Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Chris Staples of Fall of Troy Playing Cards

Inspired by ancient greek design and scenes from the legendary Greek mythology, Fall of Troy playing cards is the first playing card project from designer Chris Staples. This hand-illustrated deck tells the legendary story of the Trojan War, an epic tale of love, revenge, sorrow and bloodshed.

Fully custom, this deck features illustrated custom Faces, Courts, Aces, Jokers, Tuck and an eye-catching back design, striking the balance between ancient styles and modern layout. The deck puts you right in the middle of the Greek mythology!

We had the opportunity to chat with Chris about the new project, it's inspiration and design process. We hope you enjoy some of the background to the Fall of Troy deck.

For those of us who don’t know, can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I’d be happy to tell you about myself and thanks Ivan, for sharing the Fall of Troy campaign with your readers.

Design has been a part of my professional life for nearly twenty years. I’ve worked in animation, advertising, music and film for some big studios such as Disney, Dreamworks, Warner Bros and Cartoon Network. I am currently the Creative Director for umigo.com, an animated, interactive project funded by the US Dept. of Education. More of my work can be seen on my website.

This is your first playing card project on Kickstarter. Why Kickstarter?
I have been funding projects over the years through Kickstarter. When I decided to launch my own campaign, Kickstarter was the crowdfunding resource with which I was most familiar. Kickstarter also supports the thriving custom playing card community that inspired my own project.

Can you describe the Fall of Troy Playing Cards and why you’re passionate about it?
The Fall of Troy ][ Epic Playing Cards is a custom, poker-sized deck of playing cards. The backs and faces feature hand-illustrated artwork, inspired by ancient greek design. The court cards display characters and scenes from the legendary Trojan War.

Like so many people, I have been interested in ancient mythology for most of my life. I love these stories and hope that others will discover them through the Fall of Troy cards and love them too. Or, perhaps they will rediscover something that they used to know and love.

Walk us through the process you took to design Fall of Troy Playing Cards. How did you approach this project and get to this finished product?
Once I knew that I wanted to explore the Trojan War in the form of playing cards, the process went something like this… Research, research, research. Design. Trash. Research. Design. Trash. Drink. Research. Design. Hooray! 

This took a few months.

At that point, however, I was happy with the development of the style and ready for production. Production begins with finding inspiration in ancient art. My primary focus was on a particular form known as red-figure pottery, developed in Athens around 520 BC. I often combine aspects of multiple pieces in order to create an element that works in playing card form. This means considering elements of symmetry and the inclusion of the suit graphics. I also consider the story of the character being portrayed and how it relates to the story of the court card. I’ve written some short articles on that aspect that are posted as updates on the campaign page. The rest of the process is the meticulous work of laying out the artwork to function first as a playable deck of cards and second as a stack of mini canvasses. Following this is the printing stage which, in this day and age, is a dream come true for a kid who was designing Variety covers in the 90’s.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
My favorite breakthrough on this project has been connecting the King of Hearts with Ajax of Salamis. I wrote a short article about it as a campaign update. Check it out. And please hit the like button. :)

Were you aware of the different deck of playing cards out there and did any decks inspire you?
Yes, I’ve backed a few custom decks. Leonardo, by Dent-de-Lion du Midi and all of Uusi’s stuff have been a big source of inspiration. Of course, there are so many more great decks out there. I need to sell my cards just to support my custom card habit. Between me and you, I had to set up an KS account that is just for cards. That’s normal, right?

Haha... I think so. ;) Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
So many. Maybe it would be quicker to list a few of the amazing artists out there… As mentioned Dent-de-Lion du Midi and Uusi. Jackson Robinson, Alexander Chin, Steve Minty, the Edgy Brothers… and so many more. I’m also excited about the new technologies available as seen in the decks made by companies like MPC. Did I mentioned that I may have card collecting problem? Please support my habit by backing The Fall of Troy ][ Epic Playing Cards. Thanks again Ivan. Cheers!

No worries! Thank you for your time, Chris! At the time of writing, the project is only 49% funded with 21 days to go. If want to support Fall of Troy Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here.


Pledge starts from $12 and the Fall of Troy Playing Cards will be printed by Make Playing Cards (MPC). Add-ons such as uncut sheets and art prints are available.

Deck View: EXPLORE Playing Cards

Travel. Fun. Architecture.

The perfect set for anyone with a love of travelling! Brought to you by Cardazine, Explore Playing Cards features 52 cities or unique historic sites brilliantly hand-drawn on each face cards. Fully custom, each suit represents a category: Spades – Modern Architecture, Hearts – Romantic Cities, Clubs – Historic Sites & Cultural Cities and Diamonds – Popular Liveable Cities.

A limited edition set of playing cards printed on Bicycle Stock with Magic finish. Available now from Cardazine. Also, for more cool playing cards, check out JP Games.

First Look: Devastation Playing Cards by Black Ink Playing Cards

[Update] Devestation Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter.

Back in March of this year Black Ink Playing Cards (Blank Ink) launched Innovation Playing Cards, the first instalment in the inventor’s series on Kickstarter. It was a great success! Recently, Black Ink announced the second deck in the series called Devastation, a monumental story about the men who created weapons that led to our modern battlefields of war, and the women (Nurses) that were the nightingales of peace.

The Devastation Playing cards will be made up of 2 decks along with an exquisitely crafted leather card case. Each deck will have custom illustrated courts, aces and jokers. The style this time around for Devastation is a little edgier than the previous decks from Black Ink. Using predominately black and red the decks will make for a very elegant, distinct and timeless look.

The Aces and jokers are symbolic illustrations which reminds us of the stark weight of war. This makes for a more appealing and interesting deck.

The Standard edition is the basic deck which has much more than any collector bargains for in a standard edition. Intricate details, beautiful composition and a great theme... this deck is one that you will not want to pass up.

The Limited edition, will include stunning red foil on a sturdy matte black tuck with crisp embossing. This deck will be the next step for those who are looking for a timeless piece of collectable art.

[Update] Devestation Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter.

To keep up to date with the Devastation Playing Cards, follow Black Ink Playing Cards on Facebook or Instagram.

News: MIRAGE - New Playing Cards by Magician Patrick Kun

Magician Patrick Kun just released a new deck of playing cards called MIRAGE. This modern elegant deck of playing cards was conceptualized by Patrick himself with assistance from Simon Black/Toby. Over a year in the making, these playing cards have seen constant aesthetic changes influenced and elegantly refined by multiple artists.

Specially crafted for both magic and cardistry, the back features an optical spiral illusion when spins which is great for Cardistry. Also, the interior design for the tuck case has a nice 3D looking pattern to match the theme.

In terms of the design, the back features a dark blue hue reminiscent of the night sky, with four corners resembling epaulets on a uniform. The crosshatched pattern on either end of the deck showcases a crystalline, multifaceted pinstripe garb that serves as a quasi-3-dimensional illusion within the background of the card. The Ace of Spades and Jokers are custom while the standard courts are used to hold the traditional functionality of the cards.

When asked about the inspiration behind the design, Patrick said,

The back design was inspired by the impossible shape that I designed for my logo "P". I wanted to find a theme that everyone can relate to and that is mystery. This deck all have illusion aspect built in. The deck also comes with a specially designed Hyper card that can be given away as a souvenir. You can actually show both sides of this gaff card. I haven't seen anyone who does this to Hyper card yet.

Printed by the Legends Playing Card Company, the Mirage deck features LPCC's Classic Finish card stock, a soft and 'papery' feeling stock which requires no break-in period. MIRAGE is perfect for any card enthusiasts, sleight of hand artists, cardist or poker nights.

Available at patrickkun.com Don't forget to check out the EPIC trailer below:

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Denis Antonenko of MYTHICAL Playing Cards

Designed by the team at Jumperound, MYTHICAL is a stylish playing cards based on the mythological characters from the World of Mythology card game. This unique deck of cards are very well thought out, for example, every character card has its unique background illustration describing god's environment, and each suit (mythology) has its unique rune used in the ace and pips cards design.

The Hearts are represented by the Greek mythology: Zeus, Aphrodite and Poseidon. Spades, the Norse mythology: presented by Odin, Hel and Thor. Clubs, the Egyptian mythology: presented by Ra, Isis and Horus. Finally, the Diamonds represented by the Slavic mythology: Dazhbog, Lada and Veles.

We reached out to Denis Antonenko and had a chance to talk about Jumperound, the MYTHICAL deck and their design process.

For those of us who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and Jumperound.
Jumperound is a full-time creative laboratory and a hub for talented people. We have a good expertise in illustration, graphic design, creative strategy, gaming and psychology. Our goal is to create simple but well-designed and perfectly crafted products (especially games, art gifts and useful accessories). Our mission is to make good ideas come true and global.

Can you describe the MYTHICAL deck and why you’re passionate about it?
We are great fans of mythology and various pantheons. We missed the Age of Mythology PC game and decided to create the greatest mythological card game. The World of Mythology card game united 60 gods and goddesses and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in June. Then we got many messages from our backers asking us to create playing cards with the same art.

Walk us through the process you took to design this unique deck. How did you come out with the idea and how did you get to this finished product?
Using 14 characters from World of Mythology we still had to create a new art to make Mythical unique and beautiful. So we illustrated 4 main runes for Aces and pips and 12 backgrounds for K, Q and J cards describing gods' environment. Reaching stretch goals will automatically make Mythical more qualitative (lamination, finish, varnish, embossing, foil printing etc.). Basic prototype was sent to reviewers and got high ratings. So the final version of the deck will be awesome.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
We're in love with golden runes and frames and hope we'll reach the foil printing stretch goal to make them really golden.

What are a few key elements and principles you incorporated into your project that you think future Kickstarter creators could benefit from knowing? 
Think out of the box. Yes, our deck can be criticized by poker players for non-standard design, but we create something unique and it cannot be traditional. We don't like restrictions. We always want some fun!

What’s next for Jumperound? Are you planning to release more playing card decks in the future?
Yes! We adore this creative job and have many ideas. At the moment our designers work on new card game and artistic project for kids. But we'll never stop to think about playing cards.

Finally, what are your favourite playing cards?
Omnia, Leonardo, Arcana, Kings of India... Lots of them :)

Thank you for your time, Denis and all the best! To support MYTHICAL Playing Cards, head to Kickstarter.


There are 2 editions available, the Classic edition with black backs and a white background on the front and the Old-world edition, which imitates ancient paperworks, available once the stretch goal of $7500 met. Pledge starts from $12.

Card Gear: Commute

Card Gear is our new monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup and accessories used everyday by card designers, cardists, magicians and collectors. The concept originated from the popular social media site, Instagram: #passthepockets. Whenever one of these hashtags come up on the social news feed, there's always something new to discover, no matter who that person is.

So to kick things off, here’s my “everyday commute” gear and surprisingly, I found out that I use each and every item daily in one form or another.

+ Ainste RFID blocking Wallet
+ KeySmart with USB
+ Apple iPhone6
+ Apple EarPods
+ Aquila SE
+ Blue Crown Joe Porper Card Clip
+ Casio Edifice Chronograph Mens Sports Watch

What’s yours? If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, contact us.

Deck View: NoMad Playing Cards

Elegance. Vintage. Architecture.

Designed by Chad Michael and produced in collaboration with The NoMad Hotel, New York City and the cool wizards at theory11. Back in the 19th century, The NoMad District of New York was the meeting place of the era’s elite - from Oscar Wilde to Charles Dickens, Mark Twain to Nikola Tesla. Theory11's vision was to create a deck of cards that would serve as a monument to The NoMad.

The result is a timeless blend of beauty and elegance. The deck features a custom vintage design, reimagined Jokers, a gold foiled embossed tuck case - and a stamp bearing the seal of The State of New York. NoMad Playing Cards were inspired by actual architectural elements of The NoMad Hotel. From the fireplace in the lower level to the hotel’s signature phrase: “Made Nice". The back design, when rotated laterally, forms the shape of an eye - a gentle nod to the Latin phrase at the top and bottom of each card: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Even the interior of the box has a pattern branded with The NoMad logo.

Also, authentic distressed faces and realistic textures make the cards look like they’ve been passed down from generation to generation. Incredible!

Available now from JP Games.

Collections: Gargoyles by Lance T. Miller

The Gargoyles deck by Lance Miller has a bit of history to it. The decks concept made its debut in 2010 at the Label Expo Americas show in Chicago. The deck was 100% plastic and came in a fully illustrated cellophane wrapper. The “Expo” deck had standard courts and was actually produced to test the capabilities of the flexography printing press. The Expo deck had a few more features and secrets and has become quite scarce. With only 300 decks available for purchase and the rest of the remaining 2200 given away to the people attending the Expo, they seem to have dried up over time. That “Expo” deck did accomplish one more thing, it drew a lot of attention to the design and the artist behind it from the playing card community, and people wanted a Gargoyles deck of their own.

In 2011 Lance T. Miller took the original Gargoyle Expo design and gave it a bit of “Re-Tooling”. The design of the deck is dark and rooted in “Gargoyle” mythology and numerology. There’s a paragraph on the Gargoyle ad card that I’ve always liked, and it reads as follow:

“The card is a reminder that evil is all around us and that the very nature of humans and their “silver tongues of deceit” are what often challenges us most. Believe it or not I am actually a Christian Artist. I simply choose to showcase the beauty of the struggle between good and evil rather than focus heavily in one direction or another” 

The deck is just beautiful, it’s well designed and has some cool features that I’ll discuss, but, once I read the “Artists” intentions behind the deck, I liked it even more. You look at it with a different perspective and the elements and design not only make sense, but fit together so well.  There are decks that are cool for the sake of being cool, and then there are decks that just embrace their own concept. Gargoyle’s color pallet is for the most part void of any vibrant color, the deck and tuck is done in shades of grey, black and white. The only splash of color you’ll find in this deck is the color red, which stays intact for the Hearts and Diamonds, but also appears on the Gaff card as well as the eyes of the Gargoyle’s featured on the back design, Jokers and tuck case. 

Within the deck, silver metallic inks replace pretty much everything else; minus some hard black accents in the court design that just pop when the card is held at an angle. The court design itself is pretty much standard, but the inks and that bold black work well with the overall look of the deck. The custom Ace of Spades has a nice “Classic” feel, with just enough customization to make it unique to the deck. Gargoyle’s also features 2 Jokers, both with identical metallic Gargoyle’s images, complete with bright red eyes. The only difference between the two is size; one Joker has a slightly smaller image size than the other. The deck also includes a Gaff card as well as an ad card explaining the concept, mythology and numerology used in the deck……probably the best ad card ever. 

The back design is beautifully designed and balanced, not only in terms of symmetry of the elements, but also the concept of the struggle between good and evil. The outstretched wings of the opposing Gargoyles protecting the center “Emblems” along with a small cross in the center of the back really work well together. The framework of the back design also features stylized skulls in each corner and some intricate design work to tie it all together. The grey tone continues on the back design, as well as the red eyes of the Gargoyle’s and the use of stark white on the emblem cross and center elements really add that bust of contrast that’s appealing to the eye.   

The tuck case mirrors the imagery and design elements of the back design, and continues the use of the stark white to add some contrast to the look. It is Bicycle branded and features the words “Artists Edition” at the top. The Artist’s Edition indicating the "re-working" of the Expo version.   

The Bicycle Gargoyle’s had a print run of 2500, but this deck was one of the first crop of “Custom Playing Cards” and one of the first to use metallic inks. Both decks are collectable, and while the Expo deck is the harder to find and will put a bigger dent in your wallet; I still like the Artists Edition of the Gargoyles better. Now, that being said, both of these decks will test your patience if you add them to your list of decks to look for. Hardly ever seen on eBay and when they are they do command quite a premium. Gargoyle’s definitely gets a spot on my “Must Have”, if your a true collector, at leas one of these should be on yours.

The Collection segment is produced by Anthony Ingrassia of Kardify. No part of this article, images or video can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com. To see more of Anthony's (Sparkz) collection and work please visit sparkzphoto.com .  

News: Dan and Dave Teases the AVIATOR Heritage Edition

Dan and Dave recently teased a few images of their upcoming release, the AVIATOR® Heritage Edition on their Instagram account. So far they've teased the eye-catching Ace of Spades and a gorgeous vintage-looking tuck.

The twins captioned the tuck image, “An iconic brand of playing cards, reimagined. Available this Friday.”

From what we know the deck is a collaboration with the United States Playing Cards Company and reimagined by Dan and Dave to honour of Howard Hughes and his pioneering advancements in aerospace design and technology.

Card Radar: Firefly Playing Cards

What do you do when you are stuck on a transport vessel in the middle of space? It will be handy if you have something to keep yourself occupied… like a deck of cards!

This full-size standard poker deck is based on the popular science fiction television series, Firefly. A collaboration between QMx and renowned Browncoat artist Ben Mund (of Serenity Blueprints and Atlas of the Verse fame), these officially licensed Firefly Playing Cards look distressed, as if there have been around abit, much like the ship herself. The deck consists of the standard four suits of 13 cards each plus two jokers, and features fully custom designs.

Whether it’s Vera on the Jack of Clubs, the companion taking a sponge bath on the Queen of Diamonds or Serenity herself on the Ace of Spades, Firefly Playing Cards are a uniquely Versey experience, sporting dozens of unique works of art. There’s even a Easter egg or two for the sharp-eyed fan to find!

Whether you’re betting cashy money or chores (two bonus chore cards included with the deck to help with that), you can look forward to many hours of fun and games with the Firefly Playing Cards.

Printed by the USPCC on their high quality Bicycle-grade paper with a satiny embossed finish, every inch of this deck is designed with Firefly in mind. Available from qmxonline.com.

Images from qmxonline.com

News: Your FREE Issue of CARD CULTURE

Here’s a great opportunity to sample an issue of the informative and popular CARD CULTURE magazine from the 52 Plus Joker – absolutely FREE! If you love playing cards and the history, origins, manufacturing and collecting of playing cards, then we’re sure you’re going to enjoy CARD CULTURE.

This issue is a compilation of popular articles from previous issues and is meant to be representative of the type of content the magazine carries on a regular basis. 52 Plus Joker President Tom Dawson says,

"In my many years of experience, I can't recall any monthly magazine that has covered card collecting with this level of professionalism and enthusiasm. It's become the industry standard, a valuable resource to the society, and to 'card culture' as a whole. Along with our long-standing quarterly publication, Clear the Decks, it makes the low cost of membership in the club an exceptional bargain for the price." 

This special issue is twenty pages long and contains six articles in total - a typical reader can finish it in under ten minutes. Get yours now!


If you love CARD CULTURE, check out all the other amenities offered to members of 52 Plus Joker. For only $25 per year ($35 outside North America), the privileges of membership to this unique club.  Check it out here!

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Manoj Kaushal of the Classic Playing Cards

The Classic Playing Cards are created by Manoj Kaushal and his team at 9780 Design. This meticulously crafted deck are aged to elegance with its beautiful vintage design. The court cards are unique in that rather than the traditional courts, these cards are represented by the kings, queens, and princes, each with their own traits. The Classic features illustrated custom Faces, Ace, Jokers, Tuck and an intricately beautiful back design, which is both aesthetically and sentimentally appealing.

Earlier this week, we caught up with Manoj to talk about his design background, 9780 Design, the inspiration behind the Classic deck and the design evolution of the deck.

For those of us who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and 9780 Design.
Hi, My name is Manoj. I am the owner and creative director at 9780 design. Our studio is a small knitted agency with handful of people who have 2 passions in life... Magic & Designing. We have been actively associated, for over 15 years now, with various brands in magic fraternity to look after their creative needs for their projects.

Then couple of years back we had an opportunity to work on a deck of cards. The whole experience was amazingly decorated and we immediately fell in love with this genre. From one card to two to three and we ended up designing around 6 playing cards. Grimoire, venom, venom strike, Dr. Jekyll and Hyde and Majestic Playing Cards are some of our past designs.

Since the first day we always wanted to do a playing card project for ourselves BUT other projects kept us busy but atlast we made it happen.

This is your first playing card project on Kickstarter. Why Kickstarter?
Technically, yes! Before this we had done a kickstarter project for Elite Playing Cards and were the design source behind "Majestic" but nothing more than that.

Kickstarter was an obvious choice because it is the most popular platform for playing card crowdfunding (would like to assume) and card collectors around the world have the site in their bookmarks. There is a reason why it ranks 363rd globally and 190th in USA popularity wise (according to Alexa's competitive intelligence).

What is your inspiration behind the Classic Bicycle Playing Cards? How did you guys come up with the idea?
Classic is vintage and vintage is timeless. We have always been fascinated by vintage style and were always sure that if we ever did a kickstarter then it would definitely be vintage.

"Classic Playing Cards-Blue Edition" is an answer to one question?
 How your bicycle deck would have looked couple of centuries back?

Hauled from past, "The Classic Playing Cards-Blue Edition" are aged to elegance. Wrapped in the vintage design, these cards are for card collectors and card workers who crave all. We took the elements from the vintage time period, added a modern brush to it and born was a "Classic".

How much time do you spend working on the deck?
The thought process was there for a very long time BUT it took us approximately 5-6 months to wrap it up. The "Classic" has gone through a series of creative blocks, frustration, hustle, detail, research and at the end... pride.

Walk us through the process you took to design this unique deck. How did you get to this finished product and how did you get feedback?
Like we mentioned earlier. We were always sure about the vintage theme for our deck. From there it was mostly research. We looked into fonts, elements and color to bring out the classic feel.

Every element of the design was chosen and placed had a thought behind it. If you check vintage packaging, you will notice how they used to have a very simple image at front to pronounce the product or the logo partnering with the evergreen vintage fonts surrounded by a bit complex borders. We replicated the same process for our tuck case and that's how we came up with the simple image of old style BiCycle and vintage font at the front gate.

Press printed materials in yester years used to have that etching and engraving effect to them . If you look at our court cards you will see the same resemblance borrowed from that time era.

They don't look like an illustration from today's action novels but a printed chapter restored from the past. We took care of major part of the design BUT the real secret came out of the feedbacks from the community. Their incredible suggestions took this playing card design to a different level and made it what it is today... "Classic".

We first noticed the Classic on the forums. What do you think of the playing card community in terms of the feedback and support that you have been getting so far?
Forums were our only resort because we are new to this family. Every other players have become a giant and already have a great rapport with their collectors.

So obviously we are the underdogs and have to start from the scratch!

Playing card community has been a HUGE part of Classic Playing Cards. Everything embedded in the design is a result of the generous and critical suggestions made by this fraternity. Classic was first released in July but we had to cancel that attempt because we had huge feedback from playing card community who wanted to better this project. Right from design elements -to- goals -to- pledges -to- add-ons -to-shipping... everything is an extension of the advices made by the veterans! This project won't have evolved without them... PERIOD!

Finally, what are your favorite playing cards?
Apart from Majestic, Venom, venom strike, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
:)
I guess it would be 1800 series by Ellusionist and Karnivals.

Thank you Manoj and all the best! At the time of writing, the project is only 43% funded with 33 days to go. If want to support Classic Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here! 


Classic Playing Cards will be printed by the USPCC on their popular Air Cushion Finish card stock. Pledge starts from AUD$13 (~USD$9.5). There are multiple add-ons available such as uncut sheet, T-Shirt, wooden brick case  and 13"x20" sized poster. Also, there are multiple rewards that will be unlocked once the project hits their set stretched goals, most notable is the Classic White Edition at AUD$45k.

Deck View: Hive 2 (Standard Edition) Playing Cards

Charming. Beautiful. Fun.

The Standard Edition Hive 2 Playing Card is designed and illustrated by Brendan Hong and produced by the famous Kings Wild Project. Hive 2 does a wonderful job in picking up where the original Hive decks left off. The style and design connects them without being the same.

This gorgeous deck features all new custom courts in Brendan’s signature style as well as custom pips, Jokers and Ace of Spades. The tuck and back design brings familiar elements from The Hive, but in a new and unique presentation. The tuck is a nice emerald green color on a matte paper stock, embellished with silver foil and embossing as well as a repeating interior tuck design of the “Flower Buds” featured in the corners of the back design.

Hive 2 was produced on Expert Playing Card Co’s Classic Finish. Don't forget to check out other stunning decks from Kings Wild Project here!

First Look: MYTHICAL Playing Cards by Jumperound

Coming fresh off the success of their recent Kickstarter project, World of Mythology, the team at Jumperound, returns with a playing card project called MYTHICAL.

Jumperound is a small creative laboratory of art, games, interactive accessories and other pop culture features. They love ancient mythologies very much and it was first inspiration for their art. After their first project, their fans asked about a playing card deck with mythological art. So Jumperound decided to create Mythical deck.

Mythical is a new style of classic poker-sized playing cards based on the mythological characters from the World of Mythology card game. Every character card has its unique background illustration describing god's environment. Every suit (mythology) has its unique rune used in the ace and pips cards design. For example:

Hearts = Greek mythology: presented by Zeus, Aphrodite and Poseidon
Spades = Norse mythology: presented by Odin, Hel and Thor
Clubs = Egyptian mythology: presented by Ra, Isis and Horus
Diamonds = Slavic mythology: presented by Dazhbog, Lada and Veles.

Jokers are presented by Apollo and Bragi. They both hold a harp to entertain main deities with their music and poetry.

There will be 2 editions available, the Classic edition with black backside and a white background on the front and Old-world edition, which imitates ancient paperworks and available at the stretch goal of $7500. Pledge starts from $12.

Collections: Hundred Years War by SPAAAADE & Co.

It’s been just about a year since the Hundred Years War decks funded on Kickstarter, they’ve kind of went under the radar after fulfillment, but it’s one of those decks that wasn’t over the top in funding, didn’t make people go mental, but it’s a solid deck and you can see that some thought and work went into it.

Inspired by the Hundred Years War between England and France the deck takes many elements of the time and incorporates them very well into a beautiful and detailed design. The decks were printed by USPC, 5000 decks of each the Silver and Black was produced. The tuck cases are stunning with some really nice deep embossing as well as silver and gold foil highlights respectively. The cards themselves are completely custom and both decks feature metallic inks on the Hearts and Diamond suites as well as the details on the Aces and Jokers.

The back design has a nice design to it that lends itself well to the theme of the deck; it does have a one way back design due to the varying crowns at each end of the center design. The back also features metallic inks in each respective color. The courts fit really well with the rest of the design and concept, and I like the way the banner/ribbon design brings to the mirror images together. The court cards also receive the metallic ink treatment on the pips as I mentioned as well as some of the design details in the wardrobe and crowns.  A nice touch to the overall deck is the four Aces getting the full “Custom” treatment and the decks also include a double backer.

Overall the Hundred Years War decks are well conceived and offer some stunning design elements, while I lean towards liking the silver deck a little more; the silver metallic inks tend to vanish at certain angles making your pips non existent. The one way back design may be a turn off for some, but it’s done with a purpose so I can look past that pretty easily. Unfortunately this deck, at least the decks that I have, is plagued by USPC’s issue of off center printing. Again, I don’t put the blame on the creators, this is out of their hands, but it’s been a thorn in many decks coming from USPC.

Hundred Years War is still readily available at a range of pricing, you can definitely find a good price if your patient and shop around. I give the HYW Decks a positive nod as a deck worth adding to the collection at the right price. Solid work, great concept and beautiful presentaion by SPAAAADE & Co.

The Collection segment is produced by Anthony Ingrassia of Kardify. No part of this article, images or video can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com. To see more of Anthony's (Sparkz) collection and work please visit sparkzphoto.com . 

Designers: ‘Behind the scenes’ of Kings of India Playing Cards by Humble Raja

After a long hiatus of our designers series, we are honoured to have a guest post by the team from Humble Raja, creators behind the exotic Kings of India Playing Cards currently funding on Kickstarter. In part one of this two-part series, the team shares with us about the creative process behind creating a deck of cards, and how illustrations are finalised. The Kings of India project (to be funded on 17th August) will be used as examples in this article.

A name like Chandragupta Maurya may not strike a chord with many in the western world, but this heavyweight from ancient history was the founder of one of India’s most powerful empires. He is just one amongst the 12 legendary monarchs featured in our Kings of India deck, a project that began with a curiosity surrounding our history. [Back the project on Kickstarter]

We created the brand Humble Raja as a means to explore the fascinating world of Indian culture through design, with this deck being the first product. Let us introduce ourselves; we are Bhavesh and Reena Mistry, a husband and wife team from Montréal that operates the design and branding studio Apartment 4. Our backgrounds are in engineering and architecture, respectively, which gives us a unique approach to our creative work. Now with Humble Raja, we want to share bits of our culture with everyone through interesting mediums, as with our Kings of India deck. This is just as much a playing card project as it is a history and illustration one. Let’s go behind the scenes to take you through our creative process.

As newbies to the playing card world, we begun our research with the origins of the deck and how it came to be what it is today. A great resource was Sir William Gurney Benham’s book - Playing cards: History of the Pack and Explanations of its Many Secrets. It uncovers how the cards evolved from full portrait French characters into what most people recognize today as the modern, reversible British deck; and this is where we started our work.

Firstly, the standard structure of a playing card deck - four suits and a King, Queen and Jack for each, fit perfectly with introducing four royal families, or dynasties, with the Jack being a worthy successor. Seeking out the four greatest dynasties of India meant searching through a more than 2,400 years of history to the earliest known dynasties, a large task in itself. For us, the title of ‘greatness’ was reserved for those monarchs who showed extraordinary military strength, economic policy, religious tolerance, cultural advancements and left a lasting legacy; our top contenders being from the Maurya, Gupta, Chola and Mughal dynasties.

Finding the actual King, Queen and Jack of each dynasty proved to be a bit simpler as there were always a pair of rulers who shone above the rest. For the Mauryas, this meant our King was none other than Chandragupta, a fearless warrior who overthrew a powerful king to found India’s largest unified empire seen in its history (up until the Mughal empire almost 2000 years later). His wife Durdhara became our Queen card and their grandson, the great king known as Ashoka the Great became the Jack of Hearts.

A bulk of the time goes into design the court cards and it really helped to use the structure of the British courts as a way to guide our characters - from their orientation and composition to what they were holding and how patterns were used. As with any history-based project, we must rely on what had been documented all those years ago. With certain dynasties this meant there was a series of cave paintings and crumbling sculptures to go by whereas the Mughals had erected many monuments, documented daily life in the courts and commissioned portraits, making our job much easier.

Image credit: http://www.asianart.com/articles/markel/14_det.html

With each court card, we wanted to best represent the character by communicating what they would have worn, the weapons they adorned, their hair and clothing of the time, completed with patterns seen in sculpture and architecture. Our research was conducted by looking at artifacts, paintings, sculptures and even folklore written about these these kings. Take the Jack of Clubs for example, Chandragupta II; he was a military powerhouse who was credited with conquering over 21 empires over his reign; for this we decorated the Jack in military gear, outfitted with a set of arrows for a steel bow, a Gupta-era weapon notable for its strength and construction. Chandragupta II’s sash is finished with 9 gems, representing the 9 extraordinary members of his cabinet who excelled in literature, medicine, astronomy and medicine. The book he holds with him is a famous Sanskrit poem written by Kalidasa during the Gupta period.

Our illustration style comes from our intent to approach India’s culture in a new way; making our cards black and white goes against the common association of India with color, but it is not our aim to make this product look like it came from India necessarily. Using a single lineweight to illustrate this deck allowed the patterns and details to really shine through and added a level of simplicity to a detail-intense project.

The drawing process for us begins on paper. We first trace over a British deck court card and get a feel for the structure and elements of each card and start to adapt it to our character. We use an Art-o-graph light table to trace every iteration and it allows us to flip the card without having to draw it twice. We work collaboratively with each other, making sure to pass the drawing between us to get a second look at the progress. The drawing gets scanned onto the computer and traced using basic geometries in Adobe Illustrator. At this stage, we start to generate patterns and get the character to a certain level of detail.

Then the fun begins; we make print outs of these computer-drawn cards and start making tweaks by hand, over and over again until we are happy with it. We had an instance with the Jack of Clubs where it went all the way to the computer stage and ended up being scrapped and restarted because he just didn’t look right. We hope the efforts that went into this deck make your experience with it all the more beautiful, inspiring and memorable.

Kings of India Playing Cards is on Kickstarter until August 16th; a few days left for those who haven’t yet ordered their deck. The deck will be printed by the USPCC and encased in an intricate tuck, covered in gold & embossed illustration. We look forward to seeing them in your hands this December.

If you missed us on Kickstarter, be sure to sign up on our website humbleraja.com for a notification of when the decks will be available. This exclusive guest post is written by the team at Humble Raja for Kardify. No part of this article can be reproduced without written permission from the author.