News: 5 things you didn't know about Jeremy Griffith's Royal Reserve from Ellusionist

Ellusionist has just released the eagerly awaited follow-up to 2013's Republic No.02 Playing Cards. The Royal Reserve by Jeremy Griffith is an exquisite deck, crafted for the card table experts with functionality, modern aesthetics and simplicity in mind. Here are five things you didn't know about the Royal Reserve.

1. Jeremy approached Ellusionist to buy the rights for Republic No.02.
According to Jeremy, "So, when I first got started with Instagram (@lost_angelus), I came across a deck from Ellusionist called Republic No.02 and I became obsessed. I loved everything about that deck. When things started to grow for me, I approached Ellusionist about buying the rights off of them to reprint it, but that wasn't going to work because it was part of a larger theme."

2. Instead, Brad Christian offered Jeremy to work with his team to help create a deck based on the Republic No.02.
Jeremy leaped at the chance. "We spend the next several months going over design options and finally coming up with a product that was worthy to be called Royal Reserve."

3. At the time, the deck was too expensive to print in that form.
"So we put the deck on the back burner and went our separate ways."

4. Chris Ramsay, Daniel Madison and Peter McKinnon worked to bring the deck back to life.
After about a year, a number of things fell into place. "The first was that I finally got to meet the whole Ellusionist team in California for their summit. And it was a blast. I lost very bad to Brad at a game of Ping Pong that night. The next was that Chris Ramsay, Daniel Madison and Peter McKinnon all worked to bring the deck back to life. And they found a way to print it at a lower cost while upping the quality at the same time."

5. With the help of Mike Clarke and Geraint Clarke, the design was finalized.
"We sent them to print, and had them boxed by Clove Street Press. Their amazing letter pressing is the reason the tuck came out so luxurious! And now the decks are here. After about two years of work, they're real! And I couldn't be happier with the outcome."


Printed by the United States Playing Card Company and available NOW on Ellusionist for $10.