The Arcadia Signature Edition is inspired by the meaning behind the brand name, Arcadia. Arcadia is an idealized vision of perfect harmony in nature and has often been depicted in Renaissance art by shepherds herding their sheep in untouched wilderness. According to designer Christian Ellingstad,
The actual word comes from the Greek province also called Arcadia. In Greek mythology, this place was considered as the home of Pan, god of the forest, rustic music, shepherds and wilderness – a character that appears in the artwork of the deck.
There are two standard versions of the deck on offer during the campaign- forest green and earthy brown. Both decks feature fully custom card backs, courts, Ace of Spades and jokers.
The custom back design showcase a sun setting behind mountain tops is the main motive on the mirrored backs.
Ace of Spades features an illustrated spade with picturesque nature. A crown is topping the spade and within it, a starry sky can be seen behind three mountain tops.
The courts are 100% custom but still based on traditional faces printed with Gold metallic ink. Christian explained,
My greatest challenge of designing court cards is to make them completely customized while keeping the “traditional court look”. I want magicians to be able to use the cards in their magic routine. The courts and pips should, therefore, look familiar to spectators so they don’t raise any suspicions. At the same time, I want them to be unique to this deck. This has been accomplished by drawing the courts from scratch with unique faces and ornaments but retaining the silhouettes of the traditional courts.
The green deck will be packaged in a stunning tuck box, hot foil stamped with three different foils: green, gold and white.
While the brown tuck will be foiled with bronze, gold, and white. Both beautifully embossed on high-quality card stock.
The cards will be printed by USPCC and the tuck boxes will be expertly crafted by Gambler’s Warehouse. Pledge starts at $15 on Kickstarter.
