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Hi everyone! I am an artist from Canada doing my very first complete deck design over most of the past year. I've always been in love with playing cards, magic, card acrobatics and the likes and though cards have been a major theme in a lot of my art pieces, I had yet to take the jump and design a full unique deck of my own.

It has been an exciting process and I'm very grateful to have gotten lots of words of support from the Instagram account I've been featuring the project on, but as the project is getting closer and closer to the final stages, I think I'll need somewhere to ask for advice from the card community. Really from anything to preferences, general tips & tricks to what suits magicians or cardists best, all the way to what are good things to do in planning a successful kickstarter campaign/launch.

So hopefully I am in the right place. I am very excited to get thoughts/opinions from anyone interested!

Hi there!

Welcome to UC. You have, indeed, come to the right place. The ideal part of the boards where you can show your stuff and receive constructive feedback from the crew here is under

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You'll find there are not only a lot of your fellow artists and playing card designers here (as well as enthusiasts who have a very sharp eye when it comes to design), but also some fellow Canucks and even some folks like me who grew up on the Canadian border.

So, welcome! You're among friends here.

Welcome. We even have US folks a bit closer to our southern neighbors than our northern neighbors. In any event, I look forward to learning more about the deck you are working on. I did take the opportunity to use your Instagram link to look at the deck art you have posted there. Well, if that is any indication of what you are going to want to produce, I am in. It is fantastic.

Bradius wrote:Welcome. We even have US folks a bit closer to our southern neighbors than our northern neighbors. In any event, I look forward to learning more about the deck you are working on. I did take the opportunity to use your Instagram link to look at the deck art you have posted there. Well, if that is any indication of what you are going to want to produce, I am in. It is fantastic.

Well... crap. I just clicked on the link, too. And, here I was, thinking about all the money I was going to save by scaling back on supporting any new artists going forward.

I think I see two decks here. The painted ones, obviously, which are simply brilliant, but also a deck with just the line art, because damn, that is amazing line art, as well.

I want both.

Marilyn, I'll post a little later with some comments on the other things you mention in your original post, but yeah, you've definitely come to the right place. We've helped a lot of new artists break into this field, and this deck you're developing is going to be savage.

Those sample are amazing! Welcome to the board.

With your first kickstarter, there are a lot of things to think about. Best advice is to keep it simple and to review other playing card projects to see what works.

Thank you for the many enthusiastic and positive comments! I can see already this will be a great place and I am very much looking forward to getting to know everyone and sharing thoughts, ideas and just general excitement for cards!

Already a surprising idea right in the first few hours. I had never considered producing a deck featuring the line work alone, so that is very interesting to hear. I always assumed the work that went into that part of it was completely underestimated and overshadowed by the painting. What a refreshing happy idea to maybe also make it the star!

Thank you so very much for the warm welcomes!

Wow. Great looking cards. Love them! The courts are nice and I always have a soft spot for decks that don't have indexes.

The only thing I can nitpick is the layout of the pips in the pip cards, I have never liked the combination of the standard layout that is huddled closer together and the pips are larger than normally, Bicycle Actuators also did it. But that is really a nitpick.

Overall great job so far!

Ah thank you Räpylätassu. I take every suggestion! The pip cards are not all complete as of yet so it wouldn't be too late to try a slight different version as a test. Maybe I could get everyone's opinions on the 2 different versions even? The pip cards really are not as much trouble to redo (if necessary) as any of the face cards

Welcome to UC!

Liking the artwork.

MTdesigns wrote:The pip cards are not all complete as of yet so it wouldn't be too late to try a slight different version as a test. Maybe I could get everyone's opinions on the 2 different versions even? The pip cards really are not as much trouble to redo (if necessary) as any of the face cards

If you're doing tests, it might be worth experimenting with non-standard pip layouts as well. They can reduce readability, but they add a lot of character.