News: Bicycle Club 808's Design-A-Deck Winner Sets Plans for Kickstarter Project This Fall

In May of this year, New Jersey based photographer/graphic designer Paul Michael Kane took home the number one spot in Bicycle Club 808's Design-A-Deck contest. Impressing the 100+ year old titan in the playing card industry is no easy task, yet Paul did it with his photography/camera inspired design. With the confidence that Paul gained from climbing to the top of Bicycle's design contest, Paul has set his sights on a much larger project - his very own custom playing card project.

Paul plans to launch his project, which is so far being called Paul Michael Kane Photography Photo Cards, on Kickstarter in the Fall of this year. As for the actual design, the idea stems from the design he won the contest with by encompassing Paul's love for photography.

The actual cards will change from the early edition of the deck seen above as Paul is still working on finalizing the artwork. Currently, Paul has a few decisions to make regarding the direction of the court cards and the other cards in the deck. Paul plans to launch a website for the cards as well as an eBook. You can currently follow Paul's design process as he prepares to launch the project on his Facebook group that he created specifically for the project.

Paul is not new to fine art photography and card design as he previously had success with a tarot card deck - The Konxari Cards - a sort of tarot set of 88 cards with Paul's photography on the face (and back) of each card.

Here is Paul's winning back design:

Kickstarter: BADASS - Spades & Grendades Playing Card Project Release Early Concept Sketches

Disclaimer: If you become uneasy at the thought of  52 cigar smoking, beard growing, fire fighting, guns blazing, balls to the wall bad asses then this project might be too hardcore for you. 

For those that can handle the 'tude, BADASS: Spades and Grendades playing card project was launched in the middle of July (7/16 to be exact) by Manny Vega and Ben Thompson, the guys behind BadAssOfTheWeek.com and BadAssConCarne.com. The project pays homage and respect to one of history's most beloved (and sometimes hated) characters - the Badass! Manny and Ben wanted to be so true to the name of this deck that they dropped every suit except the Spades and created new suits to replace the traditional - diamonds become ninja stars, hearts become grenades and the clubs become skulls with each suit representing a different region:

• The Spades feature European badasses like Vlad the Impaler, Napoleon and Julius Ceaser.


• The grenades represent the Americas, which features George Washington, George S Patton and Blackbeard.


• Understandably, the ninja stars take on Asia by featuring Genghis Khan, Cao Cao and Babur.


• Last but not least, the skulls represent Africa and Middle East badasses like Saladin, Hannibal and Darius the Great.

If that isn't enough, the project doesn't just focus on "badass" court cards and suits. As alluded to in the disclaimer of this post, the deck features 52 badasses throughout history. That means that each of the 13 cards in each suit features a badass from the suit's represented region.

The deck was designed by many talented artists including  one of the project's founders, Manny Vega. Artists Henry Yamada took on the grenade suit design and Ricardo Boronat designed the Spades. The ninja stars and skulls artists will be coming on board soon! Manny completed the rest of the deck including the back design, tuck case, logo and other design elements. Manny has also done game design work for Midway and EA. If you are wondering what Ben's role in the project is? Ben is the writer and conceptualizes many of the ideas the artists bring to life. He has actually provided his talent for many publications including Fangoria and Penthouse. Ben breathes truth into the statement "behind every badass is a great idea."

TuckCase.com spoke with Manny regarding the project, which ceases funding on August 15. Manny shared with us two concept sketches and early designs.

The first concept is that of George Washington, which was designed by Henry Yamada. You will notice in this early piece that there is a boom-box. Manny mentioned that the "Badass" team opted to leave out the boom box/stereo, with reason being "we figured some people might just want the deck for kick ass reference images." Keep it simple, but badass. We like it!

The project has already reached the funding goal of $10,000. In fact, the project is close to doubling that with a current pledge amount just over $19,000. The project will be in funding for another 9 days and is expected to ship in December of this year to over 500 backers. The deck will be printed by USPCC.

Be sure to check out the project on Kickstarter to see the rest of the 52 Badasses!

News: Uusi Announces Plans to Launch Blue Blood Playing Cards Redux

A little over a month ago Uusi's Royal OPTIK playing card project was successfully funded on Kickstarter. While the Uusi team is hard at work bringing that project to loyal fans for a September delivery, they are also working on bringing back a fan favorite. Announced today on the Royal OPTIK Kickstarter page, Uusi is set to launch the second edition or redux of one of their previous decks, the Blue Blood Deck, which is sold out everywhere. This is not a standard reissue as it will receive a few updates and changes compared to the original deck. The project is set to launch the week of August 12.

Here is the official announcement as it reads on the Royal OPTIK Kickstarter page:

After receiving so many emails from backers, collectors and playing card enthusiasts around the world who missed out on our Blue Blood deck when we first brought it out a year and a half ago – and cannot find this sold out deck anywhere – we decided to bring the indigo monarchs back for one last appearance. Blue Blood Redux will be the title of our second edition of this deck design and we are hoping to release it on Kickstarter the week of August 12th. There will be some new court cards – a coup in the original heart suit, has seen the King overthrown by the original Jack of Hearts who truly makes for a unique and awesome suicide King. His replacement in the ranks is another stealth assassin who helped with the royal overthrow and has a watchful eye on his rogue king.

There has also been a replacement in the Spade Court as well – a new Jack has risen to take the spot of a vanquished warrior. Stealth and far more dangerous than his comrade he is a lethal threat ready for battle.

Aside from the court changes, we added two new animals for the Ace of Diamond & Ace of Hearts cards. There are other exciting new changes to the deck that we hope you will enjoy and that we feel make this version of the deck Blue Blood through and through!

Just a note before closing, the Blue Blood Redux deck is in addition to our six deck series - it is not our fourth deck. We are bringing it back by popular demand and to give a second chance to everyone who wanted to have all the decks in our series.

News: USPCC/Bicycle Releases Four New Playing Card Decks

Earlier this week on August 1, 2013,  Bicycle released four new playing card decks into the wild. The four playing card decks include the Skull Deck, Peacock Deck, Madison Deck and the Escapist (Escape Map) Deck.

The Skull Deck design comes directly from the caves at USPCC. However, the new deck is not exactly "new" as it was first released by Conjuring Arts Research Center (CARC) under the name Skull And Bones. Before CARC, it was over 100 years ago that this design was first seen. When compared to the CARC release, The Bicycle Skull deck receives a new tuck case, name and is given standard faces. Instead of being called Skull And Bones, Bicycle simply calls it "Skull." CARC also used the original Rider Back tuck case with the Skull And Bones name in place of the Rider Back name. While the CARC decks were available in both finishes (smooth and embossed) as well as red and black colors, the Bicycle version is only available in black with an embossed or air-cushion finish.

The Peakcock Deck has a stylish and subtle design that puts you right in the heart of spring or summertime with its pastel color palette. The deck features a peacock feathered back design and a custom Ace of Spades. The Peacock Deck is available in two pastel colors: light green and mauve or light purple.

The Madison Deck is not to be confused with famous card mechanic, Daniel Madison as it has nothing to do with the man. The Madison deck comes with another pastel color palette that features an almost bold kaleidoscope back design design of a floral spread. According to BicycleCards.com, the Madison Deck is "practically décor, inspired by the likes of Jonathan Adler and Vera Bradley." The deck also comes in two colors: gold or turquoise.

The Escapist Deck was teased many months ago and  pays homage to a deck that was printed back during World War II. The original deck was actually used as a strategic tool in order to help POW's escape captivity. The decks of playing cards would actually peel apart to reveal a map that would aid the POW to freedom. The Escapist Deck, or Escape Map as the written on the tuck case, does not peel apart to reveal any map but when each card in this deck is put together in order, it creates a much larger map.

All four Bicycle releases feature standard Bicycle stock and air-cushion or embossed finish.