Deck View: STORIES Volume 3 Playing Cards

Retro. Narative. Duality.

STORIES Volume 3 from Vanda Playing Cards is a beautifully crafted deck that continues the brand’s exploration of narrative duality. Designed by Serbian artist Srdjan Vidakovic (Widakk), this fully custom edition showcases his signature retro aesthetic and imaginative storytelling.

Each court card illustrates two sides of a tale in mirrored detail. The deck features soft, pastel tones enhanced with metallic inks on the face cards, giving it both charm and refinement. 

Printed by Cartamundi, the deck is housed in a gold and green tuck box designed to resemble a vintage book spine, it includes interior printing, embossing, and a metallic seal for a luxurious finish. Available from Vanda Playing Cards for $30.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Playing Cards

Now on Kickstarter, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Playing Cards explore the whimsical world where classic literature meets the art of card games. This enchanting deck, the first in the new Artists Series collection from Vanda Playing Cards, is illustrated by Bob Case and brings Lewis Carroll’s beloved tale to life. 

With intricate designs, each card captures the magic and mischief of Wonderland, leading you down the rabbit hole with every shuffle.

Created over six years of collaboration, Bob Case’s unique illustrations draw inspiration from the original artwork, portraying the iconic characters and scenes of Wonderland. 

From the Cheshire Cat's sly grin to the Queen of Hearts’ fiery expression, each card is a vibrant masterpiece.The use of rich colors and exquisite details transforms the deck into a collectible piece of art, perfect for both gameplay and display.

The deck is packaged in a standard tuckbox crafted with three foil colors (gold, silver, blue), and embossed for a luxurious feel. Standard decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company, while the Jumbo decks will be produced by Make Playing Cards.

Available now for $15 on Kickstarter.

First Look: STORIES by Vanda Playing Cards

Produced by Vanda Playing Cards, STORIES is the latest project in the Vanda Artists Series exploring the inherent duality that any tale possesses. Vanda Artists Series features incredibly talented artists who have a passion for creating playing cards.

STORIES is the 3rd product in the series featuring the artwork of Serbian graphic designer, Srdjan Vidakovic better known as Widakk. The deck is fully custom and showcase the Widakk's retro designs.

Fully custom, each court card tells a story with original artwork featuring an artistic representation of a unique dual-sided story and has been meticulously illustrated. With its soft subtle pastel-shaded colors, each card exudes fun and charm, while maintaining the traditional function of a playing card deck. Every story has two sides and isn't complete until you've heard both views.

STORIES will come in 4 editions named in different book volumes. They are packaged to resemble a collection of books, neatly ordered on a library shelf. Each volume is slightly from each other.

Volume 1 features gold on red colorway tuck with Monochomae court cards. Volume 2 features gold on blue colorway tuck with full-color court. Both Volume 1 and 2 will be embossed and comes with interior print. The two decks will be printed by the USPCC.

Meanwhile volume 3 sports a gold and green colorway tuck. The face cards come with metallic inks. Volume 4 looks rather stunning in black with gold foil. The gold foil will be featured on the cards as well. Both decks will come with interior print and embossing for the tucks and sealed with a metallic seal. They will be printed by Cartamundi.

STORIES will launch on Kickstarter on Saturday, November 2nd. Pledge starts at $16.

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Vanda's Cardistry Club Volume 1 Now on Kickstarter

From the mind of Vanda's David Goldklang comes Cardistry Club. The goal is to provide members of the cardistry community a broader range of tools to choose from when creating their kinetic artwork. Also, David would like to give cardists the opportunity to impact what the future of cardistry will look like by participating in and contributing towards the design of new decks.

In January 2020, Cardistry Club will launch as a monthly subscription service and will ship out 1 new deck design every month. These will be new designs exploring many different visual styles and not just recolors of previous releases.

To kick things off this year, Volume 1 of the Cardistry Club series has just launched on Kickstarter with 12 cool deck designs to keep card flourishes fresh and captivating. The initial 12 decks are available individually ($8) or as a set ($65) which will ship out later this year. All Cardistry Club decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company.

Here are the 12 decks from Volume 1:

Circles
With hypnotizing optics, CIRCLES will capture your gaze and leave spectators mesmerized. Back design is black & white and faces are uniform with Cardistry Club Green background and corner/edge ornaments that look great in fans and spreads.

Squares
SQUARES continues the mesmerizing style with an optical illusion that vibrates when stared at. The index-less faces have bold colors, sleek pips, and iconic court cards.

Bills
BILLS features a back design that pays homage to traditional casino borderless backs but in our own unique style. The faces are a twist on a standard deck, with supersized ornamental indexes and highly styled pips. They also features typographic elements showing the textual version of each card's value.

Dots
DOTS has a similar approach to BILLS with a back design pattern that feels quite traditional. The faces, however, are anything but standard, featuring bold typography, unique graphical pip layouts and no indexes. These faces will quickly catch anyone's eye.

Tuxedo
Pump up the elegance with TUXEDO—the name is self-explanatory and this back design looks awesome in fans and spreads. The faces feature a standard 52-card deck in a very bold graphic layout.

Urchin
URCHIN may make you dizzy. With a rotating swirly back design, these cards look amazing when spun and fans are also quite striking. The faces feature a literal twist on the standard deck layout with circular pip arrangements and simple graphics court cards.

Spectrum
SPECTRUM is about as colorful as playing cards can get, featuring a rainbow transition on both backs and faces. This deck may inspire some crazy beautiful new cardistry manipulations.

Puzzle
PUZZLE features a high-contrast jigsaw design on both backs and faces. The faces represent all card values of a standard deck but you may be a little puzzled by them at first glance, with values almost hidden between the pieces.

Cambio
CAMBIO features a slanted pink/purple gradient design that looks stunning in motion. You may mesmerize yourself with this deck just watching it slide back and forth. The faces feature a unique coloring and cropping of standard courts plus a gradient edge design for colorful spreads.

Ren
REN is the ultimate minimalist deck with very simple yet classy back design and index-less faces and sexy voluptuous pip symbols. This is a deck of playing cards boiled down to its most alluring essence.

Cube
CUBE has a bit of a retro vibe with a back design that may invoke old-school video game memories. The faces feature a very unique approach to layout with a color palette of bold but muted tones.

Polaris
POLARIS is a resurrection of one of the most popular decks designed in the Vanda Playing Card collection, except with no faces. Each card features the original Polaris Lunar design on one side and Polaris Solar design on the other.

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Deck View: Mercury (Standard Edition) Playing Cards

Retro. First. Space.

Produced by Vanda Playing Cards, Mercury is the first deck of The Planets series. The deck features the gorgeous artwork of Srdjan Vidakovic, from Novi Sad, Serbia. After 9 months, his vintage and retro art style have been gorgeously reflected on this luxurious deck.

The deck is fully custom, from the eye-catching card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated court cards and joker featuring creatures with stone-like heat-resistant skin. The Standard Edition deck is printed by the United States Playing Card Company and packaged in a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic bronze and white foil printed by Clove St. Press.


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Kickstarter: The Planets- Mars Playing Cards by Vanda Playing Cards

Fresh off the successful funding of the Earth deck on Kickstarter, the fourth deck of the Planets series is now on Kickstarter. The Mars deck features an all-male court.

Like the previous three decks in this series by Vanda Playing Card, Mars sports a red colorway with artwork by Srdjan Vidakovic, a graphic designer from Novi Sad, Serbia. The deck is fully custom, from the striking card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated court cards and joker.

Two editions are on offer during the campaign: Standard Edition with a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic red and white foil and the Limited Edition with an embossed dark blue tuck box with holographic silver and gold foil sealed with a numbered metallic perforated seal- only 500 available!

The tuck boxes will have interior foil and printed by Clove St. Press, producers of gorgeous letterpress printing. The decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts at $10 and the uncut sheet will be available as an add-on. Check it out on Kickstarter!

Kickstarter: The Planets- Earth Playing Cards by Vanda Playing Cards

Recently launched on Kickstarter by Vanda Playing Cards, the Planets is a collection of decks representing the planets in the solar system, starting closest to the sun, Mercury and moving outwards into the surrounding universe. The third deck of The Planets series is our home planet Earth, featuring standard human courts.

Like the two previous decks in the series, Earth features the gorgeous artwork of Srdjan Vidakovic, a graphic designer better known as Widakk from Novi Sad, Serbia and is the most luxurious Vanda deck series to date.

The deck is fully custom, from the striking card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated human court cards and joker.

Two editions are on offer during the campaign: Standard Edition with a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic green and white foil and the Limited Edition with an embossed dark blue tuck box with holographic silver and gold foil sealed with a numbered metallic perforated seal- only 500 will be available!

The tuck boxes will have interior foil and printed by Clove St. Press, producers of gorgeous letterpress printing. The decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts at $10 and the uncut sheet will be available as an add-on. Check it out on Kickstarter!

Kickstarter: The Planets- Venus Playing Cards by Vanda Playing Cards

Currently on Kickstarter, the Planets is a collection of decks representing the planets in the solar system, starting closest to the sun, Mercury and moving outwards into the surrounding universe. The second deck of The Planets series is Venus, featuring an all-female court.

The deck features the gorgeous artwork of Srdjan Vidakovic, a graphic designer better known as Widakk from Novi Sad, Serbia and is the most luxurious Vanda deck series to date.

The deck is fully custom, from the striking card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated all-female court cards and joker.

There will be two editions available: Standard Edition with a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic magenta and white foil and the Limited Edition with an embossed dark blue tuck box with holographic silver and gold foil sealed with a numbered metallic perforated seal- only 500 will be available!

The tuck boxes will have interior foil and printed by Clove St. Press, producers of gorgeous letterpress printing. The decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts at $10 and the uncut sheet will be available as an add-on. Check it out on Kickstarter!

Kickstarter: The Planets- Mercury Playing Cards by Vanda Playing Cards

Produced by Vanda Playing Cards, The Planets is a collection of decks representing the planets in the solar system, starting closest to the sun and moving outwards into the surrounding universe. The Planets collection is a continuation of the Vanda Artists series in collaboration with freelance artists who have a passion for creating playing cards.

The first deck of The Planets series is Mercury, featuring the gorgeous artwork of Srdjan Vidakovic, a graphic designer better known as Widakk from Novi Sad, Serbia. After 9 months, his vintage and retro art style have been gorgeously reflected on this luxurious deck.

The deck is fully custom, from the eye-catching card backs to the gorgeous Ace of Spades and retro hand-illustrated court cards and joker featuring creatures with stone-like heat-resistant skin.

There will be two editions available: Standard Edition with a stunning embossed black tuck box with holographic bronze and white foil and the Limited Edition with an embossed dark blue tuck box with holographic silver and gold foil sealed with a numbered metallic perforated seal- only 500 will be available!

The tuck boxes will have interior foil and printed by Clove St. Press, producers of gorgeous letterpress printing. The decks will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts from $10 and the uncut sheet will be available as an add-on.

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with David Goldklang of Duel Playing Cards

Produced by Vanda Playing Cards, DUEL is a fun & playful deck of playing cards inspired by Harlequin patterns. Designed by London-based graphic designer Joelle Wall, each individual cards is a work of art by itself and features 56 gorgeously custom illustrated face cards, Ace, Jokers and Tuck.

With its soft subtle pastel shaded colours, each card exudes fun and charm, while maintaining the traditional function of a playing card deck. This deck is produced by Vanda Playing Cards (VPC).

We managed to catch-up with Joelle and David Goldklang, founder of Vanda Playing Cards to chat about VPC, the inspiration behind DUEL Playing Cards, the design evolution of the deck, the future of Vanda Artist Series and lessons from Kickstarter.

For those of us who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself and Vanda Playing Cards?
David: Three years ago I discovered Kickstarter and noticed that designers were able to raise money to produce printed versions of their work - posters, books, and even playing cards. I was completely drawn in to the idea and decided to craft my own version of a deck of cards. I launched a Kickstarter for the original Vanda decks, it became funded, and I was hooked. Since then I've launched several other card deck campaigns and been able to print tangible manifestations of the countless hours I've devoted to my craft.

Can you describe the DUEL Playing Cards and why you’re passionate about it?
David: I love the clean simplicity and thoughtfulness that went into the design of this deck. There are so many cards being created these days that cram in more and more details and they all start to look similar to me. One of my primary goals with Vanda products is to create items that are original and distinctive – they don't look like any other decks out there and they don't even look similar to each other. Every design so far has been a different illustrative style and I've pushed myself to learn unfamiliar techniques with every project. Duel fits in with this trend perfectly and that's why I've chosen to launch it as the first deck in the Vanda Artists Series.

DUEL is the first deck of the Vanda Artist Series. How did you end up collaborating with Joelle Wall on DUEL and what can we expect in the future from this series?
David: I discovered Joelle and the Duel deck when browsing through artist portfolios online one day. I'd been looking for artists to collaborate with to expand the Vanda brand. Joelle had already designed the Duel deck and I thought the design looked amazing. I contacted her to ask if she had produced the deck before and when she said no, I offered to produce it as a Vanda deck.

Walk us through the process you took to design DUEL. How did you approach this project and get to this finished product?
Joelle: I play a lot of card games, mostly with a standard red pack of bicycle cards. They have always been my favourite deck and I carry them with me wherever I go. Designing my own deck of cards has always been a dream of mine and when I started developing concepts for the deck, I referred back to the bicycle cards for the symmetry in the face cards and how the suits are laid out on each card. Although I loved the intricacy of a bicycle deck of cards, for my design I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

I started by designing the 4 suits. I selected the basic red and blue, with two lighter shades to accompany the main colours. Once I started designing the face cards I realised I needed a few more colours to contrast the primary colours, so I selected dark brown and black. The idea for the pattern on the back of the cards came from a harlequin–inspired printed dress that I picked up in a Market in Amsterdam. I really liked all the geometric combinations used throughout the design. This became a big inspiration for the face cards and the box design.

I called the deck duel because in its truest meaning, a duel refers to the arranged combat between two individuals with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules. My playing cards intend to encapsulate the essence of the word in a playful manner.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
Joelle: The most difficult part of designing the deck was the face cards. Getting the face card designs to be symmetrical but still have enough balance was proving to be difficult with the 4 colours that I selected. I think my biggest breakthrough was when I started adding the striped patterns throughout the other solid shapes. This was the contrast that was needed to get the face cards working, and it also transitioned nicely when I added the crowns.

This will be your fourth playing card project on Kickstarter. What are a few key elements and principles you incorporated into your project that you think future Kickstarter creators could benefit from knowing?
David: I'm trying to find ways to keep my backers engaged and excited about the project. I think this is one of the most important aspects to running a campaign. I've seen many projects that just sit with very little activity and they probably don't reach their full potential as a result. I've managed to build one of the largest Instagram followings in the card community with over 20,000 followers, so I'm trying to engage users through that medium as much as possible. I'm even running an Instagram contest and giving away 36 free decks to 3 lucky backers.

The single most important thing I've learned from running previous projects is that communication is vital. I've made mistakes in the past on this front but as a result I found that it's essential that you update regularly and respond to backers as much as possible. This creates a sense of trust as well as community.

Finally, what are your favourite playing card decks?
David: Aside from all of the Vanda decks (of course), I'm a big fan of Randy Butterfield's work. I have a very small card collection and it mostly consists of his creations. I feel he puts a ridiculous amount of thought and attention into every tiny detail and the result is a cohesive package. The LUXX deck he designed is dripping with details, but every element is there for a reason and seems to make sense.

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


Pledge starts from $13 and will be printed by the USPCC on their famous Bicycle stock with Magic Finish. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretch goals, most notable is the blue edition at $20,000.