News: Whispering Imps Is Back With Workers Edition and Executive Workers Edition!

One of our all time favorites! Designed to be timeless and elegant, the original Whispering Imps were first introduced in 2013 and it was quickly funded on Kickstarter. Since then, they have made their way into the hands of thousands of collectors, magicians, card players, cardists and even network television shows and Hollywood films!

The Whispering Imps Playing Card (brought to you by Chris Chelko and illustrated by Mark Stutzman) is inspired by famous magician Harry Kellar's Whispering Imps that were made famous by the below poster. The Workers are the latest edition to the Whispering Imps series. The Workers are a reprint of the Originals with a few updates, enhancements and additions at nearly half the price... $6.95!

The Workers Edition include a miniature version of the Harry Kellar poster, simplified jokers and Ace of Spades. Also, a modified version of the Gamesters Ace of Spades has also been included. The jet black tuck box features the Whispering Imps logo in a shiny silver metallic ink along with the iconic red imp whispering on the bottom right.

Also included with the release is the exclusive and limited deck of Whispering Imps. The Executive Workers Edition was designed with elegance, class, and sophistication in mind. The deck is housed in a custom letter-pressed tuck case printed by Clove St. Press, made up of a heavy eggshell matte paper stock, hand selected to accompany the deeply embossed artwork made up of beautiful rose gold foils and Pantone inks. Only 500 made!

Available NOW from whisperingimps.com. Sale on for a LIMITED time.

News: Art of Play Releases Lucky Draw Playing Cards

Late last week, the team at Art of Play in collaboration with Sideshow Press released Lucky Draw playing cards. The deck blends an elegant, modern design with a hint of luxury.

Lucky Draw features a minimal back design and modern face cards with abstract geometric courts and a maze-like pattern on the pips, jokers and Ace of Spades. The deck is packaged in a snazzy letterpress-printed tuck box.

Printed on a premium crushed stock developed by Dan & Dave with The United States Playing Card Company. Available from artofplay.com for $15.

Can Ondrej Psenicka Fool Penn and Teller with Butterfly Playing Cards?

In the recent (August 24th) episode of Penn & Teller: Fool Us on CW Network, our friend and founder of Butterfly Playing Cards Ondrej Psenicka attempts to fool the world-famous team of Penn & Teller with the help of host Alyson Hannigan. Watch the video below.

Magicians are invited to perform to try and fool Penn & Teller, who will get to see the effect only once and the duo will have to immediately try to work it out. Anyone who succeeds wins the right to perform with Penn & Teller in their celebrated show at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Featured deck: Butterfly Playing Cards.

Deck View: NOUVEAU Bourgogne Playing Cards

Historical. Tribute. Beautiful.

The NOUVEAU Bourgogne Playing Cards was funded as part of NOUVEAU campaign on Kickstarter by Karin Yan of Bonafide Playing Cards. The deck was selected as the 2016 United Cardists annual deck and hence, some of the design elements on the card back and Ace of Spades references the UC.

The deck is one of the first two deck in the NOUVEAU series and is inspired by the historical and mythological heroes and heroines traditionally featured in the French playing cards in the 16th century. The beautifully crafted deck is fully custom and the art style is a tribute to the philosophical and artistic trend Art nouveau, promoted and popularized in France. Available now from bonafideplayingcards.com

The team at Bonafide Playing Cards is currently funding the FINAL deck of the NOUVEAU Series on Kickstarter- NOUVEAU Gemmes Playing Cards, limited edition of 500 units. Check it out!

Also, for more cool playing cards, check out JP Playing Cards.

Cardistry: Jaspas Deck (Primeval Edition) Playing Cards To Launch In Singapore This Weekend!

New Deck Order announced that Jaspas Deck Primeval Edition Playing Cards will be available in Singapore this weekend. We are told that the Primeval Edition's international launch will be on 2nd September. For those of you who do not know, the Primeval Edition will be the second edition of the popular Jaspas Deck. Jaspas told Kardify,

When I designed the first edition of the Jaspas Deck, it was because I felt that playing cards were lacking in the department of adventurous, bold and fun colors. Matching contrasting bold colors like the ones I did is a difficult task of balancing brilliance and "eye torture". I had to go through multiple iterations and countless prototypes. It turned out to be my favorite deck of playing cards ever made.

Designing the Jaspas Deck Primeval Edition was an incredibly difficult task. Jaspas wanted to stay true to the intentions of the original design and create a color scheme that would make people want to handle the cards for themselves. It had to be fresh and exciting, without resorting to a simple hue/saturation change.

This led me down a path of countless different color combinations before I finally settled on the pastel pink and Tiffany blue you see today. The calm and soothing colors feel inviting to the eyes and are a timeless pairing of modern color combinations. To further improve the card lover's experience, I also went through numerous trials and errors with different paper types. I wanted to avoid the standard USPCC paper stock and also provide a new feel for the ones familiar with the first edition of the Jaspas Decks. This took a number of tries to get right.

For the Jaspas Deck Primeval Edition, 12 stocks and finishes were tested before deciding on the paper used on the deck.

The deck feels awesome right out of the box, handles powder well and breaks in like a dream.

The New Deck Order's first live event for the new Jaspas Decks will be happening on the 26 of August in Singapore. The International launch will be on 2 September. The Jaspas Deck Primeval Editions are limited edition with only 1037 decks printed for sale. They will cost USD$18 and will be available on thenewdeckorder.com.

Deck Development: The Joker and the Ace of Spades of Hidden Leaves by Mahdi Gilbert

On our new series, Deck Development, we follow the progression of a deck of playing cards starting with the design inspiration to the final product you will hold in your hands. The designer will explain development decisions and may show the development process as well as the result itself.

This is the third part of our look at the design development of Hidden Leaves Playing Cards, the upcoming deck by Mahdi Gilbert (@mahdigilbert). Hidden Leaves blend Japanese and French aesthetics to create the style of this gorgeous deck, a spiritual homage to Le Samouraï, the 1967 French masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville.

The images previewed here shows the Joker and the Ace of Spades. The Joker is one of the most important cards as it represents one of the most powerful figures in a deck of playing cards. Mahdi told Kardify,

In Hidden Leaves the Devil himself plays the fool. Innocuous to a deliberate fault. The credo of the pure fool in the words of James Joyce, "...I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a grave mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too."

Hidden Leaves only comes with one Joker which Mahdi finds conform to the aesthetic of the deck, as having two would lessen its impact and power.

The Joker is much more powerful than even all the court cards in Hidden Leaves and I wanted to find a way to balance that out with my Ace of Spades.

As for the Ace of Spades, Mahdi decided to feature a poor, peasant girl, on her knees praying as the most powerful and important card in the deck. To show true strength in the weak as greater than pride in the worldly.

The writing below her is one of the many, many mysteries and secrets hidden in Hidden Leaves, which are always giving clues to it's past and future.

Stay tuned as we continue with deck development and reveal more of the Hidden Leaves Playing Cards. Let us know what you think in our comment section below.

Card Gear: Flaminko

Card Gear is our monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup, and accessories used every day 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.

Graphic designer for Flaminko Playing Cards, 22-years old Nick Zeitoun is a game and graphics programming student at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. During high school, Nick used to be a card manipulator but now, mostly collects interesting and fun playing cards.

As a fan of trading card games, Nick has always enjoyed creating games and art. When not playing with or designing cards, he enjoys fencing (sport) or programming. Nick is currently funding the Burger Playing Cards project on Kickstarter. Nick's gear (Italics are Nick's comments):

+ Flaminko Business cards case (cards are UV raised but outdated).
+ Staedtler multi-colored fineliner set.
+ Flaminko stAR cARds: Augmented Reality playing card game prototype (currently in development, I carry the prototype and its accompanying app everywhere I go).
+ Notebooks (one dedicated entirely for Flaminko the other general note-taking).
+ Personal copy of Cartamundi B9 Burger deck (prototype).
+ Vanda (Gold Edition) playing cards.
+ Minim Black playing cards (not a fan of the materials but can't argue with its aesthetics).
+ Samsung s5 (switched to android from apple never looked back).
+ Wallet (flame wallet with a defective flint that hurts my finger and doesn't ignite).
+ Mechanical pencil (graduation gift from family friends, 0.5 HB lead).


Don't forget to check out the Burger playing cards on Kickstarter or follow @flaminko_playingcards on Instagram. If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, contact us.

Kickstarter: 5 Things You Didn't Know About The Golden Age Playing Cards by Agitcom

The Golden Age Playing Cards by Agitcom is a beautifully hand-illustrated deck currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. Headed by designer Sviatoslav Pashchuk, the fantasy-styled deck is inspired by Neil Gaiman's Stardust novel and film featuring strong Kings, gorgeous Queens and romantic Jacks. Here are 5 things you didn’t know about the Golden Age Playing Cards.

1. It took more than half a year to create this deck. All the characters were first hand drawn and then digitally painted, so each face card has been in production for over a week. According to Sviatoslav, "I started with the Queens – they are my favorite cards of this deck."

2. There is a riddle hidden in the deck. If the most observant players look attentively at the cards, they will see that certain Queens and Kings have some similar detail. "I won’t say what it is, but if you find this detail – you’ll know which Queen betrays her King with the other King."

3. Old-Slavic classical patterns from the sacred buildings of Eastern Europe were used in the design of this deck. "I'm a big fan of architecture and I’ve visited many churches that inspired me to copy authentic techniques of ornaments that had been used in ancient times."

4. All the characters have names. "These are real names that have been used in the antiquity. Usually, they were of Romanesque or Germanic origins. I am very sorry that these names are almost forgotten or adapted because they were really very beautiful."

5. The star that falls into the hands of the protagonist is the main theme of the film and the book of Neil Gaiman. "It changes the life of the main character, although at first, he didn't understand what a gift he has received In this deck there are a lot of symbols depicting a star – each face card has a so-called wind rose in the center, and on the back of the tuck box you can see the cross-shaped ancient symbol, which is also a star image."

At the time of writing, the Golden Age project is currently 218% funded with 26 days to go. Pledge starts from $13 and the deck will be printed by NPCC. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretched goals. The most notable is the Winter Edition deck at $7k (unlocked!). Add-ons such as the full-color art print and art sets are available.

Top 12 Best Marked Deck of Playing Cards for Magic

The custom playing cards market has boomed over the past year, investment in crowd-funded decks have surged and new designs and concepts are pushing the boundaries of the simple constraints of one tuck x four suits x thirteen cards. Marked decks are used in card and mentalism effects and allow for the magician to focus their attention purely on connecting with the people they are performing for. Here are our top 12 picks.

Note that the selection expressed in this top 12 are solely those of the author.

Kings

From Ellusionist, the Kings Playing Cards is the ultimate representation of Daniel Madison and Peter McKinnon joint creative forces. Readily stacked in Mnemonica and fully marked. Also included. a double-backer and two unique and personalized jokers, and on top of that, an Angle Z Gaff card.

MINT Limited Edition

Designed for the workers by 52Kards, the stunning Mint Limited Edition playing cards feature elegant borderless back with beautiful tri-color design, gold line accents, and masks an incredibly intuitive marking system for the clever magician to take advantage of. Printed by the United States Playing Card Company and coated with the legendary Air Cushion Finish.

Brooklyn Red Edition

The Brooklyn 101 Back Playing Cards are brought to you by the Brookyln Playing Card Co. The company's vision was to create a functional deck of cards for the working magician, performing direct and impossible magic. The result is a timeless blend of tradition and innovation. The deck features a custom vintage design, reimagined Jokers, custom Ace of Spades bearing the silhouette of the Brooklyn bridge. Printed by the Expert Playing Card Company on their improved Classic Finish stock,

Mirage Dawn Edition

Patrick Kun's Mirage Dawn Edition features a crimson/gold colorway, which compliments the original Mirage Dusk edition perfectly. The court cards are fully custom. The eye-catching tuck case was printed with stunning gold foil on a brand new premium pearlescent paper and gold champagne ink covers the interior of the box, and closed-off with a matching gold perforated seal. Also, the deck includes a subtle marking system. Printed by Legends Playing Card Co. and comes in Juan Tamariz’s Mnemonica stack.

The Code

Smart and intuitive. Theory11's the Code is more than a method. From the mind of Andy Nyman, instantly divine the name and location of a selected card - with no forces, no sleights, no memorization, and without even looking at the chosen card. Easy to read, multiple applications and most important of all, Bicycle Mandolin back that looks almost identical to standard Bicycles. Official Winner of The Thurston Spirit of Magic Award 2014.

Keepers Red Edition

Conceived by Adam Wilber and illustrated by Oban Jones, the Red Edition Keepers are a follow-up to the original Blue Keepers released by Ellusionist early in 2016. Designed for the worker in mind, the new deep red colorway has been specifically chosen to invite trust, and go unnoticed by the audiences. As such, the deck features recognizable pips and faces of a standard deck.

Rouge

The DMC ELITES: ROUGE is simply the best deck DMC has ever produced. The immediate feature of the deck, and the thing that makes it most exciting to every magician who handles one is also the most cunningly hidden: the unique world-class optical marking system. The markings can be read from up to six feet away - and yet under intense scrutiny remain invisible until the secret marking is revealed. Printed by Cartamundi.

Butterfly

Conceptualised by Ondrej Psenicka and designed by Swedish graphic designer and magician Stefan Eriksson, this groundbreaking deck features a unique marking system hidden in its beautiful back design. It has standard faces as it is intended mainly for magicians who prefer standard faces as they are familiar and easily recognizable by the audience. The cards are printed in Belgium by Cartamundi on their brand new card stock.

Aquila Standard Edition

A collaboration between Three of Clubs and Kardify Projects, Aquila Standard Edition Playing Cards are meticulously designed by Indonesian graphic artist, Ade Suryana. This exotic deck features fully custom back design, eye-catching Ace of Spades, diptych Jokers and stunning courts. The Standard Edition comes with unique Marking System, the tuck is embossed and adorned with a touch of gold foil. Printed by Legends Playing Card Company.

Marksmen

Meticulously developed by acclaimed mentalist Luke Jermay, the Marksman Deck has been designed with the professional performer in mind. It’s not just a marked deck: with one glance at the back, you’ll know the card’s identity, the one after it, how far away the mate is, and FIVE other hidden features. It features an array of information expertly hidden in its Mandolin Back design.

Ultimate Marked Deck

Yes, the Ultimate is the marked deck you have been dreaming of! Manufactured in the recognizable "Rider Back 808-R" Bicycle Cards by the United States Playing Cards Company. That means you don't have to mark the standard Bicycle decks yourself and you can hand out the deck without fear of detection. Available in red and blue.

Cadenza

Designed by Hong Kong magician NKW with the working magicians in mind, the deck features a classic, timeless floral back design. Cadenza comes with 3 different marking systems, each with its own features and functions. Available in two colors: blue and red, giving it a vintage feel to the deck. Printed by Legends Playing Card Co. on diamond finish, the deck comes in Mnemonica order out of the box.

Honorable mention: GT Speedreader, Madison Dealers by Ellusionist, Phoenix Deck, NOC v3 by House of Playing Cards, and While Lions by David Blaine.

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Deck View: RUN (Standard Edition) Playing Cards

Elegant. Stunning. Attitude.

Produced by Jason Brumbalow and Murphy's Magic the Limited RUN series captures detail, stunning looks and an attitude all in one cool package. Elegant presentation with the outer shell case and just as impressive tuck box makes the RUN Series a unique concept that has garnered much attention.

The Standard Edition features green and gold colorway and is 100% Custom from every aspect in and out. Familiar yet different court cards tie the custom Jokers, Ace of Spades and stylized pips together. The decks also include a Gaff that can be used for various effects.

Printed by the US Playing card company and also available in Heat (Burgandy) and Bankroll Edition (Crimson). Get it now from murphysmagic.com or at your favorite Murphy’s Magic dealer.

Kickstarter: Kings Wild Project To Launch Federal 52 (2nd Edition) Playing Cards Today!

The concept of currency on a playing card isn't new by any means, but it was never presented in such a creatively intricate and beautifully detailed package as the Federal 52 did. Fully custom, every aspect of the cards has been touched and the theme carries itself from the back design, Ace of Spades, custom jokers, face cards and historical courts perfectly.

The Federal 52 Second Edition is the sequel we have been waiting for! Five years ago Kings Wild's founder Jackson Robinson's journey as a full-time playing card designer started with Federal 52. He designed two unique court card sets that spanned across 11 different editions in the series. According to Jackson,

The Federal 52 2nd Edition is a hybrid of both the original Federal 52 court card set and art work (that was featured in the Federal 52, Gold Certificate, and Silver Certificate decks) and the art work of the Reserve Note decks. In this edition, I have taken my favorite artistic elements of the entire Federal 52 series and created an entirely new and unique deck of playing cards.

There are two editions being offered in this campaign, the Standard Edition and Letter-Pressed Edition. The decks accentuated by meticulous and intricate details throughout with a bold back design.

The Standard Edition tuck case will have full-color printing, embossing, and hot stamped foiling and sealed with Money seal.

The Letter-Pressed Edition will be limited to 200 and the deck will be housed in tuck, hand-printed by Jackson Robinson on his 1962 Heidelberg Letter-Press "Agnes" (named after his grandmother). The inner tuck case will have full-color printing, embossing, and hot stamped foiling, on premium matte finish stock. Sealed Gold Foil Seal. The tuck will be hand signed and numbered.

Both will be printed by the United States Playing Card Co. on Bee Casino Stock (similar to the original Federal 52 series) with embossed air cushioned finish. The Federal 52 Second Edition is Scheduled to launch 19th August 7pm Central. Pledge starts at $14 and the campaign will only run for 14 days. So, don't miss out!

Cardistry: Amazing Cardistry Skills. A Video Compilation By 'People Are Awesome'

A YouTube video compilation has emerged last week of some of the most incredible cardistry videos from the past year and it’s had almost two hundred thousand views. Called ‘People Are Awesome’, it is the number one destination for amazing, original videos and compilations of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Check out the incredible compilation video featuring Di.Cardistry, The Virts, Duy and Lotus in Hand.

Featured decks:
+ The Virts Spring/Summer 2016 Virtuoso Playing Cards
+ The Virts Spring/Summer 2015 Virtuoso Playing Cards
+ 1001 Aladdin Blue Playing Cards
+ Touch Origin Playing Cards

News: Third Issue of Kardify Magazine Now Available!

We just released the third issue of Kardify Magazine. The magazine is available to Patrons who pledge $3 or more on our Patreon page. The funds will help us keep the site running and growing, and bringing new quality content to you. Our goal is to support designers by backing on crowd-funded projects and supporting magic and playing cards retailers with their new releases. If you want to support us, please head over to Patreon page.

The monthly magazine will be a compilation of selected articles we’ve published over the month. The aim is to help you stay on top of playing card news. If you have an idea for an article you would like us to pursue, do get in contact with us. We hope you enjoy the read.

In this issue:

+ Classic Dot Playing Cards: Fully customizable deck from Usagi Creative Studios.

+ Carrot Fontaines: The popular deck was sold out in just 79 minutes!

+ @lost_angelus: The “Expert at the card table” selects his top 12 favorite playing cards.

+ Cadenza Playing Cards: Find out more about our favorite marked decks.

+ Antno: Have a look at the EDC of Antno from Málaga, south of Spain.

… and more! 30 pages of articles, deck images and more!

Kickstarter: 5 Things You Should Know About The Name of the Wind Art Deck By Pat Rothfuss and Echo Chernik

The Name of the Wind Art Deck by Elodin Enterprises is a beautiful deck of cards meticulously hand-illustrated by fantasy artist, Echo Chernik. The decks feature characters from The Name of the Wind, the first Kingkiller Chronicle novel. Author Pat Rothfuss and Echo have been fans of each others' work for ages, and while they've brushed up against each other before, this is the first time they've been able to team up to bring something beautiful into the world.

The Kickstarter project is seeking $25k and is currently 661% funded! Here are 5 things you should know about the Name of the Wind Art Deck.

1. Standard and Alternate Decks. Fairly early in the process, Pat and Echo realized they had a problem. A standard deck of cards only has 12 face cards and 2 jokers, but they had more characters they wanted to feature. After tossing a few ideas back and forth the team decided to produce two full decks in each card back (a "standard" and "alternate" deck). As the campaign grows and the project hit more stretch goals, Echo will produce additional art for the alternate decks with the hope of eventually upgrading all face cards for the alternate decks for two completely different sets of face cards. That means with the card backs the same, backers can swap out face cards between the two decks and build a deck with more of their favorite characters and art.

2. The Kickstarter Exclusive Chandrian Decks. Anyone who has read Pat's The Name of the Wind knows that the Chandrian aren't someone you should mention lightly. This set of decks will feature not only a different card back featuring the draccus and other iconography from the book but will have members of the Chandrian as unique jokers not found in the two Selas decks. Cinder is already revealed with Haliax schedule as a stretch goal.

3. First Kickstarter by Elodin Enterprises. While Pat has partnered with other creators to be a part of previous Kickstarters in the past, this is the first Kickstarter we have run in-house here at Elodin Enterprises.

4. How Pat and Echo ended up deciding to work together. On his blog, Pat posted a great story of how he and Echo ended up deciding to work together which resulted in this incredible project. We won't do it justice if we retell it here on Kardify. Head over to Pat's blog post for the full story here!

5. Cameo appearances. Echo is creating beautiful art prints that match the style of the decks where backers who select one of these limited tiers will get to work with Echo to include their likeness in the print. The first in the series features Wil and Sim laughing while Kvothe entertains with his "Jackass, Jackass!" song. In the background, Ambrose flirts with a student, oblivious to the song being played nearby. One of the Stretch Goals will be to create a second work of art in the same series featuring "The Eolian". The Eolian scene will have cameos for backers in the audience, as well as one backer who will be vying for their talent pipes. An additional special backer will be the barmaid tending to Wil's drink.

There will be four decks on offer in the Kickstarter campaign, the Selas Collection (Standard and Alternate decks) and the Kickstarter Exclusive, Chandrian Collection (Standard and Alternate decks). Both will be printed by the Expert Playing Card Co. Pledge starts from $15 and add-on such as uncut sheets, original art-prints and bundles are available.