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.
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