Fontaine playing cards

[Don Boyer]

As errors go, this one's pretty minor.  Minor, but still unbelievable - I sometimes think Q1 must translate to English as "eh, it's good enough..."

HAHAHAHA!

Oh, jeeze. I wonder what decks were printed without Q1 quality control. Those would be some really hilarious misprints.

You've seen them before - Bicycle Standard.  Strictly guessing, it's probably Q5.  No fancy features, no tricky printing, so less need to supervise with as many people as a Q1 job.

We think of "perfect" decks when we think of Q1 - technically speaking, all that Q1 means is that they max out the number of personnel doing quality checks along the way.  Tricky things like metallic inks, foil tucks, thin borders, full-color designs, etc. increase the need for the additional supervision.  But a bog-standard Bicycle Rider Back deck can be as "perfect" even if it's printed at Q5.  They don't guarantee perfection, they just guarantee that there will be more eyes on hand looking for mistakes - whether they catch the mistakes or not is a different story.

I've seen a lot of deck designs on KS that would be IMPROVED with multiple misprints!! :-)

...or no prints at all... 

[MrMollusk]

As errors go, this one's pretty minor.  Minor, but still unbelievable - I sometimes think Q1 must translate to English as "eh, it's good enough..."

HAHAHAHA!

Oh, jeeze. I wonder what decks were printed without Q1 quality control. Those would be some really hilarious misprints.

You've seen them before - Bicycle Standard.  Strictly guessing, it's probably Q5.  No fancy features, no tricky printing, so less need to supervise with as many people as a Q1 job.

Really. I must've bought bricks of the things, and I've never encountered a misprint. Not once.
But 2/15 of my Kickstarter decks, all with Q1 control, had significant goofs. Silly USPCC.

[Don Boyer]

As errors go, this one's pretty minor.  Minor, but still unbelievable - I sometimes think Q1 must translate to English as "eh, it's good enough..."

HAHAHAHA!

Oh, jeeze. I wonder what decks were printed without Q1 quality control. Those would be some really hilarious misprints.

You've seen them before - Bicycle Standard.  Strictly guessing, it's probably Q5.  No fancy features, no tricky printing, so less need to supervise with as many people as a Q1 job.

Really. I must've bought bricks of the things, and I've never encountered a misprint. Not once.
But 2/15 of my Kickstarter decks, all with Q1 control, had significant goofs. Silly USPCC.

I've encountered about two misprints of standard USPC decks - I have a deck of Tally Ho with backs that are of an inconsistent red color on the backs, and I returned a pack of Bike Standards that had a gash torn into the front of over a dozen cards, as if something sprang loose as the deck was being cut and collated.  Considering how many packs of both I've opened over the years, that's a pretty good track record.  But again, as I said - they're less complicated to make.  TH tuck boxes are monochrome, as well as their backs.  It's tougher to screw it up because there's less that could possibly go wrong.

[MrMollusk]

As errors go, this one's pretty minor.  Minor, but still unbelievable - I sometimes think Q1 must translate to English as "eh, it's good enough..."

HAHAHAHA!

Oh, jeeze. I wonder what decks were printed without Q1 quality control. Those would be some really hilarious misprints.

You've seen them before - Bicycle Standard.  Strictly guessing, it's probably Q5.  No fancy features, no tricky printing, so less need to supervise with as many people as a Q1 job.

Really. I must've bought bricks of the things, and I've never encountered a misprint. Not once.
But 2/15 of my Kickstarter decks, all with Q1 control, had significant goofs. Silly USPCC.

I've encountered about two misprints of standard USPC decks - I have a deck of Tally Ho with backs that are of an inconsistent red color on the backs, and I returned a pack of Bike Standards that had a gash torn into the front of over a dozen cards, as if something sprang loose as the deck was being cut and collated.  Considering how many packs of both I've opened over the years, that's a pretty good track record.  But again, as I said - they're less complicated to make.  TH tuck boxes are monochrome, as well as their backs.  It's tougher to screw it up because there's less that could possibly go wrong.

Good point. Granted, It's pretty damn hard to print an entire run of decks with deck boxes with askew designs. (Bohemia)

[Paul Carpenter]

They had to reprint my Tendril tucks 4 times. Luckily they were on top of it and I didn't get all 5,000 screwed up and shipped to me. Still, at Q1 I had probably a gross with small imperfections in the end.

With Aurum, they really did a great job. Still, I came across of number of decks I couldn't claim to be top notch and those ended up as my factory seconds.  The only way to fully guarantee the "perfection" of the finicky laser cut deck was to have them do all those completely by hand from start to finish, and they had to toss out more than a few.

It is annoying when that stuff happens, but how you approach USPCC as a designer makes a difference I think. If you are super involved, polite, have some common sense and understanding it seems like they work a little harder for you. Maybe I'm just lucky but my experience with their custom team has been stellar, and I have tossed some insane stuff at them which few, if any, other people do.

[Joker and the Thief]

Found on Zach's Instagram.

http://instagram.com/p/eLjUu_Cb0P/
http://instagram.com/p/eV8Kb4ib5k/

MOD EDIT: the KS page
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1185270770/blue-fontaine-playing-cards

[xela]

I don't like him. I don't remember why, though. :S

[Don Boyer]

I don't like him. I don't remember why, though. :S

Maybe because of some of the stuff he said in his T11 vlogs.  Like ripping into an artist on their own magic/cardistry marketplace.

Wow - blue?  I'm shocked.  Who would have thought his next deck would be exactly the same as the first but with a new color?  Must've taken all those weeks to get those creative juices flowin'.  I tell ya, never saw that comin', not in a million years...  Who knows?  We might have our next Smoke-and-Mirrors series versions 4 through 7 here...

I'd comment more, but I can't actually see the photos since Instagram is crapping out on the work PC.  I mean really - do we actually NEED Instagram?  Aren't there other things that do the exact same thing that we were already using before Instagram showed up?  It's not like Instagram does those things better, right?  Or am I just being a crotchety old fart? 

[Phegget]

Youre just old Don =p. I dont like the kid either, he is quite annoying but i have to be honest and admit that he does have nice cardistry skills. Though as much as i hate him i will still pick up the deck as i missed the red fontaine. Blue is my favourite colour and the back is actually attractive dispite the obvious lack of effort.

[Card Player]

I'd comment more, but I can't actually see the photos since Instagram is crapping out on the work PC.

Do you really need a photo? This is the Fontaine deck we are talking about. Lol j/k

[Michael]

I just don't know why he couldn't release these the same time as the reds... Oh wait if I were to guess, money. I guess there's a possibility that the blues didn't exist when the reds came out. But eh, don't like a new color release for the sake of another release.

I guess I could be wrong seeing as I don't know if the design has been changed at all or not. I kinda doubt it but it's possible.

[Don Boyer]

I just don't know why he couldn't release these the same time as the reds... Oh wait if I were to guess, money. I guess there's a possibility that the blues didn't exist when the reds came out. But eh, don't like a new color release for the sake of another release.

I guess I could be wrong seeing as I don't know if the design has been changed at all or not. I kinda doubt it but it's possible.

Since he's still calling it "Fontaine", I'm inclined to think there are no changes - otherwise, he'd have mentioned them by now.  There may be one change, though - USPC won't screw up the boxes this time!

[Michael]

I just don't know why he couldn't release these the same time as the reds... Oh wait if I were to guess, money. I guess there's a possibility that the blues didn't exist when the reds came out. But eh, don't like a new color release for the sake of another release.

I guess I could be wrong seeing as I don't know if the design has been changed at all or not. I kinda doubt it but it's possible.

Since he's still calling it "Fontaine", I'm inclined to think there are no changes - otherwise, he'd have mentioned them by now.  There may be one change, though - USPC won't screw up the boxes this time!

Makes sense I guess. If they were revised there could possibly be a suffix like "V 2" added but not necessarily. And I see what you did there haha

[vmagic]

Zach has just posted a teaser on his channel, a very short one. The ending states that it will be coming to Kickstarter on Dec 20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbIm5kVLZQI

[John Spade]

Finally

[Don Boyer]

I can pass on these.  I didn't feel compelled to back the first ones on IndieGoGo and I don't feel compelled to back these.  Zach created kind of a boring deck.  Two lowercase "f"s doesn't make a back design in my mind, especially with standard faces.  And don't say "oh, but they perform soooooo well," because practically all custom USPC decks perform well these days thanks to Magic Finish.

[John Spade]

I can pass on these.  I didn't feel compelled to back the first ones on IndieGoGo and I don't feel compelled to back these.  Zach created kind of a boring deck.  Two lowercase "f"s doesn't make a back design in my mind, especially with standard faces.  And don't say "oh, but they perform soooooo well," because practically all custom USPC decks perform well these days thanks to Magic Finish.

I have to disagree, Don, I think the back design is the perfect balance of minimalism and sophistication (although it is kind of weird how Zach literally just used letters from a preexisting font to create the design. I also think that the bright red version is much more aesthetically pleasing than the blue). Just my opinions.

Also, if these follow the trend of the original Fontaine deck, they'll be selling on eBay for waaaay more than you could buy them for on KS. Gotta stock up...

[Paul Carpenter]

Boy...blue. Adventurous.

[MagikFingerz]

Boy...blue. Adventurous.

I completely agree with Don. There's a fine line between minimalistic and boring, and the fontaines aren't even close to it.

[atsquare]

I'm not a big fan of this deck but I came across Zach's new teaser for the Blue Fontaines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0dtpYrFZs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUujBiYlw9avXsut3s671X6g

Maybe a purple deck is coming in the near future?

[ivan]

I'm not a big fan of this deck but I came across Zach's new teaser for the Blue Fontaines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0dtpYrFZs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUujBiYlw9avXsut3s671X6g

Maybe a purple deck is coming in the near future?

lol... not before the white limited edition deck.

seriously, I wonder how well it'll do on KS? He did pretty well with the red edition on indiegogo.

[Card Player]

I can pass on these.  I didn't feel compelled to back the first ones on IndieGoGo and I don't feel compelled to back these.  Zach created kind of a boring deck.  Two lowercase "f"s doesn't make a back design in my mind, especially with standard faces.  And don't say "oh, but they perform soooooo well," because practically all custom USPC decks perform well these days thanks to Magic Finish.

I did not buy into these either. The back story for the branding works well. I'm really surprised at a few people in particular that have helped endorse and plug the deck. Zack has a good support system of friends and young followers in the industry. Nice guy but I'm not paying him for his smile.

[Don Boyer]

I'm not a big fan of this deck but I came across Zach's new teaser for the Blue Fontaines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0dtpYrFZs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUujBiYlw9avXsut3s671X6g

Maybe a purple deck is coming in the near future?

THAT was a teaser?  It was more like a commercial caught in coitus interruptus...  More of a "commersh" than a commercial...  These teasers - they're such BS to start with, most of them.  And I think that purplish color IS the blue deck, meaning it's not a true blue or someone screwed with the color settings on the camera.  Remember how "red" the Fulton's Chinatown deck looked in the ads at D&D?  And how disappointed so many people were when they were more of a funky orange than an actual red?

[MrMollusk]

Releasing on KS December 20th.

The day the Mana cards are funded, and a day before the Pagan deck is funded. Both fabulously detailed, well-thought out, and just all around amazing decks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNGnHBbc404

[Fanofyankees13]

I can pass on these.  I didn't feel compelled to back the first ones on IndieGoGo and I don't feel compelled to back these.  Zach created kind of a boring deck.  Two lowercase "f"s doesn't make a back design in my mind, especially with standard faces.  And don't say "oh, but they perform soooooo well," because practically all custom USPC decks perform well these days thanks to Magic Finish.

This. My sentiments exactly.