Apocalyptica Card Designs

[karak]

So we got our first designs in and I have to say I personally love them. Originally the card deck was tied to a roleplaying game that did not get funding, thank god as a card deck is a massive undertaking alone, and we plan on rolling these out soon:)

I am not sure to whom they will speak to artistically perhaps just roleplayers. They mix technological with fantasy(the roleplaying game they are from), so I am sure some may not like their overall look..

Comments welcome. Both backings come with borders but I also have the more typical white border version as well. I also have some more Magic the Gathering style backings but to be honest I love these.

Apocalyptica Chromatics





I attached the 3 face-cards as they are massive and I haven't uploaded them to host or edited their edges yet.

[Don Boyer]

I like what I'm seeing so far, though design-wise it is somewhat similar to a lot of recent decks.  But since those decks were successful, perhaps that's a good thing!


The red design has a one-way back.  Those six circles between the cog-like things and the corners, the ones that look like they have alien script characters in them?  Along the horizontal line they're symmetrical, but along the vertical line they aren't.  The absolute simplest solution is to copy one-half of the card art, rotate it 180 degrees and use that as the other half.


Try an experiment - remove the frames from the courts, simply fading the image edge to white as you approach the edge of the card.  That might look pretty sweet.

[karak]

Firstly THANK YOU. I didn't notice the symbol issue.
I was not aware there were others in this similar design:( But I guess in the end sometimes the same ideas recreate themselves.

I love the idea of the fadeout and will look into that.

I am going back and forth on the cover art. I like it but am a bit worried it won't resonate because the front doesn't mimic the back at all. Now, for us that makes sense as the world this was based on is technology and magic all mixed into one. But I am worried KickStarters may not see that. I will have to make sure to go into a bit of detail

Also a question. Backs WITH a white border or without?

Thank you very much for the constructive look at it!

[Don Boyer]

Firstly THANK YOU. I didn't notice the symbol issue.
I was not aware there were others in this similar design:( But I guess in the end sometimes the same ideas recreate themselves.

I love the idea of the fadeout and will look into that.

I am going back and forth on the cover art. I like it but am a bit worried it won't resonate because the front doesn't mimic the back at all. Now, for us that makes sense as the world this was based on is technology and magic all mixed into one. But I am worried KickStarters may not see that. I will have to make sure to go into a bit of detail

Also a question. Backs WITH a white border or without?

Thank you very much for the constructive look at it!

It depends on the audience you're aiming for.


Feel free to drop me a PM if you want.  I do consulting for designers on card design and development.  My current project is the Bohemia deck by Uusi and I may have a second (and possibly a third) one in the works.

[karak]

Firstly THANK YOU. I didn't notice the symbol issue.
I was not aware there were others in this similar design:( But I guess in the end sometimes the same ideas recreate themselves.

I love the idea of the fadeout and will look into that.

I am going back and forth on the cover art. I like it but am a bit worried it won't resonate because the front doesn't mimic the back at all. Now, for us that makes sense as the world this was based on is technology and magic all mixed into one. But I am worried KickStarters may not see that. I will have to make sure to go into a bit of detail

Also a question. Backs WITH a white border or without?

Thank you very much for the constructive look at it!

It depends on the audience you're aiming for.


Feel free to drop me a PM if you want.  I do consulting for designers on card design and development.  My current project is the Bohemia deck by Uusi and I may have a second (and possibly a third) one in the works.

I will! Thank you for all the help.

[karak]

Any other suggestions anyone? Hate them, like them?

[billysac]

My 2 cents

I really like the card backs and face cards, but (to me) they appear to belong to separate decks.
The level of detail on the face cards is fantastic, but they almost make the card backs look too line-based without the shadows and shading present on the other sides.

I'm certainly no design expert though, so to each their own. I'd back them as they are or if you changed things.

[karak]

Thanks. At times I feel the same and then am ok with it.

We also had plans to possibly go with a chromatic front sample draft(Attached below) but I don't trust that a design like that would print well and of course the pips would be reworked. I like the idea of that kind of back but owning a couple black face decks myself I just don't feel super confident that it can be pulled off well.
We do have mystic style backs(very early draft attached as well) that we kicked around. We had 3 but the chromatics won in the end. I will bounce some ideas around Thanks!

We are still rethinking it.
Thank you very much for the information.

[Evan]

The back designs in the first post are definitely the better. The faces have great artwork but I don't think it goes well with the back. Also, some color in the court cards might help.

[Don Boyer]

Thanks. At times I feel the same and then am ok with it.

We also had plans to possibly go with a chromatic front sample draft(Attached below) but I don't trust that a design like that would print well and of course the pips would be reworked. I like the idea of that kind of back but owning a couple black face decks myself I just don't feel super confident that it can be pulled off well.
We do have mystic style backs(very early draft attached as well) that we kicked around. We had 3 but the chromatics won in the end. I will bounce some ideas around Thanks!

We are still rethinking it.
Thank you very much for the information.

I just noticed something else about the chromatic backs.  The border, with all the detail that looks like cracked earth?  It's asymmetrical.  As far as one way marks go, it's not the most obvious (and sometimes a magician likes a hidden one-way mark), but a good eye can spot it and competitive card players wouldn't touch a visibly asymmetrical deck with a ten-foot pole out of concern for being called a cheat.  The same method I described before could be used to correct this.

[karak]

Thanks again Don. I had decided to drop the edged border anyway and go with pure white for that reason. I it is so hard to see but I noticed it while playing around with it in Gimp. Thanks again for all the comments and ideas!

[karak]

Got the bad news fixed and moving forward. Bicycle really worked with us on a couple issues. Excellent communication with them concerning the design of the specific card.

[karak]

So here are some more bits.
We are going with custom pip spacing and formats on the faces.

[Don Boyer]

So here are some more bits.
We are going with custom pip spacing and formats on the faces.

Consider a redesign on the spades because all I see when I look at it is black diamonds.

[karak]

So here are some more bits.
We are going with custom pip spacing and formats on the faces.

Consider a redesign on the spades because all I see when I look at it is black diamonds.

Done and done:) I took your message to heart and the spades are being redesigned this weekend to reflect something less altered. We have also switched to standard pips for the corners.

Such as