The 'Prism' deck (previously 'highlights')

[Fud]

Hi All,

I have been roaming around on these forums for a while without posting, and have been developing some decks recently which I would like to put forward for comment to see if they are worth pursuing. One in particular I want to get going is one I call the 'highlights deck'. (*I don't really like that name, and am very open to any suggestions for another one*).

This deck got its start when I was doing some design for a combined card game (non playing card) project with some friends, and while messing around with some effects stumbled upon a combination of light and colour which I thought was pretty cool. After developing it for a while, I am pleased with the final effect. I'm a big fan of colour contrast with subtle touches, which I think comes through in these designs.

There are 2 facets to the cards. First, the bold coloured faces, the second is a subtle radial fan. To do this I am planning on utilising MPC's 'high gloss' finish for the cards, which essentially creates a clear, glossy and slightly raised effect on the card where it is applied to. My aim is to have all the colour detail in this high gloss for futher contrast, but to also continue the radial lines to a gloss border. In the images attached, imagine that the light grey area is fully black, gloss (not matt) and slightly raised for texture.

The finished card will be a mixture of bold colour and subtle texture.

I would love to hear some of your thoughts as to if this idea has merit, and how I could improve it. Also if someone has a better name than 'highlights', I'm all ears! Currently 'Laser' is forerunner.

Thanks,
Fud

[Don Boyer]

Well, the deck's going to get some resistance from people who aren't keen about a suit having two different colors on the same card.

The basic idea is interesting.  It'll have a great appeal with collectors.

Name suggestion: Prism.  The pips look like they're prisms, separating out the colors.  Rainbow is too overused.

That King needs help.  Strip out some of the details and make him look more human.  The rainbow colors are enough detail without the additional clutter.

Printing this with MPC should work nicely, but consider also Legends PCC and Expert PCC.  They can do amazing things with prismatic paper.  You might even consider making it a "white" deck instead of black if you can get it done with that kind of paper for the card stock.

[Fud]

Thanks for your comments.

I was already thinking about unifying the colours of the corner symbols/numbers; red and blue.

As to the king; I agree that the face is a bit funny, but without some of the body detail he just looks a bit stripey with no definition. Either way, how is this one as a second attempt? Only the face on the top half is fixed, not the bottom.

And prism is a great idea! I'm between 'laser light' and 'prism' now.

[Magasaki]

I think the linework is a little heavy especially around the faces on the courts. Looking cool so far though.

[Fud]

I agree with the linework for the courts - I have a new design I am working off and will update once I have completed one properly.

In the meantime, I have tweaked the borders and colours for the number faces; what do you think of this one? Again, the grey represents black raised gloss area, which will include the center symbols and corner indices.

I am also going to make the corners red and blue; should I go hollow pips or solid pips (the 2 options in the 2 corners of the pic)

[Fud]

Hopefully this will be the last iteration for development. I've recoloured the corner indices to make them more interesting and in line with the colourful 'prism' effect, and reworked the royals into 16 unique images; changing the way I show the colours through them. Attached is an indicative king of spades first as face colour, and then with the grey representing the black gloss area.

Note that the whole king image will be glossed, not just the lines passing through.

Please let me know what you think! I want to get the development wrapped up so I can complete the rest of the deck and move into prototypes!

Thanks

[Don Boyer]

The gray lines look terrible on the courts.  On the spot cards, they're not bad but might look better without the border.  Faces without hard-line borders tend to look more open and attractive.

Definitely fill in the pips in the indices.  Solid red and solid blue.  That glow effect is pretty nice.

Have you tried making the king as a "positive" image?  Right now it looks more like a film negative.

[Fud]

That's a good idea to try and make it a 'positive' image rather than a negative one. I'll try it and see how it looks.

With regards to the grey lines - they won't actually be grey. they are a representation of the extent of clear gloss regions, and as I said in the post those lines won't continue through the figure - I just didn't have time to locally erase them from the indication image. In terms of colour, the image will be as though there were no grey lines, but there will be slightly raised transparent gloss areas on the corner and central symbols and where indicated by the grey radial lines and border.

I understand that without the border this may look more appealing, but as the radial position changes for each number, not having a border will lead to non-uniform edges.

I'll mock up a set of positive courts and see how they look. Thanks for your comment.

[Fud]

Last revision (I hope).

Flipped the colour sequence of the royals to make it more of a 'positive' image rather than a 'negative' (like film negative). Also fixed up the gloss radial indicator lines to make it more clear where they will be. If anyone has any further suggestions as to how to make these better, please let me know, else I'll move into protoypes

Fud

[Don Boyer]

Last revision (I hope).

Flipped the colour sequence of the royals to make it more of a 'positive' image rather than a 'negative' (like film negative). Also fixed up the gloss radial indicator lines to make it more clear where they will be. If anyone has any further suggestions as to how to make these better, please let me know, else I'll move into protoypes

Fud

THIS is a far better look for the courts.  You can clearly see them and they look good.

Re gray lines being clear gloss lines - I still think that removing the outer border line will improve the look overall.  It doesn't matter if the radial points will be different.  Just pretend the border is there, end the line at the border - but leave the border out of the final image.  I think it will look much nicer and more open - that's something more representative of light in action than enclosing it in a box.

Seriously, re-do that king below exactly as is but remove the border and you see for yourself what it looks like.

[Fud]

Hi all.

First, thanks Don. Good advice is good advice - I see what you mean about borderless.

I’ve finished all the card faces for this deck (called ‘Prism’), and would like to get some thoughts on some issues I think I have. I’m worried about 2 main things:

-   The background radial colour on the courts is quite strong and very non symmetrical. Will this be a problem? I think it enhances the number cards as there is not much colour shown, but for the courts where it is quite solid colour this might be too much. Thoughts?

-   The card back is non symmetrical as well. I’m designing a second, reversible one, but I think this one fits well with the overall theme. Should I change at all? Am I overthinking it?

Thanks

[Don Boyer]

Hi all.

First, thanks Don. Good advice is good advice - I see what you mean about borderless.

I’ve finished all the card faces for this deck (called ‘Prism’), and would like to get some thoughts on some issues I think I have. I’m worried about 2 main things:

-   The background radial colour on the courts is quite strong and very non symmetrical. Will this be a problem? I think it enhances the number cards as there is not much colour shown, but for the courts where it is quite solid colour this might be too much. Thoughts?

-   The card back is non symmetrical as well. I’m designing a second, reversible one, but I think this one fits well with the overall theme. Should I change at all? Am I overthinking it?

Thanks

Blend the colors a bit better - the transition from purple/indigo to red/yellow is like hitting a wall.

As long as you keep the courts consistent, you should be fine.  If you're concerned about making the courts brighter, there's a few ideas you can use.  One would be to make the center of the top and bottom the radial points from which light emanates.  Another would be to make a "double rainbow" from the center, insuring that the brightest colors are always in the court faces.

Consider solid "rainbow" pips on the spot cards, but the indices are fine as you have them now.  And use traditional pip placements and orientations.  I know, you probably liked how you had them, but this deck will be "alien" enough with the rainbows all over the place - too alien and it won't gain enough footing in the marketplace.

You want the card back symmetrical as you can make it, period.  Take the present four-suit design you have, reduce it in size a bit and place it into the four corners, with the colors radiating from either the center of each quadrant or the center of the card or the four corners of the card.  You can play around with it and make it two-way easily enough - I can probably do it and I have terrible creative skills.

[Fud]

Again, really good advice Don, thanks.

I've got 2 more options for 2-way backs; how do these stack up? I experimented with a half dozen orientations of the symbols, with the conclusion that the strength of the radial design must be at the center, and so included more of the lines bursting from the middle.

I have also experimented with the gradients on the courts - focusing the colour on the focus of the image rather than the center, and making them also 2-way. Is this worth following, or am I spending time with no benefit?

[Don Boyer]

Again, really good advice Don, thanks.

I've got 2 more options for 2-way backs; how do these stack up? I experimented with a half dozen orientations of the symbols, with the conclusion that the strength of the radial design must be at the center, and so included more of the lines bursting from the middle.

I have also experimented with the gradients on the courts - focusing the colour on the focus of the image rather than the center, and making them also 2-way. Is this worth following, or am I spending time with no benefit?

The first back is fine.  The second back is NOT two-way.  Single spirals can't by their nature be two-way.  A double spiral could, if done right, much like a double helix versus a single helix.

The first Queen of Diamonds doesn't look as good as the second.  But do something to make that flower more visible - it looks like there's a period floating over her hand.

Brighten the glow a bit on the indices.  You really want them to stand out and be immediately readable.

[Fud]

Thanks Don. I've got a bit of work to recolour the courts and reset the symbols on the numbers, but if I can nail down the back I'll have all the elements more or less settled.

On more thought, I don't much like the back with the splash across the centre so I reworked with helix pattern to make it 2 way. I think it work well with the radial theme of the faces. I'm tossing up 2 options - symbols offset from the radial pattern, or in line with it. I'm leaning towards offset for clarity.

I also think that the pattern should be more subtle than obvious. What do you think?

[Don Boyer]

Thanks Don. I've got a bit of work to recolour the courts and reset the symbols on the numbers, but if I can nail down the back I'll have all the elements more or less settled.

On more thought, I don't much like the back with the splash across the centre so I reworked with helix pattern to make it 2 way. I think it work well with the radial theme of the faces. I'm tossing up 2 options - symbols offset from the radial pattern, or in line with it. I'm leaning towards offset for clarity.

I also think that the pattern should be more subtle than obvious. What do you think?

Subtle pattern, bright pips, inline.

[Fud]

I've redone the courts to be more in theme with the rest of the deck. I'd like an opinion though - should I extend the colour radials to the borders or fade them just at the centers? The shiny ink layer will continue to the borders marking the extent of the radials, but I'm not sure I want the colour to.

Almost done!

[Don Boyer]

I've redone the courts to be more in theme with the rest of the deck. I'd like an opinion though - should I extend the colour radials to the borders or fade them just at the centers? The shiny ink layer will continue to the borders marking the extent of the radials, but I'm not sure I want the colour to.

Almost done!

The radials look better when they do terminate before reaching the radials of the other "light source" on the card.

[Fud]

The protoypes have come (finally!), and they look awesome! I have a few tweaks to make, and I'm still getting product shots together to make the kickstarter page, but here is a taster of the Prism: Night deck which will be coming soon!

[HankMan]

The protoypes have come (finally!), and they look awesome! I have a few tweaks to make, and I'm still getting product shots together to make the kickstarter page, but here is a taster of the Prism: Night deck which will be coming soon!

Is this printed by MPC? looks similar to their impression deck

[Don Boyer]

The protoypes have come (finally!), and they look awesome! I have a few tweaks to make, and I'm still getting product shots together to make the kickstarter page, but here is a taster of the Prism: Night deck which will be coming soon!

I have to say, that looks mighty cool!  It's a great gimmick, bound to really extend your deck's reach beyond just the collector community.  All of the most successful decks had to draw on that larger audience to make the big bucks and really exceed their goal by a wide margin.

I think you've got a winner here.

[Fud]

The protoypes have come (finally!), and they look awesome! I have a few tweaks to make, and I'm still getting product shots together to make the kickstarter page, but here is a taster of the Prism: Night deck which will be coming soon!

Is this printed by MPC? looks similar to their impression deck

Yes, I got the prototype made by MPC because LPCC don't do single decks. The gloss layer on the final will be a bit thinner but with a slight rainbow shine - even better!