Cardistry Touch Releases ESCP_THIS 2021 Deck

Cardistry Touch's ESCP_THIS 2021 is a follow-up to the popular 2020 sold-out release. The deck is the 2nd installment of this series designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries.



The new deck features a complex design inspired by tech-wear and sci-fi. Using futuristic graphics, intricate shapes, and bold typography, Alex created a deck that stands out from all others, with an “underground” design vibe.



The strong contrasts between the dark backs and the bright faces make this deck perfect for cuts, and the diagonal stripes create beautiful fanning patterns with rhythms on the backs and connections on the faces.

 

ESCP_THIS 2021 sports a two-way IDENTICAL face and card back design and is packaged in Cardistry Touch's iconic swivel box. Like the previous decks, ESCP_THIS is printed by the USPCC on Premium crushed stock. Available NOW from cardistrytouch.com for €16,95 (USD$18).

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MATERIA 001 – Deep Sea by Cardistry Touch Released!

The guys at Cardistry Touch have been teasing a series of cryptic images over the past two weeks. It all started with an image of a monolith, followed by news articles of these mysterious monoliths appearing around the globe. 

This led to the discovery of a mysterious well-funded energy company called INNERGIZE. For those with a keen eye for clues, logging into the company's website is rewarded with a sample of Cardistry Touch's new deck, MATERIA. 

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So, what exactly is MATERIA? MATERIA is not just a new deck, but a new line of Cardistry Cards. According to their social media post,

We realized that our products can be expensive for some of our customers, and this is mainly due to the very high production cost of our iconic “Swivel Box”. For that reason, we decided to go with a standard box on this, to reduce those costs and be able to offer a more affordable deck.

DEEP SEA features a bold and minimal design, with a simple rectangle shape repeated on the backs and the fronts. This consistency between both faces of the cards will enhance motions and make it easier to focus on the actual moves and understand even complex cuts. To complement this idea, the strong contrasts between backs and fronts will also make packets pop out even more. The faces are also created with spreads and fans in mind, creating different rhythms depending on the way you fan. 

 

Also, the team has decided to make MATERIA unlimited. That means the deck will ALWAYS be in stock. It might not be this exact version, but if you’re willing to get a deck of the collection, you’ll be able to do so, at any time. The post continues,

Having very limited decks is also the standard in our industry, but it can be frustrating for our customers who are not able to get them on time.

MATERIA 001 – DEEP.SEA will be available now on cardistrytouch.com, for €11.95.

Article originally published on crdstry.com.

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Deck View: Offset Orange Playing Cards

Concept. Urban. Misaligned.

The “Offset Orange” deck is Cardistry Touch's bold take on the traditional deck of playing cards. The Offset Orange is inspired by the misprint of certain playing cards, and the Cardistry Touch team wanted to use the “offset” as part of the actual design.

The deck sports a bold orange/black colorway inspired by urban life, making this deck a perfect accessory to match your streetwear looks. There are 4 different card backs and resulting in 4 different directions.

The deck is packaged in a unique swivel box and are printed by the USPCC on premium crushed stock.

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Zalēm Industries Acquired! An Interview With Cardistry Touch

This week, the brand acquisition of Zalēm Industries by Cardistry Touch has generated quite a buzz within the Cardistry community. This marks the first time that two cardistry brands have combined forces. Zalēm Industries will now operate as a brand within Cardistry Touch with independent deck design and synergized vision, ideas, and visuals.

We spoke to the team at Cardistry Touch about the merged brands and what fans and cardists can expect going forward. 

What led to the brand acquisition of Zalēm Industries? 

Well… Alex’s designs are amazing. We knew that before we knew the guy. They’re different, bold, simple yet effective, but that’s not the main reason why we thought that brand had potential: after meeting and talking with Alex simply as friends, we understood that he had a vision with zalēm, more than just making cool card designs. That’s something we really appreciate in brands, and something we try to do with Touch. 

It’s a whole creative world, that offers infinite possibilities but we felt that he needed help to get his brand to the next level, and we decided to take him under our wing. Don’t get me wrong though, Alex is a great friend but we’re not doing that to “be nice”, we truly believe that this project has great potential and that it’ll benefit us all long term! Together we re-defined the vision, rebuilt the @zalem.industries Instagram from scratch so that it shows the brand’s new and clear purpose. We worked a lot to deeply understand Alex’s vision and create something practical that represents it, to be able to share it with the world.

This whole thing also simply fits one of our main mottos in life: we want to do what we love, and do it with our friends. And new projects are simply existing! 

 

How will the creative process of combining the two brands work?

Well, now that we have set up a clear vision long term of what we want this brand to be, the process will be fairly easy: we trust Alex 100% on the actual design of the decks, we work on promo ideas and visuals altogether, and we (Touch) take care of the production and “back-end” type of stuff: with Touch, we already have a very solid base, so it’s not that hard for us to implement a new project like Zalēm.

Of course, the idea is to listen and to trust each other. We will always, question ourselves, and try to improve our process along the way. 

How will the addition of Zalēm Industries benefit existing Cardistry Touch fans?
Since the beginning, we’ve always made the products that we want ourselves to have. Things that we think are cool, beautiful, creative, interesting… That means if you like what we do, you somehow have the same kind of taste as us. Zalēm is no exception: we wouldn’t put our name on a project that is not 100% up to our standard. 

If you like what we do at Cardistry Touch, you’ll probably like what we do over at Zalēm. Since the beginning, when we introduced our “cardistry cards”, we also had a lot of questions about making actual “playing cards”, with faces and everything, and to be honest we wouldn’t do it with “Touch”. It just doesn’t fit the vision of the brand. We don’t have anything against playing cards though, and producing them through zalēm seems like a perfect opportunity for us. 

So, what comes next, in 2021 and beyond?
Haha, not sure I can tell you a lot about future projects right now, but we do have a long-term plan for Zalēm, with a lot of great stuff coming. We also want to expand to more than cardistry for this brand, as it’s something we won’t do with Touch, and it seems like a cool challenge to take on. In short terms, I guess we’ll focus on creating beautiful decks, creative content, and try to firmly establish zalēm as a solid brand.

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Cardistry Touch Launches the DÉRIVE Collection in 3 Colorways!

This week, the cool guys at Cardistry Touch just teased THREE new colorway of the DÉRIVE deck- Honey (yellow), Prune (purple), and Pepper (dark orange). The DÉRIVE Collection features a minimal back design with simple white lines creating the illusion of movement. 

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The face cards have a repeating design on each card and showcase an abstract art with various shades of color combo. 

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The strong contrast between the card backs and the faces defineitly makes packet cuts pop! The new colorway and color combo definitely gives the deck a fresh twist and maintain interest amongst cardists.

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Like Cardistry Touch's previous releases, the cards are kept secured in a unique swivel tuck box. Printed by the United States Playing Card Co. and limited to 2,500 decks for each colorway. Available in February 2021.

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Cardistry Touch Releases Offset Orange Concept Cards for Pre-Order

Now available for pre-order, the “Offset Orange” Concept deck is Cardistry Touch's bold take on the traditional deck of playing cards. The deck sports a bold orange/black colorway inspired by urban life, making this deck a perfect accessory to match your streetwear looks. 

According to the product page,

In cardistry, our mistakes are often a starting point to come up with new moves. We took that same idea to create this deck: inspired by the misprint of certain playing cards, we wanted to use the “offset” as part of the actual design. 

 

There will be 4 different card backs and hence 4 different directions! Either follow the arrow or simply let them give a new esthetic to your cuts. The possibilities are endless!

Like ALL previous Cardistry Touch releases, the deck will be packaged in a unique swivel box. The deck will be printed by the USPCC on premium crushed stock. Pre-order now for €14,95 on cardistrytouch.com

This story first appeared on cardistrybeast.com and is republished with permission. 

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Cardisty Touch's Hold My Brain Book is Available FOR FREE!

What goes through your mind when your cardistry creativity kicks in? Dimitri analyzes and understands the mechanics of creativity when it comes to cardistry in his book, «Hold My Brain». Originally published back in 2016, the digital version of the book is available FOR FREE during lockdown. According to the Cardistry Touch on their Instagram post,

Hopefully that’s a good enough reason for you to stay home during those strange times :) It’s also in our opinion a great read to improve the way you create cardistry. Stay safe.

Hopefully, the book will help you create better moves or just be more efficient in your creative process. Check it out on the link here!

Article originally published on cardistrybeast.com.