Mug Shots (ID Parade).

[NikGrey]

Inspired by Danno from another thread, he asked if anybody could ID a Mug from it's image/markings.
SO I thought it might help our Mug ID quest if we posted images of Mug Types in this thread.

I will start:

Orca:



Listawood:



Durham (RG381) - I do not know where these came from:

[danno]

Ok, so I'm looking at these mugs and trying desperately to find a difference!!!! Got to say, I can't see any difference.....although my eye is drawn to the second one for having a slightly more rounded handle....is that fair to say?? other than that I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference, I certainly wouldn't know which one to buy if I were to be presented with them.

Many moons ago, I was a production manager for a labelling company, being the saddo that i was, I could identify any self adhesive material in our factory, just by looking at it!!!!! And also I could take a sniff of any adhesive and name it just like that!!! It would be pretty cool to name a mug just by the look and feel.....or is it just me that's very odd??!!!!......

....in fact don't answer that!!! lol

[NikGrey]

No, that's not odd - I do/learn things like that.
I think we can tell them apart from the handles more than anything else, from images anyway.

Thicker, rounder etc.

Oh, and I am in the process of making a Stage to photograph my products - that 'White' background folds out over the desk. I need to work on the lighting next.

[danno]

No, that's not odd - I do/learn things like that.
I think we can tell them apart from the handles more than anything else, from images anyway.

Thicker, rounder etc.

Oh, and I am in the process of making a Stage to photograph my products - that 'White' background folds out over the desk. I need to work on the lighting next.

Have you thought of a "green screen" or should I use the official term of Chromakey for your mug backdrop?? I've seen them fairly cheap on fleabay, come with a pair of lighting rigs too.....great for doing videos too!!

Check this out: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Photo-Backgro ... 1c330cb082

[pisquee]

Just wanted to point out that Orca is a sublimation coating, not specifically a mug manufacturer. Also, a lot of sublimation coating facilities will buy in ready made mugs to coat, meaning that there isn't always consistency in the actual mug over time from all suppliers.
Along with Orca, the main coatings are RN (Rich Nealey), Rhino, Duraglaze that I can remember off the top of my head, there's bound to be some more.

As for white background shots, a photo light tent/cube and a small lighting kit, along with a decent camera where you can set the white balance should get you most of the way there, and then a little editing in photoshop will finish up the job nicely.

We started with one of these for small things like mugs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORTABLE-50CM ... 4d12b4c35a

The tripod is rubbish so bought a better one, along with a remote shutter release so the camera was completely steady when taking the shot. We have bought a few more lights since, and a larger cube for bigger products (lampshades, cushions) which we use outside in daylight rather than electric lighting.

[danno]

That's pretty nifty Pisquee, very tempted by one of those myself......Have you got any photos you've taken using it?? Would like to see the results

[James990]

I started of with one of those as well, but now have an igloo with better lighting etc. Mind you th epictures are still naff!!

[Andrew]

I think this thread is going to confuse some. There are so many combinations accross mug/coating and size (10/11oz). I can think of 5 suppliers that supply Orca coated mugs and 3 of the mugs are different. Also, not all have the Orca stamp. Listawood are one of them suppliers but they also supply the Duraglaze which I also believe is actually the original RN coating rebranded. Handle shape can often be determined by whether it is a Durham or Cambridge but that is not set in stone. Suppliers set their own names such as Wycombe/European or just standard sublimation mug. There are no hard set rules and I have often found different batches of what I believed to be the same mug from the same supplier to be a slightly diffrerent version.

[pisquee]

There are no hard set rules and I have often found different batches of what I believed to be the same mug from the same supplier to be a slightly diffrerent version.

Which goes back to the factories doing the coating buying in whichever standard white mugs they got the best price on that week. Similar things happen in electronics factories - components can change during a production run of supposedly the same batch due to fluctuations in price and availability of components.

[arko]

We started with one of these for small things like mugs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORTABLE-50CM ... 4d12b4c35a

The tripod is rubbish so bought a better one, along with a remote shutter release so the camera was completely steady when taking the shot. We have bought a few more lights since, and a larger cube for bigger products (lampshades, cushions) which we use outside in daylight rather than electric lighting.

Now on sale for £27.49 (WAS £77.54)

Bargain!