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| Caleb with his twin brother and friend (Rosse, Jimmy, Caleb)[ |
Caleb Gates is a man with many hats. He is an engineering student by day, a card designer by night – And he is the young man behind Total Eclipse Playing Cards project on Kickstarter, which was launched last month on May 31. Caleb is also a magician, an Eagle Scout and with this new pursuit, an entrepreneur. Believe it or not, Caleb is 19 and self-taught himself how to use Adobe Illustrator for this project. At only 19 years of age, Caleb has not only launched his first Kickstarter but he has over 300 project backers and is over 60% funded to goal.
Click here to visit the Total Eclipse Playing Card Project.
Caleb, who has been extremely transparent with his backers and people within the playing card industry, has already had his design approved by USPCC and is ready to go to production once the project is funded. The deck has also caught the attention of another Kickstarter project, a film called Fallen Cards: Rise of the Magician. Caleb told Tuck Case, “the film Fallen Cards: Rise of the Magician will feature a number of world renowned magicians, martial artists, and cardistry experts including but not limited to Dan and Dave Buck. I was recently approached by the group and they offered to feature my cards in their film. Our projects could both benefit by us all working together because what a group can accomplish is so much more than that of an individual. The coolest thing about Kickstarter is that it’s a supportive community.”
Throughout this entire process Caleb created posters, business cards, a Facebook page and even a website, allfouraces.com to promote the project. Caleb isn’t stopping there either. He has a few stretch goals in the works if the project surpasses the initial goal of $10,000. Although no stretch goal designs have been officially released yet, Caleb mentioned to Tuck Case that he is looking into T-Shirts and finalizing a custom seal. However, he only has 13 days to reach 100% before the funding period closes. Act now!
About The Cards
Total Eclipse features an all black card design similar to the highly successful Ellusionist’s Shadowmasters. The decks differs in that the Caleb’s design features contrasting colors that make this all black deck brighter than ever. Caleb designed these cards with the magician in mind as he is also a magician. Mostly self taught, Caleb has learned a lot of his recent tricks from Jarek 1:20’s Youtube channel How To Disturb Reality. The idea for the Total Eclipse was sparked when Caleb was looking to create just one deck of cards for himself. However, after learning the ways of USPCC (Printer of the deck), Caleb realized if he wanted his own custom deck he would have to fulfill a printing minimum. That is when he came to Kickstarter for help. During his research, he stumbled upon Russell Kercheval’s all black Quicksilver Card Deck, which he admires greatly.
The Total Eclipse deck will feature the standard 52, 2 jokers and 2 gaff cards. The gaff cards being a double back and a blank black face. It will be feature standard Bicycle stock and an Air Cushioned Finish.
If you are a fan of all black card decks specifically Ellusionist’s Shadowmasters, Quicksilver Playing Cards and Bicycle Black Tiger playing cards, the Total Eclipse Playing Cards are perfect for you.
Here are images of the deck courtesy of Kickstarter:
