Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Costa Pantazis of Primordial Playing Cards

Primordial playing cards are designed by Charles Adi (Blackout Brother) and produced by Costa Pantazis. It is conceptualized based on the idea that the primordial deities are the first gods and goddesses born from the void of Chaos who formed the very fabric of the universe. Currently seeking funds on Kickstarter with a goal of £20,000, the project is only 56% funded with 27 days to go.

Three decks are on offer during the campaign, the Aether, Chaos and Pantheon Edition. The Aether and Chaos edition is limited to 1,500 print run each and features detailed artwork, metallic inks (gold for Aether and red for Chloe) and foil embossed tuck-boxes. The Pantheon edition is the limited edition and only 200 will be printed. The rare deck comes in its own unique Gold Carat X1 Case with a black laser-engraved lid and gold foil printed outer sleeve.

With this being Costa's first venture into the custom playing card arena on Kickstarter, we were happy to have a chance to talk to him about his maiden voyage and concept behind Primordial Playing Cards.

For those of us who don’t know, can you give us a summary of Primordial Playing Cards?
Primordial playing cards by Costa Pantazis and designed by Charles Adi (Blackout Brother) are based on this idea. The primordial deities are the first gods and goddesses born from the void of Chaos who formed the very fabric of the universe, were known as the Protogenoi (protos meaning "first," and genos "born").

Can you describe Primordial Playing Cards and why you are passionate about it?
The Primordial cards are based around Greek Mythology. While several card campaigns in the past have covered this theme I chose to focus on the primordial characters as to me they were more interesting and something to memory that hadn't been done before. Depending on the performance of the first campaign I will defiantly look to explore other areas under this subject and have plenty already drafted out and ready to go.

Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How did you get to this finished product?
It actually turned out to easier then thought, the advantage of covering this particular theme in the cards presented me with an even spread of characters to use on the courts, 8 male (kings and jacks) and 4 female (queens) so thankfully this came together very quickly and planning in advance went very quickly and smoothly. I enlisted the services of Blackout Brother for the design process after seeing his past work on successive campaigns for in house projects by Gambler's Warehouse such as the 12 Labours Of Hercules, Bicycle Spirit and Imperium playing cards series which most will be familiar with. Also as he had already designed Greek Mythology based playing cards was an added bonus so I knew he was a safe pair of hands to oversee the design aspect of this particular deck.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
Again, it was the incorporating the actual theme into the deck and how it just worked from the start for various reasons. It just came together on its own really. I'd say my biggest breakthrough is actually getting this first project actually moving and launched really, it's taken a good six months from start to finish. The first one is always the hardest, there have been a few hurdles along the way through but I got there in the end. I would say the most challenging part has been contacting and getting everything ready regarding different manufacturers to oversee the creation and eventual and fulfillment. Researching and finding the best people for this and thankfully all have been very responsive and assisted me leading up the campaign; Gambler's Warehouse, Custom Carat Cases, USPCC and CoinsForAnything among the few.

From the Primordial Kickstarter project page, what are a few of your favorite reward levels and why? 
I would definitely say the Carat Case editions of the decks. I contacted Sherman from Custom Carat Cases to propose designing a limited series of cases for the project, limited to roughly 100 of each size variation. The difference with these cases is they are available in different colours to match the decks and there is a wide selection to choose from. White to match the standard deck, Red to match the darker decks which come in different sizes to carry either 1, 2 or 4 decks and there is also a limited 200 special edition deck (gold gilded) which comes with it's own Gold carat case, all have black laser engraved lids and foiled sleeves which match the deck designs on top. These carat case editions will only be available during the Kickstarter campaign and will be strictly limited in number and will not be available afterwards.

What’s next? Can we expect more deck designs in the future?
Subject to the first campaign performance being successful I'm already planning to expand further on the theme covered in this deck as there is plenty in the subject which I can cover, I already have plenty of draft ideas down and ready to go. As I'm new to the playing cards market I have no plans to start multiple projects on a regular basis like most other established designers and creators and will wait until fulfillment on this series has begun before launching any new projects to ensure everything runs smoothly and all items are delivered to the backers.

Given this is first run on a playing card project the earliest I would consider launching a follow up will be once fulfillment has begun on this project. Leading up to the first campaign's fulfillment I will have a few new projects ready to launch and will asses the right time to bring them forward and over time hopefully I can build up to doing more products and campaigns on a regular basis like most others. I can't tell you too much about them as that would be revealing too much but there are a few good ideas on paper for possible designs which from what I can see haven't been done yet, some single decks projects and others which could become a series run over time.

Finally, what are your favorite playing card decks?
There's been several to be honest I really couldn't point it down to a few. Stockholm17, Thirdway Industries projects along with Vanda's recent planets series were favorites of mine. Giovanni at Thirdway has offered great advise on my campaign and I can't thank him enough as it's been great to have someone so experienced in the playing card industry being there to help or answer any questions or concerns I've had during my campaign's initial process.

Thank you for your time Costa! At the time of writing, the project is already 56% funded with than 27 days to go. If you want to support Primordial Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here! Pledge starts from €9 (USD$10) and the deck will be printed by the USPCC.

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