Emmanuel José Discusses Playing Card Design and Clipped Wings

Artist Emmanuel José, designer of the Curator Deck,  is somewhat of an  anomaly in the world of custom playing cards. Not only does he produce playing card decks in a style that is not often done but his art form is unlike standard graphic design. Instead of sitting down with a Wacom tablet and pen, Emmanuel works with X-Acto knives and scissors in an art form known as papercutting. To date Emmanuel has released one deck known as the Curator Deck and has two upcoming decks known as Clipped Wings and Sawdust.

Now after many days and nights working on his next release Clipped Wings, Emmanuel is ready to launch the card deck in early 2014 on Kickstarter with much anticipation from friends, fans and many playing card enthusiasts. Last week, Emmanuel announced that he would be launching the deck on Kickstarter, which is a departure from the way the Curator deck was released. So Tuckcase.com decided to contact Emmanuel to discuss his upcoming project, his decision to go with Kickstarter and to get a glimpse into the world of papercutting. Emmanuel agreed to talk with us and share his story. Enjoy!

Tuck Case: What is your design background?
Emmanuel: I have a bachelor’s degree in art from Davidson College, and I’ve been drawing since I was young. I also paint, and I like to shoot photography. I did some papercutting in elementary school and high school, but it wasn’t until college that I started to create series of papercut art.

Tuck Case: When and how did you decide you wanted to do a deck of cards?
Emmanuel: When I was a junior in college, I made court card paintings for a class. The models were fellow students that I photographed. My professor wasn’t a fan of those paintings, so I stopped that series and moved on to other subject matter.


Fast-forward over five years to late December 2010: I was working for a biopharmaceutical company, and I was creatively unfulfilled. I hadn't made art since graduating from college, and I’d always wanted to create a series based on playing cards. So I told myself that starting in the first week of 2011, I would make one card a week.

On Monday, January 3, 2011, I made my first papercut playing card.

Tuck Case: Can you explain what exactly a papercut deck is? How is it different from traditional graphic design?
Emmanuel: In a papercut deck, all the elements and imagery are cut out of paper. I draw everything by hand, and then I cut everything by hand. Pretty much the only difference from traditional graphic/digital design is technique since I am cutting out paper with X-Acto knives and scissors.

Tuck Case: Are you the first to design a deck using this papercut technique or style?
Emmanuel: To be honest, I don’t know. I’m certainly not the first to make a transformation deck though.

Tuck Case: Your first deck project, Curator, has already been released, can you describe your next two projects, Clipped Wings and Sawdust?
Emmanuel: Clipped Wings has a bird theme, and Sawdust has a circus theme. Many of the ideas I wrote down while I was making the Curator deck in 2011 were related to birds, and that became the groundwork for Clipped Wings the following year.

In May 2012, I decided my 2013 deck would have a circus theme. In September 2012, I saw the 1952 circus film The Greatest Show on Earth, and “Sawdust” stood out to me as the perfect name for the deck.

Tuck Case: Is there a particular reason you create transformation decks instead of a traditional decks of cards?
Emmanuel: I create transformation decks because it challenges me mentally and creatively. I tend to create art with some kind of twist or sense of humor, and transforming playing cards allow me to do that.

Tuck Case: It is known that the Curator deck was ripped off by a re-seller outside of the United States, have they been stopped and what have you done to protect your work going forward?
Emmanuel: I don’t know if they've been stopped since I still don’t know who is responsible. What I do know is that the counterfeit decks were first sold at a marketplace in Ufa, Russia, and that the images were stolen from my deviantArt.com profile. The Curator deck was registered with the US Copyright Office when this incident occurred, and I've continued to register copyright for my new work. To deter stealing, I now take photos of the cards at an angle and in uneven lighting.

Tuck Case: How did you get hooked up with House Of Playing Cards (HOPC) to release the Curator Deck?
Emmanuel: I joined the Aethercards.com cardistry forum in late 2011, and Don Boyer, one of the administrators, is a friend of Alex Pandrea and Kevin Reylek from House of Playing Cards. Don introduced my art to them, and in May 2012, I met Kevin in person since he is originally from North Carolina.

Tuck Case: Now since your first deck was released through HOPC, why the departure on your second deck to release it on your own through Kickstarter?
Emmanuel: Clipped Wings was originally going to be released by HOPC, and the deck was intended to be released in May or June of 2013. However, Alex kept pushing the release back for reasons I don't fully understand. Additionally, there were conflicting ideas on how to market and manage the deck. I'll always be grateful that HOPC released Curator, but I reached the point where I thought it would be best to produce Clipped Wings on my own, and I ended my contract with them.

Tuck Case: Do you have any particular artists or works of art you use for inspiration?
Emmanuel: Pop Artists such as Wayne Thiebaud and Roy Lichtenstein inspire me. I actually paid homage to Lichtenstein with the Curator 10 of diamonds. Realist painters such as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth also inspire me. Keith Haring is another influential artist for me, and I also love the work of illustrators such as William Joyce, Molly Idle, Maurice Sendak, Eyvind Earle, Winsor McCay, and many more.

Tuck Case: Do you have any favorite playing card decks?
Emmanuel: Three decks that are near and dear to my heart are Tony Meeuwissen’s transformation deck The Key to the Kingdom, the Ukrainian deck of cards illustrated by Vladislav Erko, and the MAD Deck designed by Ozlem Olcer.


Tuck Case: A question I ask all interviews, do you have any advice for others looking to create a custom deck of cards?
Emmanuel: There’s one question all artists, designers, and creators should ask themselves: Am I passionate about this?

There are all kinds of decks created by people with different skills and talents. Despite the differences in these decks, people can tell which decks are labors of love, and which decks are not. No matter how skilled you are or what kind of resources you have, passion has to be your foundation.

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.