News: The 52 Plus Joker Club Deck 2015

This elegant 52 Plus Joker Club Deck was unveiled at this year's 52 Plus Joker annual convention [Fox35 Orlando video], held in Orlando, Florida. Beautifully crafted by renowned playing card designer, Paul Carpenter of Encarded, this club deck is the second in the annual deck series.

Just 1000 decks were printed, and it comes with almost every luxury feature available, including a tuck with holographic gold foil, a die-cut viewing window on the back, and a custom numbered gold seal, the cards feature metallic inks, classically inspired custom faces and pips, and holographic foil on the card backs!

Currently, the 2015 Club Deck is only available to members of the club. If there are any decks left over, Encarded.com will have the deck available to the general public in mid-November, but prices will be higher and there is no guarantee they will still be available in a month. The 2014 Silver Club Deck, designed by Jackson Robinson of Kings Wild, is almost impossible to find and goes for a substantial premium, and we expect the new 2015 deck to be the same.

The 52 Plus Joker playing card collector's society has been around for over 30 years and the members hold some of the finest and complete collections of playing cards from every period of history. For more information about joining the 52 Plus Joker Society, click here!

Collections: Prohibition - 52 Proof by Ellusionist

52 Proof was one of the 6 decks released in the Prohibition Set by Ellusionist. The deck has some nice detail in some of the design features and a little disconnect in others.

The intricate design work on the card back is very nice, has a “Classic” look but works well with the theme of the Prohibition set as well as the inspiration for the individual deck. The custom courts seem to depict more “Upper Class” characters of the times, which threw me off a bit. Its 52 Proof Whiskey and this wouldn’t be the type of person that pops into my head when I think of that particular beverage. The design work is nice; I just don’t think they fit the decks inspiration very well. The deck seems to want a “Western” feel, but is kind of tethered to the “Prohibition” idea……..read on.

The deck also features a slightly custom Ace of Spades; slightly customized spot cards two ad cards, one featuring the ingredients to a “Cocktail” and lastly two custom Jokers. The two custom Jokers are framed the same, but one offers up a “Definition” of sorts pertaining to the Joker, while the other has a very cool Skull and Six Guns design. The detail is really nice on the fully drawn out Joker and the line work really makes the card stand out, but I think, once again, this is where there is a lack of direction on where the deck wants to go. While I think the imagery of the Skull and Six Guns is more of a tie into a deck called “52 Proof”, it seems out of place when compared to the courts.
The 100% Custom Tuck is really sharp, nothing over the top, but the design is excellent, the color palette is perfect for the deck and the subtle embossing and gold foil accents really make the tuck eye catching. The deep red interior of the tuck is just a bonus.

52 Proof, is a nice little deck, I like it, but I think while the courts on their own are nicely done, they don’t really work with the rest of the decks design and or concept. Maybe I’m reading way too much into it, but they feel detached from the rest of the decks design element in my opinion. This one’s going to be a case by case “Like it or not” deck. There’s enough to like, and you can turn a blind eye to my opinion of the Courts, I don’t think it’s enough to sour the deal if you’re interested in 52 Proof.

Check in over the next few weeks as we work through the entire Prohibition set, one deck at a time.

Image courtesy of Ellusionist

PROHIBITION

Absinthe
Disparos Tequila
Rebellion Run
Moonshine
White Wolf
52 Proof

The Collection segment is produced by Anthony Ingrassia of Kardify. No part of this article, images or video can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com. To see more of Anthony's (Sparkz) collection and work please visit his Facebook page or follow him on Instagram.

News: Of Blue JAQK and Blood KINGS

Two new releases from the big guys this week, the JAQK Blue Edition Playing Cards by Theory11 and Blood KINGS Playing Cards by Ellusionist.

Image from Theory11.com

The JAQK Playing Cards are one of my favourite playing card series. It features a gorgeous custom tuck case with imported French paper and metallic foil, custom face cards and 12 stunning custom court cards. The new edition features striking metallic cobalt blue and silver foil, detailed embossing & crisp design and ultra-thin borders, with a flawless feel and durable finish. A deck that is as beautiful as it is functional, JAQK Cellars Playing Cards are a true work of art. Available from theory11.com

Image from @ellusionist

Not yet released by Ellusionist, JP Playing Cards leaked some images of Blood KINGS last week. The popular KINGS series is a collaboration between Daniel Madison and Peter McKinnon. Like it's predecessors, the blood KINGS is embellished with the iconic KINGS crossed-weapons gold foiled on the striking minimalistic tuck. Available as pre-order from JP Playing Cards.

Card Radar: TYPOGRAPHIC Playing Cards

This unique deck of playing cards is a collaboration between Junli Kato and Peter Gutierrez. The main theme of this fun deck is typography. Each individual card is unique and beautifully created by the number of the card.

Lots of creativity has gone into these 54 cards and there are many allusions to stories and fun characters and playful images along the way. The unifying theme is the Helvetica font used as the base of each design along with other shapes, fonts, or other design elements.

The theme is consistent across all card, sticking to the black, white and red colours. The tuck and the backs were designed by Peter and the faces by Junli. According to Junli,

These typographic playing cards started as a fun and experimental side project while I was attending school and working. I have always been a huge fan of cards growing up, particularly playing cards, for their ability of being a source for multiple games and tricks. Without any surprise, I decided to design a deck of my own with every card having their own unique design. I stuck with Helvetica, a basic font, to unify the deck while also coming up with solutions that had to use the number within the illustration. I wanted to keep the typographic illustrations playful yet muted to limited colors. My friend Peter joined me to create the deck and he took on the responsibility to design the backside of the cards as well as the box they come in.

The tuck and cards were all hand-crafted and assembled. Originally only a limited amount of decks were made, about 10 or more for close friends, as this was seen as a personal project and nothing more. However, Junli and Peter have been getting asked where one may purchase a deck and are now working on the best venue to make them available to the public.

To keep updated with that information, visit Junli's blog.