Exclusive First Look: Dedalo Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Part I

Here's an exclusive first look of the Dedalo Playing Cards series from designer Giovanni Meroni of Thirdway Industries. Last month, Giovanni posted a teaser on Thirdway's website and provided a few clues about Dedalo. This has generated quite a lot of interest within the playing card community.

For the next 3 weeks, we will be going through the details of each deck in the Dedalo series. To kick things off, we have Giovanni to tell us about Dedalo Alpha:

Dedalo Alpha is the first deck in the Dedalo Series- the main theme is the Labyrinth. The symbology is very complicated. Just for a challenge, I will not spoil the complete story and prefer that people try to guess who the characters represent. For this reason, I've used "King of Taurus" instead of "King Minos" for the King of Diamonds as an example. 

There are two main stories in this deck. Hint... the gods involved in the story will be represented by the Spades courts. 

The above images are Jack of Hearts and the Queen of Diamonds. If you're wondering why those animals, the Owl was the symbol of Athens, and the bull was the symbol of Crete. Finally, the above are images of pips and an Ace of Clubs. Everything, as always, will be 100% custom :)

Join us next week when we look at the second deck in the Dedalo series, the Dedalo Omega! The provisional launch date for the campaign will be 10 June 2016. Stay tuned! 


To find out more about Dedalo and anything Thirdway Industries, visit them at thirdway.it or follow them on Facebook.

Exclusive First Look: Dedalo Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Part II

This is the second part of our first look at the upcoming Dedalo Playing Cards series from Giovanni Meroni's Thirdway Industries. In part one, we looked at Dedalo Alpha the first deck in the series. In this first look, we will focus on the Dedalo Omega, the second deck of the campaign.

Dedalo Omega will be available at launch and represents the "future" of the Dedalo storyline. According to Giovanni, everything in Dedalo Alpha is the past.

For example, the Jack of Clubs in Alpha was alive and wanted to fly high but in Omega, he is going to die after being overwhelmed by the Sun.

The deck will feature a striking red back and the eye-catching tuck will have yellow gold foil on white stardust paper.

Join us next week when we look at the final deck in the Dedalo series, the Dedalo Apeiron! The provisional launch date for the campaign will be 10 June 2016. Stay tuned!


To find out more about Dedalo and anything Thirdway Industries, visit them at thirdway.it or subscribe to Thirdway's newsletter.

Exclusive First Look: Dedalo Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Part III

In the third and final part of our exclusive first look at Thirdway Industries’ upcoming Dedalo series, we will look at the Dedalo Apeiron,the limited edition deck of the campaign. In the first part, we looked at Dedalo Alpha, the first deck of the campaign - and in the second part, the Dedalo Omega, which represents the future of the Dedalo storyline.

Not much information have been given at this time but Giovanni Meroni mentioned that the Dedalo Apeiron will be the "God" deck, with all the characters of the story… divinised.

Dedalo Apron will be printed by the Expert Playing Card Co. and will feature a stunning embossed tuck with Blue and Gold foil on black paper. The face cards will have a darker tone and will feature 2 metallic inks on black cards. Only 1000 decks will be produced.

The provisional launch date for the campaign will be 10 June 2016. To keep up to date with Dedalo and anything Thirdway Industries, visit thirdway.it or subscribe to Thirdway's newsletter.

Dedalo Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Funded Within 7 Hours

In less than 7 hours, the Kickstarter campaign for Thirdway Industries’ Dedalo Playing Cards has reached its €20,000 funding goal. Dedalo is inspired by mythology and meticulously illustrated by Giovanni Meroni with a sharp and modern style.

Dedalo Alpha, Dedalo Omega and Dedalo Apeiron are available on the Kickstarter project. Check out our First Look for the backstory and details.

The first stretch goal is at €30,000 and unlocks embossing on all Dedalo tucks. Given that the campaign only launched 24 hour ago and still has 29 days to go, it’s not hard to believe that a number of stretch goals will be smashed by then.

Dedalo Playing Cards will be printed by Expert Playing Card Co. and features rich and complex lore, which complements the artistry of the images. It is currently standing at €23,312 from 338 backers.

Don't miss out!

First Look: Pantheon Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Part 1

[Update] Pantheon Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Pantheon by Thirdway Industries is the follow up to the successful Dedalo Playing Cards, which features greek mythology. Pantheon will be an individual deck, focused on the Olympian Gods. Here's Giovanni Meroni to tell us more about Pantheon,

The project is born by chance when I was designing Dedalo, I realized I had exactly 12 Greek Gods. For the ones not familiar with Dedalo, all the spades courts of the three decks, plus all the 3 extra 55th cards feature a different greek God. I had Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite and Poseidon in Dedalo Alpha; Dionysus, Athena, Helios and Artemis in Dedalo Omega and Ares, Hera, Zeus and Hades in Dedalo Apeiron.

Giovanni continued,

I decided to use them to make a new deck, of course with very different designs and versions. Because I decided to use Helios and Artemis as the jokers (Omnia Magnifica fans may be happy there), I introduced two new Gods, Demeter and Hephaestus. And there may be an extra God to unlock, during the campaign ;-)

We will find out more details about the deck design next week. Stay tuned!

[Update] Pantheon Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter will go live Wednesday, 12 October - 21.00 UTC (23.00 in Milan, 17.00 in New York). Subscribe the Thirdway Industries newsletter to keep up-to-date with the launch of Pantheon.

First Look: Pantheon Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries Part 2

[Update] Pantheon Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

This is the second part of our first look at Pantheon Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries. follow up to the successful Dedalo Playing Cards, which features greek mythology. This week, we look at the design of the deck. According to Giovanni Meroni,

Some Gods in Pantheon will have completely different positions and designs: for example, Hermes was an one-eyed jack of spades in Dedalo Alpha, but will be a front view jack of clubs in Pantheon. Hades will be the suicide king and of course Aphrodite the Queen of Hearts.

The deck will be fully custom and redesigned,

All the Aces, Pips, Back and Tuck Box are redesigned as well - no more labyrinths in Pantheon, I just kept the impossible solids as the common element with Dedalo. There is a new solid, the 6-pointed impossible star that is the main symbol of Pantheon. This star will be on the Tuck Box and on the back of the cards.

For the back design,

I decided to use two stars as the 12 points represents the Gods who actually live in the Olympus. For the fans of mythology, Hades and Helios does not live in Olympus, that's the reason the points are twelve and not fourteen.

Pantheon will have a lot of features: embossing, double foil on outside tuck box (violet and gold) and one foil inside (red) on dark paper. Pantheon will also have gold foil on card backs. Will be printed from Expert Playing Card Co with Classic Finish.

[Update] Pantheon Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter will go live Wednesday, 12 October - 21.00 UTC (23.00 in Milan, 17.00 in New York). Early bird reward tiers are available! Subscribe the Thirdway Industries newsletter to keep up-to-date with the launch of Pantheon.

Kickstarter: Odissea Playing Cards Has Already Doubled Its Target

Thirdway Industries' Odissea Playing Cards on Kickstarter has doubled its target after just two weeks of launching on the crowdfunding platform. Giovanni Meroni set a goal of €20,000 (USD$23,000), but as of today, it has over €43,963 in pledges with 15 days to go. According to Giovanni,

So far, Odissea is my fastest campaign ever. The day one gathered €32,087, breaking the record of SINS (€30,644).

Clearly, there's huge demand for Giovanni's highly collectible decks! On our first look article prior to the launch of Odissea, we noted that the deck was inspired by Homer's Odyssey with the art style of SINS and Dedalo - Giovanni tried to mix them to have the malice of SINS and the mythology of Dedalo.

All three decks are fully custom with stunning tuck boxes, eye-catching backs, and gorgeous face cards. Also, several stretched goals have been unlocked: embossing and extra cards - the extra cards are alternative courts: two different versions of Ulysses in Minerva/Neptune and an alternative KoS of Minerva fighting Neptune

Mythica tiers are almost sold out only 25 tridents remains. Check it out on Kickstarter here! Odissea's expected release date is October of this year.

The Art of Thirdway Industries' Giovanni Meroni

Wow...! Thirdway Industries is turning 5 this year. We've been following founder Giovanni Meroni since the Discourse Deck Design Competition (DDDC) back in 2014, when he first started designing playing cards. Since then, Giovanni has progressively improved his style with every deck he designed. Have an exclusive look at the evolution of Giovanni's work, from Evil Deck to Betrayers. Commentary by Giovanni.

The ones who know me as a playing cards designer probably don’t know that my “old” signature style was only vector shapes without lines (above). I’ve learned this style when I studied graphic design in the academy, and used it for a few years for illustration freelance jobs.

My first deck, The Evil Deck, was made with a minimal flat style - without lines. With all the cards illustrated, it was a tremendous effort.

During the production of The Evil Deck, I’ve learned a lot about playing cards world - I’ve met other designers, great people and awesome customers. I started collecting and I’ve seen some beautiful decks that inspired me a lot.



I’ve studied an old Modiano classic deck and, for the first time in my career, I’ve introduced lines in my illustrations. Welcome, Delirium Prism!



I absolutely loved the look of Delirium, and I wanted to try it on more human and realistic characters. I wanted a “classic” deck of cards, a sort of a standard of my newborn brand Thirdway Industries: Omnia.

During the design process, I’ve made it a little less classic than I was planning to do, especially because of the gorgeous Queens.



My “lines” style evolved a lot since Omnia: In Dedalo I wanted huge courts, more realistic and complex.



In SINS and Eva, I’ve reduced the figures a little, so I had more space for bodies. I’ve also improved the expressions of the courts.



After doing so many realistic and dark decks, I felt it was time to return doing something fun and colorful. Something with the same vibe of Delirium, designed after several years of experience in playing cards design. I’ve decided to call this deck Lunatica, and it’s probably one of the craziest ones I’ve designed.



Odissea is probably my most mature work with my signature style so far. I’ve merged the best part of SINS with Dedalo, adding details, expressions, and variety.



After Odissea, I wanted to take a break from my usual style, so I’ve checked my first works and decided to try to use a flat style again… after 5 years of experience. The result... Betrayers, a deck that uses flat shapes and gradient on realistic and complex figures.



Now I am designing a new deck, Monolith, with my usual style, but a completely different theme. I am a chaotic person, and I absolutely don’t have any idea about how my style will evolve in the next years - I always tried steadily to improve what I do, so hopefully, it will get better!

To keep up-to-date on anything Thirdway Industries, visit them at thirdway.it or follow them on Facebook.

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Odissea Aegis Playing Cards

Shield. Goddess. Legendary.

The Odissea Aegis Playing Cards by Thirdway Industries is a limited deck packaged in a digitally printed tuck box from the Minerva deck. Aegis was the legendary shield of Jupiter, but mainly held by his daughter Minerva. This shield is an iconic symbol of the Goddess of Strategy, and it also represents her role toward Ulysses. She’s his protection against all the threats he suffered during the Odissey.

Due to a production problem during the Odissea project, some of the original Minerva tuck boxes were lost, so there were some USPCC cards without a box. To rectify the issue, Giovanni Meroni and Gamblers Warehouse produced some new digital boxes for the loose Aegis cards.

Inside, the art style is an evolution of SINS and Dedalo – Giovanni tried to mix them to have the malice of SINS and the mythology of Dedalo. Apart from colors and name, there are subtle differences between Minerva and Neptune decks from Thirdway Industries.

Available now from thirdwayindustries.com for $30.

Thirdway Industries Reveals the Mythica Limited Edition Deck!

[Update] Odissea Playing Cards is now on Kickstarter! 

Odissea is the second release of the year for Thirdway Industries. Inspired by Homer's Odyssey, the deck features the artwork of Giovanni Meroni. On the inspiration, Giovanni explained,

Odyssey was my first fairy tale. When I was a little kid, instead of Red Hood and Cinderella, my father used to tell me how Ulysses fooled a man-eating cyclops, blinding him with a sharp stick, or how he challenged the Siren’s Call, tied up to his ship’s mast.

The art style is an evolution of SINS and Dedalo - Giovanni tried to mix them to have the malice of SINS and the mythology of Dedalo. Like the majority of his previous releases on Kickstarter, Oddissea will come in a total of 3 decks- 2 unlimited decks (Minerva and Neptune) and 1 limited deck (Mythica).

Giovanni revealed a few details of the Mythica Limited Edition deck that will be available during the crowdfunding campaign. There will be metallic inks used on the face cards AND card backs. In addition to that, the face cards will have an experimental pearlescent effect (to be revealed in the campaign).

The deck will be packaged inside a premium black stock tuck box with 3 foil! If you are familiar with Giovanni's work, you can be assured that the tuck will be STUNNING!

[Update] Odissea Playing Cards is now on Kickstarter! 

At the time of writing, Giovanni is still deciding on the printing company. It will be between EPCC Taiwan, USPCC, and Cartamundi. Odissea will launch on Kickstarter 16th May 18:00 EDT  and pledge starts at €15 (~USD$18).

Card Gear: Thirdway Industries

Card Gear is our monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup and accessories used every day by card designers, cardists, magicians and collectors. The concept originated from the popular social media site, Instagram: #passthepockets. Whenever one of these hashtags come up on the social news feed, there's always something new to discover, no matter who that person is.

This month, we have the EDC of Giovanni Meroni, founder of Thirdway Industries. Giovanni is based in a small city- Lentate sul Seveso, north of Milan, Italy and also the designer of the stunning OMNIA decks. When not designing decks, Giovanni works for an e-commerce company as art director and work nights/weekend to cards.

Giovanni is currently funding SINS Playing Cards on Kickstarter. The project is seeking €17,000 and is already 303% funded with less than 5 days to go.

Giovanni's gear (Italics are Giovanni's comments):

+ Thirdway Industries business card (with a custom, gaff illustration on one side)
+ Dedalo Oracle Card
+ Omnia Oscura
+ Dedalo Alpha
+ Leather fat wallet full of silly stuff, almost destroyed
+ Keys of home
+ Ray-Ban sunglasses to look cool
+ Nexus 6P (not included it the image, but it's here since Giovanni used it for shoot)


What’s yours? If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, contact us.

News: Thirdway Industries Teases New 'Mysterious' Playing Cards

The past 12 months have been pretty good for Thirdway Industries. It successfully funded 2 projects (Omnia and Omnia: The Golden Age) and came in runner-up for UC's Overall Best Deck of 2015 in various categories.

Today Giovanni Meroni unveiled his second project for the year on Thirdway's official website, DEDALO Playing Cards. Unfortunately, not much is known about the deck just yet, but Giovanni has left a few clues for those who are able to "solve" it.

Clue words like Labyrinth, Traveller, Princess with the Red Thread, VI MMXVI and Fortune favours the brave. We suppose that this is a reference to a mythology or some sort like Giovanni's other decks.

We have reached out to Giovanni for a comment. Stay tuned! You can subscribe the Thirdway Industries newsletter to receive a notification.

5 Things You Need To Know About Thirdway Industries' SINS Playing Cards

On Friday, February 17, Giovanni Meroni of Thirdway Industries launched SINS Playing Cards on Kickstarter. The project hit its funding goal of €17,000, and as of the time of writing, 504 backers have pledged €36,498 toward the project. These are the five most surprising and illuminating details Giovanni shared about the project to generate interest from potential backers.
 
1. Printers are still being evaluated. 
For SINS Giovanni decided to evaluate two options, United States Playing Cards Company and Expert Playing Card Company. Thirdway Industries decks were all previously printed by EPCC. For SINS Giovanni thinks that USPCC may be an awesome option. The decision will be made at the end of the campaign, based on several factors.

2. The decks have a subtle chronological order.
In SINS Mentis, Adam and Eve thought about eating the Apple of Knowledge, but they actually didn't do that. In SINS Corpus, they ate the Apple and they became mortals. In SINS Anima, they accepted what they did, and they became the first two true Sinners. So the chronological order is Mentis > Corpus > Anima

3. Card backs are inspired by Eden.
The backs are inspired by the Eden, in three different moments: In SINS Mentis no one ate the Apple of Knowledge, so Eden was bright. After the Original Sin happened in SINS Corpus, Eden has fallen in an endless night. After Adam and Eve accepted mortality, Eden became "red" - the color of many things.

4. Anima is red because of life. 
Giovanni decided to use red for SINS Anima for many reasons. Red can be both a "bad" color than a "good" one. It is the color of blood and the flames of hell, but it is also the color of blood, passion and life.

5. Giovanni wanted to change his brand name to Snakeway Industries 
With SINS, there will be a total of 12 Thirdway Industries decks with a Snake - 6 Omnia decks are based on the Uroboros, the God Snake who eats its own tail. Also Dedalo Alpha, Apeiron and Pantheon include snakes, on Hermes caduceus, on Hera's and Pasifae's scepter. This is somewhat unintentional, but Giovanni had a thought to chage the TW logo with a little snake. However, it's not happening. For now.


SINS Playing Cards are now available on Kickstarter! To find out more about SINS and anything Thirdway Industries, visit them at thirdway.it or follow them on Facebook.