worth noting that "Security" is intended to cover only the security and policing type of roles; what might have been termed "Tactical" in the TNG/DS9/Voy era would, in this scheme, be a sub-branch of the generic "Line Officer" role, which has a somewhat more general and broader scope than being just a "Command" branch. I hope that makes sense.
If the new upper-arm sleeve strips for displaying branch and rank look like they might work, then I would consider using this approach for the Gray service dress coats too (but probably not for the shirts - yet). I would also ditch the metal pins for the chest insignia in favor of the patches including the branch color for both shirts and coats.
A word about the branch colors - these are intended to identify only very specific specialty areas; most are self explanatory but I think it's worth noting that "Security" is intended to cover only the security and policing type of roles; what might have been termed "Tactical" in the TNG/DS9/Voy era would, in this scheme, be a sub-branch of the generic "Line Officer" role, which has a somewhat more general and broader scope than being just a "Command" branch. I hope that makes sense.
Updated Grays with new insignia patches:
While this was an interesting idea, and it does sort of work, I actually think I'd be inclined to keep the slightly more formal shoulder straps and metal chest insignia for the gray coats and shirts (as shown in post #66, above), which would then keep this form of sleeve rank patches and chest insignia patch (with branch colors) as distinctive forms of marking for less formal working/operational uniform variants such as overalls, flight suits, field jackets and the like. What do you think?
While this was an interesting idea, and it does sort of work, I actually think I'd be inclined to keep the slightly more formal shoulder straps and metal chest insignia for the gray coats and shirts (as shown in post #66, above), which would then keep this form of sleeve rank patches and chest insignia patch (with branch colors) as distinctive forms of marking for less formal working/operational uniform variants such as overalls, flight suits, field jackets and the like. What do you think?
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Everyone can have the same standard duty uniform undershirt and top, but those who are engaging in non dirty physical labour can replace the top with a worker vest that would have pockets like what Scotty had. And when they're not doing that kind of work have the regular top on.
BlueSquadron: thanks! Now *those* are service colors even I can distinguish. 
I am not sure, though, if they'd still be distinguishable in grayscale. Who cares, though: they look great. It's not as though you're going to make grayscale printed copies of them (which is why I've had to use pseudocolor scales — in case someone were going to make grayscale prints of my work). And I agree about fixing color depth perception in the future. If Geordi can see beyond the visible spectrum and even have new eyes, why not fix the color thing? Notice how no one wears glasses, either.
I am not sure, though, if they'd still be distinguishable in grayscale. Who cares, though: they look great. It's not as though you're going to make grayscale printed copies of them (which is why I've had to use pseudocolor scales — in case someone were going to make grayscale prints of my work). And I agree about fixing color depth perception in the future. If Geordi can see beyond the visible spectrum and even have new eyes, why not fix the color thing? Notice how no one wears glasses, either.
Take away the the colours from underneath the badges, I'd have loved these.
That's not too far off something I came up with though I essentially just used the All Good Things uniform as a base, invested the colour and tweaked bits that annoyed me.
I have a comparison here from my notebook:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamestyler/4735331118/in/set-72157624235331425/
I tried to make it, but unfortunately... it didn't work and I created a more original design instead.
I have to admit, instead of the standard rectangle ribbons, I perfer the triangle ribbons from TOS. They're one of those reminders (like you need one) that this is a different culture.
Maybe the triangle ribbons were from the traditions of one of the Federation's non-Human cultures.
Agreed. We tend to be very human and Sol-centric (with a good deal of rather closed contemporary thimking) when it comes to these things. I sure default to that it unless I make a conscious effort to avoid it.
That was the great thing about the TOS uniforms - they had very few contemporary references. The cuff rank stripes were just similar enough to contemporary Naval tradition to make them recognisable to the TV audience but the details were like nothing that had gone before.
That was the great thing about the TOS uniforms - they had very few contemporary references. The cuff rank stripes were just similar enough to contemporary Naval tradition to make them recognisable to the TV audience but the details were like nothing that had gone before.
Thanks - and interesting you should say that...
The Starfleet insignia is only present as a feature on the "belt buckles" (not that there are any real belts per se...) as this was suggested in the description waaaaaay back in the thread that inspired all of this. Personally, I could quite happily ditch the whole belt buckle thing from ALL the versions of this uniform.
As to the NCO insignia, my original intention was to have some form of unique identifying emblem for each CPO grade, which would appear on their sleeve insignia and then also be used as a stand-alone rank marking for the shoulder-strap insignia (thus avoiding the need to have USN-type insignia with a sequential progression of further additional stars). Using the Starfleet insignia (or variations thereof) seemed to be the obvious choice and eliminated the need to add in yet another feature.
What I posted above sort of achieved this objective but I wasn't entirely happy with the way it looked. With insignia, I always feel that the simpler you can make them the better they look - less is very much more and these were just a bit too fussy for my liking. Follwing my update of the shoulder insignia a few posts back, I went back and had another look at the whole scheme for NCOs. Instead of an emblem for each grade, we now have a simple design that indicates "CPO" and simply add chevrons to show seniority. The only exception to this is MCPOSF who does get the Starfleet insignia - but this seems reasonably appropriate for his unique role (and also reflects the similar use of the Starfleet insignia within the rank marking for ADMSF).
Anyway, this is what I came up with - I think it now works better as a standardised sequence but still retains some of the "look" of the original. Any thoughts...?
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Oh, and just to go with that, some minor updates to the officer insignia too:
Back in the realm of a much more TOS look, how about these for general-duties wear aboard ship?
The shirts are the same designs as before but are fully branch colored with gray shoulder-straps. The only exception is for flag officers who retain their off-white variant with branch colored shoulder insignia (they also contibue to wear the metal insignia from the formal uniforms). I figure that the shipboard environment would be controlled at a comfortable temperature so short sleeves would be more than adequate (although we should forget about what we think we know regarding fabrics and accept that 23rd/24th Century fabrics and clothing technology should be more than capable of adapting to temperature variation anyway!).
I've taken off all the belt buckles and reverted to the TMP-style curved lower hems as a design feature (I just happen to kinda like it as it's obviously different to contemporary styling and these are clearly jackets rather than pyjamas...)
The shirts are the same designs as before but are fully branch colored with gray shoulder-straps. The only exception is for flag officers who retain their off-white variant with branch colored shoulder insignia (they also contibue to wear the metal insignia from the formal uniforms). I figure that the shipboard environment would be controlled at a comfortable temperature so short sleeves would be more than adequate (although we should forget about what we think we know regarding fabrics and accept that 23rd/24th Century fabrics and clothing technology should be more than capable of adapting to temperature variation anyway!).
I've taken off all the belt buckles and reverted to the TMP-style curved lower hems as a design feature (I just happen to kinda like it as it's obviously different to contemporary styling and these are clearly jackets rather than pyjamas...)
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