Marco Luzi, the man behind Lune Playing Cards has released a rather interesting thematic deck that explores the world of economics, especially in the scope of stock trading. Marco has once again collaborated with graphic designer Pennypine to produce Market Manipulation Playing Cards, a deck that manipulates the economic outcomes. The deck is currently funding on Kickstarter.
The deck series comes in two editions, based on the two main sides of a stocks trading world – Bull Edition and Bear Edition. The Bull represents the optimistic view of the market, having a green color scheme with artworks of a bull. The tuck box for Bull Edition has premium matte green stock with petroleum green and gold foiling. The Bear represents the pessimistic view of the market, having a red color scheme with artworks of a bear. The tuck box for Bear Edition has premium matte rose-red stock with ruby red and silver foiling. Both tuck boxes will be produced by Boschiero & Newton.
The card back design is a classic two-way back design that features intricate borders and four-leaf flowers on the corners. The color and animal vary based on the deck editions. The Aces feature customized pip artwork – Ace of Spades featured the two iconic animals facing each other, while the other Aces are surrounded with items that tell the story of the characters presented in the courts.
The Jokers show three animals: the goose, the bear, and the bull – if the two Jokers showed side by side, you can see the geese facing each other, while the bull and the bear face one another in an intense fight – just like how the stock market fluctuates.
The courts are all customized, retaining hints from the classical courts. All of the courts in the deck show different kinds of characters with their own backstory. Each suit represents the four types and stereotypical departments of a traditional bank: Investment Banking (Clubs) – Trading (Hearts) – Quantitative Analysis (Spades) – Sales (Diamonds).
For the Bear Edition, the courts are presented as two-way traditional courts. As for the Bull Edition, the courts are full-length body illustrations in intricate borders. According to the story in the deck, all of these characters worked in a fictional bank.
Pledge starts from $17 for a single deck of your choosing OR $34 for a complete two-deck set on Kickstarter.
