New Deck I am Creating: Coat of Arms - Revised 2.0

[ronyo_faukx]

For the Aces, you could try doing the same thing with the four suits as these guys did with leaves.

[Don Boyer]

For the Aces, you could try doing the same thing with the four suits as these guys did with leaves.

I see that as being something much cooler for the Jokers!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I have taken some advice from the forum and a past post from Don and I have changed the background of the cards.  Here is a sample of what I have so far.  I changed the color to grey and made some changes to the back.  I think the grey goes better with the colors we have been using and the shields. I attached the old back and the new back so you can see the difference.

[Don Boyer]

I have taken some advice from the forum and a past post from Don and I have changed the background of the cards.  Here is a sample of what I have so far.  I changed the color to grey and made some changes to the back.  I think the grey goes better with the colors we have been using and the shields. I attached the old back and the new back so you can see the difference.

I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I think that is an improvement.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks Don, I appreciate it!

[Justin O.]

I really like the direction this project is heading! The classic coat of arms theme is a favorite of mine and I think you are on the right track to make an awesome deck using this theme.

I saw previously you were discussing the aces and wanting them to stand out as unique while still fitting the theme and an idea that was posed was to have them have their own shields to make them in line with the rest of the deck and I thought it might be interesting if the suits were the coats of arms themselves, making them both unique from the pips and in line with the theme of the deck.

With the aid of the ever-crappy MSPaint I threw together a quick image of what I mean sans clubs... Because clubs are marginally more difficult to throw together in MSPaint while I'm on the clock at work =P

Edit: With filigree, weapons, style, little stylistic curly-cues and such added in. Obviously.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I really like the direction this project is heading! The classic coat of arms theme is a favorite of mine and I think you are on the right track to make an awesome deck using this theme.

I saw previously you were discussing the aces and wanting them to stand out as unique while still fitting the theme and an idea that was posed was to have them have their own shields to make them in line with the rest of the deck and I thought it might be interesting if the suits were the coats of arms themselves, making them both unique from the pips and in line with the theme of the deck.

With the aid of the ever-crappy MSPaint I threw together a quick image of what I mean sans clubs... Because clubs are marginally more difficult to throw together in MSPaint while I'm on the clock at work =P

Edit: With filigree, weapons, style, little stylistic curly-cues and such added in. Obviously.

Great Suggestion Justin O.  I appreciate the feedback and support.  Glad you like the deck so far.  I will brainstorm some ideas off of your suggestion.  Thanks! 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Coat of Arms Deck: Revised 2.0 - New Beginning

I am excited to announce a friend of mine has joined me to design the coat of arms deck.  I have worked on a project with him before.  He is a terrific artist and I am thrilled with the new direction we are going with the deck.  All art work is 100% hand drawn and original.  Here are some completed cards of the new style I wanted to share with everyone.  Thank you!

[Don Boyer]

Coat of Arms Deck: Revised 2.0 - New Beginning

I am excited to announce a friend of mine has joined me to design the coat of arms deck.  I have worked on a project with him before.  He is a terrific artist and I am thrilled with the new direction we are going with the deck.  All art work is 100% hand drawn and original.  Here are some completed cards of the new style I wanted to share with everyone.  Thank you!

I strongly recommend changing the flags on which the indices are "hung".  Notice that the flags extend into the bleed area where the card is cut.  One can tell just from looking at the edges where the red and black cards are by just looking for the blue and gold at the cut edge.  Makes it tough to bluff having a heart flush when one of your cards has blue ink on that piece of the edge, among other things.  In magic, an inverted card in the middle of the deck will be immediately visible from the moving of the line from one side of the edge to the other.

Either get rid of the flags or terminate them within a border.  You can also solve this by making a matching flag on the back design and make all the flags have the same color at the edge that extends into the bleed (but that's kind of complex and may not be flattering to the design).  My preference would be to terminate the flag within a border - whoever prints this deck, you'll need to know their edge tolerances of their cutting machine to create a just-wide-enough border for keeping the design of the flag away from the edge of the card.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Don,

Great advice and good catch on the flag.  I will most likely bring it back down out of the boarder.  I am having USPCC print the cards so I will make sure I have the proper boarder measurements.

Thanks for the heads up. 

[adelsan]

From a creative designer's perspective:
The back is nice! But,
Point 1. The design is to bulky maybe a more detail will make it work.
Point 2. I'm with Don on the flag thing.
Point 3. The background is too much, I'd go with less texture or even lose it.
Point 4. I think the border around the illustration is unneeded.
Point 6. you should think making the illustrations 15~25% smaller to let the space breath a bit.

Sorry for being overwhelming and maybe a bit harsh, I'd love your project to sparkle because your idea is awesome in my opinion.

Keep up and continue!

Cheers,
A 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.  I agree with you and Don about the flag situation.  I am already working on a solution to that and I am contacting USPCC about the bleeding just to make sure I cover all details.
All the suggestions help and I am glad people are liking the new direction of the deck. 

Thanks,

Justin   

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Everyone,

I have taken the advice of the great feedback I have received and made some changes.

I have eliminated the border.
I also changed the color on the KoH wing to a darker gold to make it more contrast.
I have come up with a solution for the flag situation where the flag bleeds off the edge. I have the flag hanging off a pole, I have two types I am working with, I am going to post both types and allow people to vote on which they prefer.

[Don Boyer]

Hey Everyone,

I have taken the advice of the great feedback I have received and made some changes.

I have eliminated the border.
I also changed the color on the KoH wing to a darker gold to make it more contrast.
I have come up with a solution for the flag situation where the flag bleeds off the edge. I have the flag hanging off a pole, I have two types I am working with, I am going to post both types and allow people to vote on which they prefer.

It's an improvement.  Removing the borders allowed you to open up the art more, making a larger-sized image.

I prefer the one bar with the knobs at the end - it looks more like the kind of rod a banner such as this would be hanging from in the real world.

I still think you need to make the spade on the King of Spade's shield a bit larger and the lion smaller!

If you're planning on using metallic gold ink, this should look very nice indeed - but remember that while the gold looks bright on the screen, when printed it's actually darker, closer to the shade of a yellow-brown deli mustard.  Keep it closer to fields with light colors and it'll look great, really popping off the card.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the feedback Don, Thanks for heads up on the color as well.  I will keep that in mind once I go to print.  I will keep it on the light side of the color as you suggested. 

Thanks for voting.  I hope people take advantage of the poll I put up to vote for which flag pole they prefer.  I really have been going back and forth on that.  So the voting will help me give what the people want. 

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for the feedback Don, Thanks for heads up on the color as well.  I will keep that in mind once I go to print.  I will keep it on the light side of the color as you suggested. 

Thanks for voting.  I hope people take advantage of the poll I put up to vote for which flag pole they prefer.  I really have been going back and forth on that.  So the voting will help me give what the people want.

I should say for clarity - the gold ink itself isn't available in shades, or at the least I've never seen it in any but the one shade.  I was referring to the neighboring fields of color it would be placed against.  If you surround it with dark, that whole section will print darker than it looks on the screen, whereas if it's surrounded by light colors, it would stand out more.  A nice choice for darker fields would be silver metallic ink - it appears brighter than the gold does.  It may or may not increase costs to use more than one metallic ink color, but I've seen it done and the result is usually impressive.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Here is the Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades and the 10 of Spades.

[Don Boyer]

Looks good.  I'm liking it.

The 10 of Spades looks a little busy with the pips pointing all over the place, though.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Check out the Queen of Hearts!  Getting closer to completion!

[BeDoubleYou]

I rather like the pips on the ten of spades.

If for no other reason than this, if it's good enough to be included in a royal flush, it ought to stand out a little bit. It gives the ten a little bit of  a head nod.

I also like the pole with the little knobs as Don mentioned.

As far as printing in two metallic inks, to be honest, I think that would be pretty bold in a lot of decks, but I think with these it would look terrific. Some of the armor bits and the mace on the clubs and spades and the gold on the diamonds and hearts.

I personally loved the old artwork as well, but the new ones really made me say "wow" out loud. From the time you first posted until now (I spent a while reading this whole entry) it's come a long way. What you started with was good, these look great and getting better thanks to all of the great advice.

[CordedTires]

It's gone from kind of clunky to polished and interesting. Fun to see the development here.

[popetown]

Commenting to stay informed. I very much like the new 2.0 direction even more. Agreed on the flag banners for the indices with the round stoppers. Keep it up, I love how this is going.

[Shebhnt]

I may be one of the few but for some reason I prefer the older courts to the new courts though I prefer the blue tint/texture than the brown.  Also the 2.0 back with the lions is just plain amazing.  That alone makes me want the deck.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for all the great and supporting comments, The feedback has been great.  The feedback from everyone has really helped transform this deck.  Thanks again for the support!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I rather like the pips on the ten of spades.

If for no other reason than this, if it's good enough to be included in a royal flush, it ought to stand out a little bit. It gives the ten a little bit of  a head nod.

I also like the pole with the little knobs as Don mentioned.

As far as printing in two metallic inks, to be honest, I think that would be pretty bold in a lot of decks, but I think with these it would look terrific. Some of the armor bits and the mace on the clubs and spades and the gold on the diamonds and hearts.

I personally loved the old artwork as well, but the new ones really made me say "wow" out loud. From the time you first posted until now (I spent a while reading this whole entry) it's come a long way. What you started with was good, these look great and getting better thanks to all of the great advice.

I am glad you went through all the posts from the beginning to the end. When I revamped the deck I sent Don a message to see if I should start a whole new post with the revised 2.0 deck version but Don thought people would enjoy the transformation of the deck.  He thought it would be great to see how the deck has changed.  Don was right, So I am glad people get to see the transformation and people do get to see how their input helps to shape projects.   

Thanks for the great comments and I am glad you like the deck!