In 2007 Hanson Bomb created Bomb Magic Studio, since then he’s brought together some very talented friends and has been working diligently on bringing something new, fresh and unique to the masses. They’ve recently started developing their own playing card productions and are hoping the hard work and quality of their products continue to garner attention in the community. We recently had a chance to talk to Hanson about their latest release, the Bomb Deck and a bit about his company.
What inspired the Bomber deck?
The design is inspired by the green code effect in the movie “The Matrix“, but the original idea was to print a simple design deck which is suitable for daily magic performance and to promote our own brand. We made our symmetrical trademark on the middle design as our final choice; because there are lots of casino-styled playing cards using 2 top and bottom logo’s to lay out on the back design in recently years. We wanted something different, and we came up with nearly 15 drafts before we settled on the Matrix coding version.
Is there a process you go through when developing a concept?
We made our back design public in October 2015, and then we received some feedback toling us the design was similar to D&D’s Smoke & Mirror. We thought the concept, line, plane and geometric figure..etc, were basically design elements. We also felt they didn’t realize the deck included a unique marking system, it’s not only a back design/pattern. The real “design” is the marking system, it took us many tests to refine the system.
Are there any special features to the Bomber Deck?
The Bomber series deck includes a completely marked system, that can recognized the suit and number from back. It may be the only deck that can be recognized from a middle-distance in the playing card market. You may ask: Is this system also easily seen by spectators? Let me tell you, the back design can do the Matrix code animation effect by riffle down the deck. I usually show this to spectators when I take out the Bomber deck, then I will say: Your brain is hacked now. If you do a couple of routines then use the marking system, the spectators will find it difficult to think it’s marked deck. The marking system “Code” on the Bomber deck isn’t easy to break. It’s also includes a one way design on the back and face, it’s a powerful tool to use in a performance.
When designing this deck, did you have a specific “group” in mind, or was it designed to cater to a wide variety of card aficionados?
The Bomber deck is designed for magicians and magic performances. It doesn’t mean they can’t be used in playing card games. Bomber is our brand works, there is a trademark on tuck cases and back design, the most important thing for us is that we show the quality of our product to all of our customers, collectors and card lovers in the whole world. We released completely different styles and handling decks, Kete Moon Deck and Bomber Series Deck, to show we didn’t have a specific market group. We can produce diversified works. We think there are always supporters in every single art. There is no good or bad in Art, its just different, we won’t limit our imagination and the product styles.
What aspects of this project excite you the most and why?
The most exciting part of this project to me is the marking system. I’ve collected and researched playing cards for many years, I found lots of marked decks are designed either too easy or very difficult to recognize. It’s not easy to design a marked system good for performance and quick to understand, but spectators can’t read it directly. The marked system I designed combines the cryptography. It’s like I use not only a key inside this deck. It should be very rare in the market. The Bomber Series Decks are finished and were printed before this Chinese New Year, I took some the decks to a few magic shop and showed it to some magician friends, everyone was crazy to research the secrets of the system. They couldn’t even tell you the all their secrets during a 3 hour session, but you will hear them talk to you again and again: “I don’t want to know , my eyes are almost blind.” BTW, I’m now whispering to you, the Kete Moon deck is also marked, it should only be found by very few people.
What can you tell us about your company Bomber Magic?
I have to clarify before I explain, it’s Bomb Magic Studio. We’re not looking at it as a company, its just a studio that’s been around since 2007. We have not changed it to company so far, because we’re always researching, desirous and curious in our mind to study the latest news. We don’t focus on profits as our main goal, it’s the spirit that people should have in this big data era, much like the design of the Bomber Deck. Bomb also includes the spirit of Born(born for magic) and Beyond(beyond the magic). Bomber Playing Card Company was separated from Bomb Magic in 2016 and took full charge of the production process, such as printing, designing, receiving the orders, and so on. Bomb Magic takes care of the rest including the distribution and retail. That’s why I wanted to clarify first. Bomb Magic Studio is responsible to the abstract spirit (Bomb-Spirit). Bomber Playing Card Company is about the identity, about the high-quality of our works (Bomber-Identity).
Are there any new projects in development that we can look forward to from Bomber Magic?
Yes! If you’re asking about playing card projects, we’re now processing, drawing up and designing through Bomber Playing Card Company. Bomb Magic is only about magic research, products distribute, retail sales and developing something different with playing cards. That helps us accurately find our target. We also work with a few artists from Taiwan and even internationally once we finished the design for the Kete Moon Deck and Bomber Series Decks. We will keep releasing special works in the near future to attract different magicians, customers and collectors into the market.
We want to thank Hanson and Bomb Magic Studios for their time and giving us the opportunity to take a look at the Bomb Deck and an insight into their works and future. You can follow the latest news from the studio on Facebook as well as their website.
