Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Paolo Tisato of Aphelion Playing Cards

Parama Playing Cards' Aphelion - an elegant deck created for the collectors and magicians in mind - is currently live on Kickstarter seeking €7,000 (USD$8.5k) in crowdfunding pledges. Conceptualised by two Italians, Raffaele Ianzano and Paolo Tisato who are passionate about creating collectible playing cards and the art of magic.

Semi-custom, the deck features a custom back design, gorgeous Ace of Spades and unique jokers. The court cards are standard with updated colour palette to match the overall theme of the deck. Also, Pantone metallic gold ink will be featured on the cards giving it a touch of elegance.

We managed to catch-up with Paolo to chat about Parama Playing Cards, and the idea and design process of Aphelion Playing Cards.

For those of us who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and Parama Playing Cards?
Raffaele is a collector and a teacher of small magic circle. My name is Paolo, a playing card collector, friend and Raffaele's student. We both come from north Italy and I live in Vicenza and Raffaele in Turin. In September 2016, we began the process of creating our first project and that brings us to the present, Aphelion, our third Kickstarter project.

What is your inspiration behind the Aphelion Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
"The journey" is the theme of the project. "Journey" as a word can mean many things, from moving place to place, to soul searching. When something ends, it leaves a long trail of memories, and that is what we all will leave: experiences; and that is what we are: we are our experiences and someone's memory. Who better than Earth that have memory of infinite experiences? That is why this project was launched on the day of the furthest point on Earth's revolution, a lost place in a long journey of which it will remain a memory of endless experiences.

That is deep! Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How did you get to this finished product?
Firstly, the deck was created with the working magician in mind. The idea is for the magician to incorporate the deck into thier routines with stories. As such, the design has to be elegant and subtle. The design represents the journey earth makes around the sun. On the tuck, we inserted sun rays that always start from the center and on the back, hands. You may wonder, why the hands? Thanks to the hands that the magician uses, stories turns into reality.

The reason is much deeper... the man's journey. I would like to quote a phrase by Maria Montessori that fully sums up the concept "We can say that, once born, the man will walk and that all men will use exactly the same way their feet, whereas we do not know what will make the individual man with his own hands...Thanks to the hands that have accompanied the intelligence, civilization has been created: the hand is the organ of this immense treasure given to man."

How did you get feedback?
Remember when you finish a task and you show it to your parents... for the first time? They are never biased!! Haha! We posted a few photos on Instagram and generated quite an interest! This gave us the motivation to start the Kickstarter project.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
The updated back design gives us the possibility of a marked deck in the future. We'll tell you more in 2018.

What’s next? Can we expect more deck designs in the future?
We have several projects in mind but would rather work on one at a time. There are a number of old projects we want to complete, especially for those who first supported us in our previous Kickstarter. At the moment, we plan to relaunch Oris at the end of the year, and a Black version of Aphelion in March.

Finally, what are your favourite playing cards?
Raffaele : Tycoon, Gemini, Occults. Paolo: Citizen, Artisan, Makers.

Thank you for your time, Paolo and all the best! At the time of writing, the Aphelion is 75% funded with 21 days to go. If you like what you've read here and want to support Aphelion Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter Here!


Pledge starts from €6 (~USD$7.50) and Aphelion will be printed by the Legends Playing Card Co in Taiwan on their Classic Finish.