Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Giovanni Meroni of Delirium Playing Cards

Delirium by Thirdway Industries is a fun and dynamic deck of playing cards.  The brainchild of Giovanni Meroni, this intricate but modern deck is strongly inspired by the classic French playing cards... with a crazy twist!

The front of the tuck depicts the Delirium King giving a speech, surrounded by his guards and his consorts, while the backs feature the Delirium Gods of War. This deck is fully customized, from the ace of spades, pips, jokers, and court cards!

Just before the launch of Delirium, we had a chat with Giovanni about Thidway Industries, what he was up to after winning the DDDC and the inspiration & creative process behind Delirium.

Can you tell us what you have been up to since winning the DDDC?
To be honest, after the DDDC with the Evil Deck I was planning to rest a little. I was think of giving my Evil Deck a "good" twin, but I was going to take my time and enjoy the summer.

However, I had the opportunity to be one of the four artists of CardLauncher, so I decided to haste the Good Deck a lot. The campaign didn't fund, but I'm happy anyways because it motivated me a lot to finish off Good Deck quickly and I'm sure it gave me a lot of visibility. Now I'm waiting for Evil Deck (early 2015) and after it, I'll decide how to print the Good Deck.

After the CardLauncher campaign, I decided to start with a new deck with all the experience in playing cards I gathered in the previous projects - The Delirium Deck. 

Tell us about your new company Thirdway Industries?
Thirdway Industries is my new brand of products. At the moment I decided to focus on poker playing cards with a modern and crazy look. The name comes from a screenplay manual I was reading during my academic years. The sentence was like "Think of an idea, find an alternative and choose a third way", and I liked the concept.

What is your inspiration behind the Delirium deck? How did you come up with the idea?
The idea behind Delirium is very simple. After a lot of brainstorming about names and themes, I saw a classic Modiano Deck, with standard french figures. I decided to draw some courts with my style. I started with the hand of the King of Hearts. When I finished it, I liked him, and decided to gave him a family.




Could you walk us through your “Creative” process, do you have a routine when designing a deck or individual card?
Not really, I'm pretty crazy and impulsive. I don't plan much. I usually start with courts, anyways, my favourite part.

How did you get feedback? 
The first and most important feedback comes from my designer friends. I also ask the communites and forums, for example United Cardists.

From the project page, what are a few of your favorite reward levels and why? 
I think everyone loves early birds. I also added a cool reward with a brick + uncut sheet for the backers who want everything. There also few prototypes and some secret reward levels that will be unlocked during the campaign.

Finally, are you planning to release more decks in the future? 
Absolutely. ;)

Thank you for your time and all the best, Giovanni. If you like what you’ve read here and want to support the Delirium playing cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here.


Pledge starts from $13 and the Delirium "Prism" Playing Cards will be printed by EPCC on their highest quality stock with 'Master Finish'. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretch goals such as embossing, custom seal and interior tuckbox printing. At $15k, the Delirium "Insomnia" Playing Cards will be unlocked featuring all new custom cards which will be different from "Prism".

Don't miss out!