Good advice (and I am totally in-line with NOT making it a flea market). I'm going to add 25 signed/numbered sheets for each of the two decks. Strictly limited. I also decided to make both decks limited editions rather than have 1 limited and 1 unlimited. I'll probably pass on the poker chips, but I might add a hand silk-screened T-shirt (which I assume will sell better to gamers than card collectors). Not sure if I'll do the K of Hearts or the Ace of Spades that we've been tweaking lately.

I love your Ace of Hearts man. That is back-of-leather-jacket-cool... (or front-of-baby-doll-T-cool). Looks like you're off to a great start. Good luck!

Jordan did some tweaking of the crowns today. He's also working on a more "ornate" Ace of Spades. Here's the updated Crowns...

I like the architectural take on the deck boxes, with the corner of the boxes representing the corner of a building. Nice touch!

Hey Everyone, I wanted to share new playing cards decks here that I worked on with my friend Jordan Martin. It’s not an art-centered deck - it’s more about the collision of two of our passions.

To be honest, we didn’t make this deck to appeal to playing card collectors even though we both love what is being done in the medium. Instead, we made this deck primarily to appeal to people who share our passion for board games and who also like playing cards. We expect these cards to be used for traditional games by the purchaser, as opposed to static collecting or magic.

For the design, we chose the iconic shape of the “meeple.” If you don’t know what the meeple is, it’s basically a wooden game piece that is used in lots of board games sometimes with slight variations. It’s sort of the European version of a “pawn.”

Because the meeple is so simple in form, we wanted to keep the imagery in the deck iconographic and clean. Since I expect this deck to be used to play games (by most purchasers), it needs to be uncluttered and easy to read at a glance. It has to fan well, stack well in solitaire games, and be easy to recognize across the table for games like Hold ‘Em poker. It also needs to be very meeple-ee while capturing the traditions of playing cards. After tons of tinkering, this is what we ended up with, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

We are planning on launching the deck early in January on Kickstarter.

Thanks,

jan 22nd

As I use all my decks, a good used one would be fine with me. If it's cheaper, then all the better!

What I'd really like to do is trade used decks for other used decks if possible.

Quote from: Lukeout on December 09, 2013, 01:00:57 PM

I like this deck, and would love someone to put together a deck along these lines with custom royals.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but there is someone who has done exactly that.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1679981149/bicycle-emperor-playing-cards-by-uspcc

In my opinion, they're spectacular.

The deliveries have begun for the blue backs and the reds are likely just around the corner; I'm sure you'll be able to find some in the secondary market.

Thanks for the heads up, nice deck!

I'm new to this forum, so this is the first I've seen of these. Damn, these are cool. I can see the challenge you had with all B+W clubs and spades, and not going just Red+White for Diamonds and Hearts (I think you had to go with black too, good call). I think you struck a great middle ground with the accent red in the images - that cardinal piece just crushes me - too cool. Reminds me a lot of Charles Harper (http://charleyharperartstudio.com) - one my all time favorite artists. Can't wait!

Luke

It often IS good design. However, it's not always good playing card design.

I agree here. If you're going to go with a deck that it sparse (as opposed to detailed illustrations), the theme should come through AND it should be playable. I enjoy thematic decks and illustrated ones, but my thematic decks are all very usable.

I am not a fan of the title either. When I saw the title of the deck, I was expecting to see a clever deck designed for color blind people, but the deck was Soviet WWII propaganda based. I think the deck needs a name that more clearly describes it's design aesthetic.

If possible, try to get an artist who will work on a royalty - Ideally one who already digs the subject matter. I don't say this to be cheap, I say this because you want the designer to be really engaged in the product. The designer should do well if the deck does well. Then you can count on the designer not only to do the best job he can (or has time for), but also, he can help you market your deck by bringing in his personal social network as well.

If you can't find a designer like that, then hit Odesk and browse through some portfolios.

Luke

I like what you did with the 4 there from a design perspective. It might effect playability, but I'm not sure how many deck collectors care about that (I play with all my cards, so it's a pretty big deal for me). As a side benefit, it could be used for some REALLY fun magic tricks...

Luke

I have been loving all the action on Kickstarter and other places with playing cards (that Pagan deck on right now is particularly great IMO). They motivated a friend and I to design a deck which we will be putting up on KS in early January. I've got a lot of experience with games on KS (4-for-4 funded and delivered on time or early), and I even published a kids book with my wife this year on KS, but this will be the first deck of cards I've worked on.

I found this forum today, and I am really blown away. I've read through probably 500 posts today (seemed that way at least), and all of them seem very helpful, polite and considerate even when opinions varied. This is the kind of community that the internet was made for. Very happy to be here to learn and hopefully contribute.

Luke