Kickstarter: Essentia Playing Cards by Mankin Chan

Essentia Playing Cards is a fully customized deck of playing cards, with unique artwork on all 54 cards in a retro flat designed style. In 2015 designer by Mankin Chan successfully launched his first deck, the adorable art deck Cultura Playing Cards.

This time Mankin wanted to create a deck that is also focused on playability, the essence of playing cards. According to Mankin,

The goal is to provide a replacement or alternative for the regular playing cards you use to play games but in my own unique design style. I used regular playing cards as an inspiration source and redesigned it with my own interpretation of flat design.

The deck features vibrant color scheme on the court cards, pips and Ace of Spades in a flat design style. Mankin continued,

The style is similar to my previous Cultura deck. I aimed to create a deck that is interesting for both players and collectors.

The deck also includes two red and black jokers with a two-way design. The deck will be produced by Legends Playing Cards Company, printed by their Taiwan-based printer on the popular Classic finish.

Now available on Kickstarter and pledge starts from €7 (~USD$8.20).

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Mankin Chan of Cultura Playing Cards

Cultura Playing Cards are an adorable deck of cards inspired by the different cultures of the world. Designed by Mankin Chan, the deck is fully custom, with unique artwork on all 54 cards in a retro flat designed style.

A lot of thought has gone into the design of the deck. Each suit represents a different country: Spades - Italy, Clubs - USA, Diamonds - China and Hearts - Netherlands. The colourful mirrored design of the backs are typically retro and decorated with the four suits. Also, each of the court cards are custom in traditional clothing and the standard fifty two cards are used to represent a cultural category, such as drinks, sports, transport etc... Exemplify the uniqueness of this deck.

We reached out to Mankin and had a chance to talk about the design background & idea behind the Cultura and Kickstarter.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I am a product designer with also a great interest in graphic design. Since my childhood I have always loved drawing and designing new products. With this project I have combined these two passions into the Cultura card deck.

This is your first playing card project on Kickstarter. Why Kickstarter?
I think Kickstarter has a great friendly and welcoming interface. I like to use it and browse through all the inspirational projects. Next to that Kickstarter is also one of the biggest and most popular platforms, so it gave me a professional and trustworthy feeling to start my own project. I think this is very important for a crowdfunding project where you don't want to disappoint your backers.

What is your inspiration behind Cultura Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
I am a big fan of board and cardgames, and since last year I discovered the great world of custom playing cards. As a designer, I was immediately motivated to design my own deck of cards. I have always been fascinated by the evolvement of different cultures in different countries.I like to travel a lot to discover these cultural differences and I like the fact that each countries has their own traditions and style. I thought this would be a very resourceful and unique theme for my playing cards.

Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version of Cultura. How did you get to this finished product?
The first thing I did after getting the idea to create these cards, is doing a lot of research. I wanted to use countries from all over the world, and they should have a very distinctive culture. After choosing four countries I brainstormed a lot to find good categories to compare the cultures.

This was quite hard because the categories should also result into nice cards. Which brings me to the design of the cards. I wanted to create a colourful, fun and completely different card deck. So I went into the process with the thought that every card should be a piece of art. I have spend a lot of time on the details of the cards. It took me over a year to finish these 54 custom cards, but I had fun doing it.

How did you get feedback?
I shared the design of the cards with a couple of designer, friends and family, which all had their own contribution by giving different type of feedback.

With so many playing card projects competing for funding, why should potential backers choose your deck?
I think this deck is unique and a great collectors item. It has a bright and positive vibe over it with its colourful design and you get 54 fully customized cards. Because of its low entry retro happy design I think it is also great as a gift for non playing card collectors. You are not only buying a deck of cards, but also a deck of art.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
I think No.17 of Lorenzo is really nice and I look forward to get these. But I also like Pagan, Sawdust and the Seasons decks. I think there are many more I like that I forget to mention now but these are the ones that come to mind first.

Thank you Mankin and all the best! At the time of writing, the project is only 25% funded with 26 days to go. If want to support Cultura Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here. 


Cultura will be printed by LPCC on their popular Classic Finish card stock. Pledge starts from €8 (~USD$9). There are multiple add-ons available such as uncut sheet and an A4 sized poster.

Kickstarter: Essentia Playing Cards Relaunched!

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.

Card Flash: Essentia Playing Cards

Funded on Kickstarter earlier this year, Essentia Playing Cards is currently in the fulfillment stage. Essentia is a fully customized deck designed by Mankin Chan with unique artwork on all 54 cards in a retro flat designed style. The distinctive art style combined with vibrant colors brings together a truly unique deck.

Taking a closer look, the simplistic flat design style has been enhanced with intricate details. The design element can be seen on tuck box and card backs, giving it a consistent look throughout.

Also, each set of courts have their own main color giving them a more standard look for the face cards. Combined with soft vibrant colors, the face cards are aesthetically pleasing.

If you are looking for a practical deck with gorgeous artwork and beautiful colors for your family game nights, this deck is definitely for you. For collectors, Essentia will surely add personality to your collection! Printed by Legends Playing Card Co.

Deck View: Cultura Playing Cards

Culture. Retro. Adorable.

Cultura Playing Cards are an adorable deck of cards inspired by the different cultures of the world. Designed by Mankin Chan, the deck is fully custom, with unique artwork on all 54 cards in a retro flat designed style. Each suit represents a different country: Spades - Italy, Clubs - USA, Diamonds - China and Hearts - Netherlands. The colorful mirrored design of the backs are typically retro and decorated with the four suits.

Also, each of the court cards are custom in traditional clothing and the standard fifty-two cards are used to represent a cultural category, such as drinks, sports, transport etc... Exemplify the uniqueness of this deck. The tuck box features a Linen feel, which matches the Elite Finish paper stock. Printed by Legends Playing Cards Co. Available now from Legends.

For more cool decks, check out JP Games.