Deck View: 1987 (January Edition) Playing Cards

Retro. TV. Pattern.

Produced by 52 Wonders and designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries, the 1987 January Edition playing cards is an intriguing retro-inspired deck. The deck comes with standard face cards with recolored court cards and custom Ace of Spades. The back design is a reminiscence of the test pattern you might see on TV back in the 80's. The deck is packaged in a bold black and white stripe design tuck box.

Printed by Cartamundi and limited to 1000 decks. Available now from 52wonders.com for $19 with FREE worldwide shipping.

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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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Kardify Magazine Issue #35 Now on Patreon!

Issue #35 of Kardify Magazine is now on Patreon! Patrons who pledged $3 or more on will be able to download the latest issue from our Patreon page. This issue compiles selected articles published from mid-March to mid-April. Deck images, articles, and news to keep you informed and up-to-date with the latest playing card news, releases, and previews. If you love playing cards, you will love Kardify Magazine! 

Also, don't forget to check out our other cool reward tiers on Patreon! The new tiers include monthly desktop and smartphone wallpapers, mystery deck shipped to you every 4 months of ongoing contribution, social media shout-outs, and multiple sponsorship tiers! Check it out!

Funds received from the magazine will help us keep the site running and growing, and bringing new quality content to you. Our aim is to support designers by backing on crowd-funded projects and supporting magic and playing cards retailers with their new releases. If you want to support us, please head over to our Patreon page. If you have an idea for an article you would like us to pursue, do get in contact with us. We hope you enjoy the read. In this issue:

+ Rock & Roll: A look at Will Roya’s new deck. Fully custom based on the popular music genre designed by Juniardi Satyanagara.

+ Brain Dead Fontaines:  The surprise Fontaine drop that sold out within minutes. It is unlike Fontaine's previous releases... it is fully custom design with a more grungy look and feel taking cue from the post-punk, underground comic, and skateboarding subculture. Check it out....

+ Meadowlark: Q&A with Jonathon Lamarque, co-founder of Meadowlark Pharmacy on their first, inau- gural crowd-funded deck.

+ Hops & Barley:  Five things that make the Hops & Barley the most curious Jocu project yet on Kickstarter.

+ Carvers: Find out more about Organic Playing Cards' vibrant new deck released just in time for Spring!

+ Gold Maduro V2: Check out this gorgeous hand-illustrated playing cards designed in the colorful style of cigar band and cigar box art by Kings Wild Project.

+ ESCP_TH!S: Join designer Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries as he explains the design process behind this sleek cardistry deck.

+ Camp Cards Red Edition:  Art of Play's fully custom deck designed for those who venture onward and live adventurously.

… and more! 53 pages of articles and deck images. Enjoy!

Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Deck Sold Out in 20 Minutes!

Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Playing Cards just sold out in 20 minutes on Thursday. The fifth deck in the product line-up is designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries, the deck is not only stylish but visually eye-catching with a street/tech wear vibe. Like their previous decks, ESCP_TH!S sports a one-way face and card back design and packaged in Cardistry Touch's iconic swivel box. However, unlike their previous decks, ESCP_TH!S is printed by the USPCC for the FIRST time due to the popular C9² finish that Cardistry Touch has been using is not available anymore. Watch the deck in action below:

Alex Matencio on Designing Cardistry Touch's ESCP_TH!S Playing Cards

The team at Cardistry Touch teased their latest deck on Instagram. ESCP_TH!S is the fifth deck after the 2019 release, DERIVE.
Designed by Alex Matencio of Zalem Industries, the deck is not only stylish but visually eye-catching with a street/tech wear vibe. According to Alex,

The creative brief was to focus on techwear, to adapt to the general identity of Touch and to their style. It was challenging, but that's how you learn even more :).

The faces sport a one-way design deck. On the design, Alex continued,

It was definitely tougher than expected. After multiple test ideas of the back, I started nearly from scratch again but not for the back design. I first found the idea that became final for the front face and then adapted the back using a couple of ideas the Touch guys and I kept from the previous tests.

The deck is kept secure in Cardistry Touch's iconic swivel box. Incorporating the design elements into the tuck is not as simple as it looks. Alex explained,

Designing their swivel box, while easy since I had the art done already, started as a mindf*** of graphic "continuity" for me. You may not see it from here but if you already have a Touch Swivel box home, try and tear it apart and you'll see the unexpected complexity of it. It's a 3D puzzle. Hopefully, Ladislas did his best to explain it to me so that we get it done by the same afternoon, which we did.

However, there are complexities in terms of the designing the swivel box compared to a normal tuck box. The swivel box is split into two with one part overlays the other parts. Alex continues,

Keeping the continuity of the design on all sides without a break is what was hard to figure out in the beginning.

On the art direction, while designing ESCP_TH!S, Alex described,

Also, for my clients, be it @cardistrytouch, had a pretty good understanding of graphic design in general and of their own visual identity, hence making working for them a delight where they would understand my propositions and arguments very easily. The way they bounced back on my ideas made me enjoy every part of the process and allowed me to challenge everything I was doing and propose better and better ideas. Last but not least I'm also glad I decided to restart nearly from scratch in September since my new ideas came out, in my opinion, much better than my first ones that were too messy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cardistry Touch (@cardistrytouch) on Mar 20, 2020 at 11:30am PDT

ESCP_TH!S will be printed by USPCC for the FIRST time. This is due to the C9² finish that Cardistry Touch has been using is not available anymore. The team is currently working closely with Cartamundi to find a brand new finish, even better than the last one, which will take time.

The deck is scheduled to be released on March 26 at 19:00CET.

5 Things You Should Know About REGENESIS by Zalem Industries

REGENESIS is the first deck of playing cards by zalēm industries. With the launching of the new deck on Kickstarter, founder Alex Matencio has also rejuvenated DIVA Playing Cards with a new brand.

Here are 5 things you should know about REGENESIS Playing Cards:

1. What happened to DIVA Playing Cards
According to Alex, Diva Playing Cards is totally changing. The Diva decks will remain as a series under the umbrella of a larger brand: zalēm industries.

2. What is zalēm industries
zalēm for short. The art direction and purpose have moved to some new grounds with the unveiling of Regenesis. According to Alex, "While producing cards remains will remain the main social activity, I'll bring along a universe to complete with each new deck or artwork release. So, expect posters and more to accompany your decks."

3. The Universe of zalēm 
zalēm's personality, as a whole, as a brand, its image, is highly inspired by the dystopian atmosphere found in GUNNM's universe, Huxley's A Brave New World and the movie Equilibrium. Alex said, "Today I'm making my own graphic world and atmosphere out of it, a mixture of pop art, brutalism, metabolism, modern urban styles, streetwear and a bit of myself. To open the doors for zalēm, I have prepared an introductory deck called REGENESIS".



4. The Concept of Regenesis
Colors are priceless as they have this power to pull and push ecstatic emotions from and to you. "I like to try and capture then portray some essences of the imaginative part of my mind into colored shapes. REGENESIS is some sort of stream of consciousness lost in space and time continuum - and happy to be there. Within the underground of zalēm, there is an intent to bring back colors, and to use cardistry to put them in motion by the power of cards x the hands."



5.The Art of Regenesis
Regenesis is made out of 4 Pantone colors: sharp indigo for the base, a sea-foam green for the stream, a vivid coral for emphasis and pastel pink for punctuation. The face cards are adapted-standard faces. "You'll find zalēm's glyph logo (the letters zē) printed right in the center in plain white of the courts. Big enough to make a statement. As for the pips - except for the colors and the sorta-watermark (blacks in seafoam green, reds in coral). Now, enjoy 4 fully customized aces that go in harmony with the back design!"


Regenesis is now funding on Kickstarter. Pledge starts at $15 and the deck will be printed by the USPCC. At the time of writing, the deck is only 35% funded with less than 16 days to go. If you want to support zalēm industries, head over to Kickstarter here!

Detailed Look at DIVA French Edition Playing Cards

DIVA French Edition is the follow-up to the vibrant DIVA playing cards designed by Alex Matencio. The deck is inspired by the Bauhaus art style. Design in collaboration with Fabien Defaucheux, the French Edition DIVA sports a patriotic Blue, White, Red colorway with a touch of Silver pantone. The color palette is used consistently throughout the deck including the card backs, Ace of Spades, Jokers, and the court cards. The contrasting colors balance really well with the design, making it aesthetically pleasing. The cards themselves are smooth and buttery with the Cartamundi’s 9C2 Touch finish. Available now from diva.cards for $16.75.

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DIVA VS Palette Playing Cards

Welcome to our first VS article by @decknowledgy. In this article, we will find out more about these two unique decks with seemingly similar designs but with an unexpected story about brotherhood.

Alex Matencio, the designer of DIVA Playing Cards, launched the deck on Kickstarter in 2018. Prior to the launch, he occasionally came across the Palette deck by ITS on Instagram and decided to push the reveal one day earlier, fearing that they would be called out for copying the artwork.

The two teams eventually got to know each other, one from France and the other from South Korea, and they realized that they had the similar vision to incorporate the Bauhaus art style into a deck of cards. Coincidentally, they even planned to launch their decks around the same time in 2018. What were the odds? “In Bauhaus We Trust, I guess?” said Alex.

DIVA
By definition, “diva” in Italian and Latin is the term for “goddess.” In English, it represents “the leading female singer in an opera” as well as “one who demands that attention be paid to his or her needs.” DIVA Playing Cards does just about everything listed above, no doubt.

The deck fully adopts the Bauhaus art style, giving the tuck a bright, flashy, and colorful demeanor. The back of the tuck features a feathery spread of all color schemes, elegant in the most audacious way. The feathery emblem repeats itself on a smaller scale on the tongue flap. The contrast between the complexity of the front with the subtleness of the back lends the tuck a very balanced smoothness to the eye. The ad copy on the bottom is listed as a chart, well-placed and cleans up the traditionally unappealing ad copy of other decks. Hence, the ad copy becomes a part of the overall aesthetics.

The cards themselves are smooth and buttery with the Cartamundi’s famous B9 finish. Design-wise, all aces consist of color patches, but the ace of spades stands out due to its full deployment of the blues, red, yellow, and gray. The aces of the clubs, diamonds, and hearts are reduced to blue, red, and white. The court cards are designed to be abstract outlines of kings, queens, and jacks. A single suit index is placed right above their heads. All kings, queens, jacks have the same design from suit to suit, but the color patterns show the difference between them. As for the pip design, I especially love the diamond which is rounded like an oval on the left and right. After all, the overall design of the artwork is always sharp on one edge but rounded on the others. Thus, the diamonds are a great touch to add to the consistency.

The back design is a colorful two-way design that pops while performing spreads and fans. The right-to-left thumb fan is especially catchy with all four colorways contrasting sharply from top to bottom: navy blue→yellow→red→sky blue. It is a perfect deck for display and flourishing.

Palette
There are two types of playing card designs that I love especially: fully custom art- oriented decks and semi-custom bold colored cardistry decks. The Palette Playing Cards is definitely the latter, and the key to their perfection is bold colors with clean, distinguishable borders that do not mess with readability. Oftentimes, cardistry deck designs venture too far into the WTF realm… And that’s why this deck is exceptional within that category. The whole theme of the deck is asymmetrical through abstraction.

The ace of spades consists of the four color patches that are used throughout, and through precision, forming a slanted spade leaning towards the abstract but still gentle, soothing, and readable. The stem of the spade is a simple dot, adding to the cleanness of the design. The same dot could be found on the top and bottom borders of the back design, bringing a focus to the seemingly random array of color patches. As much as the back consists of striped, squared, quarter circle, and triangular shapes, the checkerboard 4x5 composition makes it catchy, attractive, and pleasing. Finally, two thick black bands on the top and bottom encase this scene of abstract messiness between them, finished with a perfectly centered white dot on the band as mentioned before.

Red suits with dark wine red lend substance to the overall aesthetic, making the deck feel luxurious yet playful, not superficial and floaty. The deck handles perfectly, perfect for cardistry of course, but the gameplay capability is spot-on with the standard face layouts. The asymmetrical back design lends the deck the capability to perform four different thumb fans in the four orientations.

Overall
Both DIVA and Palette are great decks for cardistry given the flashy color patches in the display. In terms of the colorway, DIVA presents itself as the bright, playground type of spirit while Palette is subtler with the darker shades. What Palette lacks in brightness it redeems with the upper hand in gameplay, where the standard faces are definitely more readable and custom for players. In terms of fans, both decks have their advantages: DIVA bombards you with its array of colors although it only has two difference fans (left to right/right to left) while Palette boasts of variety with four fans although the colors are toned down a bit.

There is no win or lose in this competition as both decks stand well beside (not against) one another. After all, the Bauhaus blood and genes run deep within these two decks as if they were meant as a set even when created by different teams in different countries. In Bauhaus they trust, and therefore, they bond in brotherhood in the making.

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Cardistry: 3 Questions with Melaine Piton of Azote Playing Cards

Azote Playing Cards is the brainchild of 18-year old Melaine Piton, currently seeking funds on Kickstarter. The fully custom deck is inspired by modern art emphasizing on motion. As a self-thought designer, Melaine really enjoys discovering and creating works from different styles of art.



The deck features an optical illusion back design with a minimal black and white color palette. Crafted for cardistry, the faces will give a visual edge to your card flourishes. I personally love how seamlessly different design styles and element came together in this neat little package. A few days ago, we sat down with Melaine for a quick Q&A on the Azote deck.

What is your inspiration behind the Azote Playing Cards? How did you come up with the idea?
It all started with a graffiti I made for Diva playing cards. At the time, I had never thought of creating a deck myself. Finally, talking with Alex, I realized that it was possible, even if it's complicated: it just takes a lot of time! An unreachable dream had become a feasible project.

I was inspired by many artists: Vasarely, Tyler Spangler, Sarah Morris. Art in general as street art, or modern art! I wanted to create a visual design, pure, that would highlight the movements of the one who uses them! About the faces, they have been completely revisited so as to give a brand new aspect to these "classics", without being unrecognizable!

We first noticed the deck on Instagram. What do you think of the community in terms of the feedback and support that you’ve been getting so far?
Instagram is not very representative; the number of people interested in the project is radically different from the actual number of backers. However, it is important to highlight (and thank) the role of those who share the page, who help a lot to make the project gain notoriety in the community; which is not obvious when you started from scratch. The community, let's talk about it: Few haters, only encouraging and positive comments! Nothing to say, the middle of the cardistry (and magic) is really nice!

Finally, what are your favorite playing card decks?
I like a lot of decks, but my favorites are Diva's from Alex Matencio, Red Stripes from Omar Renfro, and Cubeline from Bas John; These decks are real pieces of Art!

At the time of writing, Azote Playing Cards is only 85% funded with only 3 days to go! Head on to Kickstarter if you want to support Melaine. Pledge starts at €12 (USD$14).

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Cardistry: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Diva Playing Cards by Alex Matencio

[Update] Diva Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Created by Alex Matencio (Instagram: @alxmtnc), Diva Playing Cards is a vibrant geometric deck designed with cardists in mind, launching on Kickstarter 17th March. The deck was born after Alex met with Lucie Leger and Claire Fournier in May last year. They spoke to Alex about designing a deck of cards after learning that he is a designer.

According to Alex,

I had this idea of customizing a deck since I started Cardistry back in summer 2015, but never really found a solid idea. To be honest I simply wasn’t really dedicated to it. It’s only after we had this conversation the three of us that I came up with a back design idea a week later. I showed them the result and they loved it! I worked diligently until I finished designing and customizing all 54 cards.

Here are 5 things you didn't know about Diva Playing Cards:

1. The name Diva came after Claire & Lucie, who, Alex believed, are the real Divas.
Alex told Kardify, "It actually has a long story, I didn’t come up with it instantly. But long story short, I named it in honor of those two young French Divas."

2. Street Art.
For the Diva teasers, Alex often shoots in locations in Paris with street art.
"I moved back in 2015 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, where I discovered the quite astonishing street gallery of Galerie Itinerrance, which employs various worldwide artists to give life to this « low-cost » neighborhood of Paris. Trust me on this, when you’re surrounded by aged, gray-ish social housings (mostly towers) in a city of predominant gray clouds, but spot around the corner an immense artwork covering an entire facade right in between of the splenetic ambiance and insipid colors, it warms your soul and makes your day. Street art significantly changed the way I see art today." Beyond street art, Alex's main inspiration is the 3D artist Peter Tarka (Dribble:   Behance:   ), who endorses geometric design as its best.

3. Geometric Art
The second inspiration is the late Ukrainian Sonia Delaunay (1885 - 1979), and her modern and geometric art of her time. "Although you will see more in the near future how much of an influence she became to me, she has her part in Diva as it is. My upcoming deck is more complex."

4. Cardistry-Con 2016
Adding to the list of inspiration (a few might have already noticed), is the Berlin CC16 deck by Next Exit, but contrary to what people may think, it is not the main. "When I spotted the design for the first time before the Con, I realized how modern card design could evolve like today if done well. It is for me a major turn in deck design - not mentioning the Dot deck by Anyone Worldwide. While the geometric genre is older than most of our parents, it remains a strong compound of today’s flat art since the rise of vectors, and I’m happy to see it making its way into Cardistry this well. Since I’m into web/app design and flat illustrations (conceived for the web), I have to say that flat design is something I deal and work with on a daily basis, and, even if it is not that apparent in Diva, it has its huge impact on the way I conceive art today."

5. Colors
The colors of Diva Playing Cards are highly inspired by Alex's mother, Patricia Matencio. "It’s an actual very unconscious influence. She’s the eccentric kind of artist, who will use various vivid colors of all genres to enlighten her environments such as her home decoration, atelier, and garden. Great against melancholia. It’s only a few months after I started communicating about the Diva deck and investing about my own color choice, that I realized I took inspiration from my own home. Mothers always tend to become an influence in your way of being or seeing things in life."

[Update] Diva Playing Cards are now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Diva Playing Cards be available on Kickstarter, March 17th! The deck will be printed by Cartamundi on their famous B9 stock. Follow Diva Playing Cards on Instagram to get updates on this eye-catching deck.