Hey Everyone,
The creator here. I realize it was a dumb thing to write about a trademarked company. I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I'll be sincere with you all, I wrote "presented by" just to promote the deck a little. I know it was wrong, and I'm being honest with you. I've removed their affiliation with the project completely.
I've worked just WAY too hard on this project and have completed all the designs in the course of 4 months and it's just said how it ended up.
I know I'll be loosing tons of backers because of this, and you have the sole right to do so. Because this was a greasy mistake that will impact my credibility on the project, I'll be doing everything to fix this silly mistake (a really big one) so that no third party is confused or falsely conversed.
Scott,
Welcome to the Discourse, Scott.
I'm glad that you realized the error you made - but being sincere about the fact that you were trying to promote the deck in a less-than-scrupulous manner is like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar and saying he did it because he wanted a cookie or a thief getting caught taking my wallet who says he wanted the money. Sure, you're being honest, but the honest truth is that you tried to deceive your backers. If you didn't get caught, if no one said anything about it, would you still be doing it now? We don't need to know the answer since we'd probably have a hard time believing you regardless - but you do.
Trust is the most valuable currency a Kickstarter project creator has - you rolled the dice and blew yours at the craps table. If there's anyone you owe an apology to, it's the people at Ellusionist, for trying to steal their hard-earned cachet that's been built up into their name over time. Few companies appreciate it when someone steals their intellectual property for their own gain - it's the stuff corporate lawsuits are made of. Pray that they don't want to make an example of you.
Some advice: close your project now. Retool it a little. I honestly believed that the black-and-white images from the framed print and the t-shirt were far better looking than the gold on red-brown you presented. Factor in that metallic gold can actually appear dark, and I don't think that color combination is doing you any favors. Perhaps toss in dashes of faded color, like a frieze that was painted two thousand or so years ago and has faded with time and weather.
People do still buy blindly if a deck has the "Bicycle" brand name on it, but in smaller and smaller numbers. Forget "Bicycle" and consider a less-expensive, high-grade printer like Expert Playing Card Company or Legends Playing Card Company. You can shave the costs, allowing you to present the deck at a better, more-attractive price point.
Consider as well the idea of possibly selling your deck design to another company. CollectablePlayingCards.com and Gambler's Warehouse seek out a lot of artists to do work for them creating company-exclusive decks. They do the heavy lifting getting the deck made and sold while you collect a nice check and start on another design. You can also try working with a partner like Jackson Robinson - he will promote and sell other artists decks in a curated manner, if he feels the deck is just that good. Just partner up - if you can - with someone who has experience and can lend credibility to your project.
If you do restart things on your own - BE HONEST FROM THE FIRST WORD TO THE LAST. The moment people feel you can't be trusted is the same moment that you hear a flushing sound in the distance as all your pledges go down the toilet.
ADDENDUM: I see you've partnered with Max Playing Cards - not a bad choice at all. He can help fix your credibility but don't expect instant, immediate absolution from everyone. Some will need more time, some will never trust you again. It's going to be a struggle to overcome that.
I realized just now why I liked the black-and-white images better - they were "positive" images while your gold linework is all "negative" images. See what they look like as positive images and you might find you like it better - and perhaps you're backers will as well.
