Hey all,

Today 25 October at 5:00pm EDT, during my "Grotesk Macabre KS campaign I'm relaesing  "BLACK MASS": A deck (the first of its kind?) printed with Red and Gold shiny metallic inks on Black stock with air-pocket embossing. Tuck case with black foil on a sturdy black stock.

"ICONS" playing cards is a set of 3 editions:

the "SECULAR"
the "SACRED"
the "IMPERIAL"

I decided (for various reasons) to launch the "IMPERIAL edition" first. This is a very special deck, I guess the most luxurious deck of modern era. It will have both Gold and Silver hot stamped foil on the back of all cards. This is the natural next step in the evolution of my work that started with Venexiana Gold. On top of that, I'm upgrading the stock, to meet the demands and expectations of people accustomed to the embossed paper that EPCC and LPCC use. Although it's unlikely that the deck will be ever used for flourishing, I think that good handling adds to the deck's value even if most people will keep the deck inside its case.
Which by the way is going to be covered with purple velvet, embossed and foiled. Very Byzantine!
Here are two renderings of the back.

Hey everyone, it's been a long time I haven't posted here, the only reason being that after my involvement with the UC2014 deck I didn't have the time to watch two forums. 

The deck is inspired by the splendor of Byzantine Empire and Art.
"Icons" (from the Greek word "εικών" which means "image") were paintings or mosaics depicting the saints of Orthodox Church.
For this deck I'll be using the standard courts translated into the Byzantine art style.

"ICONS" is meant to be the first in a series under the title "Heritage Trilogy". In the next days I'll post more pics and info about the deck and the inspiration behind it.

Thank you all guys! 

Don, the choice of the name seems that worked well along with the theme. And I love contradictions. Life is full of them...

Launching tomorrow!

Thanks Lukeout, very interesting photo!

Well, I think the back is already very intricate to add a marble texture. I want a balance between illustration and graphic design. This requires to sacrifice some obvious choices sometimes. :-)

Wow, talk about falling on one's own sword...that's gonna leave a mark...

Looks great, LoTrek!

Thanks Don! I have to admit, I like it too!  Usually I'm not completely happy with the result no matter what others say.  I guess all artists suffer from that.

I thought you'd like to see a court...

I like the style A LOT! Good move Jackson.
However, I'm not sure about the mouth. I think it's a bit too much...

And here is the back design...

A few words about "Grotesque" Is it Greek inspired? Yes and no.
The original meaning of 'Grotesque" was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art (which directly derived from ancient Greek art) rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century. Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant  and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. Although there is an immense variety of motifs and figures in Grotesque style, the three main tropes of the grotesque are doubleness, hybridity and metamorphosis. During Renaissance, artists began to give the tiny faces of the figures in grotesque decorations strange caricatured expressions. In the 17th and 18th centuries the grotesque encompasses a wide field of teratology (science of monsters) and artistic experimentation.
Below are a few examples of Grotesque art which is the main source of inspiration for the deck.
However, as an artist I try to bring "Grotesque" to my taste and make a deck which will be at the same time strange and beautiful.

Mike R had previously talked about getting UC transferred over to his GoDaddy hosting account around about now.

If this involved gaining access to Mike F's admin control panel... well he was less than helpful during the last hosting crisis.

We could speculate further I guess - but I'd rather wait to hear from Mike R.

(IMO worst case scenario is we start over - a prospect which is brimming with potential... On a side note and probably worth it's own thread elsewhere, Lotrek has posted teasers about the UC 2014 deck...https://www.facebook.com/GrotesqueDeck)

Yes... We have the UC annual deck, I hope we'll have the UC site too... 

That's really nasty. 
I hope they'll solve the issue. Don't know why but as the site kept not loading I thought of Mike F for some reason. I hope I'm wrong...