Imported Playing Cards Relaunched on Kickstarter

Relaunched on Kickstarter! Dive into the history of playing cards with Imported Playing Cards by A. Haines Playing Cards!

Imported Playing Cards is a modern take on a traditional theme, an homage to the Golden Era of classic playing cards; a fully custom deck of Poker size playing cards with traditional faces and backs featuring 2 Jokers and an extra card, all drawn from scratch in an eye-catching retro colorway using absolutely no stock elements or themes.

In designing this deck the artist, A. Haines, has strived to strike the perfect balance between fun and serious; between authentic and original; between the old and the new.

This is a timeless deck with instantly recognizable features that can be used to perform Magic and Cardistry, play games such as Poker, or just be used as a Collector’s item because of all the authentic historical features and rich traditional style.

The project was inspired by the vintage playing cards of a golden age that were imported and exported all over the world and the faces, backs, tuck-boxes, tax bands and import stamps to be found on these wonderful old decks.

The deck features all custom elements, the Ace of Spades sports the Mercury motif wrapped in a cluster of tobacco leaves while the other Aces have been adorned with an import duty stamp. The Jokers feature a dancing figure of Mercury as the trickster, the backs are a classic 4-way symmetrical design with a white border and the tuck is a closely observed design finished in the style of old tax wrappers on antique paper.

This deck will be printed by Legends Playing Card Co. on Viper Finish with a beautiful matte tuck box in a traditional style. The tuck interior is fully printed with a vintage playing card back design and capped with a custom sticker seal.

The re-launch includes professional photography and an improved pricing structure including more affordable international shipping and a fun custom ceramic mug add-on. Pledge starts from $13 on Kickstarter.

First Look: Silent Playing Cards

From Alpha Playing Cards (Instagram: @alpha_playingcard), Silent Playing Cards features stunning illustrations by artist Lee.K (Instagram: @leekillus) featuring grayscale portraits rendered in a combination of oil paint, charcoal, pencil, and ink. 

The Seoul-based artist builds up layers of contour lines over a charcoal base to define facial features in a remarkably expressive and emotional style. The illustrative works have made the artist an Instagram star, propelled by widely shared images such as a portrait of BTS member Jimin, whom the artist has cited as a muse.

Four unique designs are on offer during the Kickstarter campaign: Silent Gray, Silent Focus, Silent Mirage, and Silent Deluxe, each with custom illustrations on all card faces. The cards are made with professional-level attention to detail and come in luxurious piano lacquer collector’s boxes.

Silent Gray is a collection of Lee.K’s artwork, with each card face featuring a striking illustration. The cards are made with graphite, charcoal, pens, markers, and oil pastels and come in a beautiful pearl paper card box.

Silent Focus is inspired by the artistry of cardistry and imbued with professional-level touch. The face cards retain the conventional suit and value, while the backs feature larger color blocks to better capture the trajectory of the cards. The character portrait’s eyes are used in the illustration, making each back unique.

The set comes with six card boxes that can be arranged to form a complete picture, and a special red version with red golden edges is limited to 1000 decks.

Silent Mirage uses grating techniques to create a magical effect, thanks to technical support from ARK Playing Cards. The exclusive collector’s box includes a collection certificate and two decks of playing cards, which are not sold separately. 

One deck features a black border inspired by the frames in art exhibitions, giving the feeling of a gallery experience and drawing focus to the stunning illustrations. The other deck breaks the performance limit of the original size of a playing card by combining four cards to showcase Lee.K’s illustration in stunning detail.

Silent Deluxe is a luxurious piano lacquer collector’s box that is dedicated to collectors with the ultimate pursuit. This is a limited edition collection box of only 300 sets. These cards and the box itself feature gold foil and gold edges, making them collector items of the highest level.

What sets this fascinating deck apart is the use of grating art, a blend of digital and traditional printing technology. The technique creates an incredible change effect in the card box, such as slides, where a special film displays multiple pictures on a single plane. The illustrations transcend the limitation of a single plane, making Silent Playing Cards unique and different from other playing cards.

Silent Playing Cards will launch on Kickstarter on 7th March 2023. The decks will be printed by APCC in China.

On Kickstarter, Nebula Infinitum, and Supernova Playing Cards

Two years ago, Emily Feldman created Nebula Playing Cards, a deck inspired by the beautiful space phenomenon of cosmic gas clusters. The deck was successfully funded on Kickstarter, and the deck received positive feedback from the community. This year, the Nebula is back on Kickstarter with two new editions, Nebula Infinitum and Supernova Playing Cards. 

Infinitum consists of blue and green colors, while Supernova consists of red and yellow colors. Both featured the signature 1/4 (quarter) border back with artworks of nebula clusters expanding from one corner to the other diagonally.

This design creates astounding visual artwork when the cards are fanned. The box will be a minimalistic plain box with a dark background that shows the vibrant colors of the nebula of its respective edition colors.

The Ace of Spades featured a slightly enlarged pip with the deck’s name below it. Both Jokers featured identical artwork of a telescope.

The courts show two-way artwork of the royals in their profile silhouettes. All of the pips, indices, and these profiles have illustrations of the nebula colors in their respective edition colorways. 

There are several add-ons available during the Kickstarter campaign such as uncut sheets, gilded decks, and the OG Nebula deck (limited to 55 decks)

Printed by the USPCC on their Premium Thin Crushed Stock with Air Cushion Finish. Pledge starts from $11 on Kickstarter

Galactic Paradise: Stargazer Playing Cards

Christian Byard of Relativity Cards is back with the next edition of Galactic Paradise– The Galactic Paradise Stargazer, a dazzling sci-fi deck with shimmering stars in the black sky. This version of Galactic Paradise comes with full black ink background on both the front and back of the cards featuring shimmering full holographic foil!

The card back design features a classic design based on vintage casino decks. It is a two-way artwork of a cartoon UFO with palm trees along with the deck’s name centered inside a white frame border on a full black background.

All of the Aces featured slightly enlarged pips with overlapping geometric shapes and lines to give the sci-fi look. The courts used for this deck are from the Arrco deck, but enhanced with the full flood holographic foil.

The minimalist tuck box prominently showcases an enlarged spade pip done with holographic foil. There are an array of geometric patterns and lines overlapping on top of the pip. The tuck is capped with a custom holographic corrugated seal featuring a symbol of a palm tree.

The Galactic Paradise Stargazer will be printed by MPC with their buttery BETA finish. Pledge starts from $30 on Kickstarter.