Card Radar: WILD Playing Cards by AssoKappa il negozio

Created by Mattia Santangelo and designed by Angela Munteanu from Varese in Italy, WILD Playing Cards is a unique nature-themed deck featuring a geometric-styled artwork. The deck is hand-illustrated and digitally colored, giving it an essence of something real — a distillation of reality. According to Mattia,

Every element on the card back have meaning. On the background you can see "sacro monte" and "campo dei fiori" the Varese "mountain" and under it you can see the varese lake. My idea was to create something unique, so I tried to mix the artwork in geometric style. I think that this is a perfect mix. Not too much geometry, leaving room for realistic details.

On the design of the card backs, Mattia continued,

We put a lot of attention to details on this, we studied the body language of wolf to design it in the correct position when he howls. I love the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake... it is awesome! The perfection of the nature is the theme of the deck, and that is how we came up with the name of the deck, WILD!

The face cards are standard to maintain familiarity. Hence the standard courts are updated with colors to match the color palette of the card backs.

The custom Ace of Spades features a wolf foot imprint and the jokers are geometrics.

This is a choice because the jokers can be any cards so they are undefined and they can change into something alse. So we decided to not give them any realistic part. They are looking in opposite way like in the Phoenix deck because in sandwiches effect they are very pretty to see.

The WILD deck is produced by AssoKappa il negozio, an Italian magic shop that has produced many decks. Amongst them, the Contemplation deck for popular Italian YouTuber, Jack Nobile, the Sharpers deck for Gianfranco Preverino, and the AssoKappa deck.

The WILD Playing Cards will be available this Saturday, 12 August 2017 from AssoKappa.

Card Radar: KIWI Playing Cards

Created by Mattia Santangelo and designed by Angela Munteanu from Varese in Italy, KIWI Playing Cards are a delightful deck inspired the cute creatures native to New Zealand. The deck sports a blue, green and blue colorway with both the Kiwi bird and fruit prominently featured.

The deck is fully custom from the card backs, Ace of Spades to the updated court cards and tuck box design. On the tuck box design, Mattia told Kardify,

The landscape on the tuck box is inspired by the Skipper canyon of Queenstown, New Zealand. The Kiwi birds have always wanted to fly, but like what their name mean, in old greek, “without wings” they cannot fly. We wanted to make them fly so they started using umbrellas like a parachute.

To maintain familiarity, the face cards are somewhat standard. The court cards have been updated with colors to match the theme of the deck and the Kiwi bird now takes the place of the familiar royals.

The KIWI deck is printed by Cartamundi and produced by AssoKappa il negozio, an Italian magic shop that has produced many decks. Available now for $19 from AssoKappa.

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On Kickstarter, Spaghetti Playing Cards by AssoKappa

Spaghetti Playing Cards, a custom deck of playing cards for lovers of Spaghetti, the iconic Italian dish currently seeking funds on Kickstarter by AssoKappa.

The custom deck is designed by Kiran Kuruvithadam and the idea is to bring an essential part of the Italian culinary tradition directly into your hands. 

Inside, the back design is simplistic, with a vibrant color palette that will make your jaw drop… for the forkful of spaghetti that is coming your way.

Each of the semi-custom courts represents a fundamental step and/or ingredient for the preparation of the most iconic dish...spaghetti al pomodoro! From tomato sauce, garlic, wheat flour and eggs for the noodles to kitchen tools such as wooden spoon, colander, and cheese grater.

The aces have been designed to be easily recognizable: they each feature an enlarged pip in the center. The two identical Jokers represent a joyful waiter proudly serving the main course, to which the deck is dedicated.

For the magician, the deck comes in a Mnemonic stack to amaze your friends from the first use. The cards will be manufactured by the USPCC, with sustainable forest paper, starch-based laminating, and vegetable-based inks.

Definietely a fun deck created for those who love the classic look for poker nights and magic routines and collectors who appreciate discovering custom designs in every small detail. Available NOW on Kickstarter for $12.

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Card Radar: Juan Tamariz Playing Cards

Juan Tamariz is not your typical magician... but you already knew that. He's a deep thinker whose engaging manner conceals his exceptional cleverness. Not only is he a celebrity of television and stage magic in Spain and South America, Juan is well known internationally among magicians as a true master of his art, and one who generously shares his time and knowledge, both in print and in person, with the magic community.

The Juan Tamariz Playing Cards is the first collaborative effort of Dani DaOrtiz and Jack Nobile (D&J), with Grupokaps (Gkaps) and AssoKappa. It is inspired by the DVD, Juan Tamariz - Magic From My Heart produced by Grupokaps in 2017 and is a tribute to one of the greatest minds in magic.

A year in the making, the deck is designed by Jonathan Cadenazzi and Arnaldo Thomas DeRosa. The custom artwork of the deck highlights some of the aspects that caricature and reflects the character of Juan: the spider and the imaginary violin. In his legendary book Sonata, illustrations of musical notes resting on staves woven by fun spiders hand-drawn by Juan himself. It is the spiders, that always put an end to every thought written by Juan himself. Appropriately, the spider has been featured throughout the deck.

The tuck box sports a purple colorway, with the magic melody, depicted by Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds- composed in an imaginary pentagram woven by the spiders of passion, and interpreted by Juan, represented by his infamous purple top hat.

The face cards are semi-custom and easily recognizable. The purple color palate has been applied consistently to the court cards and the mirrored card backs. The Ace of Spades features the side silhouette of Juan's profile, while the two jokers depict the violin case of Juan's imaginary violin.

Overall a very well thought out deck created from love, admiration, and passion. An acknowledgment to one of the most creative mind in magic. Available now from assokappa.cards for €18.90.

Magic: Popular Italian Magician Jack Nobile to Release the White Flower Playing Cards

Created by popular Italian YouTuber, Jack Nobile and designed by Kiran Kuruvithadam, the White Flower is a calm, relaxing deck of playing cards with a soothing blue colorway. One year in the making, the beautiful white flower floating on the water symbolizes pure nature.

On the deck design, Jack tells Kardify,

The card back features a white lotus flower on a light blue background and we took the idea from the Madison Dealers. The Aces have the same color palette to the Jacks, Queens and Kings. The jokers are an up-oriented hand that gives life to a flower symbolizing rebirth and inner peace.

The face of the Jacks have been customised to include Jack Nobile's best friends: Lorenz on the Jack of Clubs, Hyde on the Jack of Diamonds, Iac on the Jack of Spades, and Jack Nobile on the Jack of Hearts. Jack continued,

We've also added a red/blue double face gaff card and a blank card to create magic effects. I hope you'll like this new deck! The idea is always the same... whenever you want to relax, after a hectic day, you can use this deck and devote your time to magic. It's just a relaxing deck. Thanks for letting me live this beautiful dream!

The White Flower Playing Cards are produced by AssoKappa and printed by the United States Playing Card Co. with Air Cushion Finish. The deck will be released on September 20, 2017.

Card Radar: AUREAS Playing Cards by Italian Magician Hyde

AUREAS Playing Cards is a fascinating deck inspired by the mathematical beauty of the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio. Over a year in the making, AUREAS is produced by Italian magician Hyde (Instagram: @hydemagician) and designed by Annalisa Storari and Kiran Kuruvithadam. Golden Ratio translates to "sectio aurea" in Latin. From that the name "Aureas".

Hyde is an aeronautical engineering student and he has always been passionate about maths. With that, he wanted to create a math-themed deck, by taking inspiration from the "golden ratio", a geometrical feature that derives from math and that is found both in nature and arts. Using proportions that come from the golden ratio in arts is perceived subconsciously as beauty.

Hyde told Kardify,

I wanted to create something different from the usual, as you know my mathematical vein is always evident in the things I do, I decided to create a deck that was based on that. Also, I wanted to put a personal touch on it, so in addition to using math, I used the golden proportions to create special Rubik cubes as the Jokers, which can also be used for magic effects.

Inside, there are many secrets to discover within the design, such as the use of “phi” or the golden number and the fact that the pips have been redesigned using the golden ratio geometry.

Crafted for the magician in mind, the aces have been enlarged to be more visible for productions, and the courts are standard but slightly recolored to maintain familiarity with the spectators.

As Hyde mentioned, the jokers depict a Rubik's cube (Hyde performs mostly with cards and cube-magic), and you can see that the single "wedges" again follow proportions dictated by the golden ratio.

AUREAS Playing Cards are available NOW from assokappa.cards for €16.90.

News: The Latest Issue of Kardify Magazine Issue 19 is on Patreon

The latest issue of Kardify Magazine is now on Patreon for our Patrons who pledge $3 or more on our Patreon page. Issue 19 of the magazine compiles selected articles we’ve published from mid-November to mid-December. Our goal is to help you stay on top of the latest playing card news, releases and previews.

Funds received from the magazine will help us keep the site running and growing, and bringing new quality content to you. Our aim is to support designers by backing on crowd-funded projects and supporting magic and playing cards retailers with their new releases. If you want to support us, please head over to our Patreon page.

If you have an idea for an article you would like us to pursue, do get in contact with us. We hope you enjoy the read. In this issue:

+ Momento Mori NXS: Check it out! The new deck by Murphy's Magic takes the low-poly design to a whole new level.

+ Wolves & Crows: The custom decks are a spiritual tribute to the fictional universe of the Ukrainian video game series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

+ Aegis & Nemesi: The limited deck by Thirdway Industries combines the Minerva and Neptune decks with a digitally printed tuck.

+ Gamblers: Find out more about the new stylish decks crafted for magic by DropThirtyTwo.

+ Jurassic Park: The new deck by Ellusionist in collaboration with Universal Studio and the Jurassic Park Franchise!

+ Golden Sunrise: Our favorite deck released by Art of Play on Black Friday. Check out the vibrant deck inspired by the American classic diner.

+ KIWI: A delightful deck inspired the cute creatures native to New Zealand by AssoKappa.

+ Kings Wild Releases: Check out all the new decks released by Kings Wild Project on Black Friday.

… and more! 48 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!