Fresh off the success of Paperwave Playing Cards, New York-based graphic designer, Lorenzo Cobo has just launched the Paperwave Glypth Edition deck. The overarching idea for this deck design was a direct comparison between all the different permutations of glyphs, and the infinite amount of possibilities a deck of cards is presented with.
This design was born from Lorenzo’s deep interest in typography and the search for unconventional typefaces that pushes the boundaries of form, with the goal of creating a deck design that challenges the preconceptions of what a deck of cards can look like. On the design,
The typeface used as building blocks for this design was designed by my friend, and talented French type designer, Charles Quirouard. From there, I adjusted its curves, proportions, and specific dimension to properly fit my vision for this design.
The moment Lorenzo began experimenting with the typeface he realized it would look great as a back design.
This quite abstract typeface has many beautiful moments that I wanted to highlight, but I couldn’t include all 26 letters of the alphabet in one back without it feeling cluttered and chaotic.
That’s when the fitting decision of making a deck with 56 different back designs surfaced. Every single back design has been carefully crafted to create a harmonious interaction between letters. This being a very abstract typeface allows for the letters to act more like shapes, taking legibility out of the equation and allowing the viewer to focus on the forms and negative space this partnering of letters creates.
With the exception of the Aces and jokers, the face cards are standard with recolored courts to fit the color palette of the deck. The deck is packaged in a black tuck box with the abstract typeface prominently featured.
There will be 1000-2500 decks printed by the United States Playing Card Company on premium crushed stock. Now on Kickstarter!
