Deck View: The Flight Deck- The Dawn of Aviation Playing Cards

Aviation. History. Travel.

The Dawn of Flight Playing Cards is a fully custom deck inspired by the Golden Age of Aviation in the Art Deco era. Designed by Paul Roman Martinez, the creator of the popular Adventures of the 19XX graphic novel series, these classy decks serve as an homage to aviation from the earliest days to the 1930s—a time defined by travel, art deco style and the spirit of adventure

The Flight Deck is available in blue (Airplane) and in red (Airship), both printed by the USPCC.

Limited quantities available now from JP Games . 

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Adam & Adam on the Fine Line Playing Cards

Adam Farbiarz and Adam Thompson are longtime friends, a friendship that started back at Yale University where they were roommates their freshman year at college.

Their collective backgrounds are the same yet different, Adam T. has been painting and drawing his entire life, starting at an early age and into his college years. During his summers in High School and College he could be found selling his works at galleries on Martha’s Vineyard. After college Adam T. was very focused on conceptual line drawings that would make people laugh and think, most recently having a 45 foot drawing displayed at ArtSlant in downtown Chicago.

Adam F. on the other hand is more of the “Ideas” part of the tandem. He too studied art at Yale, but didn’t make it a full time career, in fact, he’s a practicing attorney. With that being said, he is also the card collector of the pair, which began with one of his favorite possessions, a Svengali deck he received when he was young….and still owns to this day.

The two Adams have recently brought a new custom deck of Playing Cards to Kickstarter called FINE LINE. FINE LINE is the launch release from the duo’s new company “Dear Adam” and has a very unique take on the playing card “Standards”. Dear Adam hopes to focus on fun, beautiful, whimsical products that appeal to design and art lovers as well as regular people who just like “Cool” things.

“Playing cards are the ultimate prop -- everyone knows how they're supposed to look and how they're supposed to work.  That's what makes it so fun when they don't look or work that way”

Adam and Adam were nice enough to take a few moments and talk about their Kickstarter project FINE LINES with us and share some insight into its background and development.

How did the concept and idea of the Fine Line Playing Cards come about?
There are numbers all around us.  How many lights on a traffic light?  3!  How many squares in tic tac toe?  9!  How many cans to a pack?  6!  We wanted to take all of that implicit knowledge we have of the numbers around us and highlight it -- what better way to do that than in a deck of cards?  A deck is all about numbers.

Was the choice to not be a “Conventional” deck important to you?
Yup.  When we decided to work together on this, the first thing we agreed on was that this was going to have to be really special, and really different.  We wanted to knock people's socks off.

Fine Line presents conventional suites and numbers in a new way, how long did it take to develop the new imagery?

Really, really long.   We began working on the project on August 25, 2013.  (We know the date because Adam F. took a flight to New Mexico later that day.)  We didn't have all of the cards lined up until about May 2014 -- and even then we made further changes once we got feedback from the focus groups.  

Most artists/designers get very excited about an idea, what excites you about Fine Line’s?

The deck is thoroughly beautiful -- both for the eyes and for the mind.  It's a wonderful experience to solve it.

Fine Line has a unique hardwood “Box” available on this campaign, can you tell us a little about it and why you chose this particular design?

We wanted to make something that showcased the cards as artwork.  We liked the idea of collectors putting FINE LINE on their book shelf, along with their art books and graphic novels.  The box allows you to do that.  We also wanted to create an object that was luxurious and rich and strong in its own right -- the box is solid wood and is a real pleasure to hold and handle.

Do Adam and Adam have any plans for future deck projects?

We have an idea for a very crazy deck.  It's called STORY LINE.  Let's talk about that one in a year!

What are some of your favorite decks or designers?

Jackson Robinson is a great draftsman -- he has an excellent hand and amazing attention to detail.  We have a lot of respect for Emanuel Jose -- his decks are amazingly clever, and we love that his process (paper cutting) is so unique.  We wish there were other folks doing transformation decks -- they're so beautiful and playful.

We want to thank Adam and Adam for sharing some information and their time, if you haven’t checked out FINE LINES, you can check it out on Kickstarter where the project is currently LIVE! You can also visit their website to keep up to date with this project and more.  It’s a beautifully unique idea, so become a backer and help bring this concept to life for “Dear Adam”. We wish both Adam’s all the best on this project and are looking forward to their future concepts and ideas.  

Review: Artisan Playing Cards by Theory 11

This review will feature both the White Artisan Playing Cards and the Black Artisan Playing cards. Review taken from the archive of TuckCase.

Designed by South African Designer Simon Frouws, Theory 11's Artisan Playing Cards are the epitome of elegance. Initially released in 2012 as a single Black Edition Artisan deck, Theory 11 just released the second (final?) deck of the series, the White Edition Artisan Playing Cards.

The specs:

Name: Theory 11 Black Edition Artisan Playing Cards/White Edition Artisan
Company: Theory 11
Release Date: November 23, 2012/May 10, 2013
Stock: FSC-certified stock
Finish:  Eco Finish
Colors: Black, Gold, Deep red, White
Face: Standard
Size: Poker

Despite being distributed by a company that focuses on magic and performance, the description and the background given out about these cards focuses on "environmentally friendly" lingo. This is not a bad thing as Theory 11 does this with a lot of their decks that are quality performing products but I would appreciate more info about the finish and actual stock used. So far all we are told by Theory 11 is the following:

 "...these premium, luxury playing cards feature elegant gold foil hot stamped onto ultra-lux black paper derived from sustainable forests....produced at The United States Playing Card Company using FSC-certified papers derived from sustainable forests, vegetable-based inks and starch-based laminates. The result is a durable finish that respects the environment." 

We know one thing, these are the cards for the environmentally conscious magician or card player.

Most will wonder what the main differences are between the Black Edition Artisan and the White Edition Artisan. The obvious difference in these cards is the main color template - black and white. Beyond that, the White Edition cards use a metallic gold ink in their cards while the Black Edition uses more of a yellow gold.

Surprisingly, I would have thought the Black Edition would have the darker gold/metallic gold and the White Edition would have the white gold ink to match their theme of light or dark. I do, however, like the light to dark/dark to light contrast that the colors add to the decks. The designs are exactly the same other than that.

The decks come with 56 cards. The two additional cards are an ad card and a double back. The  Jokers are not differentiated at all with no reveal added anywhere on the decks. The overall design of the Artisan Playing Cards is impeccable. It is not too showy or glitzy, which is great because something over the top can tend to make the whole project look gaudy. And it is by far from a minimalist design. Both decks have an equal balance of style through the back design, face cards, and Jokers. The first editions of both the White and Black Edition Artisan Playing Cards come with a matte finish with gold (white) and gold/white embossing (black) on the tuck cases.

The duel-directional or two way back design features a white border on both decks with an overall design that is reminiscent of an American money note. Defined patterned borders, emblems and Latin phrases. The centerpiece of the back design is an intertwined G and A inside an emblem that I suppose stands for Artisan and Guild, which compliments the phrase "The Guild of Artisans." I do not believe this is for any particular group but more of a general homage to all artists - magicians included.

In the photo above featuring the Ace of Spades there is an added design element that is included on both of these decks that display the Edition Number or the month the decks were printed. I like this element because it is an obvious way of letting the deck holder know what edition they have and it is an element that most playing cards don't have. First edition Black decks will have 11/12 and first edition White decks will have 04-13. It is interesting to note the difference in the way the date is displayed. The design of the actual Ace of Spades takes the same elements of the back design inside a large spade. Design consistency is played out perfectly here.
The Joker features the "Jolly Joker" that appears to be juggling the four suits within a tight and circular emblem/logo. It is unfortunate the Jokers feature no reveal or any differentiation. It would have been cool to see more done with the "Jolly Joker" character. Instead of an emblem, one Joker could have been presented outside an emblem in a traditional pose similar to the Bicycle Standard 808 Joker. Given this deck is heavy on paying homage to design and artistry it is slightly disappointing they underutilized the second Joker.

Face Cards all follow the Standard playing card design but integrate the deep reds, golds, black and white color palette used in the Joker cards above. Number cards are similar to a Standard deck as well but use deeper reds for the hearts and diamonds.

As far as performance goes they are not as slippery as the Performance Coating finish cards that Ellusionist features on their decks just to give a comparison  However, they perform, fan, spread, shuffle and cut nicely. The only hang up is that the edges are not as smooth as I would have hoped for. This is specifically concerning the White Edition Artisan where I can see where the machine cut the cards down from sheets to decks. It is very minor but noticeable. As far as durability goes they will last as long as any Bicycle Standard deck.
Notes on the Artisan Playing Cards:

+ The Black Edition Artisan Playing Cards were released in November 2012.

+ The White Edition Artisan Playing Cards were released in May 2013.

+ Despite the hype, these playing cards are not Limited Edition Playing Cards and will be available until further notice.

+ Designed by Simon Frouws.

+ Marketing focuses on environmentally friendly production instead of performance.

Final Assessment:

These cards are all design first and performance second. I think if magicians are looking for an incredibly designed deck of cards to show off with they can't lose with this deck. They have the same feel as a Bicycle Standard deck so if that is what you practice with these will feel natural in your hands. However, I would not recommend practicing with this deck in order to preserve the deck longer than a Standard deck of cards. Why waste such a beautiful deck on practice? With all that said, Theory 11 seems to write their descriptions with the gift buyer, collector and environmentally conscious person in mind. I do not know who they are targeting but it almost definitely doesn't seem like the magician or card player that focuses on durability and performance.

Final Score: 9.5/10 

Deck View: LUXX Playing Cards

Intricate. Elegant. Luxury.

Created by Paul Middleton and designed by the talented Randy Butterfield, the aim was to create a beautiful deck of playing cards and at the same time, preserving some traditional elements to appeal to as many of JP Playing Cards' customers as possible ranging from magicians and cardists, to collectors and amateur poker and card game players. 

Limited to a print run of 1111 of each colour, LUXX features a two-colour foils (silver/orange and silver/blue) on each tuck with an interior silver foil. The overall theme was inspired by the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas - a touch of luxury and JP Playing Card's unique take on traditional courts and pips sets the LUXX deck apart. 

LUXX is now available from JP Games.