Deckstarter: 7 Questions with Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co: Thick Lines Edition

Earlier this month Deckstarter was launched at HOW Design Live Conference in Boston. During the conference the Buck twins handed out show bags containing the launch edition playing cards of Deckstarter to each attendee. One of the eye-catching deck is the Draplin Design Co. "Thick Lines Edition", designed by Aaron Draplin himself.

Aaron Draplin is a spirited, straight-talking designer, creating iconic designs which are both exceptionally clean and timeless. He has built an impressive roster of clients, including the Obama Administration, Nike, Adobe, Lego, Burton Snowboards, Wired magazine and Incase. You can checkout his work at draplin.com

We had a chance to talk to Aaron about his design background, his work, designing the Thick Lines deck and his advice to aspiring designers and artists.


Could you introduce yourself to our readers? What is your design background?
My name is Aaron James Draplin and I’m 40 year old. I make logos, icons, catalogs, DDC merch, wild posters and a little memo book company called Field Notes. I’m from Michigan and as soon as I could, moved West in 1993 to be a snowboarder. Got out here, lived like an animal for five winters riding all over the west, then got a design degree in Minneapolis. Did a couple years in Southern California working for Snowboarder magazine, finally getting rescued back to Portland in 2002. Did a couple years with CINCO here in Portland, and went out on my own in 2004. Haven’t looked back since!

You have a design studio, run a blog (since 1998) and also your own line of products. How do you find the time…
I make the time. Just that simple. This stuff means something a lot me, and I take my output very seriously. All the bellyaching and what not I hear about people “not having enough time” to do what they want, well, I’ve just never indulged in that sh!t. If I want something, I fight hard to make it happen for myself. Might be small, might be wobbly, but it’s still mine. No boss or pressure system is going to tell me “No.” Who needs those turds? I’m trying to invent my own f       ’ life, and so far, so good! Fingers crossed that I make it to 41!

... and what are some of the most memorable work you have done?
Records! Vinyl is the best. I’ve had the honor of making records for bands I love over the years. The one that rises to the top is the first record I did for Richmond Fontaine. They are a local Portland band, and damn, I’ve loved them for going on 19 years! And then you get to work on their record? It’s mind-blowing. You fret EVERY detail, cuz damn, all those little pieces matter. I’m just so proud to be able to help out on something I love so much, you know? Recently I got to do the Old 97’s record “Most Messed Up.” Super fun. I’ve been listening to those guys since the mid-90’s, too! Got to meet Rhett and roll up my sleeves for them. Other favorites: Danava, Megafaun, All Tiny Creatures, Casey Neill, Chuck Prophet, Man…Or Astro Man and Dawes!

The Draplin Design Co. Playing Card Set: Thick Lines Edition will be your first playing card deck. How did you and D&D end up collaborating together for Deckstarter?
I got a call from Andrew at The Dieline offering a chance to make a set! Took me about five seconds to make up my mind. My own damn card set? How could anyone say no? I've been a fan of The Dieline for some time, so the chance to collaborate instantly sounded great. We inked a deal and I got down to work.  

Can you describe the DDC Playing Cards: Thick Lines and why you’re passionate about it?
I’ve just seen so many incredibly intricate sets out there, and man, I love that stuff too, but, I wanted to make something that felt oddly “off.” Like, big, thick lines that just feel good in your hands. The idea that there’s a table full of players, and those big, colorful thick lines are sort of lighting up the place? That was the start. We can always use more color. And of course, being the nerd I am, I had to make my own set of icons, and that turned into diving into the face cards! You make one, all fired up, and quickly realize, Sh!t, there are 15 more! Ha!  

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
Damn, that make me sound so official or something? Honestly, it was a slow burn. Just this fun buzz of knowing the sum of the parts were better than any one card or element. I just wanted people to hold them and get little surprises? Like with the JOKER card? Just wanted me to go, Oh damn, that’s cool! Little reactions. Cards are cool. I love playing old-fashioned solitaire and stuff. They just feel good in your hands. There’s an earthy, human quality to them. In an iPhone/IPod world, more and more sh!t is some little digital flick or whatever. These make you savor that simple quality of having something pleasant in your hands.  

What are your favourite playing card decks? 
That “Animal Kingdom” set by Hatch is incredible. Love the hand-drawn quality. The Monarch sets are beautiful! Every detail is considered. I appreciate how they own each little detail. Seeing those for the first time really blew my mind. They really respected the tradition of the “ornate” card design. A new, respectful take on it. And now that I think about it, I really blasted that to sh!t with my my set. Ha!  

Thank you so much for indulging my questions. Do you have any other words of wisdom for other aspiring artists and designers?
Of course! I’ve always got words for the youngsters coming up! Here’s a little list.
01. Keep the sh!t fun. Work is work, but play is play. Design should be fun! Meld the two!
02. Never ever ever ever stretch type. Don’t do it.
03. Pay those taxes! Uncle Sam won’t budge on that sh!t.
04. Be an inventor. We forget this one. Dare to dream, and then act!
05. Call your Mom and Dad each day.
06. Things to stay away from: Clip art, texting while driving and Guy Fieri.

Awesome! Thank you for your time Aaron!


The Draplin Design Co. Thick Lines Edition is available on Deckstarter for $25. For a higher pledge, you will get a limited edition How Design Live Edition of this deck in a custom MagicPak. Think Lines will ship as soon as funding goal is reached.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with John Powell of Occults Playing Cards

Following the success of Double Black Playing Cards, Gambler’s Warehouse released their second custom playing card deck- Occults, on Kickstarter. Featuring the original artwork of John Powell, this mysterious deck is the result of extremely high demand for a coloured version of their previous release. Occults Playing Cards features 56 playing cards with custom Faces, Courts, Jokers and Tuck.

We caught up with John to talk about his design background, the inspiration behind the Occults deck, the design evolution of the deck and Kickstarter.

Could you introduce Gambler's Warehouse (GW) to our readers? What is your design background?
GW: We have been involved with the playing card industry for over twenty years. We recently expanded to be able to handle 300+ orders daily and have opened a new retail store-front based in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. We are excited to finally be creating custom decks and have several designers that we are working with to bring the community fresh ideas and unique, quality playing cards. We want to give John Powell the opportunity to speak on behalf of his own design and his experience in working with us. So without further ado, Herrrrre's Johnny! ;)

John: I've been a graphic designer for 18 years now. I've worked primarily in licensing and merchandising with companies like Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Sony Signatures, Cartoon Network and a bunch more making products licensed for movies. I then kind of fell into product design after playing professional paintball for a few years. I've been lucky enough to get to work with Gambler's Warehouse on my first card deck and we already have more planned.

Can you describe the Occults deck and why you’re passionate about it?
The Occults deck is my very first deck. I grew up in a very strict Mormon house in Utah. We weren't allowed to have playing cards in the house. The very idea of something associated with gambling and devious behavior was pretty taboo so of course I absolutely loved them. Plus some of the first cards I ever got my hands on had naked ladies on them so they were twice as amazing and I'd fallen in love with playing cards ever since (and b00bs).

Occults was kind of my effort to show some of that love back and being not allowed all those years growing up to be anywhere around them. I was always fascinated with the courts and felt like each one of them had these faces that were just holding secrets. I have always been equally fascinated by secret societies, (mormonism is one already) sacred geometry and the marks and symbols associated with them that have this immense history or story behind them that tell it all with just simple shape or mark. I wanted to have as many stories packed into my Occults courts as I had imagined there were when I was a kid. For example in the Occults courts the queen of clubs is in love with the jack of hearts hence the heart on her chest and she's about to poison herself because he's just beheaded her brother (who is also in the courts but I'll let you decide who).

I just had all of these kinds of stories going on as I was constructing each one. There are dozens more of these little secrets hidden away and I don't want to give them away as I think the stories other people may come up with are even better than the ones I'd imagined. I basically wanted a deck that brought some of that mystery and taboo to everyone that I got sneaking away with other neighborhood kids to play cards on camping trips.

This will be the second Kickstarter project for Gambler's Wareshouse. Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is pretty instrumental to what I feel like GW's is trying to do with their custom decks give everyone what they want in a deck. I think they listen to all the feedback and adjust the decks art rewards whatever according to the feedback. I think its a win/win situation for backers and GWs gets to focus on producing the highest quality products that ultimately are what the backers are wanting.

How much time did you spend working on the deck? Also, can you briefly go through the evolution for one of your unique card designs (maybe the evolution of the back design)?
Each court essentially took about three days to complete. Typically I'd take a day to roughly sketch out and plan the story for each card basically build and research my secrets for it. Then a day for drawing a half of the court drawn well enough I could then scan it to the computer.Then a day or two for building them in vector in the computer. Then coloring. I built the courts in 2012 so its been over two years now since I was able to finish the Box, the back and the rest of the deck. They all seemed to fall together really easily once the courts were completed and I'd had so long to see them and run them over in my mind as to what I wanted them all to look like.

So its been such a long process I'm not entirely sure of the answer as to how long I worked on it. There was a period of over a year where the project sat and I wasn't really sure if it was going to be produced at all. I'm obviously thrilled that there has been such a great response to it and people seem to be as excited about it as I am.

What are a few key elements and principles you incorporated into your project that you think future Kickstarter creators could benefit from knowing?
Again I think its vital to listen to your backers. GW has listened and I think people really respond to that and see hey these guys care about our input our ideas and we get a better product because of it. I think its important to set realistic goals and set great stretch goals that make it worthwhile to maybe back a project for a little bit more to get a better reward.

Playing card projects on Kickstarter has grown exponentially over the past few years? What are your thoughts?
I think the capitalist market is the greatest thing of all times! I think that collectors deciding whether or not they want to buy something before it gets made is an awesome opportunity. As well as for creators who wouldn't otherwise have the money to do it. Collectors get better cards and rewards. Artists produce better quality work. Everyone comes out ahead in my opinion. I've heard about other people developing their own Kickstarter like platform where they wouldn't have to pay the fees and such and I think that's an even better idea.

Finally, what are your three favorite playing cards?
Jaqk by Cellars, Federal 52 by Jackson Robinson, Empire by Lee Mckenzie are my personal faves!

Thank you for your time John and congratulations on hitting the funding goal! 


Occults Playing Cards will be printed by the USPCC and is available in two separate editions: Limited Edition (Unbranded) and Standard Edition (Branded). Pledge starts from $13 and there are multiple add-ons available such as Card Clips, Poker Chips, T-Shirts and Collector Coin. There are also multiple rewards that will be unlocked once the project hits its set stretch goals.

Revealed: LUXX Playing Cards Part II

This is the second part of our exclusive first look of the LUXX deck from JP Playing Cards. This elegant deck was created by Randy Butterfield, designer of the successful White Ornate.

Part I featured the partial reveal of the tuck and the back. In this reveal, we have the first look at LUXX tucks and back.



This exclusive first look is provided by Paul. When asked what motivated him to create the his own deck of cards, Paul said,

"I guess it probably started when we first realised that Lawrence (LPCC) was opening up his printing company to work with third parties. His Legends decks have all been extremely popular with the majority of our regular customers and so the motivation became to produce a deck that was practical yet beautiful. An elegant deck of cards that was still something that would be opened and enjoyed. With that in mind the aim has been to go with traditional recoloured courts with a beautiful set of aces and back design. Something we can be proud of as a small family business, and a deck we'd enjoy using ourselves too. "

To be the first to know when the LUXX Playing Cards are released visit JP Playing Cards - one of the fastest growing collectible playing card stores in the World. Also, to see more exclusives and interviews, please follow us Facebook.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Benji Taylor of ICON Playing Cards

ICON Playing Cards is created by a talented young cardist, Benji Taylor. This minimal, simple and quirky deck came together when Benji realised from his sketchbook that some weird random icons when put together could make a stylish deck design.

Benji was nice enough to have a chat with us about his design background, the inspiration & design evolution of the Icon and support from the playing card community.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
My mum is an artist and so growing up I have been able to experience that world quite a bit from art fairs etc. I have also always loved to draw, just random doodles mainly. It was only after I got my laptop that I really started to experiment with different types of design. The internet is amazing for me, it's a great way to be inspired and also learn pretty much everything you need to know about what ever you want to know about, the rest is just practise!

You are an amazing cardist! What motivated you to create your own deck of cards? 
Haha, thanks! I think it was when I went into my local magic shop and picked up an awesome deck I had never seen before. I asked the guy working there who had made them and he said it was an independent design by one person on Kickstarter. I had backed projects on KS before but had never though to search up playing cards let alone design my own deck. After that I knew I wanted to do it.

What is your inspiration behind Icon? How did you come up with the idea?
I couldn't think of a solid theme, I had all these ideas in my head that could of worked but I also didn't want to limit myself to one solid thing. I drew down a bunch of little ideas in a sketchbook, when I looked back at them and saw what were all these random icons, I decided that if I couldn't choose one that I liked best, I would use every single one that I had done! I drew them out neat, scanned them in, went over them and then put them all onto a back design! That is how Icons came about.

How much time did you spend working on the deck and can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
In total, I probably spent near to 5 months designing this deck. Everything else aside, just focusing on design, around 5 months. Some might think that is quite long considering it is not fully custom and is just the ace, box, back and jokers but I wanted every detail, every letter space on the tuck, to be just the way I wanted it. I also kept coming back to it, I would save something and then a day later change it all again till I was happy. It took me a long time just to get the colour the exact shade I wanted it! (it doesn't help that I am colour blind either..) Originally it was going to be a one way back with different icons than there are now, and was going to be a dark brown... This just shows how much things can change from the first try to the final product.

We initially noticed Icons on your Instagram account. What do you think of the playing card community and the support that you’ve been getting so far?
The response from icons has been overwhelming and generally amazing from the word go. When my good friend Franky Morales and I shared the first photo on Instagram we started getting lots of messages and comments asking where they could buy one of these decks. We released photos bit by bit and tried to not give too much away. Over time we developed a big group of people who were incredibly supportive and kind who are now the people backing the deck. One thing I have learnt along the way is that you cannot please everyone and this is a very valuable lesson to learn. You cannot keep changing things until you please everyone because you simply cannot please everyone. If you are truly proud of something you have done then be proud of it. All in all I think the community is great, they are supportive, communicative and kind and I hope it will all continue to grow.

What are your thoughts about some concerns regarding the shipping and fulfilment of Icon?
With the help of my whole family the idea will hopefully be to create a human conveyor belt and get everything packaged and sent as soon as possible. I think problems with shipping will always arise and it's not always possible to stop these things from occurring but I will make sure to work around these issues so that every backer gets what they have pledged for and is satisfied.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
My favourite decks... I would have to say.. Absolut Vodka, Fulton's China Town, Virts, Watermelons and Private Reserve? Those are just a few, I have so many!

Thank you for your time Benji and all the best! If you like what you’ve read here and want to support the Icon Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here. 


This deck will be printed by the USPCC with linen finish. Pledge starts from $16 and there are multiple add-ons available such as Icon t-shirt, Icon Anything is Possible bottle by Jamie D. Grant and Joe Porper Card Clip.

Encarded: 7 Questions with Paul Carpenter of Zenith Playing Cards

Zenith is the first deck in the Encarded Signature Series masterfully crafted by Paul Carpenter. This highly anticipated deck is a dramatic re-imagining of the several commonly seen playing card themes: the black and white deck design, the central circular medallion motif, and borderless design. Zenith may be the only deck to combine such themes into such a cohesive and elegant package. Housed in a special sideways opening tuck box made of elegant, thick matte black paper, Zenith is adorned with amazingly detailed and vibrant holographic silver foil and sealed with a sequentially numbered seal (xxxx/1000) under the cellophane. Stunning!

We caught up with Paul, in between his busy schedule to chat with him about his design background, launching Zenith outside Kickstarter, the inspiration behind Zenith and EPCC.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
My design background goes quite a ways back, actually to when I was about 12 years old. My family got our first Macintosh computer (a screaming fast Mac IIci with an entire 12Mb of RAM!) in 1989 and I was immediately fascinated by it. I spent many hours playing with Photoshop 1.0 (which came on 4 floppy disks at the time) and fashioned all kinds of projects for myself. I started doing freelance in high school when designing for the internet was uncharted territory, went to college for graphic design and ultimately got a job as the creative director for a small internet company. Over the years I’ve worked on a wide variety of projects but the vast majority were digital. Digital creations, no matter how great, tend to quickly fade, be superseded by the new version, or become obsolete so I had always craved outlets that created tangible products. It took about 20 years but finally playing cards fell into my lap and I knew I had found a perfect medium for my design passion.

This will be your first release outside Kickstarter. What is the motivation behind this decision?
Kickstarter is great, and did give me chance to start Encarded. However, I always hoped to create my projects in such a way that it was self sustaining and (with some planning and a bit of luck) even profitable. I think that if you work out your projects properly, Kickstarter can actually fulfill it’s intended purpose, to give a project creator a jump start. Zenith was the perfect project to do outside of the Kickstarter model, as it was a purposefully small run, making it feasible to pay for the “real way.” Kickstarter adds costs and complication that don’t exist in a traditional storefront, so if possible I hope to do projects outside of Kickstarter.

Do you see this (KS creators releasing playing cards outside KS) as a trend? Why or why not?
Right now, I don’t see the Kickstarter trend stopping. The entrenched market of Kickstarter is strong and it does bring a lot of eyeballs to your projects. More critically, I think Kickstarter has, in some ways, lulled people into a false sense that all of this is really easy and painless, and as we’ve seen in almost all facets of modern life, everyone wants quick and easy.

I think that many projects creators really don’t understand the costs, profit potentials, shipping hazards and other factors that make doing these projects hard in the traditional way. Having backed many projects on Kickstarter it’s clear that only after the fact to people see the “wow this is a lot of hard work” aspect and in some cases this sudden reality can derail all the good intentions.

What is your inspiration behind Zenith? How did you come up with the idea?
Zenith is an experiment in taking two themes that we’ve seen a lot of, namely black and white art and borderless designs, and mix them into an entirely new way. I have many decks with predominantly black and white art on the back. They are all very nice, but in my opinion all too often stick religiously to the established norms. Borderless designs are also common but almost exclusively rely on small repetitive design detail for their effect. I wanted to explore a way in which these elements could be dramatically reimagined into a fresh design that you wouldn’t expect.

Can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
My process is very amorphous. I do not really have a concrete way of doing things and almost all of my projects have developed in organic ways on their own. Usually, I do have some vague notion or theme that I want to explore.

With Tendril, I was inspired by Costa Rica and knew I wanted to explore the conflict of light and dark. For Aurum, I wanted to instill high detail and luxury alongside hand drawn details. For Deco, I wanted to see how I could incorporate stark simplicity with immense detail.

I usually start work by writing outlines for myself with facets of the design I would like to see. I might do some small pencil sketches to generate some ideas. From there, I usually go to the computer and simply start experimenting. Usually, the design of a deck will change significantly over perhaps 10 iterations and usually I end up with something vastly different from the start. I keep many of my ideas and thoughts that don’t make the cut for a particular project and revisit them later, which is how many parts of my Signature Series decks will come about. Anyone watching my decks sees that I clearly do not so the same thing over and over, so any of the ideas I stumble upon might bear fruit later.

When did you first start thinking about using EPCC for Zenith? What made you decide to take the plunge?
When I was at the 52+ Jokers annual convention in Las Vegas last year, I had the opportunity to talk with Bill Kalush of the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York. He showed me one of his latest decks (the Exquisite, which was unreleased and a secret at that time) and I was very impressed with the quality, handling and feel of those cards. In the course of the meeting we were able to talk about the work Bill had done to find and experiment with the international printers and the options that they made available.

I got the idea of using some of the designs that I had stumbled upon in the course of creating my other decks to create the Signature Series, and EPCC afforded me the flexibility to do small runs at a reasonable cost. I also wanted to make use of the EPCC printer’s ability to get extremely precise registration, as my design for Zenith would not be tolerant of variations in where the border of the card was cut. Being the first time using a new printer, it did require a fair amount of time and effort and because I packed Zenith full of luxury touched it’s far from a “cheap” deck, but the EPCC printer did an amazingly good job and I’m certainly going to make use of their capabilities again.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
I have quite a few decks and open everything I buy so that I can study the art. I do not own much vintage (yet) but hope to acquire more of the beautiful artistry from days past. Some of my personal favorites right now are the Federal 52 from my friend Jackson, the Seasons from my friend Alex, the Exquisite from CARC, Whispering Imps, Royal Optik, Virtuoso, Curator, Tally-Ho Vipers, and v1 Artifice.

Printed by the Expert Playing Card Company, Zenith is one of the rarest full releases in the world of modern playing cards. There are no other editions, no other box designs, no other colors and it won't be printed again. Less than 1,000 sealed and individually numbered decks will be released. Don't miss out on your chance to get this groundbreaking deck from Encarded!

Revealed: 7 Questions with Amil of the White Deck

I am not a big fan of minimalist decks and there have been quite a number of them on Kickstarter already. Most of them attempt to give the traditional playing cards a modern spin. However, reinventing the wheel resulted in the loss of practical  functionality of the playing card deck. Unlike those decks, the White Deck stands out with its two-way back design, easily recognizable court cards and most importantly, readable indices.

Originally scheduled to be launch on April 1st, creator Amil and his team decided to postponed the project to a later date as backers might not take this project seriously. We had a chat to Amil about his design background, the inspiration and design evolution of the White Deck and his thoughts on minimalism.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background? 
We are a group of 4 graphic designers, obsessed with minimalistic style. We're all well known in our field but this is our first time working together and we decided to introduce ourselves as a team were each one is a part of the whole. We worked on the concept, then the design had to follow the guidelines of this concept.

This is your first Kickstarter Project. Why Kickstarter?
Crowd funding is an effective way to source funding for a new product and we want to be part of that because it allows cardists, magicians and collectors to help make the White Deck a reality. Also, this platform allows us to interact with customers directly and receive feedback.

What is your inspiration behind The White Deck Project? How did you come up with the idea?
While designing The White Deck, the minimalist design was an imperative element for us. Beautiful designed are either intricate or simple and we just love the latter. We worked on the motto ”less is more”.

When creating The White Deck, we didn’t just want to offer a color variant to an existing standard playing card deck. We wanted to do something different. We were curious to see how the deck would look with a minimalist design, and when design was completed, we were blown away! We simply had to get these out there.

How much time did you spend working on the deck design?
Well, it is not about time spent, it's about the concept and work finished. We assure you that you will be pleased with the finish and the quality of the deck. We’ve spent a lot of time testing several different layout concept to create our perfect deck of playing cards.

Can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
The Japanese flag and the Japanese minimalism was the starting point. A red round on a white background: the Sun. That´s it and that is enough. Basic geometry and single color. We worked on the colors as well. We wanted to keep readability for the index and keep somehow the standard courts in a soft-plain non-invasive way (visually speaking). We wanted to have only red and black on white. The light gray is still black ink at 10%. We wanted to have a ”bright” white minimalistic deck, with the feeling of fading out.

What are your thoughts about the playing card community’s comments about minimalism? Is it a trend or just lazy?
Minimalism is a movement. Our designs are not only simple, but immersive and dynamic. Minimalism is simplicity. Simplicity is hard to achieve.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks? 
We love rare limited edition decks. They are oh so hard to get and as a collector, We just need to have them all! Can you imagine, some decks were stored in the warehouse and was forgotten until recently… these are limited edition print runs just for the artists’ personal use. It is not often an artist graciously share these decks with us.

Thanks for your time Amil, and all the best!


No launch date has been given for the White Deck project, but Amil said it will be "in a week or two". Also, the White Deck will be printed by the EPCC.

7 Questions with Emmanuel Jose of Clipped Wings Playing Cards

Clipped Wings Playing Cards is a deck inspired by birds created by paper-cutting maestro, Emmanuel Jose. Emmanuel is well known for the Curator Playing Cards, a popular transformation deck which incorporate the suits into a design. Like its predecessor, Clipped Wings is a fully custom transformation deck featuring 55 unique works of art, all entirely cut by hand.

While preparing for his Kickstarter project, we had the chance of catching up with Emmanuel about his design background, his unique paper cutting style & ideas and thoughts on Kickstarter.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I’m an artist and I recently moved to New York City. I was born in the Philippines, and I grew up in San Diego, California and Raleigh, North Carolina. Art runs in both sides of my family, and I’ve been artistic since I was very young. I double majored in art and psychology at Davidson College, North Carolina.

You are well known for your first unique paper-cut style playing card, the Curator Deck. Can you briefly explain what the paper cutting technique is and how did you get started?
I use scissors and an X-acto knife to cut paper and create images. That’s pretty much all there is to the paper-cutting technique, haha.

I did some paper-cutting-related school projects here and there when I was young, but I gained a new appreciation of it when my art teacher in high school introduced us to an amazing Chinese paper-cutting artist. Even after meeting him though, I didn't immediately start cutting. A couple years later in college, paper-cutting came up again when we studied some modern and contemporary artists for class. Later, when I was home during summer break, I decided to make some paper-cutting art to entertain myself. From that point on, I made more and more paper-cutting art.

Clipped Wings will be your second playing card project but first on Kickstarter. Why Kickstarter? 
After the Curator deck was produced and released, I eventually reached the point where I wanted to manage my own decks and have my own control over my work. I’m going with Kickstarter since it has allowed a number of designers and artists to produce their own decks of cards.

What is your inspiration behind Clipped Wings? How did you come up with the idea?
When I was a young boy, I had pet birds, and they were talking myna birds. Those birds were amazing since they could say your name and mimic human speech. I’m very fond of birds, and I also had a lot of bird ideas running through my head as I was making the Curator deck. When I noticed how many of those ideas I had, I decided to make my second deck all about birds.

How much time did you spend working on the deck?
The Clipped Wings deck took a whole year to complete since I make one card a week. A single card can take anywhere from 1 to 5 days to complete.

Can you briefly go through the evolution for one of your unique card designs?
The ace of spades for Clipped Wings is a bird in a birdcage because it’s based on the myna birds I had as pets. The idea for it came pretty quickly, and the paper-cut card doesn't differ from what I had first sketched out. For a more complicated card like the paper crane 10 of Diamonds, I studied origami instructions and had to make sure that the paper crane instructions could be depicted in only 10 steps. It was impossible to have all the diamond pips be the same size while still showing the origami steps, so I made the decision to alter the size and shape of the diamonds. I had known months in advance that I was going to do a paper crane as the 10 of diamonds, but I didn’t know what it would look like yet.

Here's an exclusive look at the paper cutting technique from Emmanuel's next deck Sawdust: 

Finally, what are your thoughts about the continuous strong growth of playing card projects on Kickstarter?
I believe that the strong growth of projects will make playing cards better. Kickstarter is saturated right now with great and not-so-great decks, but successful decks ultimately raise the bar for the entire cardistry community. The beauty and artistry of playing cards continues to be elevated and celebrated, and there’s no complaining about that!

I totally agree! Thank you for your time Emmanuel and all the best! If you like what you’ve read here and want to support the Clipped Wings Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here. 

This deck will be Bicycle branded and printed by the USPCC with air-cushion finish. Pledge starts from $11 and there are multiple add-ons available such as uncut sheets, art prints, art book and paper-cut art.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Jackson Robinson of Kings Wild Project

Earlier this month, Jackson Robinson of Kings Wild Project released The Independence, a playing card series inspired by the American Revolution, featuring both a Continentals Deck and a British deck. Within 10 hours, the project was fully funded and is now trending towards 244% of the funding goal! Incredible! Considering that this is a little project that Jackson has been working on for a while but had to be bumped up the schedule due to production issues with the scheduled Army Deck.

Between his busy schedule, we were able to catch-up with Jackson for a quick Q&A on the future of Kings Wild Project, the inspiration behind the Independence and his thoughts on Kickstarter.

2013 was a great year for Kings Wild Project. Can you tell us what you have been up to since the last project?
Yes, 2013 was a crazy awesome year. I never imagined that Kings Wild would take off the way that it did. And 2014 has been following that same crazy wild ride. This year, my family and my business moved to Memphis, TN. We’ve launched our own fulfillment branch. Cards have to be shipped so carefully to protect their 'collectibility' - and I have learned so much through my previous projects about shipping cards, I wanted to put that knowledge to use by shipping my own cards as well as helping other card projects get their decks out in the best possible conditions.

We’ve also got some other things planned for this year, including The Hive. It will be our first deck that I haven’t actually done the artwork for. I really have connected with the community of deck designers out there and I want Kings Wild to be a place where other artists can be mentored and see their projects come to life.

We’ve got other things planned that I can’t share just yet but trust me when I say - it’s gonna be awesome!

What is your inspiration behind The Independence? How did you come up with the idea?
When I first started Kings Wild Project last year, I would write down all kinds of ideas for decks. I love history and especially American History and early American art, so it was a no-brainer to have a deck from American roots - the revolution.

Can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
First, I start out with tons of research and reference. Then I do a rough concept, and I keep refining and refining until I get what’s in my head to appear on the card.

The Independence was funded in 10 hours and according to our data provider- Kickspy, the project is trending towards 244%. What are your thoughts in terms of support received, the successful funding of your project and what’s next?
Each kickstarter continues to blow me away. The support is unbelievable. I love the Kickstarter platform because it allows people to be so involved in the process. My crew has been so awesome. I’m developing a plan to take that same environment and community and transfer it to my website as we move towards that direction. It will include a pre-order system and funding goals similar to Kickstarter.

That sounds awesome! What are your thoughts about the continuous strong growth of playing card projects on Kickstarter?
Some people might see all this growth as competition but I think it just elevates the art of playing cards and the world of card collecting, which is beneficial for everyone. But with more card project out there, it gives backers more choices of what they want to support. That means the designs and art has to be top notch. A project that would have been easily funded last year may not be successfully funded this year. Backers are looking for the best of the best of the projects to see those come to life.

You have previously launched 3 successful playing cards projects on Kickstarter. Are there any takeaway lessons from your previous projects you would like to share?
 + Bring your A game. As I said above, people will not support a project that is not a well thought out idea with stellar artwork. Don’t expect to get funded with something you threw together over the weekend.
+ Do your research on all your costs. Getting funded is only half the story. There is no faster way to get into financial trouble than to get funded and not have a solid plan of what you are doing.
+ Backers Beware. I encourage backers to be careful also. If your project creator is not in constant contact with you - something is wrong. A few backers might get annoyed with the number of updates I send out, but the majority of them feel secure because they know I am not scamming them out of money. It’s unfortunate because this happened to a really big deck recently.  

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks and why?
Tiger #101 - This is my favorite vintage deck. It was the first deck produced by USPCC and it was the beginning of the era of modern cards. I love them.
New Era #46 - Another vintage favorite. The court cards were revolutionary and non-standard. I am a big fan of doing non standard court cards, as fans can see.

Right now, I am really liking Whispering Imps by Chris Chelko as a modern deck. I think they have a great design and I’m a big fan of the tuck case.

Thank you for your awesome insights Jackson! I can't wait to see what Kings Wild has in store for us next!

The Independence will be available in two sets- The Continental and The Crown deck. Two editions available: Standard and Limited Edition (LE).The LE decks feature the new Kings Wild Exclusive custom fold over tuck case and the set will come wrapped in a vintage style vellum paper and have a removable 2-inch-wide belly band that is also foiled and embossed.

Printed by the USPCC, pledge starts from $12 and there are multiple add-ons available such as screen printed posters, dealer coin, uncut sheets and collector's boxes.

If you like our interviews, please remember to Like Us on our Facebook page.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Chris Edgerly of Dia de los Muertos Playing Cards

Dia de Los Muertos Bicycle Playing Cards is a Deck inspired by the art and traditions of the Day of the Dead -  a traditional Meso-American holiday dedicated to the ancestors; it honors both death and the cycle of life. Created by the team at Edgy Brothers, this beautifully illustrated deck pays homage to the spiritual and cultural event as it is celebrated today: full of color, detail and character.

We caught up with Chirs Edgerly, one of the founders of Edgy Brothers to talk about his company, the inspiration behind the Dia De Los Muertos Playing Cards, the evolution of design of the deck and Kickstarter.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
Our company, Edgy Brothers, started in 2011 mainly to do t-shirt designs. It was myself (Chris Edgerly) and my wife (Geraldine Planchart) and my brother David Edgerly - our resident artist. But David was so busy doing freelance work that we could only devote so much time to getting the designs going. Dave's got the design background - he's worked in graphic design, animation, illustration, you name it. Geraldine's and my backgrounds are more in the performing arts, though we've found that gives us a valuable p.o.v. for design. You're constantly thinking of not just the visual idea, but how it connects with an audience, how it tells its story.

This is Edgy Brothers’ first Kickstarter Project. Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is the perfect storefront. They've done all the heavy lifting for you. The backers are already there, looking all over the site for something to inspire them. Some are niche backers, who pledge in just one area, and others are generous across a wide landscape of concepts. Naturally you've got to do whatever you can to pull other card enthusiasts into the site to see your work, but in this case, virtually every hardcore collector knows about Kickstarter.

What is your inspiration behind the Dia De Los Muertos Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
We've always been inspired by Dia de los Muertos. One of our first t-shirt designs was of a Flamenco-dancing skeleton. We've still got a few shirts of it (we sell them on our site.) And my wife Geraldine is Venezuelan, and everyone in the Latin culture knows Dia de los Muertos and the strong connection to those who have passed on. It's such a wonderful, mysterious, vibrant aesthetic, and, like Latin culture, is also quite bold. Hard not to be inspired by that. So, the idea then was how best to represent that on a deck of cards, keeping the modern, popular style of Dia de los Muertos in tune with the older, more historic side of it.

How much time did you spend working on the deck?
We spent a couple of months, at least. David had just finished the art work for a successfully funded campaign he did with a couple of friends, the Edgar Allen Poe deck, and was ready to jump right in with this one. We had to discuss the concept for a bit before we were happy with what card would be represented by what character, and from there he started sending us designs for notes (he lives in Austin, we're in Los Angeles.) After that, it was back and forth for weeks, tweaking, sometimes starting from scratch, etc. Meanwhile we also worked on the project page and everything else that comes with running a campaign, as we found out.

Can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
Let's take the Jack of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. You'd think they're both Jacks, no big deal, just a minor difference here and there, right? But they were elusive. The color scheme was crucial - we knew we wanted Mariachi for the Jacks, but once we juxtaposed the red of the Heart with the colors inside the border and the border itself, it didn't always work. And then what works with the Heart doesn't work with the black of the Spade. So, after this long back and forth we finally realized that the solution was two different borders: one more rustic and bronze/copper shaded for the Heart and one more silver/grey for the Spade. Then we had to deal with the negative space of the card design, which was harder to fill with a skeleton, being as they're obviously slimmer than a person, unless you want to do a bulky, broad skeleton and that didn't work.

So, we found ways to put filigree in just the right spots to complete the design. In the interim, we toyed with adding and subtracting different colors and flowers, juggling all these classic Dia de los Muertos elements that we wanted to include but some of them just didn't work with the rest of the design. It's knowing what to leave out sometimes. And while all this is going on, David is methodically cranking out this unbelievable art work and you hardly want to reject any of it because you know on your best day you couldn't do that yourself. But the perk of being family is you get to be honest. And he prefers being challenged instead of having someone who just says "yes" to everything.

57% of the top projects in 2012 missed their delivery dates? What are your thoughts?
We studied a lot of campaigns - and not just up until they got funded. We looked at their post-funding updates, at comments from backers who were sometimes understandably impatient with a very loooong fulfillment process. And we realized that both sides have to understand the other for this all to work. Backers who get behind a lot of campaigns are the coolest. They know fulfillment takes months, and they accept it. In fact, they're suspicious of creators who promise short fulfillment windows.

Newer backers, however, are amazed at the window of time between when they pledge their money and when they get their deck. But Bicycle - who almost everyone uses - has their process, and it takes weeks. And that's assuming you've got the art work finished as soon as the campaign ends, which doesn't always happen. Then you've got to use a good fund manager (we're using Backerkit for this campaign) to keep everything in order and communicate with your fulfillment center so things get shipped on time and to the right place.

They key is being realistic. If you've got several different add ons and complicated pledge levels, you've got a lot of sorting out to do before everyone gets what they pledged. And communicating with backers is crucial. You have to use regular updates to explain where you are in the process so they don't think you forgot about them. To help with that, we pledge campaigns regularly so we can not just support the creators but to get a sense of what it's like to be a backer and experience that wait.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks? 
There are too many to mention. Some we only found about after they had ended because we're so new to Kickstarter, and you just kick yourself for not being one of the early backers. Uusi's Pagan deck was very cool and original. House of Playing Cards' Imperial deck had a nice design choice as well but it was also over when we found it. But we managed to back Elite's One Million deck, the Steampunk Goggles deck, and the Diploma Bicycle deck, which unfortunately didn't get funded. We also loved Jackson Robinson's Federal Decks, which were long since closed after we discovered them. We did back his Independence deck.

We're just like any backer - we're looking for something to surprise and amaze us. Lot of that to be found on Kickstarter. We plan on mentioning other ongoing campaigns in one of our updates a little later in our campaign. Gotta send out your support.

That's very nice Chris! Congrats on reaching the funding goal! :)

Pledge starts from $12 and the Dia de Los Muertos Bicycle Playing Cards will be the USPCC. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretch goals. The most notable is the black deck at $25k and painted deck at $50k! Add-ons such as dice, dealer coin and shot glass are available.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Ken Sommer of Portraits of the Zombie Apocalypse Playing Cards

This is NOT your regular zombie themed deck that features zombies in various poses doing what they usually do. The Portraits of the Zombie Apocalypse Playing Cards is a tribute to what it was before and a reminder that zombies were once people too. Inspired by post-apocalyptic fiction, Ken Sommer designed the deck to stand as a testament to humanity after the zombie uprising comes to pass.

Presented in an eye-catching tuck and unique back design, this deck features portraits based on real people. Backers who pledge on the 'be on the zombie court' tier will have their likeness immortalise on this beautifully illustrated deck.

We caught up with Ken to have a chat about his design background, Classy Horse Industries, inspiration behind the Portraits of the Zombie Apocalypse deck and his thoughts on Kickstarter projects.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
My name is Ken, I work under the moniker logicaloperator. I’ve been an illustrator and designer for seven years, and I spent the majority of that time working in the print publication industry.

Like any designer, I love creating, but I identify with the idea that good design is problem solving. My passion is working on full projects rather than just single pieces. I personally feel the beauty of design and satisfaction one derives from working in the field is found in all the unseen details behind every project.

I have a love of all things “post-apocalyptic” and like most people of my generation I am better prepared for the zombie apocalypse than I probably should be…but who doesn’t have “a plan”.

This is Classy Horse Industries’ first Kickstarter Project. What is Classy Horse Industries’ and why Kickstarter?
Classy Horse Industries was initially born from making cards, games, puzzles and print media for other clients. We’re both fans of cards and games, and with our experience in the field, we wanted to launch a project of our own.

We chose Kickstarter for our first major project because it’s a great way to get ourselves out there as well as really connect with other like-minded people. We’ve only been live for a few days but we’ve already gotten an enormous number of responses from both fans, designers, and vendors. The instant feedback makes it possible for us to grow as creators as well as make sure we are able to make something that everyone loves.




What is your inspiration behind Portraits of the Zombie Apocalypse Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
As I mentioned, I have an affinity for all things post apocalyptic as does Andrew so we knew we wanted to explore the subject in our first deck. We tried out a few concepts but really like the idea of having a painted portrait as the court and the zombified version on the reverse. Initially we wanted to use public domain victorian portrait photos to be the subjects of our decks, but the USPCC requires model releases for all likenesses public domain or otherwise, which would have easily fallen into challenge part of the “risks and challenges” Kickstarter category. So we reached out to our friends and family to see if anyone wanted to become a zombie. The response was amazing so we thought we definitely need to extend the offer to the backers.

How much time did you spend working on the deck?
Probably somewhere between six and seven hundred hours over the past few months. This has been my main focus once we got underway and includes everything from concepting to finalization as well as the various work involved in forming a new company and creating our first Kickstarter.

Can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
Our initial concepts were monochromatic, and very busy with a good deal of superfluous design elements and weathering effects; I like to start big and refine with the idea that “less is more”.

For the final design, I moved the floral elements behind the character in the background splatter and made the border a simple stroke on the living side and a scrawl on the zombie side with subtle blood effects throughout the border.


We tossed around the idea of making the pips “realistic items” that were in keeping with the theme, but nixed it believing that even though it looked cool, the pips might not be instantly recognizable as the traditional counterpart they were depicting, thereby decreasing the decks usability. We ultimately settled on a splattered effect for the “zombie side” of the card.



For the portraits, I work digitally but I started my career using traditional tools and techniques so I employ a process one might use if they were going to paint a non-digital portrait. Typically a non-photo blue sketch, followed by a refined grayscale sketch over that and finally painting in full color over that.

57% of the top projects in 2012 missed their delivery dates? What are your thoughts?
Projects slip, it happens, for many reasons. I think the key is communication. I’ve seen projects where backers are completely understanding and it’s because the creators are actively engaging the backers and keeping them informed.

There is so much involved in delivering any print product and with Kickstarter. It’s not just designing a beautiful product, it’s also managing a marketing campaign, being an accountant, a customer service rep, a logistics and supply chain manager, a shipping clerk, a backer liason. It’s a lot of work and no matter how much you plan there are always surprises.

Andrew and I have worked together on projects including cards, packaging, puzzles, stickers and textbooks. Through these experiences we understand the logistics of a project like this and are able to set realistic goals for our Kickstarter while realizing how important it is to keep backers informed whenever issues arise.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
I have a long list but I can name a few from past Kickstarters. Anything by Jackson Robinson, Postumo, Oracle, Pedale Designs Misc Goods deck, Karnival, and the 8-bit deck was an amazing project overall, great cards, great rewards.

Thank you for your time Ken and all the best!

The Portraits of the Zombie Apocalypse Playing Cards will be printed by the USPCC and pledge currently starts at $10 (early bird). There are multiple add-ons available such as t-shirts, art prints and uncut sheets.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Dave Boyd of Wiretap Playing Cards

Inspired by the recent revelations of numerous wiretapping activities around the globe, designer Dave Boyd set out to create the Wiretap Playing Cards,  a deck focused on putting the power to spy back into the hands of civilians - the deck is always watching, waiting, and dissecting.

We managed to locate Dave through our various intel and interrogate have a chat with him about his design background, inspiration and evolution of Wiretap and his thoughts on Kickstarter.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I graduated from the University of the Arts in 2012 with a BFA in Illustration. My main concentrations of work at the time were in editorial and concept work, but I grew to love the community and intricacies of playing cards after my Sultana debut in 2013.

This is your first individual Kickstarter Project. Why Kickstarter?
The platform is an excellent place to share ideas with and meet other creative professionals, as well as get feedback from a large community of backers. I really enjoy the fact that a project can fail or succeed merely based on its merits (and advertising, haha) alone.

What is your inspiration behind Wiretap Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
A lot of my close friends (and father) are working in the tech industry, and often when we would get together we would talk about the Snowden leaks and what the impact the NSA is having on the tech community. It is critical to realize, especially for people as young as I am, that the next step in our online evolution is setting boundaries and deciding what constitutes privacy. Cloud technology companies in the US have been hurt badly by the NSA leaks, because foreign investors no longer feel safe putting their data in the hands of people who are constantly being watched.

I wanted to make a deck of playing cards that would remind the user that they are being watched, as well as their intended targets. Having a deck of cards like this laying around allows folks to strike up a conversation when guests are over, and I firmly believe that talking about a problem is one of the best steps towards solving it.

How much time did you spend working on the deck and can you briefly go through the design evolution of one of your unique card design?
When this is all through, I will have worked on this particular deck for about 2.5-3 months. I did all of the work outside my part-time job and often worked 10-12 hour days (mostly in February when I was getting my butt in gear).

First, I gather reference for all of my drawings. Finding images of the Edward Snowden was difficult, because the only photo that really exists was that one taken from his interview. After collecting the pictures, I draw a thumbnail in pencil which I scan into photoshop and edit until it is rock solid. [Picture 1]

I print out a black and white copy, and then use a lightboard to transfer the image onto a paper of thicker stock (typically cold-press Arches, Strathmore, or just regular Bristol Board). [Picture 2] I scan the fully-rendered image back in, adjust the levels, clean up the dust, and then color the whole image in Photoshop. [Picture 3]

It sounds really long and tedious when I type it out, but that whole process probably takes about an hour on a good day.

I initially noticed Wiretap Playing Cards on the forums. What do you think of the playing card community?
The reason why I'm so drawn to the playing card community is because they demand high-quality products and are easy-going and friendly all at the same time. When I posted up the Wiretap deck on the forums, many people leaped to point out improvements that could be implemented, and the general feedback that I got was constructive. I hope to be a part of this community for a long time, and it hinges on the success of this first deck.

What are your thoughts about the continuous strong growth of playing card projects on Kickstarter?
I can't say that I'm surprised. Collectibles have always done well on Kickstarter since their launch, and cards are no different.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
Federal 52, the CMYK deck, and Grotesque (yeah that's right, I'm declaring it before I've even got it). There's also a standard red Bicycle deck that's been in my camping gear for as long as I can remember, and I have fond memories of it.

Thanks Dave and all the best! Love your art style! :)

Pledge starts from $11 for the standard edition. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretch goals. The most notable is the second deck, the Gag Order. This deck will feature partially-blindfolded pips, a dark colour scheme and will focus entirely on counterintelligence. Also the courts be fully custom and will be futuristic spies (a la Splinter Cell).

Check it out!