Playing Arts - a Deck of Poker Cards by 54 Artists (KS)

[Fred]

A new deck on Kickstarter organised by Digital Abstracts, featuring the individual artwork of 54 designers all over the world in one single deck!

Description of the kickstarter page:

From the two of clubs to the ace of diamonds, each of 54 participants has illustrated a single card in their own individual style.

Hi Kickstarter! We are Digital Abstracts – online magazine where we handpick and thoroughly edit our posts to deliver the best in creativity and innovation to the public. Digital Abstracts brings news, current trends, products, professional opinions and interviews, and design insight. We also take our readers behind the scenes with some of the world's best artists and studios.

At the moment we are working on our new project that will bring together the most talented artists in the field of graphic design – the project is called the Playing Arts.

The project

The idea of the project is to create a deck of uniqueplaying poker cards. From the two of clubs to the ace of diamonds, each of 54 participants has illustrated a single card in their own individual style and technique.

The artists

We've invited 54 world's best designers/painters/illustrators from all over the world. David Mack, Conrad Roset, James White, Agnes-cecile, Joshua Davis and Sara Blake are just a handful of the talented artists involved. The full list of invited artists can be found on the project's website http://playingarts.com/cards/

Doesnt look like a USPCC deck! =( The artwork is absolutely stunning, and in my opinion, far superior in terms of artistic quality than of Stanger Danger/DnD's Ultimate deck.

Their previous deck, as shown at http://creativecards.cc/ , is equally beautiful and is still available for $26 USD shipped worldwide!

The pricing for this deck is as follows:

1 deck: $20 shipped worldwide
2 decks: $36 shipped worldwide
3 decks: $51 shipped worldwide.

For the sheer amount of quality art, the prices are definitely justifiable. I also love that for once, i'll be paying relatively the same as you lucky US buggers ;p

Pictures attached below. Credits in order from top to bottom:

Ace of Clubs by Andreas Preis from Germany.
Eight of Spades by Gary Fernández from USA.
Jack of Diamonds by Newfren from Chile.
Nine of Clubs by Chuck Anderson from USA.
Eight of Hearts by Raul Urias from Mexico.

[ronyo_faukx]

The artwork is absolutely stunning, and in my opinion, far superior in quality than of Stanger Danger/DnD's Ultimate deck.

Was going to say 'like the D&D Ultimate Deck', but OK.

I might wait to see what all the cards look like before pledging.

[Fred]

The artwork is absolutely stunning, and in my opinion, far superior in quality than of Stanger Danger/DnD's Ultimate deck.

Was going to say 'like the D&D Ultimate Deck', but OK.

I might wait to see what all the cards look like before pledging.

=) Everyone's entitled to their opinion! I personally love the Ultimate deck's tuckbox; there's nothing quite like it. But in terms of artwork, i think the Ultimate deck is more roughly put together.. like basically art dumped onto a deck of playing cards, whereas this one is more synchronised. In other words, i think the art in this deck is integrated and morphed into the deck rather than dumped on, if that makes sense.

I never really got why people wait for the end product on Kickstarter before they pledge. You do realise that you can retract your pledge any time right? (there are a few exceptions but arent really an issue in a project such as this). Personally, if i like something, or if i want to stick around to see updates/improvements, i always pledge first (and to help the creators with a little boost) to reserve my spot. If i don't like what im seeing near the end 2-3 days, i simply cancel my pledge.

Check out their website http://creativecards.cc/ to see their previous deck. I think this should give you a very clear indication on whether or not you'd like this deck (:

[MyHeLL]

For me are high quality designs, thanks for the info.

[Anthony]

Really nice work on their previous deck, I can only imagine the same will carry over to this one. I personally like art decks, that's what really attracted me to playing cards to begin with, then I grew into enjoying the more "Classic" card backs and designs.

I agree with Fred's opinion on Kickstarter projects in general, it's nice to be able to guarantee yourself at least one deck out the gate and if you change your mind...no harm no foul. The other positive side effect of this is that creators really gotta bring there "A" game since there is so much competition. The problem I run into as a relative beginner is that my list is long and I just need to prioritize each purchase at this stage of my collecting.

[Don Boyer]

This looks like a decent deck, but I've grown off the "multi-artist" projects for the most part.

I will say that the indices are extremely similar to those used on the "The Dog" and "The Cat" decks.  They're both extremely popular mass-produced decks - kids love them, and The Dog was produced in two versions for the US market.  It's not impossible this was intentional.

[whaam]

I just found this 1..  54 artists ! Now that sounds interesting.
I agree with Fred, I don't like any art just dumped on a card..., artwork has to be designed for cards intentionally and it seems these guys are doing that. Though, again..., mirrored pics is what I want to see on cards, eights...I like most.
  Overall, nobody will be able to say here "hey, this is a great looking deck", artwork will vary, the deck will be artistically unbalanced but hey..., these guys had an idea and the deck will be a collection of art cards...for $20,...it's worth it.

I would suggest that all 54 artists/creators sign the card they've worked on (I think I see 2 have done just that).
...And, with so many people working on the project, few could've been in the video, actually...all could've just said hello in their language..., a 54 seconds video with 54 artists saying "hey".
Now, aren't those great ideas,...hope you guys are reading this

And, I clicked on the link to their site, it says "this will probably be the most beautiful deck of poker cards. Ever."
Well, no...., it won't, for the reasons I mentioned above. Still, nice 1..., I'm sure you'll get funded.

[digitalabstracts]

Hi guys,

Thanks for sharing my project and for your comments. Every opinion is important for me.
If you got any questions concerning this project - just let me know.

Meanwhile you can enjoy new cards: http://playingarts.com/cards/

Vlad

[Don Boyer]

Hi guys,

Thanks for sharing my project and for your comments. Every opinion is important for me.
If you got any questions concerning this project - just let me know.

Meanwhile you can enjoy new cards: http://playingarts.com/cards/

Vlad

Please allow me to welcome you to the forum, Vlad.  You should check out the "Introduce Yourself" board and create a new topic there for yourself - it'll give the gang a chance to get to know you and your design shop a bit better.

[digitalabstracts]

Please allow me to welcome you to the forum, Vlad.  You should check out the "Introduce Yourself" board and create a new topic there for yourself - it'll give the gang a chance to get to know you and your design shop a bit better.

Hi Don, you should probably remember us by our previous Creative Cards deck, http://aethercards.com/discourse/design-development/creative-cards/

So, Playing Arts is our second collaborative project.

Vlad

[Don Boyer]

Please allow me to welcome you to the forum, Vlad.  You should check out the "Introduce Yourself" board and create a new topic there for yourself - it'll give the gang a chance to get to know you and your design shop a bit better.

Hi Don, you should probably remember us by our previous Creative Cards deck, http://aethercards.com/discourse/design-development/creative-cards/

So, Playing Arts is our second collaborative project.

Vlad

Why the change in identity?

[digitalabstracts]

Why the change in identity?

Forgot my login information!

[Fred]

Lots of updates! 40+ cards done now.

You can check out all the completed designs here:
http://playingarts.com/cards/

This one's my favourite:

[10ofclubs]

Of the pictures Fred has posted, the cards look great. I almost wish the theme was taken from some of them and turned into full decks by themselves. A deck made around that Jack of Daimonds would look especially cool.

Except that nine of clubs. Good God. A professional did that? I'm not trying to degrade any particular person or their self-expression, but man, it looks like my first grade sister's finger painting. I really don't understand it. But then again, I'm certainly not the "artsy" type and have never been a fan of these kinds of projects. I'd prefer a more functional deck with an overall theme. Tomato, tomato.

[Don Boyer]

Of the pictures Fred has posted, the cards look great. I almost wish the theme was taken from some of them and turned into full decks by themselves. A deck made around that Jack of Daimonds would look especially cool.

Except that nine of clubs. Good God. A professional did that? I'm not trying to degrade any particular person or their self-expression, but man, it looks like my first grade sister's finger painting. I really don't understand it. But then again, I'm certainly not the "artsy" type and have never been a fan of these kinds of projects. I'd prefer a more functional deck with an overall theme. Tomato, tomato.

That's part of what turns me off about multi-artist decks.  You could find a handful of designs that truly deserve decks of their own, and a handful of designs that leave you wondering what the hell the designer was thinking.  It's a crap shoot bundled in pasteboard.  No consistency of design beyond the indices.

[magnacat]

if there was a single card i believe should be scrapped, and reconsidered, it would have to be the ten of clubs... when i got that update, i was pretty confused. i mean, an art card? really? please, if anyone else has seen this card, and can give me a good reason why it should be included, let me know, i'd like to not hate it so much. 
i have considered commenting on the project for it to be done over. i mean, hell, splash it with some various colors, or something, give me the impression that SOME work went into it... geez...

[Nurul]

This is my favourite card so far .. Loving that queen of clubs

[speedyy400]

I think the 8 of spades is awesome. It has a lot going on with it but it makes it even better when you finally see the monkey's chillin in it

[Afrank8]

So today my playing arts deck from digital abstracts finally arrived and I was quick to open them up. The first thing that struck me was the weight of the deck, it is substantially heavier than the standard bicycles. I attributed this to the fact that a quite unusual stock was used in order to print each individual artwork in full colour. The artwork I think was fairly well transferred onto the cards and some are quite striking. However, the backs on my cards did not come as the 2nd edit they posted online, instead I received the plainer black and white version. Pics attached

[badpete69]

Got mine also last week  very nice deck.  By the way Afrank we already had a thread on this deck albeit deep in the forums
http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/playing-arts-a-deck-of-poker-cards-by-54-top-artists-kickstarter/msg81163/#msg81163

[PrincessTrouble]

Received mine yesterday.  I also got the black and white back, which they showed in Update #24:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalabstracts/playing-arts-a-deck-of-poker-cards-by-54-top-artis/posts/685390

This is what they settled on and what we're all supposed to get.

[Don Boyer]

Got mine also last week  very nice deck.  By the way Afrank we already had a thread on this deck albeit deep in the forums
http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/playing-arts-a-deck-of-poker-cards-by-54-top-artists-kickstarter/msg81163/#msg81163

I knew these were too familiar.  Merged the threads.

[badpete69]

I would have moved it Don but I cannot

[Don Boyer]

I would have moved it Don but I cannot

Only MODS and admins can do that.  You wouldn't be looking for a MOD position, would you?