Hey everyone,
I just wanted to come in and say a few things. It's my opinion that when creating a Deck with standard faces, albeit re-colored, the most important aspect with the Cards is that the Back, AOS and Joker come together to form a "brand identity" to help sell the theme of the Deck (the Moonshine Deck did this beautifully!).
The Joker is open for experimentation and has more leeway than the Back and AOS, but it still needs to mesh well with the other two. I think the UC Joker flows nicely with the UC Back and AOS to sell the look of the UC forum - futuristic / Matrix-like / SciFi.
As for the Joker design itself, there's quite a few computer mice that have had a similar vibe in the past - mostly for Mac users. I started off with the AOS shape and rotated it 180 degrees, which also gave it somewhat of a "face" silhouette. The 2 green buttons at the top are meant to also be form abstract "eyes". With the middle roller ball and small green light at the bottom loosely representing a "nose" and "mouth" the overall mouse could also be seen as a Joker face with a Jester's hat thrown in to finish it off. A chorded mouse may not be futuristic but it needed that element to sell the idea. Plus, it just looks cool!
I originally did a hand-drawn Joker sitting at.a Desk and doing a Fan with one hand while working on a laptop with the other hand. The drawing came out nice. I scanned it in and started adding loose structures of color. It was looking great on it's own but once I compared it with the UC Back and AOS it stood out like a red-headed stepchild! So, I scrapped a few hours worth of work and started on the Joker we have now. I guess my point is you can do the coolest Joker in the world, but if it doesn't mesh well with the Back and AOS it's useless!!
Here's a look of the UC Back, AOS and Joker laid out together.
Thanks, Randy