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Pictorial Review: Edition Three, and Special Edition (Playing Arts)

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EndersGame

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* * * PLAYING ARTS * * *

There are many decks of playing cards that are artistic, but what happens if we combine them with true art, with commissioned pieces from actual artworks?  That's the concept of the Playing Arts series, which has now produced five decks of playing cards, and was created by the same people behind the digital art and design blog Digital Abstracts.

The Playing Arts project is all about a collaboration of many artists.  The project is self-described as follows: "Playing Arts is a collective art project that gathers designers and illustrators from all over the world with an idea to express their vision of an ordinary playing card using personal styles, techniques and imagination."  If you've ever wondered why only the court cards got to have great artwork, and that the number cards have long suffered a lack of exposure to great art, then this is a deck for you!  Altogether five different versions of this deck have now been produced, each combining individual designs from 55 different artists into a single deck. 

Here's how the Playing Arts team explains the concept: "We have always been inspired by the outstanding works of illustrators and designers featured on our resource, so we came up with an idea to mix their differences in a single project.  The idea of the project is to create a unique deck of poker playing cards where each card is individually designed by a different international artist.  From the two of clubs to the ace of diamonds, each of 55 participants has illustrated a single card in their own individual style and technique.  The project is called Playing Arts and each year we invite 55 designers and illustrators from all over the world to collaborate with us. Their particular styles and techniques convert a simple deck of cards in eclectic pocket-sized art gallery that can be shuffled and played."

The result is outstanding, and the project has proven to an enormous success, gaining much attention and popularity worldwide.  In this series of articles, I'm reviewing the decks that have been produced so far as a result of this innovative project, and I'll show you some of the stunning cards!






* * *  EDITION THREE * * *



Edition Three was produced in 2016, again with the help of a Kickstarter project.



For the back design of Edition Three, Juan Diaz-Faes wanted to incorporate elements of his Spanish drawing style, fused with the reality that this is a French deck.

The Ace of Clubs is by Omaraqil from Pakistan, who wanted to combine elements from Native American culture, and convey something of their cultural shapes and vibrant colours.



Juan Diaz-Faes (creator of the back design) also created the playful Joker depicted below.

The exuberantly coloured King of Diamonds is a Mexican creation by illustrator Raul Urias from Skinpop Studio.



As we've seen previously already, several of the number cards use the suit or the number as a central motif around which the rest of the picture is created.  In making the Five of Clubs, Justin Poulter discovered that this card symbolizes someone with a keen sense of inquiry, who has a constant need to discover new things and to travel; his aim was to convey something of the negative aspects of this (e.g. jealousy) as well as its positive aspects.

The team from the UK's Inkration Studio took the concept of a guardian of the Four of Spades to create their image.



Bram Vanhaeren aims to reward those with careful observation by masterfully combining both a number and a woman in his Five of Hearts.

I really love the technique that Greek visual designer Charis Tsevis has used to create the stunning image used for the Six of Spades.



Other invited artists that participated with the creation of this deck included Joshua Davis, Justin Maller, Mike Perry, Alessandro Pautasso, Bradley GMUNK Munkowitz and Jonny Wan.






* * * SPECIAL EDITION * * *



Edition Three wasn't the only deck produced in 2016, because the project had developed enough interest worldwide at this point, that it became feasible to run a design contest, in which artists from around the world could participate, with the winning entries being included in the final deck of this Special Edition. A total of 537 artists from 67 countries joined in, each being asked to create an artwork for one particular card in their own distinct style and technique.


 
Once again they have opted to go with a rather psychedelic choice for the back design, by Sebastian Onufszak from Germany.

The Ace of Hearts depicts a space-style landscape, complete with a rocket passing through.



I love how the cards shown here incorporate pip shapes into the design, with a tiny pips hanging down the face of the Queen of Hearts.

Similarly the diamond shape is very prominent throughout the design of the King of Diamonds.



I just love the portrait used on this next cards, the  Ten of Spades, which cleverly works ten spades into the hairstyle.

If you look carefully, you'll see that the Queen of Clubs is actually a plant with a club style shape, and rose petal hairstyle.



Among my favourite cards from this deck is the beautifully detailed Two of Clubs by Hong Kong artist Bonnie Pang.

I also love Elia S. Martin's flamingo inspired Two of Spades.



As for these next two cards, their symbolism is both intriguing and puzzling.  First of all there's the Two of Diamonds which has a swan imprisoned between some paint-covered fingers in a V-shape.

The Five of Spades has two pigs on a balance beam leaping for donuts.  I love this picture but have no clue what it means.  Any ideas about what these artists are trying to convey?



The non-winning entries (usually there were around ten entries for each card) were still published on the project's web-page, and can be seen by scrolling down to the bottom of the Special Edition web-page, and clicking on the individual card.

For example, here are all the entries for the Nine of Clubs:



It's hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to pick just one deck, perhaps it would be this one, the Special Edition.




* * * FUTURE EDITIONS * * *

The Playing Arts project isn't over, and there is even opportunity to participate in future editions.  It will be exciting to see what great contributions will be part of the next edition of this wonderful project.

Are you an artist, and do you want to participate?  To be considered to take part in the next version of this deck, you'll need to submit your profile, including a link to a portfolio of your work, which you can do from this page:

http://playingarts.com/en/contact




* * *   CONCLUSIONS * * *

Eclectic choices: If I had a criticism about these decks, it would be that they don't have a unified theme.  It does feel like a very eclectic mix of artwork, without anything specific that binds all the separate artworks together except for the fact that they have a common home in the same deck.  But I don't think this matters too much, because this is also part of the appeal of the deck as well.  It helps ensure that the deck has a broad appeal; otherwise there's always a risk that a deck will only appeal to a certain group of people.  The broad mix means that even if you don't like some cards, there's certain to be others that you do.  Furthermore there is a unity in terms of the overall graphic design, with indices that have a unified style, and this keeps the entire deck feeling like a complete unity, despite the eclectic choices, and this proved to be less of an issue than I first thought.

Creative designs: The more you look at the individual artworks, the more you start to notice.  In most cases the artists have put a tremendous amount of thought into their designs, and you'll be rewarded with more insights the more you study them.  For example, one of the Ace of Spades has a pirate theme, but only when looking carefully did I notice that the Ace itself was inspired by a skull-and-crossbones design.  It's details like these that you can't help but appreciate.  And because there's a wide range of different styles of artwork, there's also a very wide range of designs, which exhibit creativity in different ways. It really is an absolute pleasure to look through and study all the cards carefully!  More than once I've seen groups of people just looking at the cards, and sharing insights and ideas about the artwork, and enjoying them together.

Semi-transformational: I'm a big fan of transformational decks, which is where the pips of a card are somehow incorporated into the design of the overall picture.  These decks don't classify as transformational or semi-transformational decks, since the majority of the cards don't use this feature.  But I do like the fact that it is present in quite  a number of the cards, and that the artists have in some clever way tried to work with either the shape of the suit, or the number of pips, and have incorporated that into the artwork itself.

Functional: Although the art is very varied, the cards themselves are very functional.  The indices are clearly marked so that they are very readable, where necessary with white space added to the corner for this purpose, and yet a minimalist font ensures that they don't detract too much from the artwork either.  As a result, when fanning the cards in your hand, you can still easily and quickly see the value and suit of the cards you're holding.  Even though it is effectively a miniature art gallery, you can still definitely use this to play games without trouble.  I've seen many other creative custom decks that are beautiful, but simply not playable, for example if the suits aren't clearly distinguished, or if the indices are more artistic than usable.  That's not the case here, and it is a very playable deck.   We've used these decks to play some variations of whist, and had a great time, being able to play, and yet enjoy the artwork at the same time.

Vibrant: There are other decks available which have artwork by different artists on each card, the Ultimate Deck from Dan & Dave probably being the most well-known example.  While I do really love the Ultimate Deck, it is somewhat more sinister and dark in tone, and the majority of the cards have sepia colours or backgrounds, and there's a lot of black-and-white images, and at times even dark themes, with numerous skulls and bones featuring throughout the deck.  While there are a few cards like that in the Playing Arts decks, the majority of the cards feature a fresh white canvas as the backdrop, and that already ensures some consistency, and a more bright feeling. In addition, by far the majority of the art has bright and vibrant colours, evoking a more exuberant feeling, where energy and life is just bursting from the cards.  These are very happy and positive cards for the most part.



Cardistry: The striking patterns on the back of these decks make them ideal for cardistry.  Fans and spreads look amazing, and if you do have the dexterity to do flips and twirls, these decks look terrific to play with for that purpose.  When I first saw the card-backs first-hand, I thought some of them looked a little garish, but they have grown on me when using them, and the bright colours and patterns makes them really look nice when spreading and fanning them in different directions.  Someone I know performs cardistry on a regular basis, and just loved these decks, especially the circular design on the back of Edition One, which was particularly well-suited for cardistry.

Card quality: All the decks are printed by the US Playing Card Company, on Bicycle paper stock, so the quality matches that of any other deck you'd expect from USPCC.  They fan nicely (and the design on the card backs means that a fan or spread looks great!), and they handle and shuffle  beautifully.

Website: The Playing Arts team has an amazing website, and I can't say enough positive things about it.  They have clear images of every single card in every single deck.  You read that right.  Every single deck ... every single card!  So this means that you can just head to their website, and check out exactly what all the cards in a deck will look like.  You can see in advance exactly what you'll get, and you know exactly what you are ordering.

Artist insights: One thing I really appreciate about this project is that the individual artists were given opportunity to explain the thinking behind the creative process that produced their particular artwork.  This was originally published on a daily basis, as the decks were slowly revealed, and progress shared with backers.  But all of this material is still available online at the Playing Arts website to read for all the cards of each deck.  This really enhances appreciation of the art, and helps understand the different elements that contribute to the final image.

Series: I also like the fact that this is a series, and that the team behind this project have given all the decks a similar style and approach.  It ensures that all the decks look somewhat the same.  Even the tuck-boxes have a similar design, and this also means that they look great together on the shelf.  The only downside of this is that it's hard to just pick one or two - you'll want to get them all!

Consistent: It would be hard to pick which is my favourite deck, and there's good variety between them.  I gave all of the four available decks to two artists, and asked which one they liked best.  One liked Edition One and Edition Three the best, while the other liked the Special Edition best, and also favoured Edition Two.  So this means that it's actually very difficult to say which of these decks is best - they are all good, and none is objectively weaker than any other.  If you have to make a choice, you might want to decide on which card-backs you like best.  But each of them is a solid collection, and comparable in quality to the others.

Great gifts: I got several of these decks to give away as gifts for some family members who are artists.  They just loved them, and each had their own favourites!  Given their personal interest in the world of art, they had a heightened appreciation of all the individual contributions, and really enjoyed looking through the separate cards.  Even if they never use them to play games, it was a great and unique gift.  But having said that, more than a few of the non-artist people who saw them receive these gifts looked on rather enviously, and said that they'd love a copy of their own for playing cards, and to enjoy while doing traditional card games.  So they definitely have a very broad appeal, and make good gifts.



Where do you get them?

If you're interested in picking up some of these playing cards for yourself, or as gifts for your friends and family, head to the official website for the Collective Arts Project.  They cost just over $16 each, although Playing Arts does offer a substantial discount if you buy a whole set, consisting of all four decks that are currently available; the entire set goes for around $50.  Uncut sheets are also available, and if ever there was a deck for which an uncut sheet was a good option, it's something like this one!

Recommendation

Are the decks from the Playing Arts project for you?  These decks have added a lot of colour and interest to our games of traditional cards in recent times, and they have also generated a lot of interesting discussion following our games.  They're fantastic to just enjoy as works of art, or as an interesting change-up from a regular deck of cards in a game.  And they've certainly been well-received by friends and family as gifts.  I look forward to seeing the next edition in this series, and especially if you enjoy art, definitely you'll want to take a closer look to see if these are a good choice for you!

Want to learn more?  Collective Art Project: https://playingarts.com

Direct links for the decks featured in this series of reviews:
Edition Zero: https://playingarts.com/en/zero
Edition One: https://playingarts.com/en/one
Edition Two: https://playingarts.com/en/two
Edition Three: https://playingarts.com/en/three
Special Edition: https://playingarts.com/en/special

« Last Edit: June 10, 2017, 10:21:57 AM by EndersGame »
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