Designers: Realising the Vision with Lotrek of Venexiana Playing Cards

Every success story starts off with an idea, which is then researched, progressively developed and evolves. This idea takes shape, acquires the finer detail and is eventually realised. Here's the question, what do you do when you have THE idea? How do you take the first step in realising your vision into something material? This month, we will look at the first step of turning an idea into reality using the Venexiana Playing Cards as an example.

Lotrek, the designer and the creator behind the successful Kickstarter project, Venexiana Playing Cards gives us a few insights. This beautifully crafted playing cards was initially inspired by Lotrek's love for Venice. "I always wanted to do something dedicated to this city, so I thought that a playing card deck was the perfect vehicle." Lotrek said.

The Venexiana project raised $23k from 788 backers over 75 days. Photo by Melania  

The project raised $23k from 788 backers over 35 days and is Lotrek's vision of 18th century Venice. As he has visited Venice many times, he always carries the city’s essence and he didn’t need to do extensive research with regards to that particular time period, Having said that, he only had to refresh his memory on certain aspects such as costume details and ornamentation..

Early Sketch of Ace of Spades

In terms of historical accuracy, "I can say that they're pretty accurate although this was not a priority for me." Lotrek assured, "Venice itself is not an accurate place after all." In my humble opinion, one would definitely have a picture of 18th century Venice by looking at the Venexiana deck.

To get started on an idea, books and the internet (of course!) are always a good source of historical research material. Lotrek explained, "I visited two libraries. The one I have in my house which, thanks to my wife's frenzy for books is a valuable source for almost anything on earth and the huge library that is the internet, to find some specific details." He added, "Also not forgetting the visits to the huge museum called Venice!"

Early Sketch of Ace of Spades

Lotrek then progressively use the historical research to slowly realise his vision of Venice. "I conceived Venexiana in its historical context, so the deck was evolving as I was doing the research." Lotrek explained, "A picture here, a detail there, a gesture in a painting, all these gave me ideas for the courts. I didn't have to adjust the deck to historical facts."

Some of the court cards on the Venixiana deck is actually based on historical figures. For example, Antonio Vivaldi as the Jack of Diamonds, Lodovico Manin as the King of Hearts and Carlo Goldoni as the King of Clubs. As for the rest of the courts they are imaginary figures. To make them fit with the theme, Lotrek blended these characters with actual places and habits of Venietian life of that time period, thus making them look like figures in an 18th century story.

Sketch for the Jack of Clubs

During the research process, there were a few possibilities in terms of the theme of the deck. For example, the Carnevale Venezia or Venice's masked festival- but he decided against it. Lotrek explained, "I wanted to make a reference to the Carnevale but I didn't want it to be the central theme of the deck. I have to admit that carnival is the least interesting moment of Venice for me. So I decided to have shades of it in the deck and use only the costumes and masks I find most interesting."

Preliminary Sketch of the Jack of Hearts

As the design process began, Lotrek hit the forums to get feedback from potential backers of his design. "Forums are great places to get feedback and to improve a design before you launch a project. They're the people you're addressed to, after all." Lotrek said.

Drawing for box detail

Throughout the research and design process, designs are tweaked and refined based on the feedback to maximize their effect. Interestingly, no one commented on the historical accuracy of the deck. Lotrek joked, "People in forums are more interested in thin borders and two way backs!"

The whole research and design process is time consuming and at times frustrating. But listening to feedback and at times making the hard decision to change makes a difference. In this case, the finished product is exquisite and the look and feel of the deck is simply stunning!

The Venexiana backers are very happy with their deck and that made Lotrek happy.  "I had a tremendously positive feedback, many said that it's their favorite deck in their collection and it is absolutely wonderful seeing that people appreciate your work and I'm grateful to all my backers for this."

Early drawing for the box design

Lotrek:  It is wonderful seeing that people appreciate
your work. Photo by Melania  

If you have an idea and want to make that dream a reality, be prepared! Do your research, plan & organise your designs systematically and then hit the forums. Be prepared to get constructive feedbacks and at times, criticism. Make the necessary tweaks and changes. It can be frustrating and time consuming BUT at the end of the days, they are your potential backers and people do back and support you if you listen and have a good product... that could be the difference between success or failure.

 As for the Venexiana deck, what is next? The first series is almost sold out on Half Moon's website. From some of the feedback he received, Lotrek said, "They gave me the idea for another Venexiana deck, with a dark feeling this time, which will be the second part of the project."

:) Something to look forward to.

The Venexiana Deck. Photo by Melania  

Analytics: Project by Numbers - Federal 52 Part II

It is a challenge running a Kickstarter project. Your life is tied to a number that you have very little control over, and that number defines you for the next month. Every pledge sends a notification to your inbox, giving you a rush of micro-excitement. You check your Kickstarter dashboard and see the trajectory of your funding progress heading towards the dotted goal line. As the clock runs down and you hit your funding goal, congratulatory messages begin to pour in, you pump your fist into the air, exchange high-fives with your teammates and pop the celebratory champagne that you have been saving.

Then the real work begins.

In this Project by Numbers analytic series, we will look at what happens after the project- backer numbers, pledges, add-ons, traffic sources etc... For the first month, we will look at numbers from one of 2013's most popular project, Federal 52 Part II - the backers, the pledges and where do these majestic decks get shipped to.

To start off, we want to thank Jackson Robinson of Kings Wild Project for sharing the data and giving us a very rare insight of the numbers that make up this awesome project.

The Project

The Federal 52 Part II project was launched on 15 June 2013 with a funding goal of $16k. Within 20 mins of the launch, the project reached its funding goal!

Here's a quick overview of the project:

Overall, the project is the second most funded playing card project on Kickstarter and third in terms of backer numbers.

Pledges

Looking at the amount pledged of $186k, a large percentage of backers are United States based (domestic). Note that 2% of pledges did not get banked due non-processed credit card errors.

From the total amount, 61% of the backers pledged $26 and above. The most popular pledge seem to be the $11-$25 level, which is the 1 and 2 decks reward tier. Histogram as follows:

Breaking it down further to examine the pledge levels of both domestic and international backers.

Backers

Looking at backer numbers, the 2.7k backers are made out of

International backers pledged on average 22% higher than domestic backers. The international price of shipping could be a factor in this price differential.

Where do majority of the domestic backers come from? Here are the top 10 states by number of domestic backers:

While the top 10 countries by backer numbers:

It is interesting to note that the top 10 form both domestic and international make up 60% of the total project backers!

Where do they go?

Here's a global view (based on backer numbers) of where the Silver Certificates and Reserve Notes will go:
 

Note that the decks will be delivered to 50 different countries around the world. In terms of spending, here are the top 10 domestic states in terms of pledge size.

As for international, pledge size by country.

Based on these numbers, we hope you will better understand and appreciate the complexities of a project. Next month, we will look at where all the playing card projects come from and the month after, we will look at traffic sources (external vs internal) of a number of Kickstarter project- where do they come from and what % do they contribute towards the funding goal.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Rick Davidson of Origins Playing Cards

Inspired by the elegance and charm of playing card history, designer and illustrator Rick Davidson (@OriginsCards) has masterfully created Origins Playing Cards. Playing cards have evolved over many hundreds of years, with the echoes of the pattern we know today forming around the 15th and 16th century in Rouen, France. A design emerged that was adopted and copied in England, and then spread across the globe.

After months of hard work and anticipation, Origins is now LIVE on Kickstarter. All of the cards are individually researched and custom designed. The super fine details on the backs will feature metallic gold ink. The tuck cases will be printed on the highest quality stock, fully embossed and the box details will be embellished with gloss gold foil, giving it a touch of elegance and sophistication.

We asked Rick to join us for an interview about this project, design inspiration, challenges and Kickstarter. We think you’ll find a lot of insights in his answers, just as we did.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I'm a designer based in Hamilton, New Zealand. Or Middle Earth if you go with the marketing hype. I've always enjoyed the art of creating. My father is a talented musician, my mother a talented artist, so I grew up with my sister in a house of guitars and paintings, making comic books and recording bad songs.

I love to create and often have a pet project on the go, I like to push my skills and try new things. But I knew early on I wanted to work in design. I have an strong interest in world events and history and that led me to work for a number of years as an editorial newspaper artist. During this time I illustrated and covered major events graphically, including the Millennium, Gulf War and 9/11. I loved that job, and saw the best and worst of humanity during that time.

But I had a desire to work more creatively and I'm now a designer at a web design studio, Black Sheep, working in both traditional print and online interface design. In my spare time I keep busy with 3D animation and sculpture, and entertaining my three amazing boys.

Origins is your first Kickstarter Project. What inspired you to launch your own kickstarter project?
I didn’t have any plans to run a campaign until enthusiasm for the Origins deck began to grow. That interest encouraged me to explore options to have the deck produced and Kickstarter was obviously a clear option.

Not that Kickstarter is an easy choice. I think it's by far the hardest route to take. Building a campaign from the ground up is difficult, especially working from the southern hemisphere. I originally approached all of the major players with my concepts, but received few replies. When I first began the project, Kickstarter was still unavailable here, and I hit a lot of walls and considered shelving the project, so it felt like the stars aligned when they opened to NZ recently.

For an independant designer like me, Kickstarter opens up so many possibilities. It's great to have the freedom to develop an idea, a dream, without the limitation of lack of funds. Funding isn’t assured of course, but you have a half open door, a sliver of light. So you if work hard, who knows.

What is your inspiration behind Origins Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
Well I have always thought today's card art was far from beautiful and I decided to explore how that art managed to become the standard. With my love of art and history, I became fascinated once I began exploring the evolution of the art and wound my way back to the 16th century. From that elegant art to the clunky almost mathematical shapes of today, it felt like this beautiful work had almost been forgotten and replaced by something less.

Just out of pure inspiration, with no plan to produce the deck, I put together some rough ideas based around reviving this art for the modern era, and posted them online for other designers to critique. Card collectors saw the designs, kindly invited me to join their forums and my journey began. It really has been a huge amount of work, with as much time spent researching and money spent tracking down the historic art, and learning about the industry, as working on the designs themselves. And I've loved every moment of it. What a great community.

How much time was spend working on the deck? Can you briefly go through the design evolution for one of your unique card design?
I’ve worked most nights for around 10 months. It's been a lot of work. The first part of the process was tracking down as much of the historic art as I could so I had a broad selection to work from. That was a number of weeks as it required contacting various historians and experts and finding my way to the locations of the different art.

Once I had as many versions of the originals as I could, I put them together and tried and find the recurring design elements. Matching necklaces, pikes. I then began the final art, first with rough sketches, then to the computer. I wanted the linework to be crisp and sharp to match today's cards so I did everything in vector which is very restrictive creatively, but has given me the sharp strong lines I was looking for.

The redesign had three main challenges. The addition of the indices, the placement of the pips in the top left corner, and reworking the full length art for the reversible design of todays cards. It was really difficult to chop the bottom half of the these cards away, but I tried to retain important elements and patterns where I could. I battled with the style initially, but settled on something clean and modern over the more medieval woodcut style. So I hope I have retained some of the style of the originals, whilst still creating something fresh and modern.

Being based outside the United States, what challenges did you faced trying to get your project up on Kickstarter?
I was very keen to base the project in the States to reduce cost to the majority of the people supporting me. And I was also set on printing with the United States Playing Card Co so it made sense to keep everything central. I would like to think with the power of the net distance isn't a problem, and it isn't. But TIME is. I wake up as the work day is ending in the States and I would basically be able to get in one email to an associate. Then I would have to wait for a response the next day so it has been a frustratingly slow process building the campaign. But I have had wonderful people on my side which has made actually bringing everything together great.

57% of the top projects in 2012 missed their delivery dates? What are your thoughts?
I love your stats. Well I hope I see the Origins in the top of the Kardify delivery dates for 2014! I can see how it can happen when you rely on others to produce your product, some things are out of your control. But I know from working on many design projects you really need to allow for issues, because they will happen. I have contacted all of my suppliers for an honest estimate on delivery times and built a schedule accordingly. Then I've added a month. You of course want to get the product to your backers as quickly as possible, but it's much better to promise late and deliver early than the opposite.

Very true! Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
That's so tough. As an artist, I look at every deck and I admire the variety and style in every one. Every artist has their own style which I love, and it's getting expensive buying my favourite art. But in cards, there is also the element of quality, and I get a thrill out of holding a deck that just feels beautiful in your hand. Embossing, quality of the stock, metallics. So for me the Blaine Split Spades are special, followed by the Theory decks.

Thanks Rick! If you like what you’ve read here and want to support Origins Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here.  The First Edition features a unique gold foil titled tuck box which will not be printed again. They will be printed at casino quality Bee stock with magic finish by the USPCC. Pledge starts from NZD$15 (approximately $12) and there are multiple add-ons available such as collectors coins, t-shirts, posters, uncut sheets and unique pencil sketches of each face cards (extremely limited!).

There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretch goals. Most notable is the Grail Limited Edition deck. It will become available if funding reaches $58k. The deck will be limited to a maximum of 2500 decks and will not be printed again. The Grail cards will feature metallic inks, front and back, and the tuck will be printed in gold foil on a special high quality pearlesque stock. Don't miss out! 

If you like our interviews, please remember to Like Us on our Facebook page.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Harris Soetikno of Explore Playing Cards [Updated]

I love travelling! The thrill of experiencing different cultures and exploring all the different landmarks from cities around the world. With that in mind, the guys at Cardazine used the excitement and thrill of travelling & exploration to create the Explore Playing Cards. This custom deck features 52 cities and historic sites.

Besides the unique illustration, this deck is very well thought out as well. Each suit features different types of cities to explore: Spades – Modern Architecture, Hearts – Romantic Cities, Clubs – Historic Sites & Cultural Cities and Diamonds – Popular Liveable Cities.

We had the chance to talk to Harris Soetikno of Cardazine about his first Kickstarter project, the inspiration behind Explore and the support from the playing card community.

Can you tell us about Cardazine and what is your design background?
Cardazine is a concept that I came upon late last year. At that time, I saw the playing cards community was already large in Kickstarter and projects upon projects just never fail to bring fresh concepts with great designs. I know that I want to start my own line of playing cards one day but the challenge is to offer something unique in a very crowded market.

So, Cardazine is a mashup of Cards + Magazine. I want to use the great visuals of playing cards to display and showcase a theme of information. Each release features a fresh theme and deck owners get to experience the theme through aesthetic design.

This is your first Kickstarter Project. Why Kickstarter?
The beautiful thing about Kickstarter is that it’s not just a selling platform, it is also a community. I first became a part of the community early last year, backing a couple of fashion projects. The thing that really captures me in my experience as a backer is that I get to help shape the outcome of a project. Backers have the opportunity to provide early feedback, suggestions and ideas to project creators. And seeing a project that I back get successfully funded, there’s that sense of a collective achievement between backers and the project creator. Kickstarter is very social-oriented, and I love it! I believe in this community.

What is your inspiration behind Explore Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
EXPLORE’s inspiration is my own experience of planning for holidays. I mean, I know the type of cities that I’d like to visit but I don’t know a lot about cities to actually be able to decide on a destination. That’s where EXPLORE comes in. It’s like a catalogue of popular cities and holiday destinations around the world. Each suit features different types of cities to explore (Spades – Modern Architecture, Hearts – Romantic Cities, Clubs – Historic Sites and Cultural Cities, Diamonds – Popular Liveable Cities).

How much time was spend working on the deck? 
A LOTTT of time.

I first started to approach designers in August last year, lots of turn downs due to the project size. I had only finalised contracts and briefs with Daniel (the designer of EXPLORE) at the end of October. Since then, more than 140 hours have been spent on creating artworks for the court cards, tuck case and branding.

The project is also largely research intensive. Before getting designed, each destination is first researched and then, more research goes onto finding interesting landmarks to feature on the card. Finally, a lot of communications has happened too with the USPCC and other suppliers.

We initially noticed Explore Playing Cards on the Discourse Design & Development forums. What do you think of the playing card community?
The community has been real great in its support for this project. I started the thread on the Discourse to initially gain feedback on artwork and also to get Cardazine out there. It has attracted some valuable responses, but what surprises me is that a couple of private messages also came in from members to give me directions and pointers that the project can and should take. The community is willing to put in effort to help fellow members.

57% of the top projects in 2012 missed their delivery dates? What are your thoughts?
I think, the ability to meet delivery dates have a lot to do with managing uncertainties. In my own experience working with EXPLORE, a lot of these uncertainties come from working with a number of different parties (i.e. designer, manufacturers, copywriter, videographer).

As a project creator, I want to promise something to backers that are realistic to me and to the parties involved. In that manner, the delivery date that I set, is actually THE delivery date and not the “ideal” delivery date. And, setting that deadline requires a lot of communication and feedback on expectations with the different parties involved.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks? 
Theory11 Artisans, love the earthy feel to Simon Frouws’ design!


All the best Harris and thank you for your time, mate.

Explore playing cards will be printed by the USPCC and pledge starts from [Update] AUD13 (approx. $11.50) AUD$20 (approximately $18). The first deck will be due out to backers on June 2014.

Kickstarter: Paul Michael Kane of Foto Grafis Playing Cards on Turning Failure into Success

Foto Grafis is a unique set of playing cards showcasing the amazing work of, Award winning photographer, Paul Michael Kane. Each image is filled with astounding textures and unexpected depth, transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary and spectacular! His goal is to turn an everyday, ordinary deck of cards that we know into something very special. Pocket sized fine art!

Unfortunately, Paul's first attempt was unsuccessful. He then re-launched his Kickstarter campaign, Foto Grafis Playing Cards Phase II on Jan3 2014. In less than 24 hours, Foto Grafis was fully funded and with 16 days remaining (at the time of writing), the current campaign has even surpassed the funding goal of the original campaign! Amazing turnaround!

We caught up with Paul to talk about the Foto Grafis campaign. In this interview, he shares the lessons he has learned from his first attempt, support from the community, the success of his project and how he turned things around.

Can you tell us about yourself and for your first Kickstarter project, why playing cards?
I am a graphic designer/photographer who is always looking for new opportunities and new ways of displaying my work. When I show my work at different galleries, you’ll find my images printed on glass, wood, slate and even metal, but the challenge has always been showing off as much of my work as possible – playing cards give me the chance to showcase 52 of my images in a nice, portable format – pocket sized fine art!

Why Kickstarter? It’s an exceptional format for creative professionals to present their unique vision to such a broad, international audience. As a self-publisher, much of the challenge of getting a project produced is finding buyers. Kickstarter covers that by turning potential “buyers” into project backers who, I hope, feel a sense of pride for their help in seeing a vision realized to the finished product. It’s a fantastic time to be a creative professional!

Unfortunately, your first project was only 63% funded. In your postmortem analysis, what are some of the things that you could have improved on?
I learned a tremendous amount from the first campaign. The biggest lesson learned was to offer up a finished product – something that was ready to go to production right after the campaign closes. I had a concept for my court cards that involved photographing models as stand-ins for the traditional court. I had only shot one Queen before launch and one during. I also slowly released the images for the card faces . . . thinking that would create excitement throughout the project. The deck clearly wasn’t finished and I think that uncertainty – that unfinished aspect – is what ultimately killed the first attempt.

But I don’t consider it a failure – not if I didn’t move on from it, learn from it and make another attempt at it. From a marketing stand point, it was a huge success – having attained new viewers of my work from all over the world. I saw upticks in all my social media accounts and a rush of new hits to my web site.

Did you get any help or feedback from your supporters during or after your first project?
Feedback from the Kickstarter community was wonderful. It was all positive and it’s what drove me to reevaluate the project and make another attempt at it. The one bit of feedback I heard the most about was that my concept for the court card didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the deck – and after mulling that over for a bit, I realized the backers were right. So this time around, my court cards blend seamlessly with the rest of the deck.

Your second project, Foto Grafis Playing Cards: Phase II was funded in 24 hours and currently stands at 171% of the funding goal with 17 days remaining. What was different and what have you learned about running a Kickstarter project? 
I was just blown away by the response to Foto Grafis the second time around .  What I did this time around was team up with a local printer – which lowered my funding goal – finished ALL the card faces to put them on display . . . and finally, I restructured the entire project to one that was more focused on exposure rather than gains.

This is a personal project for me – not a commercial one. The commercial projects are the ones that help pay the bills – these personal projects are the things that keep my artistic vision fresh, which is very important to me.

Any advice for creators who is looking to relaunch their project? 
No matter how big or small a project is, you need a strategy to succeed  I call my strategy A.P.E.  

Anticipate,  Plan, Execute. 

If you do these three things, you should come away with a success. Even my first attempt’s failure was anticipated. But I had a plan and executed it this second time around and turned it into a win . . . for which I am just wonderfully grateful for!

Constant communication and contact is a must. Update your backers often – not only with words, but show the progress of your project. Personalize the project . . . own it. This connects project leaders with their backers . . . and gives backers confidence in you and your project.

57% of the top projects in 2012 missed their delivery dates? What are your thoughts? 
Hitting the delivery date is a HUGE deal for me – I actually have a personal goal to ship well before the stated delivery date of April. I honestly think that many of the most successful campaigns in 2012 didn’t realize just how big a hit their campaigns were going to be.

Paul's awesome collection! I am envious!!One example from personal experience is the Ondu Pinhole camera. I backed this project in mid-2013 with a delivery date of October 2013. The campaign was a huge success - and the poor guys just weren’t equipped to handle all the orders. These were, after all, handmade, wooden cameras. I didn’t get the camera in hand till after Christmas – it wasn’t something that bothered me by any means – as a backer, it’s one of the risks you take when funding a project. You really just have to anticipate these things as a project lead, going in – anticipate the best case scenario and the worst case scenario – that way you’re covered either way.

Finally, what are your favorite playing card decks? 
Now that’s a tough question . . . seems new decks are coming out all the time – both from Kickstarter and established brands. The one I’ve used the most is the Deland Automatic Playing Cards deck. This is a marked, stripped deck I used to use back when I was doing magic professionally in the early 90’s. While I’ve long (long!) since retired, I still use the deck in tricks for my daughter and her friends.

From a design stand point – I am just blown away by what Jackson Robinson is doing with his Kings Wild brand. The Federal 52 is just an amazing collection and really well thought out project. Can’t wait for the Sherlock cards!!

There’s also a few from Theory 11 that I love – the Rebels and the Monarchs are my favorite from them! See, I told you this was a tough question.

Thank you for sharing Paul! All the best in fulfilment. By the way, I LOVE YOUR CARD COLLECTION!!


Foto Grafis will be printed on premium linen stock by a New Jersey based company. Pledge starts from $9 and there are multiple free add-ons available such as poker chip, lens cloth and sticker. There are also multiple rewards that will be unlocked once the project hits its' set stretch goals.

Analytics: Kickstarter December 2013

December 2013 wrapped up an excellent year for crowd-funded playing cards. With the increased interest in Kickstarter projects, we've decided to publish our first ever tracking report where we will analyze the numbers behind playing card projects on a monthly basis. The goal is to give an analytical insight on how projects are tracking cumulatively over the year and the month-on-month performance.

Playing Card Projects 

December has been rather subdued month for successful projects. This is a surprise seeing that the prior month was the most successful month of the year  (19 successful projects).

Here is what December look like in numbers:

What is surprising is the number of projects launched towards the end of the month.

With the Christmas and New Year holidays in between the funding period, it'll be interesting to see the percentage of successful projects in January's stats.

Meanwhile, a quick look at how projects performed over the month:

Funding

How much did projects in December raise?

It is no surprise that most backers have returned to creators with multiple successful projects such as Uusi, Shane Tyree and Jackson Robinson.

Here is a look at the top 5 most funded playing cards:

The top 5 successful playing cards projects for the month contributed 92% to the overall funding of successful projects. The average funding goal of successful project this month:

Backers 

Approximately 13,630 backers were recorded across all projects in December, above the Year-to-Date average of 7,752.

Also, all the festivities did not stop backers from spending BIG.

This the highest average for the year. The following is a month-on-month comparison for 2013.

Top 5 Projects by backer numbers below:

Launched Projects 

Here are the top 10 most funded projects launched in December:

As expected, Zach Mueller's Blue Fontaine was the most funded this month. No surprise considering the success of his indigogo project and his legions of fans. Blue Fontaine raised over $17.6k in less than 24 hours. That is impressive!

That is it for 2013. I have a feeling that 2014 will be a bigger year!

Hope you have found these stats useful. With your feedback, we are hoping that the analytics section will evolve as we progress through the year.


Data provider:

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Lorenzo Gaggiotti of Requiem Playing Cards

After months of hard work and anticipation, Requiem Playing Cards is now LIVE on Kickstarter. Created by Sweden based Italian artist/designer Lorenzo Gaggiotti, this unique set of playing cards is unlike any other... it is gory and dark yet beautiful in a weird way - this deck will not be to everyone's liking.

One of our most anticipated 2014 project, Requiem is custom designed and features darkness and pain as a theme. The illustrations for the Courts, Jokers and Aces are very dark. The suits are made out of broken Hearts, Clubs with thorns, cracked Diamonds and dry leaves as Spades. Pips are unique and the gold metalic ink on this blood red deck gives it a touch of elegance.

Between his busy schedule, we were able to catch-up with Lorenzo for a quick Q&A on his design background, the story behind Requiem, the design evolution and on the topic of crowd-funding.

We are a big fan of your work. Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I am a graphic designer, product designer and illustrator. I started drawing since the age of 3, when I learned to keep a pencil in my hand. My mother is a painter so I grew up between colors, shapes and canvases. Drawing is a passion and I never get tired of it, but I mostly love deep concepts and the idea behind a design. "Honor the concept" is one my motto, followed by "quality over quantity". So every time I design something it starts from a concept that takes weeks or months to be defined and clear. Simplicity is easy to read, but very hard to make.

I am Italian and I moved to Stockholm 4 years ago to start a new life in the cold north, which I enjoy it. I’ve always been interested in card decks, and I've been always "annoyed" by the standard design of the courts. Then in 2011 I found out the custom-decks-world and I got extremely excited. I wanted to make my own deck. To be honest this is the second one; the first one is now in the pipeline of HOPC and - spoiler alert - is very different from Requiem.

Requiem is your first Kickstarter Project. What inspired you to launched your own kickstarter project?
Actually I wanted to find a producer to sell the project and avoid the production and the distribution processes. Nobody was interested in investing on Requiem. I tried the big company such as Theory11, Ellusionist and many more, but I didn't even get an answer. I got a few replies from others, but they were not interested to buy and produce this special deck. I know, it´s quite different and dark. Kickstarter is a very good platform to show the design and raise the funds, create the orders and start a successful project. There is a lot of work behind a KS campaign, I´ll do my best to listen and reply to everybody, and follow step by step the campaign.

What is your inspiration behind Requiem Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea? Oh...this is the key-question. Well, in a few words my soul has been maltreated as boyfriend, man and human being. You will read in the box and in the 55th card the sentence "chronicles of a lost love". So it´s a production of my suffering soul after my ex decided to end a relationship in a drastic and hectic way.

A classic broken-hearted story (see the pips). It´s a thing happened in June 2013. All the courts, the jokers and the aces describe a feeling (with a Latin name) and a specific date (day and month) with roman numerals. It´s a deck full of symbols and meanings (often untold or hidden). I just can say that the Queen of Spades is her. Art and creativity is a way for me to release and transform dark energy into beauty, shapes, colors and in this case a card deck. Somebody writes songs, I made Requiem.

Ok, Requiem is not as sexy as rock band member, but the creative process is often quite the same.

How much time was spend working on the deck?
The project started first with the joker Malum Ignavum the 5th of August 2013. Then I saw the potential for a deck and I decided to make all the 56 cards, using as concept the darkness of those days. The first “real” card I started drawing was the Ace of Clubs. It was the starting point for a structure, a template. The valve was finally open. It took 4 months drawing, changing, tweaking, redesigning and finalizing the cards, without counting the KS campaign and all the necessary graphics.

Wow! Can you briefly go through the design evolution for the Ace of Clubs?
About the Ace of Clubs, in the beginning I was not really sure of the final result, I tried some inked illustration and see how it could work. Then I noticed that was difficult to see the symbol and I did a club-shaped-bush with a flower on the top. In Italian we call clubs "fiori" and it means flowers.

The courts, as the standard bicycle decks, are inside a golden rectangle with simple horizontal symmetry. The red background was a choice inspired by my cheap ink-jet printer. One day I tried to print a black background, but the cartridge was almost empty and I got a maroon dark-blood-red color instead. It was a beautiful mistake that made me decide to use a deep red as background.

The courts are totally redesigned focusing on those bad feeling. The illustrations show darkness, blood and tears, sadness and pain. Sometimes they are quite creepy, or slightly gross. I wanted to avoid the copy-paste abuse and make all the pips different from each other. Of course I use copy-paste as working tool, but not to create an entire deck. Each heart has different cracks all over the deck, same for the rest of the pips through the 4 suites. I wanted the aces to be important, so they have an illustration.

What are your thoughts about the exponential increase of playing card projects on kickstarter?
I think it´s a win-win-win situation for designers, backers and Kickstarter itself. Often I see the tendency of ripping-off and copy-pasting an existing standard deck, just changing the color and sell it as the groundbreaking deck of the month. Seriously?

Someone sells a 5 minutes job as a big design piece. And the difference from a previous production is just the color of the backs. The faces are standard as the previous production. I just don't like it: poor, superficial, and boring. People use the word "minimalistic" instead of "copy-pasting". Minimalism is not that. Simplicity is hard to achieve. A review of such deck on Youtube should be 10 second long, saying: "take the old production and change the color from red to blue, or black, or purple". So you have 5 reviews in 10 seconds. Kickstarter offers a chance to make a real custom deck, where everything is redesigned.

Skilled designers know that it is a hard job. Months of work. Ok, they might be too artistic or too decorated. But why not? It's ART.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
Sentinels by Theory11 (Designed by Hatch SF) and Federal 52 (Designed by Jackson Robinson) are my favourite. I love the design of both decks even if they are very different. Vector graphics for Sentinels on white background: neat. Ink detailed drawings and vector graphics on Federal 52: artistic, warm and full of details. Details make the difference in my opinion. After the quality of the illustrations of course. Both decks are consistent, beautifully designed and executed.

Thank you for your time Lorenzo. All the best!

Available in Beige and Light Blue tuck box, Requiem will be printed by the USPCC. Pledge starts from $13 and there are multiple add-ons available such as T-Shirts and Prints... printed in Sweden!

There are also multiple rewards that will be unlocked once the project hits their set stretch goals. Most notable is the Augmented Reality app (free download for iOS and Android). This App will show hidden details and symbolic meanings of the illustrated cards.

That.is.so.cool!

Requiem will be due out to backers on April 2014.