Hi Guys,

Intro
I am Nova, 30 years old and from the Netherlands. I have a job as a text writer but in my free time i'd love to do some graphic and 3d design as a hobby. Ever since signing up on this forum almost two years ago I got inspired with playing cards. Mainly because of the limitations a 52 card deck has from a design point-of-view but also the contrast of great art provided on the decks by both long standing professional artist as well as talented enthousiasts.

Now as you can probably guess I wanted to design my own deck of cards and i finally found the time for it. It's important to know that this is a hobby for me, I do not want or expect to make any profit but it would be really cool to have a professional print run of my own deck. Now I have experience with launching kickstarter projects, although not card related and I live very nearby the head office of cartamundi so it is relatively easy for me to communicate and arrange a print run, so the practical things worry me less.

Is the design good enough?
However what worries me the most is, is my art and my idea good enough? I see some very great looking designs fail in the kickstarter campaign and while this a hobby for me I would be dissapointed if I put in all the effort and do not get any succes. Now I saw some very usefull and knowledgable feedback on this forum so I open this topic while I am still in the concept stage. I figured out it would be best to receive some good advice rather soon than later to avoid having to change or cancel the project when too much time has already gotten in.

So below you will find 4 concept arts of queens, jacks and kings to give you an idea of what I want. regarding these concepts I have a few notes and questions; (please note these are rough concepts/sketches containing multiple smaller and bigger design flaws)

Notes
- The deck should be a little casino card game themed. All the characters will hold or place betting chips, the idea behind it being that we always play with the playing cards but when are the cards themselves actually playing. Instead of traditional jacks there will be male or female dealers at the playing card tables.
- It will be relatively traditional designed with full color pips, limited colors and borders to give it an autenthical look, although completely in my own drawing style.

Questions
- Based on the concept, do you guys think that my art is 'good enough'/professional enough looking to be featured on the cards when running a campaign?
- What do you guys think about the theme?
- Regarding the (female) dealers instead of Jacks, do you guys think this is a major problem/turn off for possible buyers?
- Any other tips, hints or tricks that come to your minds?

Again, sorry for the relatively long read but all feedback is welcome. If not (very) negative I will also proceed with the designing process and keep this thread up to date so other designers can see some more of the development between a concept and a fully finished card game design.

Best Regards,
Nova.

Hi all,
Just wanted to introduce myself. I am Nova from the Netherlands and general a creative guy / designer. I do 3d design at a professional level and graphic design as a hobbyist. I always wanted to write a comic book but it just seemed too much work so then I decided to customize a set of playing cards. And came on this forum and many other interesting forums.

I already saw some great work coming by. So my purpose is to post some of my own designs and hope for some professional  / knowledgable feedback. And I want to become a small collector, my budget and space however are limited so I will maintain a very strict selection in which decks I will support or purchase - I feel most attracted to design decks like for example the CMYK deck.

Below is an example of a deck I am workin on currently (please keep in mind this is more or less a hobby project, I do not intend to run a kickstarter or anything, at most produce 20 or 25 decks for some friends or something. (I mention this disclaimer because I think the work is not as pretty as some of the decks I saw in the design section).

It's a comic themed deck (all of my projects will), with Manga style. I am very curious to your comments.


If the project is worked out some more I will maybe create a seperate topic for it.

Best Regards,
Nova