Hey Guys, Also, Back Design

[Gavin]

Hey guys, I started messing around with cards back in 06-07. I haven't been serious with them since a year or two after that. The past 2-3 years I haven't done anything with cards other than fiddle with them occassionally. I used to go by the name cardmagic12345 on a forum called decknique, I don't think any of you guys know what that is, but basically, all the forums I've been a part of have been shut down :/

Well anyways, recently I've been getting back into it and started looking for a new forum and found this. I noticed a lot of people started making their own decks of cards and realized it has become a lot more possible to make that happen since I last was into this via kickstarter and the minimum deck order dropping to 2,500 instead of the 10,000 it was previously. I've always wanted to make my own deck, but I wasn't very good at it, but I've gotten better at photoshop/illustrator/etc since then.

I'm attaching the back design. Maybe I can get your guys opinion on it. If this ever gets printed, which I still think is a long shot, I plan to use metallic ink for the gold. I haven't started the faces yet, but I plan to start soon, I've been busy with college...Also, I'm not sure EXACTLY what to call it, but I want it to have the word "Myth" or a variant of it, If you guys have any suggestions, or tips in general, that would be great

If you're wondering about the Logo or the word "Myth" its uh...from my new hobby (dont judge me ) http://youtu.be/badk3rRc_8U

[Don Boyer]

First, Gavin, welcome to the Discourse.  I think you'll fit in very nicely here!

I have a few caveats you should keep in mind regarding this deck back.

1) it's clearly a one-way back.  Some collectors, many magicians and nearly all poker players won't use a deck with an obvious one-way back.  (Cardists aren't as fussy!)  It can easily be made two-way with some simple tweaks.

2) I think it was last year that Theory11 came out with the Monarchs deck.  They supposedly trashed most of an entire print run because the gold-on-black design just didn't look good, replacing it with a white-on-dark-blue color scheme of the same design.  I discovered that they might very well have been right in doing so after I got a deck from a Kickstarter, the Misc. Goods Co. deck.  They went with gold on black, and the fine detail work was completely lost.  The metallic gold ink is just too dark against a black background for anything printed small or fine.  Consider a different color scheme - perhaps yellow-on-black, or gold-on-white.  Gold-on-white was very popular when T11 released the White Monarchs at some point after that; totally gorgeous.

3) Wanting a name with the word "myth" in it somewhere might confuse some collectors, since there's already a deck on the marked called "MOTH/MYTH".  It's from Taiwan, and on the rare and expensive side, but enough people are aware of it now.  The title as printed on the box is a little odd; picture in your head the word "MYTH" in capital letters, but the designers printed the "Y" with an "O" in the same space, so it appears to be a four-letter name with a very odd letter in the middle.  A variant like "mythic" or "mythical" might still suit your desires without any of the possible market confusion.

[Gavin]

First, Gavin, welcome to the Discourse.  I think you'll fit in very nicely here!

I have a few caveats you should keep in mind regarding this deck back.

1) it's clearly a one-way back.  Some collectors, many magicians and nearly all poker players won't use a deck with an obvious one-way back.  (Cardists aren't as fussy!)  It can easily be made two-way with some simple tweaks.

2) I think it was last year that Theory11 came out with the Monarchs deck.  They supposedly trashed most of an entire print run because the gold-on-black design just didn't look good, replacing it with a white-on-dark-blue color scheme of the same design.  I discovered that they might very well have been right in doing so after I got a deck from a Kickstarter, the Misc. Goods Co. deck.  They went with gold on black, and the fine detail work was completely lost.  The metallic gold ink is just too dark against a black background for anything printed small or fine.  Consider a different color scheme - perhaps yellow-on-black, or gold-on-white.  Gold-on-white was very popular when T11 released the White Monarchs at some point after that; totally gorgeous.

3) Wanting a name with the word "myth" in it somewhere might confuse some collectors, since there's already a deck on the marked called "MOTH/MYTH".  It's from Taiwan, and on the rare and expensive side, but enough people are aware of it now.  The title as printed on the box is a little odd; picture in your head the word "MYTH" in capital letters, but the designers printed the "Y" with an "O" in the same space, so it appears to be a four-letter name with a very odd letter in the middle.  A variant like "mythic" or "mythical" might still suit your desires without any of the possible market confusion.

Thanks for your suggestions

I'll try to make it not one-way soon. I wasnt aware of the whole gold on black thing, so now I'm assuming the artisans aren't metallic then? I dont have a deck, that's a shame :/ I guess I'll drop the metallic thing, Maybe I'll keep in on the faces though. Thanks for telling me about that Myth thing, I wasn't aware, I'll keep that in mind when I work on the name. 

[Aaron]

Welcom to the discourse.

Also I think this design is really nice, and simplistic enough that it wouldn't matter if you did metalic gold on black. But your best bet would be to talk to find out straight from USPCC.

[Zaid]

In addition to Don's comment, I would add that I think the myth thing tends to be overused. You're already taking the time to design a unique deck, why not give it a more standout name? Some synonyms for myth that might lead you to a better name are lore, parable, and fable.

But you might also employ a more deliberate process for picking a name. Write down a list of things that inspired you to create this deck, write down a list of things that you feel when you're designing this deck, and then write down a list of the effects you want this deck to have on people. Just write everything down, whether you think it's relevant or not. And then somewhere in those lists you'll find the inspiration for the name of the deck, and it may turn out to be completely different from your original intention.

[Gavin]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm using the name Myth because the logo is from a group I've been with for over a year. www.youtube.com/user/MythologicalGaming
I'm thinking of variants of the word "myth" along with a second of third word, like "Black Tiger" for example. That said, I haven't given it serious though yet, I'll save that for later and maybe something will come to me before then.

Also, here's and up date on the back design, I changed the colors a bit, it is no longer one-way, adjusted the borderes, and adjusted the strokes of two circles. Edit: I just updated it again, I made the logos in the back design vertical instead of angled


Thanks for all the suggestions so far 

[RSLancastr]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm using the name Myth because the logo is from a group I've been with for over a year. www.youtube.com/user/MythologicalGaming
I'm thinking of variants of the word "myth" along with a second of third word, like "Black Tiger" for example. That said, I haven't given it serious though yet, I'll save that for later and maybe something will come to me before then.

Personally, I think that "Mythological" would not be as tired and overused as Myth", and sounds as though it would tie in even better with your gaming group's name.

Perhaps somehow tying myths and logic together in th deck design?

Just a thought,

-RSL

[MrMollusk]

Like the new back! The kind of wave effect it creates is really cool.
Any plan for the ace of spades, number, or court cards yet?

[Zaid]

Like the new back! The kind of wave effect it creates is really cool.
Any plan for the ace of spades, number, or court cards yet?

Hmm, speaking of waves, you might try arranging the logo symbols in something other than a rectilinear grid pattern, like some sort of wave pattern. That would play some interesting visual tricks on the eye during flourishes. At the very least, consider setting the grid pattern at an angle to distrup the strict left-right/up-down quality of it.

[Gavin]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Like the new back! The kind of wave effect it creates is really cool.
Any plan for the ace of spades, number, or court cards yet?

Don't have any plans for the ace of spades or jokers yet. As for the court and number cards, I'm trying to keep them somewhat traditional. I'm not very good at drawing so I'm staying away from that as I want to keep this as professional as possible. Here's what a sort of first draft as to what I think the faces will look like. For the court cards each suit is going to have a different pattern and the color is going to be the opposite of what suit it is. For example, the king of spades will have a yellow background, since the hearts and diamonds will be yellow. Also, I'm adding a stroke, because not only does yellow blend in too much with white, but I think it looks really good.

Like the new back! The kind of wave effect it creates is really cool.
Any plan for the ace of spades, number, or court cards yet?

Hmm, speaking of waves, you might try arranging the logo symbols in something other than a rectilinear grid pattern, like some sort of wave pattern. That would play some interesting visual tricks on the eye during flourishes. At the very least, consider setting the grid pattern at an angle to distrup the strict left-right/up-down quality of it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll think about it, I'd be surprised if anything here is final.

[Don Boyer]

Personally, I liked the multi-angled symbols.  It really gave the back character, in a similar fashion to the new "Love Me" deck from T11.

[Gavin]

Does anyone know if shadows will complicate the printing process? I was doing more work on the kind of spades and I really like how this is going.

[Don Boyer]

Does anyone know if shadows will complicate the printing process? I was doing more work on the kind of spades and I really like how this is going.

The Bicycle Genesis deck has similar shading, but I think yours is much nicer looking in how it's used.  I'm really liking the direction this is taking.

Many people forget that a custom deck doesn't have to be some baroque, over-the-top complete redesign and remodel of the basic Anglo-Rouen design.  T11, much to many people's chagrin, has sold many successful and attractive decks where the face cards were little more than color tweaks.  I think this is a beautiful design tweak to the USPC face design and will stand out nicely while at the same time being wholly recognizable and easy to work and play with.

And go back to that multi-angled design for the mini-logos on the back!  That was actually very cool.  So many other decks on the market adhere to a rigid gridlike pattern and that design gave yours some real character - "conformity" without truly conforming.

[Gavin]

Does anyone know if shadows will complicate the printing process? I was doing more work on the kind of spades and I really like how this is going.

The Bicycle Genesis deck has similar shading, but I think yours is much nicer looking in how it's used.  I'm really liking the direction this is taking.

Many people forget that a custom deck doesn't have to be some baroque, over-the-top complete redesign and remodel of the basic Anglo-Rouen design.  T11, much to many people's chagrin, has sold many successful and attractive decks where the face cards were little more than color tweaks.  I think this is a beautiful design tweak to the USPC face design and will stand out nicely while at the same time being wholly recognizable and easy to work and play with.

And go back to that multi-angled design for the mini-logos on the back!  That was actually very cool.  So many other decks on the market adhere to a rigid gridlike pattern and that design gave yours some real character - "conformity" without truly conforming.

Thanks

I made the angled logos two-way, but I'm probably still going to tweak it more, here's what it looks like now, but first....Can someone please explain this USPCC template witchcraft? Even when all the layers are hidden, you can still see the template. Will it show up when they print it? I'm trying to print these out on my printer and I keep getting the blue outlines over the cards.... Anyways, here it is.



Edit: Just made these, thought I'd post them aswell

[Zaid]

The die lines you see are done in a spot color, so to turn that off, go under your Channels palette in Photoshop and turn off the visibility of the Die channel.