Mankin Chan has just relaunch Essentia Playing Cards on Kickstarter. The original project was launched late last year and unfortunately did not reach the funding goal. Shortly after Mankin went straight to work and decided to take a critical look at the artwork to see what could be done to improve to improve the deck. Mankin told Kardify,
I collected feedback from friends and forums and used this as a starting point for the improvements. I received some mixed reactions about the overall simplistic style of the cards, some people liked it and some people thought it was not interesting enough. I understand both points of view, so I decided to keep the simplistic flat design style, but enhancing it with much more details. The most important and noticeable change is the style of the eyes. By giving them more definition a more mature look is achieved.
On the tuck box and back design, Mankin continued,
The second big change is the tuck box. Compared to other custom decks, it was not detailed and distinctive enough. So I started back from scratch, with only the argyle pattern as a starting point. After trying out several designs I came up with the current design which I was pretty satisfied with. Most people like the old back design, but it did not really match with the updated deck anymore. So I created a new back design that is based on the new.
Finally, Mankin made some minor tweaks to the colors. He explained,
Each set of courts have their own main color to make them more consistent, and the colors are a bit more saturated than before to make them pop.
We definitely love the enhancement done to the deck and with Mankin’s unique flat design style, Essentia will hopefully find a place in your collection or on the table for casual card games with friends and family.
The deck now on Kickstarter and limited Early Bird reward tier is available for €11 with FREE U.S Shipping included.
