Bicycle Adventure Deck

[Alex Willis]

I cringe to call this a Steampunk deck, however the time period is Victorian and relates to Sci-Fi of the day to include inspirations from Stories Like 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Around the World in 80 days.... We are well into the court cards and are just starting design on the pips and standard cards.  So don't give me grief about how things are not proportioned or lined up correctly, I already know that.  I'm more interested in the feel of the cards and the attraction to them.

[xx789m]

I love the diamonds

[Don Boyer]

I cringe to call this a Steampunk deck, however the time period is Victorian and relates to Sci-Fi of the day to include inspirations from Stories Like 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Around the World in 80 days.... We are well into the court cards and are just starting design on the pips and standard cards.  So don't give me grief about how things are not proportioned or lined up correctly, I already know that.  I'm more interested in the feel of the cards and the attraction to them.

They're actually very nice.  A Verne aesthetic hasn't been explored as much in card design.

If you want to remove the "steampunk" feel to them, lose the gears in the bottom left and make the cards a clean ivory rather than aged.  Think of OTHER aspects of the Victorian era that you can include, since it was known for far more than its lovely cogs, gears and sprockets.

[Lucky Card Company]

I really like the Diamonds, they are quite nice on the eye.

I agree with Don, remove any gears and steampunkesque themes and go for a clean Victorian 2000 leagues under the sea.

Best Regards,
Lucky Card Company, Inc.

[Alex Willis]

The only reason I am reluctant to remove the gears is that there will be those who still want a 'steampunk' feel to the deck.  People cannot separate the Victorian era with gears.  That being said, I have been trying out some other underlays, probably an eggshell or an imperfect white.

[Alex Willis]

A Princess of Mars will be representing the Diamonds, as already seen the Spades represent 20,000 leagues under the sea.

[Don Boyer]

The only reason I am reluctant to remove the gears is that there will be those who still want a 'steampunk' feel to the deck.  People cannot separate the Victorian era with gears.  That being said, I have been trying out some other underlays, probably an eggshell or an imperfect white.

They're probably the same people who think wearing gears as jewelry is "steampunk".  It isn't - it's an affectation.  And there are other aspects of steampunk/Victoriana that you can touch upon - architecture, design, fashion, even the card design itself.

[Alex Willis]

Taking up the theme of the era and leaving out the gears.... how does it feel?

[Collector]

Like:
The Queen of Diamonds;
The Ace of Spades (only the pip + a dirigible);
The Ace of Diamonds (only the pip);
The King of Diamonds (but not its background).

Good luck.

[Alex Willis]

I've redone the Joker (unframed).  It's more like designing game cards than playing cards.

[Don Boyer]

Like:
The Queen of Diamonds;
The Ace of Spades (only the pip + a dirigible);
The Ace of Diamonds (only the pip);
The King of Diamonds (but not its background).

Good luck.

Editing is always a challenge.  Is it recognizable that the King of Diamonds (John Carter) is on Mars?  I'm going to wait for coloring before I cut back anything.  Thanks for your input, it's always good to hear what people thing (the good, the bad and the ugly).  Speaking of ugly, here is my take on the first joker... needless to say the other Joker is Hyde.

First Verne, now Stevenson? 

The frame - I would think something silver or gold would look more appropriate to the era.  And while wide frames like that were common to the era, consider that you want the cards to also look attractive.  A more popular trend with courts and faces is to go with a white border but no frame.  Consider instead removing the frame from the faces, but putting the index into a frame that looks like a locket or a pocketwatch, two very popular pieces of jewelry of the era.

Whichever ideas you eventually opt for, make it uniform throughout the deck - the only possible exception you could make would be for the jokers, where you have a bit more leeway.  I have seen some watches of the era, referred to as "gambler's watches", where the numbers on the face are replaced with the cards Ace through Queen of a given suit - it could be a very unique device that you could employ here, if you chose to.  (BTW: the watches look AWESOME with a capital AWESOME!)

Wait, an inspiration just struck - lockets/pendants in the shape of the suits, with the value only in the frame, perhaps with a faded black-and-white photo in the background on the black suits, sepia tone background images for the red suits!  That could look pretty brilliant!  You could even use silver for the black-suit frames and gold for the red ones, creating a more distinct color difference.  I can think of even more with this concept, but I'll just let you run with this and see where you take it. 

The typefaces you're using - the 10 of diamonds has a type that looks more 1920s than Victorian, while Dr. Jekyll's joker looks like a scrawl.  Consider something like a Victorian script (but make sure the letters are legible, since Victorian capitals in script can be a bit on the baroque side).  Alternately, think of the posters of the old West as well - some of those typefaces were in use in Victorian England as well.  Tempting though it might be to use Roman numerals, I'd stay away from them - card players in general just don't like them much unless they're playing something with a French tarot deck.

[Alex Willis]

I like your ideas Don.  That might just work, I'll think about different devices and clever ways to identify the suit and value.  As for Vernian, it's a Victorian Adventure deck and while there are a great number of fictional victorian writers I would have like to included, I chose my favorite stories which happened to be two Verne, two Burroughs and of course Stevenson for the Jokers.  The font is a challenge.  I actually did consider old west, but honestly I hate hold west font type.  Victorian era is too embellished.  However, I do have a number of victorian era pocket watches and at least for the numbered cards I can find a comparable font.

I already have some ideas on lockets and watches, perhaps even broaches and cameos.  One of each for each suit.  I'll have to get my pencil out and start sketching.  Thanks again.

[Collector]

Like:
...
Good luck.

Is it recognizable that the King of Diamonds (John Carter) is on Mars?  I'm going to wait for coloring before I cut back anything. 

Sorry I didn't strain my mental power to see Mars on that background

Thanks for your input, it's always good to hear what people thing (the good, the bad and the ugly).  Speaking of ugly, here is my take on the first joker... needless to say the other Joker is Hyde.

You've stolen one of my ideas for Jokers!


 

I like Joker but not its frame.

[Alex Willis]

Hearts.  Overlaying the suit and value is going to be tricky, I have something in the works so just ignore them for now.  Hearts represents Africa and one of my favorite boyhood stories... Tarzan. 

[Alex Willis]

Cardbacks....  This is a time consuming trial and error (and disgust) bit.  Back to the drawing board.

[Don Boyer]

Cardbacks....  This is a time consuming trial and error (and disgust) bit.  I wanted to identify things that were purely Victorian but then it looked all cheesy, check out the first design fail (Granted I didn't age it or fix all the flaws but the design is just bad).  Then I decided to ignore the theme and just make a card back (see second image).

I think that first design is salvageable.  The second - not so much! 

[Alex Willis]

I'm working on salvaging my first design for the card back.  Until then I'm still playing with using artifacts from the time period as an underlying indice with the rank on top.  The Artifact will be illustrated as well, I just haven't decided on the look and feel, I don't like the locket opened to the side.

[Collector]

As I see (in other thread) people read this forum and liked the idea of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

[Don Boyer]

I'm working on salvaging my first design for the card back.  Until then I'm still playing with using artifacts from the time period as an underlying indice with the rank on top.  The Artifact will be illustrated as well, I just haven't decided on the look and feel, I don't like the locket opened to the side.

Try a heart-shaped pendant, done in the same style as the card art and large enough to contain the entire value character.  The way you have it set up now, it looks like it's popping out of the locket like a projected hologram!

[Alex Willis]

As I see (in other thread) people read this forum and liked the idea of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

I guess I better hurry and get these cards published

Borders no borders, rank on top of Pip, colored vs. other pip design... I like doing non-Traditional, but is this going too far?  Again, these are not the final design, just design ideas.  For the full card I will be removing the black borders.  I'm just not 100% sold on no borders so I want to see how they look.

[Alex Willis]

Is it the nines or what... wasn't that a coined term from the 20's?  The question is, light hearted or dark?  The theme to hearts is the Jungles of Africa which is often referred to as the deepest darkest jungles of Africa... does Africa even have jungles?  I thought that was just in South America.  Thoughts?

[Don Boyer]

Is it the nines or what... wasn't that a coined term from the 20's?  The question is, light hearted or dark?  The theme to hearts is the Jungles of Africa which is often referred to as the deepest darkest jungles of Africa... does Africa even have jungles?  I thought that was just in South America.  Thoughts?

The term is "dressed to the nines" in modern English usage, and according to Wikipedia, the origin of the phrase dates back to at least early 18th-century Scotland, when its first known use was printed.

Pink hearts don't suit the theme at all.  But then again, neither do empowered-looking women drawn in a slightly manga style!

If you're going to have such huge frames around the spot cards...  Again, I go back to the popular usage of photography of
the era.  Silver and gold frames were very much in vogue, so make a detailed picture frame, with the spot image in the frame like a photograph.  Sepia-tone images with gold frames for the red suits, black-and-white images with silver frames for the black suits.

On the subject of border vs. print-to-the-bleed - most collectors love print-to-the-bleed because the cards look gorgeous.  This is fine if the faces match the backs at the bleed edge.  If it doesn't, or if the red cards don't match the black cards in some way, they become less useful for card players and magicians.  For magicians, it can give away tricks that utilize a flipped card.  For card players...well, a look at these photos of the Bicycle Fashion Deck in pink and purple might give you an idea about how that works...

[Alex Willis]

Surprising enough I have a number of Victorian Era picture frames in my basement that my wife won't let me get rid of, perhaps I could frame some of the artwork as an incentive for the people who don't care about the playing cards but are into the art.  I could throw in a frame to get them out of my house! 

I'm not sure about frames for the face cards, but I also thought the same thing about full bleeds which is common in book publishing and not normally an issue.  In fact we use full bleeds to create designs in the edge of books sometimes.  I've thought about doing the same with the deck so when stacked in order it shows a design. 

[Don Boyer]

Surprising enough I have a number of Victorian Era picture frames in my basement that my wife won't let me get rid of, perhaps I could frame some of the artwork as an incentive for the people who don't care about the playing cards but are into the art.  I could throw in a frame to get them out of my house! 

I'm not sure about frames for the face cards, but I also thought the same thing about full bleeds which is common in book publishing and not normally an issue.  In fact we use full bleeds to create designs in the edge of books sometimes.  I've thought about doing the same with the deck so when stacked in order it shows a design.

If you do that, casual players and collectors will be interested, but poker players and magicians are more likely to shy away from them.  It's a choice.