News: Ellusionist Releases 60's Ad Era Inspired Pressers Playing Cards

After a weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness, Ellusionist released a new deck today that is inspired by the 1960's advertising era called Pressers Playing Cards. In fact, Ellusionist has gone as far as to say that the deck is "one of Don and Roger Sterling's favorite sets of playing cards" and "is the talk of Sterling Cooper." For those unaware, Sterling Cooper is the fictional advertising agency from the popular AMC show Mad Men.

Pressers were teased earlier in the Fall by members of the Ellusionist team but the deck was not released for sale until today with no prior "warning." The deck was first made available to Ellusionist's Black Club earlier this afternoon and then later released to the masses after the Black Club had first grabs.

According to Ellusionist, Pressers were printed on soft luxe paper. Printed by the United States Playing Card Company, the Pressers feature an antique look and simplistic design that "glides like air!"  It is not known if the Pressers are a limited or unlimited release.

News: Ellusionist Teases The Pressers Deck [Updated]

The cool wizards at @ellusionist released a few teaser photos of their upcomming Pressers deck. Inspired from the 60's, this deck is Wrapped in a beautiful vintage design, printed on soft luxe paper with a raised emboss, courts and faces cards are fully customized.

Pressers are up on Ellusionist site now for $7.95. No release dates given, but my guess would be a week before Christmas. Just in time to get your orders in and stuff it in the Christmas stockings.

One interesting to note is that Ellusionist marketed the deck as Pressers, from E.P.C.CO , Madison Ave, NY,NY. Hmm... Ellusionst Playing Card Company? I wonder if this was created to be used for branding all their playing cards going forward?

Designers: Traction Gives an Inside Look into the Development of Bicycle Espionage Playing Cards

Bicycle® Espionage is an all-new deck that launched on December 1 for members of Bicycle®’s Club 808. It’s another deck by the team at Traction, so Tuckcase.com invited them to share more behind their process and about the deck. Enjoy!

The minute Traction knew this deck was a go, we had ideas for conveying secrecy in every element of the design along with a sense of the unexpected. Illustrators Emily Webb and Ronny Young returned to craft the aesthetic and character design for Bicycle® Espionage after the success of the Bicycle® Sideshow Freaks Deck.

“What’s great is that it’s not just a James Bond-style deck,” said Ronny. “It pulls from the entire spy genre over the last 50 years. It would've been easy to go after every 007 type, the women, the villains—licensing aside. But we wanted every kind of agent to have a shot.”

The element of secrecy is first evident in the tuck, which is all one color except for a slight variant in the embossed details. The minimal, clean design on the front makes it look even more classified. “I think the best part of the tuck is how you really have to pick it up and move it around to notice all the little details,” said Emily. And of course, the tuck opens to the side instead of to the top, as though it’s actually a cigarette case with built-in knockout gas, or a business card holder that doubles as a parachute.





The cards themselves are completely custom. Custom court cards, custom pips, custom back design. The backs are black with an 80% gray overlay, making them subtle and stylish nods to secrecy.

The court cards are an amalgamation of every genre of undercover agent; you’ll see everyone from a tuxedoed gentleman, to a ninja woman, to a mad scientist in the employ of an agent. “The art style on the court cards is definitely heavy on the shadows,” said Emily. “Same with the pips. It shows that each character is literally operating in the shadows.”

Bicycle® Espionage was released in the Club 808 VIP Shop on December 1. Uncut sheets are also currently available in the same shop.

Here are process photos of the court cards:

Jack of Clubs Sketch - This card didn't change much from sketch to finish, but we love the detail of the scar over the eye and the buttons on his coat.

Kind of Diamonds Sketch - The final version of this card contains even more shadows for a mysterious look and feel.

King of Spades Sketch - We ended up leaving out the two knives on the final card to keep the design clean and focused.

Queen of Clubs Sketch - This ninja woman's hair changed considerably from where we started here. The kanji on her headband means "strength."

Post Author: Katherine Monasterio

About Traction: Traction is a design firm located in Cincinnati, OH. They specialize in high end branding and creative projects for a multitude of clients such as The United States Playing Card Company, NBA, Mindbody, Prilosec OTC and many more including local and national brands.

News: The Gravity Defying Playing Card Tower

This.Is.Super.Awesome! Custom decks are stunning, Card flourishes are breathtaking but this is... astonishing! Found on Instagram, Jeremy Griffith has been posting incredible pictures of Republics, Artifice and Rounders defying gravity.

The Lake Forest, Calif magician uses everyday objects such as Sharpies, coins, drinking glass, deck boxes, playing cards and balances them on each other! Mind blowing!

Jeremy said there are no glue, tape, invisible thread or seams. Everything is done using precision balance, centers of gravity and plenty of patience for trial and error. Oh... and NO Photoshop.

These photos are so visually pleasing and aesthetically elegant. I am pretty sure we'll see more of Jeremy's work on marketing material for new decks in the near future.

Source: Ellusionist Blog