Kickstarter: DYSTOPIA Playing Cards by Joker and the Thief Launching Today!

In collaboration with UK-based illustrator, Pedro Oyarbide, the guys at Joker and the Thief will be launching DYSTOPIA Playing Cards on Kickstarter today. DYSTOPIA is a disturbed tribute to cult movie Mad Max, Muscle Car Culture, the Australian Film Industry and Outback.

According to James Milaras of Joker and the Thief,

There's something about it, something about the monstrous roar of a V8, and the road stretching out into eternity ahead of you. There we were, in 2015, sat comfortably in the theatre for George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road. Our eyes and ears assaulted by the gloriousness of fuel, fire, rage. Raptured by post-apocalyptic brilliance. The dystopian reality that we were thrust into quickly became inspiration for our newest project.

Twelve months in the making, this blood and fuel injected project features 100% custom illustrations - A symbolic back design, a striking ace of spades, tyrannical court cards, insane jokers, and of course, a tuck box from hell. James continued,

With the wasteland as our playground, we realised we could dial everything on this project up to 11! In other words, we went a bit mad. Join us this Halloween, as the Joker and the Thief descend into the insanity of the apocalypse.

DYSTOPIA Playing Cards will be printed by the Expert Playing Card Co on the popular Classic Finish!

Will you survive? DYSTOPIA will launch on Kickstarter Monday, 31 October 6PM EDT.

Deck View: Bicycle Bone Riders Playing Cards

Bones. Skeletons. Pumpkin.

From the guys at Art of Play, these playful Halloween-themed playing cards was recently featured on our Halloween Top 12. This deck was inspired by Bicycle's classic Rider Back design. The Bone Riders feature fun illustrations of bike-riding skeletons, fanciful jack o'lantern's, flying bats, and ornate pumpkin vines entangling it all together.

Each deck includes two specialty Jokers, a unique Ace of Spades, recolored standard courts and one blank-face and one double-back card. Packaged inside a festive tuck box featuring premium matte card stock with embossed typography.

Available now from Art of Play while supplies last. Printed by the U.S. Playing Card Co.

Cardistry: The Official ICO Deck and Highlights from Round Three

The third season of International Cardistry Open (ICO) continues and this week is the Semi-Finals where the top 4 cardists will go head-to-head to make it to the finals. The match-ups are:

Tran Tien Thanh v Nguyen Xuan Hoang
Alex Ricci v Samuel Pratt

Also, don't forget get your official commemorative ICO decks from our Kardart store for a limited time while supplies last. This bold and eye-catching deck has been meticulously designed by artist Brendan Hong with cardists in mind, embracing the movement and beauty of motion of each card in the deck.

Below are some of the highlights from the third round.









Head on over to the ICO group page and join in the fun: leave comments and feedbacks on videos to support your favourite cardists. Participate in the giveaways! So, don't miss out!

Top12: Playing Card Decks for Halloween 2016

It's that time of the year again! We have painstakingly compiled the best playing cards for All Hallows' Eve just for you. Behold! The Kardify Top 12: Halloween 2016 Edition! This year with enough ghosts, skulls, quirky characters, more skulls and a dragon to keep your spine tingling through the night. If you have one that we haven't discovered. Do feel free to share.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 12 are solely those of the author and the list is in no particular order.

Sleepy Hollow

Over a year in the making, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow Playing Cards were conceived by playing card designer Derek McKee and masterfully illustrated in France by J.C. Desevre. This incredibly intricate and detailed deck of playing cards depicts artwork and characters from the popular Sleepy Hollow legend including Ichabod Crane & the Headless Horseman.

Memento Mori

Inspired by Memento Mori, where imagery of a skull represents the short-lived nature of all things material and a reminder of our mortality. As such, the Memento Mori deck features a unique low-poly design skull on the tuck and the card backs. The Ace, Joker and courts are very stylized and modern-looking, consistent with the overall theme of the deck. The unique design and eye-catching colors will enhance displays and card flourishes.

Bicycle Bone Riders

A collaboration between Art of Play and Bicycle, these fun new limited edition Halloween-themed playing cards are inspired by Bicycle's classic Rider Back design, the Bone Riders feature fun illustrations of bike-riding skeletons, fanciful jack o'lantern's, flying bats, and ornate pumpkin vines entangling it all together. Each deck includes two specialty Jokers, a unique Ace of Spades and one blank-face and one double-back card. Packaged inside a festive tuck box featuring premium matte card stock with embossed typography.

Halloween

Penguin Magic has teamed up with Natalia Silva to bring you this cute deck. Natalia has put her creative spin on the holiday by creating the ENTIRE deck from the ground up. Each card face has a unique piece of Halloween-themed art ranging from bats to skeletons to candy corn. The diptych Jokers combine together to form one beautiful piece of art, while the back design perfectly captures the mood of the season.

RAVN

A collaboration between Caroline Ravn and Stockholm17, Ravn Playing Cards is beautiful, simple and at the same time attractive. The deck was designed to keep the classic look. The faces are quite standard, with improvised hands and the faces of the Jacks, Queens and Kings. The jokers are elegant and intriguing and Ace of Spades is very attractive.

Grotesk Macabre

From the mind of Lotrek, Grotesk Macabre is a unique deck of playing cards featuring death and darkness combined with the elegance of the Baroque and Gothic style art. This deck is much darker and edgier than his previous releases. This deck combines the death theme with the heavy elegance of baroque and the pointy, flamboyant Gothic art. Lotrek wanted to create an unsettling feeling without being vulgar or gross.

PIFF

Illustrated by UK artist Claire Blackledge, this unique deck was exclusively created for Piff the Magic Dragon! This unique deck features custom pips and indices, custom back, custom courts and redesigned tuck box, Die-Cut Harbin Table Playing Cards, and totally unique Gaff Cards for a special Piff magic trick.

Superior: Skull & Bones- Phantom Edition

An updated version of Expert's Skull & Bones designed by Jackson Robinson with new back design, a new ace of spades and a new set of jokers. The cards printed on the popular Classic finish. The center pendants of the card are stamped in hot silver foil and the detail on the borders are done in Spot UV. The tuck features a heavy duty soft touch stock that is stamped with silver foil, black foil and also uses Spot UV and embossing.

Tenebre Zucca

An Orange edition of the extremely limited run of a new signature series playing card deck by 4PM DESIGNS. The Zucca is the next edition to the popular TENEBRE series Inspired by the Italian Gothic artwork. Printed by Legends Playing Card Co.

Bone & Ebon

From NoirArts and meticulously hand-illustrated by Noah Whippie, the decks reads like a 54-page occult manuscript steeped in otherworldly dark aesthetics. With an intense focus on Gothic surrealism. The glyphs or "letters" that was used in the designs are stylized, a unique phonetic alphabet - to add character and subtext to the art. Both decks feature accents of artwork made by applying of metallic silver and golden ink.

Odd Bods

The Odd Bods Playing Cards is a brilliant deck illustrated by Jonathan Burton. Produced by Art of Play, the Odd Bods Playing Cards feature amusing characters, quirky illustrations, and playful imagery. The deck has been hand illustrated in a beautifully nostalgic style and designed to have the look of ‘aged’ Victorian lithographs. Every image proves its own quirk and oddity, but is never ostentatious-- Odd Bods are the epitome of refined indulgence. Packaged in a gorgeous gold-foil embossed tuck box.

Muertos

Muertos is an original set of playing cards designed by Steve Minty. It is independently crafted and honors the holiday that celebrates life and death; Dia De Los Muertos. The Muertos deck takes the classic aesthetics of Dia De Los Muertos and is updated with the tradition of playing and my experiences growing up. It depicts the social classes and history of the culture while simultaneously giving off a contemporary elegant luxurious feel.

The selection expressed in this top12 are solely those of the author. Images for Sleepy Hollow from whisperingimps.com,, Memento Mori from murphysmagic.com, Grotesk Macabre and Bone & Ebon from kickstarter, Superior: Skull & Bones from conjuringarts.org, Tenebre Zucca from legendsplayingcards.com, and Halloween, RAVN, PIFF and Muertos by Anthony Ingrassia. 

First Look: Lost Wax Playing Cards by Art of Play

The Lost Wax Playing Cards is one of two releases by Art of Play on Friday, October 28. This vibrant deck is a tribute to the West African land of intrigue.

The design is inspired by African patterns, colors, geometric forms of fabrics and bronze heads.

Lost Wax Playing Cards are adorned with historical bronze figures of the Benin kingdom which were created to honor the king. They are each sculpted by hand, then cast in bronze by the lost wax process.

The deck features borderless card backs, custom repeatable courts, Ace of Spades and Jokers. All neatly packaged in a gorgeous tuck with a custom seal.

Lost Wax Playing Cards will be available from Art of Play on Friday, October 28.

Cardistry: Jaspas Will Release New Deck This Week

You've probably seen this striking deck on various social media channels. The Jaspas Deck is designed based on Jaspas' vision of a personal and identifiable monogram. It is made up of classic card elements that are instantly recognizable, even to non-Cardists.



On the contrasting colors, Jaspas explained,

The bold colors provide a striking contrast to any kind of background - pink and yellow are two-thirds of a triadic color scheme. This asymmetry, much like the asymmetry of the monogram, provides plenty of flexibility with regards to video background and location choices.

Printed with a linen finish, the Jaspas Deck is smooth as silk and fans perfectly out of the box. The stock is an ideal balance between sturdy and springy. Regardless of your style of Cardistry, the Jaspas Deck will make your moves pop.

The deck will be available for sale on 29th October 2016.

Collections: Royal Bee Premium Back No.168

The Classic Bee deck, is there anyone who doesn't recognize the name or the all to familiar logo, probably not. A staple in the Playing Card Industry, the Bee stock and finish is second to none. Over the years there have been small variations of the Bee deck, but most recently, there have been a few exclusive releases by The United States Playing Card Co. to its Asian market in the form of a more custom release, but holding itself pretty close to the original Bee design.

Recently USPC released a new homage to the classic deck, the Royal Bee Premium Back No. 168. Designed by Fin Studio's, this version pulls it's inspiration directly from Asian culture with the subtle woven look of the soft tuck to the design and line work that cover both the front, back and interior of the tuck case. A Bee deck wouldn't be complete without it's Iconic insect hovering around the circular design on the front of the deck and also makes an appearance on the back, beautifully framed in gold foil lines and hovering over the text "Premium Back No. 168"

As  mentioned, the tuck is adorned with gold foil that just jumps off the dark blue stock of the tuck case, the beautiful pattern and design carry into the tuck's interior to give it a nice touch and visual appeal. The usual ad copy can be found on the tucks sides, bottom and top, all in brilliant gold foil.

The decks design, line work and look continue onto the back design. Keeping the dark blue palette, the back design features the same woven pattern from the tuck, and also features a tandem variation of the circular pattern from the front of the tuck utilizing USPC's new Metalluxe Technology bringing a bit more shine to the dark backdrop. The gold foiling stands out really well and there is no hint of the foiled design element carrying through to the face of the cards.

The deck has standard courts, the familiar Ace of Spades and of course my favorite Bee riding Joker. The added eye candy to this "Standard" offering is the embellishment of 55 of the 56 cards with gold foil. The Ace of Spades gets some nice gold outlining to the design as well as a fully foiled logo. The gold against the black line work pops in amazing contrast.

The Jokers split the foil duties between them, with one standard black ink Joker and the other presented completely in gold foil. To round out the bling factor, the courts get a really nice dose of gold framing themselves accentuating the line work of the classic court design, lines and clothing elements. Even the pips get a treatment of gold framing making them pop when the light hits them just right. To ensure a bit of standard playability, the indices remain untouched.

If you're a fan of Bee Decks like I am, the Premium Back No. 168 won't disappoint you in any way but one, the price and availability. You'll need to go the 3rd party route to track these down and they will command a premium price. If that price is reasonable is a choice we all need to make on our own. If you do take the plunge, I recommend opening this beautiful revamped classic and enjoying the work that was put into it. Too often we as collectors get caught up in the chore of keeping pristine sealed decks, but honestly, there is no bigger joy than to appreciate and get a bit excited seeing a desk in its entirety, outside and in. I don't often tell readers to part with there hard earned cash on my recommendation, but this is one of those times I would encourage most collectors to pick up at least one and share it with as many friends as you can. Premium it is, and its subtle, yet effective, "Shine" makes it a nice standout.

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.

Kickstarter: TITANS Robber Baron Edition Playing Cards by Jody Eklund - Now Live!

Now Live on Kickstarter Titans Robber Baron Edition Playing Cards by Jody Eklund. 

Titans are defined as "one that is gigantic in size or power: one that stands out for greatness of achievement." The men in this deck of cards were referred to as "Titans of Industry".  For over three decades, the rise of new industries and technologies revolutionized the entire world. This made many men very wealthy and with their great achievements, came ruthless behavior an abuse of power. The capitalists of the late 19th century became know as "Robber Barons" 

Titans continues Jody's unique look at history and continues to showcase his remarkable artistic talent. With beautiful attention to detail, amazing line work and stellar court cards that can only be described as mini works of art, Jody's projects never disappoint when it comes to quality and creativity.

 Titans will be available in three versions, the Standard in Black and White and the Limited Kickstarter Exclusive Signature Series deck. Printed by the Legends Playing Card Co. on their amazing Classic Finish, Titans offers uniquely designed Ace of Spades, Jokers and Court cards capturing the look and feel of the era.

The soft tuck cases will feature blue and copper foiling and beautiful design elements capturing the period perfectly. Titans is also available in a Signature Series which includes 3 decks in the series and comes in a beautiful 3 deck box with copper foil accents on 5 sides and is limited to only 600 numbered and sealed sets. Each Signature Series will include one Signature Card only available in the set. 

If you enjoy showcasing quality artwork in your playing card collection you should definitely give Titans a look, the project offers some great add-on's and reward tiers start at $14.00 for a single deck, if you hurry you still have 19 Hours to take advantage of the Early Bird price of $11.00 for a single deck while EB supplies last.

Overall, Titans is another solid project from a very talented artist and designer, Jody has built a great fan base with his work and continues to meet the expectations of all his supporters.

Kardify would like to wish him the best of luck on his new project.........Now go help the cause and become a backer!

Kickstarter: Divine Art Playing Cards by Guru Playing Card Company

From Guru Playing Card Company, Divine Art Playing Cards is a fully custom deck inspired by Hindu Mythology. This unique deck has been designed with mass appeal in mind, it features block printed traditional illustrated Indian folk art adorned with exquisite elements and patterns inspired from Mehndi.

The court cards showcase various gods and goddeses as well as their mounts (vahanas) on each suit. The aces incorporate symbolism from Indian mythology and follow the same sequence as the courts. Concentric lines define volume and create a rhythmic unity, and the underlying geometrical forms generate a pleasing multi-dimensional effect.

The number cards are meticulously designed. Included is a hint of a hidden mathematical order, giving a universal appeal at the level of archetypes, which completely transcends the usual traditional pip arrangements. Also, the contrasting pale and dark pip colours are very clear and enhance the legibility of the design.

The unique back design incorporates elements from Indian mythology & folk art. This is also reflected on the tuck box. Divine Art Playing Cards will be printed by Expert Playing Card Co on their popular classic stock. Pledge starts from AUD$17 (~USD$13) with free worldwide shipping.

At the time of writing, the project is only 19% funded with 21 days to go. If you want to support Divine Art Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here!

News: Halloween now available from Penguin Magic

What better way to enjoy Halloween than with the Halloween Deck! Available now from Penguin Magic, this lighthearted, whimsical work is perfect for this time of year. Designed by Natalia Silva, Halloween is sure to  satisfy your goolish cravings.

Halloween is every magician's favorite holiday. To celebrate, we've teamed up with Natalia Silva, the talented artist behind the Christmas deck and Russian Folk Art deck. She has put her cute & creative spin on the holiday be creating the ENTIRE deck from the ground up. Each card face has a unique piece of Halloween-themed art ranging from bats to skeletons to candy corn. The diptych Jokers combine together to form one beautiful piece of art, while the back design perfectly captures the mood of the season. Two special gaffed cards are included in every deck, and it's all capped off with a custom tuck box. Printed by the USPCC on Bicycle stock & Premium finish with a traditional cut, these cards feel as good as they look. 

Includes two Gaffed Cards, custom Diptych Jokers and traditionally cut on Bicycle Stock and Premium Finish. Decks start at $9.95. Only 3100 decks were produced, so get a move on before they're gone!

Deck View: Pitch Black Playing Cards

Skull. Minimalist. Geometrical.

The intriguing Pitch Black Playing Cards was designed by Jirs Huygen and unveiled in Cartamundi's 2015 catalog as part of the lifestyle-branded decks aimed at the teenage and young adult market.

Pitch Black goes for a minimalist approach, one that combines abstract line art on a deep black background with thin lines and geometrical shapes in either metallic white and red.

The deck is fully custom, from the card backs to the Aces, pips, to the bold courts and jokers. If you are looking for a Halloween deck, Pitch Black is now available from amazon.de.

For more cool playing cards, check out  JP Games.

Cardistry: Cardistry Tips from dealersgrip

We have been following the amazing progress of Tobias Levin and Oliver Sogard, the duo from dealersgrip. When they started doing cardistry, there wasn't much material available. This pushed them to create their own concepts, then led to the search of other cardists who shared the same passion for creating and advancing the art form.

At the same time, the duo felt that the community was very inconsistent. It was in need of a platform which would consistently thrive to inspire and encourage people to bring the artistry back into cardistry. Hence, dealersgrip.com. Thier mission is to educate and inspire cardists by exploring the possibilities with a deck of cards.

Here are some cardistry tips from the duo. More amazing cardistry tutorials and tips on dealersgrip.com.

News: UUSI Teases New Playing Cards; coming October 22

The husband and wife team from UUSI just teased their next deck of playing cards on social media. Hyde Park Playing Cards was designed exclusively for Hyde Park Mouldings, New York.

A photo posted by Uusi (@uusidesignstudio) on Oct 19, 2016 at 6:23am PDT

According to UUSI's post on Instagram,

Finally able to share a secret poker deck project we've been working on with the New York based company Hyde Park Mouldings, one of the premier architectural moulding companies in the world. Working closely with the owner David Nassim, we were able to bring the artwork of his skilled craftsman Vincent Kallenbrum together with our playing card design sensibility for one sweet deck.

The tuck box features sculpted embossing and gold foil printing. Two versions were made, the dark and light version. Only 250 of each will be available on USSI's website this Saturday (October 22nd, 10am CST).

Card Gear: Connected

Card Gear is our 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.

It's been more than a year since my first Card Gear. Here are my gears that I've been using daily for the past month:
+ HuMn v1 Wallet
+ KeySmart with USB
+ Solid Titanium Pen + Stylus by Big Design
+ Apple iPhone6
+ The Dash (Black) Wireless Earphones by Bragi
+ Viridian by TriKard
+ Original Joe Porper Card Clip
+ Garmin VivoSmart

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

Indiegogo: VIGOR Playing Cards by Alvin Herp and Edo Huang

Just launched on Indiegogo, the VIGOR Playing Cards deck is a collaboration between cardist Alvin Herp and designer/magician Edo Huang. VIGOR was officially unveiled during Alvin and Edo's Cardistry workshop in Tangerang, Indonesia back in September. According to Alvin,

Vigor Playing Cards is just my first take on designing a custom deck, like a chance to show people what my own deck of cards would look like. The deck is named Vigor because I think when doing whatever we do in life we all need a bit of enthusiasm, and we have put a lot of it in this deck and we cannot wait to see people shuffle with vigor as well.

Vigor has been crafted with cardists in mind and features custom tuck box, borderless card back, custom Ace, courts and jokers. On the card design, Alvin said,

My passion is cardistry so that's why I want to make the cards look beautiful in motion. What I really love about this deck is the court cards. They are built upon one hexagon frame and all the shapes and the lines just grow from there.

Alvin continued,

Edo has been extremely helpful in this project. He handled several things, especially the back design. We love it and we hope people love it too.

VIGOR Playing Cards will be printed by Bomber Playing Card Co. in Taiwan and pledge starts from $10. Check it out here on Indiegogo!