EMOTIONS Playing Cards - 2nd try (KS)

[Rob Wright]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919680633/emotions-playing-cards-deck-0

by Xtu Productions, previous project canceled 5-6 days in, Had a $5,000 goal w/USPC printing as a stretch goal. Now a $11,500 goal with USPC printing- unbranded.

[Don Boyer]

Not very good from an art or a design standpoint.  But it's close enough that it actually stands a decent chance of success.

People complained when USPC made the minimum print run 5,000 decks.  I wish they would again - there's too many mediocre projects out there, both on and off of Kickstarter.  This is a prime example.

[whaam]

Hello
I'm new to this forum,...so greetings everyone 
"Emotions" card deck campaign is live on Kickstarter. It's a great design, fun and creative (I should know, I'm the designer and illustrator )
We have two decks to offer,...black deck in full color (printed by USPCC) and white deck (same design) black/white art. A lot of work is put into this design and we'd really like to see this campaign....successful (in about 24 days). We just want people to have fun playing with these cards and we would appreciate support from all of you that might find this decks worth pledging for. Here's the link to our KS campaign,....and few pics..
Thanks
Johnny Whaam

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919680633/emotions-playing-cards-deck-0

[Don Boyer]

Hello
I'm new to this forum,...so greetings everyone 
"Emotions" card deck campaign is live on Kickstarter. It's a great design, fun and creative (I should know, I'm the designer and illustrator )
We have two decks to offer,...black deck in full color (printed by USPCC) and white deck (same design) black/white art. A lot of work is put into this design and we'd really like to see this campaign....successful (in about 24 days). We just want people to have fun playing with these cards and we would appreciate support from all of you that might find this decks worth pledging for. Here's the link to our KS campaign,....and few pics..
Thanks
Johnny Whaam

Welcome to the Discourse, Johnny - unique name you have there.  You should drop by the "Introduce Yourself" topic and say hello when you have a moment, give people a chance to really get to know you.

I've taken the liberty of linking this topic to the pre-existing one about your project.  We try to keep everything in one place around here, making it all easier to find later.

You'll notice that our comments may appear a bit harsh about your deck.  It has nothing to do with you personally, and everything to do with out passion for playing cards.  Most designers when seeing this will react one of four ways:

1) Get angry, upset, hurt, etc. and either stop posting or rant at us.
2) Ignore anything we have to say and do nothing.
3) Take some insight from our comments, ask questions, evaluate our answers and consider some changes to their deck.
4) Take everything we say like it was the words of the deities themselves and slavishly follow all our advice, even if it's conflicting advice.

If you haven't noticed on your own, #3 tends to be the wisest course of action.  Many designers have taken this route, made what they themselves believe to be improvements to their work, and (successful or not) continued on as happy, contributing members of our community!  We hope that you'll do the same.

[Soliloquy]

Johnny, you clearly have talent as an illustrator.  Your work here reminds me of the characters from Shrek.  My problem with your design is that the black cards are too dark, and the white cards lack color.  I can't stand the teal on the tuck box, and I just can't get terribly excited about the theme of the deck.  Just my opinions, take them for the $.02 that they're actually worth.  Keep working on your ideas, I think you have potential!

[whaam]

Thanks for the welcome..
Of course, I am actually gonna need feedback from you guys on this 1 and future projects to come, all opinions are very welcome. I'm here to learn and to do better, to give people the designs they like. If something doesn't look good or don't fit right..., I'm listening (reading . ..And, I'm here for a little promotion too
Speaking of things that don't just fit,...I got some messages from potential backers on KS that the back of cards doesn't go well with these faces (1 comment here also suggested that..). So, would this 1 go better with this design (with funding trend not great, we're thinking of introducing a major change with 20 days to go on KS).
Johnny
 

[Collector]

IMHO (very shortly):

1. New back design is much better for the black deck.

2. The tuck case is bad - poor combination of clipart which isn't even connected with art of playing cards.

3. Clothes of court cards are very similar and it makes me to doubt about "a lot of work...". But it isn't the end of the world.

4. You can make one white coloured deck with chances to be funded... but only if you'll be ready to infringe upon your greedy. Those two decks is obvious attemt to sell one idea twice.

5. I don't see any sense in this deck. Emotions? So what? I heard that you are a cartoonist. I didn't see that. Why are they happy, sad, angry, etc? Just because you had those faces drawn? 
- The King of Spades: break the nib of his sword and I'll understand why he is so angry;
- The King of Hearts: engrave "Excalibur" on his sword and I'll understand why he is so happy;
- The King of Clubs: make a very short sword (penknife) for him and I'll understand why he is so sad;
- The King of Diamonds: drop the blade of his axe on his hand and I'll understand his emotion;
- The Queen of Spades: put a four-leaf clover in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Hearts: put a Carnivorous plant in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Clubs: put a cactus or a bundle of weed in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Diamonds: put a faded (withered) flower in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- etc
without offence
good luck

[Alex Willis]

- The King of Spades: break the nib of his sword and I'll understand why he is so angry;
- The King of Hearts: engrave "Excalibur" on his sword and I'll understand why he is so happy;
- The King of Clubs: make a very short sword (penknife) for him and I'll understand why he is so sad;
- The King of Diamonds: drop the blade of his axe on his hand and I'll understand his emotion;
- The Queen of Spades: put a four-leaf clover in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Hearts: put a Carnivorous plant in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Clubs: put a cactus or a bundle of weed in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- The Queen of Diamonds: put a faded (withered) flower in her hand and I'll understand her emotion;
- etc

I could not put my finger on what was wrong with the faces on this deck and you hit the nail on the head. Emotions need causation, otherwise it's not real.  I really want to like this deck, and if these changes were made I would totally connect to the art.  Still, I also don't like  the tuck box as I don't get "emotions" from it, but I can live with it. 

[Don Boyer]

Yeah, as a gimmick on which to hang the design of a deck, "emotions" all by themselves with no reasons for them don't make for a strong idea.

Have you considered breaking a bit further from the traditional court card design and making little displays of royals experiencing these emotions in natural settings?  Consider for a moment the traditional French tarot deck - not the one for divination, but the one for playing the card game tarot.  The "trumps" (Major Arcana) aren't named, just numbered, and display a scene occurring in the countryside and a similar such scene in a city setting.  Take the scene concept, use "flippable" art to retain the two-headed concept of modern court cards, but show your court characters engaged in little scenes that evoke the emotions they're feeling.  An example might be to have a jealous male royal, shown with a male and female royal in the background engaged in a tete-a-tete - someone else is wooing his beloved.  Show a merry female royal enjoying bottles of wine with her friends.  Show an angry royal with a swollen thumb, and another holding a hammer in the background, with a dropped nail next to him.

As far as the card back, it looks too modern.  The gold framing looks like a radiator grille on an old car or a speaker grille on an old radio.  Give it a more old-fashioned look - perhaps golden chains with jewels hanging from them, or perhaps curtains or drapes in gold, velvet, red or royal blue.  Separate the two crowns in the center and they'll look more familiar.

[whaam]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919680633/emotions-playing-cards-deck-0

We changed the back!
Thanks for comments and suggestions. Now, if you'd back us...that would be even more awesome  , only those who like the design enough,..please 
Don.., collector.., some very good ideas were suggested here, thanks.
As this is my first card deck design (already working on the 2nd) I wanted to keep things simple, not too much details, cards that look close to classic but more fun and colorful only.. And, I really thought it would be funded easily..cause it's visible how much work was put in it. In numbers,..about 40 days for all (maybe I worked a little slower, trying to figure out how it's done, tried more variations).
"Emotions" deck was supposed to represent what a poker player feels while playing, all 4 emotions are there, at the table,...players just don't show them.
The point was..., if not showing emotions makes a better player at poker..., let's have cards that do...show emotions (as an alter ego..of a player)..., because of the hand that was just played (the cards are watching us ,...not for a broken sword or something...  

But, I'll consider those kind of ideas when working on future projects development..
Thanks

Johnny

[Don Boyer]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1919680633/emotions-playing-cards-deck-0

We changed the back!
Thanks for comments and suggestions. Now, if you'd back us...that would be even more awesome  , only those who like the design enough,..please 
Don.., collector.., some very good ideas were suggested here, thanks.
As this is my first card deck design (already working on the 2nd) I wanted to keep things simple, not too much details, cards that look close to classic but more fun and colorful only.. And, I really thought it would be funded easily..cause it's visible how much work was put in it. In numbers,..about 40 days for all (maybe I worked a little slower, trying to figure out how it's done, tried more variations).
"Emotions" deck was supposed to represent what a poker player feels while playing, all 4 emotions are there, at the table,...players just don't show them.
The point was..., if not showing emotions makes a better player at poker..., let's have cards that do...show emotions (as an alter ego..of a player)..., because of the hand that was just played (the cards are watching us ,...not for a broken sword or something...  

But, I'll consider those kind of ideas when working on future projects development..
Thanks

Johnny

I'm not seeing how the back is different at all.  This looks like the same back I was commenting on in my last post.  If it isn't, it suffers from the same flaws.

40 days, part-time, sounds like a lot.  But bear in mind that some deck designers put MONTHS, if not YEARS, into a design, especially if it's one they believe in and have a vested interest in.

I'd stick to polishing this design before starting another just yet.

[whaam]

I meant...we changed the turquoise, previous back design for this 1 on KS.
And...actually I do fall into that...years..category as well  I started with developing this concept, this design a year and a half ago....but it took me about 40 days (8 hours of work each day) to do the serious, final version of this design. And, of course, I love this design,...it's the best I've done so far (I created only 1  )

But,...looking at some real bad designs on KS that reach very high (too high) funding results, I guess what I'd really have to improve and work on is promoting my projects better...and more.

As for next  project, it's going to be a painted style, completely different than this 1 (Hehe, I already started with promotion),...yep, I'm a painter too.

Johnny

[whaam]

Hey folks,
I just wanted to write 1 last post for "Emotions" black deck,...we failed on Kickstarter but..the deck will be printed and Bicycle branded after all. A serious company got in touch with us (designers) and they're investing their money,...2,500 decks will see USPCC print.
If there's anyone that wants to buy decks directly from us, designers,...you can do so by e-mailing us here; mk2_productions@yahoo.com (bottom line between mk2_productions).. Just put "Emotions" in the subject line,...Matt will respond to you. Payed by PayPal, expected delivery.. September (Emotions sent to Bicycle last week). Price,...9$ per deck, US shipping included.
Thanks

We did some changes to the original design, here are the pics,...new tuck-case also
Johnny

[Don Boyer]

Hey folks,
I just wanted to write 1 last post for "Emotions" black deck,...we failed on Kickstarter but..the deck will be printed and Bicycle branded after all. A serious company got in touch with us (designers) and they're investing their money,...2,500 decks will see USPCC print.
If there's anyone that wants to buy decks directly from us, designers,...you can do so by e-mailing us here; mk2_productions@yahoo.com (bottom line between mk2_productions).. Just put "Emotions" in the subject line,...Matt will respond to you. Payed by PayPal, expected delivery.. September (Emotions sent to Bicycle last week). Price,...9$ per deck, US shipping included.
Thanks

We did some changes to the original design, here are the pics,...new tuck-case also
Johnny

What company is backing it?