Conceptualized by Nathan Darma, Implicit Playing Cards are a modern deck of playing cards designed by Gart Gartsman. The design elements of this luxurious looking deck are inspired from many decks, such as the circular design from the Orbit Deck, as well as decorative corners of Chris Ramsay’s Memento Mori. The faces of the cards are relatively standard and the court cards are fully custom. Combined, these elements combined make for an incredible looking deck, housed in a stunning tuck with interior and exterior gold foil.
Just prior to the release of the deck on Kickstarter, we were able to catch-up with Nathan for a quick chat about Implicit Playing Cards, the inspiration behind and design evolution of the deck.
Can you tell us about yourself and how did you end up collaborating with designer Gart?
My name is Nathan Darma, I’m a 22-year-old student/magician from Melbourne, Australia. I just recently completed my undergrad in Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology with plans on doing post-graduate study in Design Strategy and Innovation. I got into magic a bit over 5 years ago and have been on and off since then.
For the past 2 years, I’ve thrown myself heavily into the magic scene and have learned a lot as well as met some amazing people. I primarily stick to close-up card magic, which is what led me to create my own playing cards. As my following on Instagram grew, I started to seriously consider making the investment in a custom deck of cards as I knew I had a lot of support from the magic community. I found Gart by posting on Reddit asking if there were any graphic designers that could help me to make my playing card vision a reality, he got in contact and the rest is history.
Can you describe the Implicit Playing Cards? and why you’re passionate about it?
Implicit Playing Cards are designed with the modern magician and cardist in mind. The word Implicit means “suggested though not directly expressed”, which I feel is very relevant to the art of magic, where a lot of sleight of hand moves are rarely directly expressed to the spectator, yet the spectator will implicitly know something happened, but won’t be 100% sure as to what.
The design elements are inspired from many decks of cards that I have loved, such as the circular design from the Orbit Deck, as well as decorative corners that when fanned produce a beautiful display which was inspired by Chris Ramsay’s Memento Mori. Oh.. the tuck box is absolutely incredible. I actually have no words, it came out looking better than I ever could have imagined, you need to see it in person to appreciate the beauty of it.
As someone who has a deck of cards on them at all times, I am so passionate about Implicit Playing Cards because they add an element of luxury and professionalism to my everyday carry, and people know I’m serious about my love for cards when I pull them out.
Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How did you get to this finished product?
The first draft was just my rough ideas/outline of what kind of elements I wanted on the back design. I have very minimal graphic design experience, so I tried my best. All I knew was I wanted the logo (the circle with the split ‘I’) in the middle, with some pattern in the top left and bottom right corners. Once I had that and realised that I had no idea how to do court cards/needed the back design cleaned up, that’s when I reached out to get a proper designer.
How did you get feedback?
For feedback I relied on my friends (both magicians and muggles) to see what they thought of it. They honestly didn’t suggest many changes, the vast majority of them loved it 3 which was awesome. I’ve also recently been talking more to Hanson Chien who will be producing the cards and he has given me a bit of feedback regarding the cards/box too.
What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
Hmm the most brilliant breakthrough…that’s a hard one. I guess it would have to be seeing the change from my initial back design to the finalised version which made me realise that these cards look so good that I can honestly see these becoming popular worldwide. At that moment I had zero doubts as to the success of these cards (although time will tell haha).
What’s next? Can we expect more deck designs in the future?
I would absolutely LOVE to release a new edition of Implicit Playing Cards every year if they become popular enough. It would be such an incredible feeling to have these cards spoken about on the same level as Fontaines, Virts and Orbits.
Finally, what are your favourite playing cards?
Implicit Playing Cards of course! But in all seriousness, I love the Keepers from Ellusionist because they feel so great and are cheap.
Thank you for your time and all the best, Nathan. If you like what you’ve read here and want to support the Implicit playing cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here.
Printed by the Hanson Chien Production Co., pledge starts from and affordable AUD$13 (~USD$10) and if the project hits the stretched goal of AUD$14k, each card back will have metallic gold ink and on the gold parts of the court cards.
