Ladies and gentlemen!

Do you have an original idea for a deck that's been burning a hole in the back of your brain for a while?

Is your idea top-notch, crème de la crème, so good that people may be blinded by its brilliance?

Then you're in the right place - welcome to...


STAGE ONE: refine your design work and seek commentary from the community by making a topic on the Design and Development board.  This is also where you should ask me if you have any rules questions pertaining specifically to your work.
CONCLUDED!

STAGE TWO: submit your official entry designs here (the topic will remain locked until then).  Entries will be final and editing will disqualify your entry, so be sure you've done your best and left nothing out before posting (see Stage One).
CONCLUDED!!

STAGE THREE: cast your votes for favorite design here!  One vote per person, so make sure it counts!
BEGINS TUES 01 JULY 2014 04:00 UTC* - ENDS TUES 15 JULY 2014 04:00 UTC*

For the person whose design receives the most votes by a majority...

EPCC will print your design FOR SALE and send you THREE GROSS (432) of your decks, free of charge!

Imagine all the things you can do with THIRTY-SIX BRICKS of your own deck design!!

For all the contestants, win or lose, this can be your golden opportunity: a chance to refine your design, receive comments from your fellow members and get some valuable exposure.  It could possibly draw the attention of a deck design company or be the motivation you need to create a Kickstarter project!

All contestants must read the official contest rules in the sticky topic marked "1st Discourse Deck Design Contest - RULES", where you may leave comments regarding general rules questions.





* Time reference - 04:00 GMT (24-hour clock) equals:
15:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEST) on the same day (Sydney)
13:00 Japan Standard Time (JST) on the same day (Tokyo)
12:00 China Standard Time (CST) on the same day (Beijing, Taipei)
06:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST) on the same day (Paris, Rome, Berlin)
05:00 Western European Summer Time (WEST)/British Summer Time (BST) on the same day (London, Lisbon)
00:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on the same day (Toronto, New York)
21:00 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on the previous day (Vancouver, San Francisco)

Hi there!
I want partecipate at the contest with my Evil Deck.

I'm Giovanni Meroni, designer from Milan, Italy. I illustrate funny vector characters in my spare time (night & weekends), and Evil Deck took almost a year to be done.

The Evil Deck is a bit different than regular decks, because it have an illustration on every card (I didn't want use the "classic" structure of the cards on purpose, I wanted to make a deck where every card could be interesting as a court card.

Every suit represents a different kind of evil: hearts are for passion, clubs are for nature, diamonds are for violence and spades are for magic.

The style is flat and simple, I used only three main colors: violet for the black cards, a deep blood red for the red cards, and every card have some yellow elements (I wanted a "evil" color scheme). As you see, Evil Deck is Evil, but fun. I wanted a parody, where the characters are bad, but silly.

Now, the images! Tuck box and the cards, hope you like them!

Here is my entry, I call it the "Discourse" deck.

I was inspired by my time spent here on the forums so I wanted to make something that had a mix of modern and old.  To do this I used a minimal back design that both reflects the older designs of some casino decks but at the same time has seen a come back in recent years.  I used the old way of having your pips take up the whole area but included indices to make them a bit more practical.  I used the faces that EPCC used for their Exquisite decks with a slight modification to make them fit the rest of the theme.  I also threw in a reference to our beloved Don Boyer 

As far as special things go, the fronts of the cards all have a subtle one way design in that one of the indices is slightly bolder than the other.  I have a special marking system on the back that can tell you if the card is black or red.  There will be two identical jokers as I have found that to be more useful when it comes to my tricks then a reveal on the joker.  The jokers do include the subtle one way design but I made the main face of the card two way so that way if one is trying to hide the fact they are using duplicate jokers it will be easier to hide.

I'm also going with a side tuck case like the Exquisites as I have found them to be much more sturdy and I just like how they look and feel "classy".  I was thinking of adding the url www.playingcardforum.com to the bottom of the card box if Don was ok with that.

I tried uploading this many times but it wouldn't work that is why I am posting it from an external site.

In all likelihood, you exceeded the file size limit, especially considering how huge this single image is.  I suggest you break the image into up to five smaller chunks and upload them rather than linking to them.

BTW: this forum is the property of Tom Dawson.  Did you obtain licensing from him for your deck?  If not, you should change the name immediately.  You also used court cards from a Bill Kalush/CARC deck - his kings usually have images of people who are part of CARC and I'm sure he obtained permission first.  Bill's face is on the King of Hearts, David Blaine's face is on the King of Spades and I'm not sure who is on the remaining kings but I think the King of Diamonds might be the Buck twins.  Use a more generic set of courts or see if he can and will allow you to use these courts and you'll be fine.  You can also ask him about using the generic courts he's creating as the standard EPCC faces for future decks - it's simply a matter of whether the designs are completed, as the rules state you can use those.

Check the resolution of your image files.  Lower resolution is permitted for posting on the site, but you want it to look sharp and some of your images just aren't there.  Furthermore, you need to have the proper resolution and format for these images complete and ready to hand over to Expert PCC - if you don't, that will disqualify your entry even if you win the voting rounds and a new winner will be selected.

Normally I'd have to disqualify this entire entry outright, but I'm going to be generous and permit you a chance to go back to the drawing board.  I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you post your FINISHED designs there and ask me whether it's complete and suitable for entry.  For the time being, we'll consider this entry as null and void until you resolve the issues.  DO NOT edit those posts for a new entry - just create new posts.  You may not submit any other design - this IS your entry deck.

In the interests of fairness, should anyone else need a minor "do-over", I'll allow it but you have to submit the same deck you submitted in the first place or I'll have to disqualify the entry.

MrMollusk, !An0nym0u5 - permit me to quote a section of the contest rules.  The emphasis in red is mine.

RULE ZERO: TO ALL MEMBERS.  ONLY POST IN THE CONTEST TOPIC IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING A CONTEST ENTRY.  ONLY POST IN THIS TOPIC IF YOU ARE ENTERING THE CONTEST AND HAVE ANY RULES-RELATED QUESTIONS.  ALL OTHER POSTS WILL BE DELETED.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON THE POTENTIAL CONTEST ENTRIES ON THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD ("Design/Dev") TOPICS FOR EACH OF THE SAID ENTRIES.

Guys - if you have commentary on his design, I ask that you confine them to his Design/Dev topic and not make them here, unless those happen to be your official contest entries, in which case they're nowhere near complete and thus are ineligible...   I'm moving them to that topic now rather than deleting them.

As far as what we're expecting from such a deck - he's free to make it his entry, as long as he clears up the rights issues.  I have no actual expectations, other than that we get a lot of entries and that each entry meets all of the contest standards, including having the design work at the correct resolution and prepared in the correct way.  I'm not hand-picking a winner unless there's a tie in the two-deck run-off election (assuming there even is a run-off), and even then it's not my decision alone - Tom and Lee also get a vote each.  I'll offer tips and advice to anyone wanting to make an entry, but they're free to totally ignore them if they wish - again, as long as they meet the standard for contest entries, it's perfectly fine by me and I'm completely neutral.  It's YOU and your fellow members of the Discourse who will choose the winner in the end - Admins are not permitted to participate in the first or second round of voting.

Take 2:

Here is my entry, I call it the "Deduction" deck.

I was inspired by my time spent here on the forums so I wanted to make something that had a mix of modern and old.  To do this I used a minimal back design that both reflects the older designs of some casino decks but at the same time has seen a come back in recent years.  I used the old way of having your pips take up the whole area but included indices to make them a bit more practical.  I used the standard court faces with a slight modification to make them fit the rest of the theme.  I also threw in a reference to our beloved Don Boyer on the AoS. 

As far as special things go, the fronts of the cards all have a subtle one way design in that one of the indices is slightly bolder than the other.  I have a special marking system on the back that can tell you if the card is black or red.  There will be two identical jokers as I have found that to be more useful when it comes to my tricks then a reveal on the joker.  The jokers do include the subtle one way design but I made the main face of the card two way so that way if one is trying to hide the fact they are using duplicate jokers it will be easier to hide.

I'm also going with a side tuck case like the Exquisites as I have found them to be much more sturdy and I just like how they look and feel "classy".

Here is my joker (remember there will be two identical jokers).  I also want to make sure you know that my artwork should be high enough resolution to be print worthy.

Please add a random sampling of spot cards, one from each suit, as well as all the threes, and this looks like a complete entry.  Best of luck to you in the election.

A reminder to other designers - we will stop accepting entries and begin the voting in just over three weeks from now!  Get your projects ready, put a bow on them and get them posted!

Hello everyone,
My name is Ade Suryana from Indonesia.

This is my entry for Discourse Deck Design Contest.

Symphony No.01 Playing Cards.
This is a full custom deck inspired by the Greatest Composers of all time, from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic Period.
The Courts and Jokers are digital drawing. All design are vector artwork with CMYK color. Below I attached the images for the entire deck.

Thank you and Good luck to everyone 
- Ade

Here is my deck Rainbow Illusion

And some more. The extra cards are a blank face and a double back with a color change.

Hi Guys!
I'm Randall Veneracion From the Philippines. I saw this contest while checking out Expert Playing Card Company and i thought why not try my luck. Playing cards is one of the things I always have in my bag or in my pocket and since I love cards sometimes I create some artwork of playing cards design. So this one is a simple back design that I really like and i think it's really neat.

I called this one "SEAMLESS".
 
Hope you guys like it.

This is the back design.



The Ace Of Spades:



The Spot Cards: ( It's basically classic spot cards design. )

 







The Court Cards:



Two Extra Cards:  ( I didn't put jokers since a blank card and double backer would be a helpful. )





The Box Design: ( It's really simple and straight to the point. )



I'm not really a graphic designer so the artwork is not that great but still hope you guys will like it.
Good luck to me and to the other entries.
- Randall Veneracion

OK, here is -finally- my contribution for the deck contest. You can read all about the twist and turns this design has taken in the design topic: http://www.playingcardforum.com/design-development/dddc-the-maelstrom-deck-or-why-to-begin-with-the-end-in-mind/

I call it: Stenlund Red.

I wanted to make a clean and uncluttered design.
The courts are a red and black version of the standard courts. They are recognisable by many people around the world and should work fine for magicians and players alike.
The back is thin bordered with a clean, chequered pattern and a round centre piece. The same round piece is partly visible on the Ace of Spades and on the box, on the front, side flaps and seal.
The pips are a slightly customized version of the standard pips, standard enough to pass without suspicion, custom enough to add visual interest. I especially like the Ten of Diamonds and the Eight of Hearts.
The box contains a usable barcode reveal.
There are no jokers, instead I have added not one but two gaff cards: one blank face/printed back and one blank face/blank back
Pictures:
Please note that the chequered pattern on the back is how it's supposed to look, the box mockups look a little more bulky.

Thanks for looking!

Leif, great entry.

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DEADLINE: 04:00 Tues 1 July UTC.  East Coast: midnight, Tuesday morning.  West Coast: 9pm, Monday night.