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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Design & Development => Topic started by: Jamm Pakd Cards on January 14, 2015, 10:33:13 AM
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Hey Everyone,
I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek into the next project Gonzo and I are working on. The next project is inspired by the Wild West!
There is going to be 2 decks the Lawman Deck and the Outlaw Deck. Each deck will have different court cards and different backs. Lawman Deck will have famous lawman of the wild west and the outlaw deck will have famous outlaws.
Here is the card we are working on for the Lawman Deck, King of Spades - Wyatt Earp. This is the first version, card could be modified. I just wanted to share with everyone what we are working on. Gonzo is hand drawing the court cards now and then we will be working on the illustrations.
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IMHO:
- don't like the combination of big Spades pips and revolvers. Try to substitute the name of this hero with some Spades big pip.
- the name can be under small spades pips (indices) - upright.
- try to remove the frame at all.
Good luck.
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Hey Everyone, We are back to the Wild West Decks!
There will be two different decks in this project. The Lawman Deck will have lawmen and women from the Wild West as the face cards. The Outlaw deck will have the Outlaws of the Wild West. Each Deck will be different, different backs, colors, tuck boxes and of course face cards. With this project I am also going to have poker chips, cases and a coin. I have been interested in the wild west since I was little. Living in Arizona I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by elements from the wild west my whole life. I remember going to Tombstone as a child to watch the Wild West Shows in Old Tucson.
More information to come as Gonzo and I complete the cards. All cards are hand drawn and then illustrated. Wyatt Earp is our 1st card in the Lawman Deck. Deck arriving on Kickstarter in Early 2016.
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Hey Everyone,
We made some changes from the 1st pic, We took some suggestions and moved the spade over which I think makes a big difference. Here is the updated version.
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Hey Everyone,
We made some changes from the 1st pic, We took some suggestions and moved the spade over which I think makes a big difference. Here is the updated version.
What if you put the spade on the right of the head instead of the left, slightly reduced the size of the lettering in Earp's name and placed that between the pistol barrel and the index? Having the gun AND the spade on the same side seems cluttered. Also try a lighter shade for the font - that will help to reduce the look of clutter.
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Hey Don, Thanks for the suggestions, I will check that out and see how it looks,
Thanks!
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What a fun theme and the art looks great!
In the classic deck, the King of Spades faces right, I think if you just flipped your king, you won't have any more issues with the revolver blocking the pip. And I do like the larger pip on the card, personally. Just adjust the text around his revolver as Don suggested, too.
Good luck!
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I love the illustration style, and the palate looks great! I would recommend removing the name entirely, it makes the card look gimmicky, use the add card to list who each royal card is akin to how Jackson Robinson has and I think you will clean the design up a lot and open your deck up to people who are more hesitant to pick up a novelty deck
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What a fun theme and the art looks great!
In the classic deck, the King of Spades faces right, I think if you just flipped your king, you won't have any more issues with the revolver blocking the pip. And I do like the larger pip on the card, personally. Just adjust the text around his revolver as Don suggested, too.
Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestions, Yes that might work out great. Glad you like the direction we are going.
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I love the illustration style, and the palate looks great! I would recommend removing the name entirely, it makes the card look gimmicky, use the add card to list who each royal card is akin to how Jackson Robinson has and I think you will clean the design up a lot and open your deck up to people who are more hesitant to pick up a novelty deck
Thanks Justin for the suggestions, I really appreciate all of the suggestions. We will test out some different options. Thanks again, glad you like the style!
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Hey Everyone! Here are some sketches for the Back of the Outlaw Deck. I wanted to have some key elements on the back of the card but there are some different ways we thought of how the layout could go. Keep in mind these are just sketches :) Let me know which one out of the three you like best!
Thanks,
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Hey Everyone! Here are some sketches for the Back of the Outlaw Deck. I wanted to have some key elements on the back of the card but there are some different ways we thought of how the layout could go. Keep in mind these are just sketches :) Let me know which one out of the three you like best!
Thanks,
My thoughts: take the third design, but make the guns smaller and with longer barrels. The "six-shooter" cylinder will more clearly dominate the center space and the barrels will form a more perfect diamond shape around it. Maybe fill in the negative space between the barrels and the cylinder with black and make the barrels and cylinder in either metallic silver ink or silver foil. THAT would look mighty impressive.
Do a little research on the engraving work found on the flashier examples of classic "Wild West" era guns and use that as the model not just for what's on your guns but also for what you're using in the background.
You could use the same overall design for the Outlaw and Lawman decks - just take the bandana off the Outlaw and put a sheriff's star on the ten-gallon hat to make the Lawman design - with a suitable change in background color to make the decks very easy to tell apart, naturally.
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I really like Don's suggestions. I would only add the hat band looks more like it belongs on a Fedora not a Western hat.
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I really like the illustration style of the faces and the third back design. However, I'd almost like to see a Wild West town inspiration or landscape as the background of the back design. Will the back design sketches have the same illustration style and feel as the faces?
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Looking good :)
The illustration (KoS) has a fresh and clean look with plenty of character. With the back, I agree that the 3rd one is looking best - Don's advice to make the guns smaller while lengthening the chambers sounds good and I also like Paul's idea of the Wild West inspired landscape ... Perhaps a mountain scape, where simple lines would put more focus on the detail in the foreground ... :)
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Hey Everyone! Here are some sketches for the Back of the Outlaw Deck. I wanted to have some key elements on the back of the card but there are some different ways we thought of how the layout could go. Keep in mind these are just sketches :) Let me know which one out of the three you like best!
Thanks,
My thoughts: take the third design, but make the guns smaller and with longer barrels. The "six-shooter" cylinder will more clearly dominate the center space and the barrels will form a more perfect diamond shape around it. Maybe fill in the negative space between the barrels and the cylinder with black and make the barrels and cylinder in either metallic silver ink or silver foil. THAT would look mighty impressive.
Do a little research on the engraving work found on the flashier examples of classic "Wild West" era guns and use that as the model not just for what's on your guns but also for what you're using in the background.
You could use the same overall design for the Outlaw and Lawman decks - just take the bandana off the Outlaw and put a sheriff's star on the ten-gallon hat to make the Lawman design - with a suitable change in background color to make the decks very easy to tell apart, naturally.
Hey Don thanks for the tips. Good tips about the guns. You read my mind on the engraving, that is my idea for the engraving on the back. Since this is just a sketch we did not go into detail on the engraving. I am thinking of having the card mainly silver and black. I have sketched up a different back for the lawman deck. Working on a couple of ideas I have. Thinking of having a badge as the main focus point on the lawman deck.
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I really like the illustration style of the faces and the third back design. However, I'd almost like to see a Wild West town inspiration or landscape as the background of the back design. Will the back design sketches have the same illustration style and feel as the faces?
Hey thanks Paul,Yes back will have the same illustration style as the faces, we will tie everything in together. This was just some sketches for placement and idea before we get the final draft going.
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Looking good :)
The illustration (KoS) has a fresh and clean look with plenty of character. With the back, I agree that the 3rd one is looking best - Don's advice to make the guns smaller while lengthening the chambers sounds good and I also like Paul's idea of the Wild West inspired landscape ... Perhaps a mountain scape, where simple lines would put more focus on the detail in the foreground ... :)
Thanks for the feedback!
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I really like Don's suggestions. I would only add the hat band looks more like it belongs on a Fedora not a Western hat.
Thanks for the feedback, glad everyone is liking the backs. Seems like the 3rd design is standing out.
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Hey Everyone, So I have the illustrated art for the Outlaw deck. I decided to go with the third one. Here are a couple of color options, still working on which colors to use. I would like to use like a black and silverish color. Maybe put in metallic silver (maybe stretch goal of metallic ink or foil) , still not sure yet.
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Nice update :) I like the first one the most - even though it is darker 'all over' the design flows nicely and all the elements feel like they belong together :)
cheers a. :)
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Nice update :) I like the first one the most - even though it is darker 'all over' the design flows nicely and all the elements feel like they belong together :)
cheers a. :)
Thanks, That is the one I am leaning towards as well, maybe use metallic ink as a stretch goal for the silver/grayish color.
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Hey Everyone, Here is the Lawman Deck Back.
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Hey Everyone, Here is the Lawman Deck Back.
Looks good, but I think it would look better without the words in the center. Just repeat the six-pointed star motif in the middle of the badge, or make some other symmetrical design. Card backs often look better without words in them; despite the idea of having a "label" of some kind in the middle of the star, I think it works better in this case without it. It you really feel it necessary to have words, leave out the "USA" and replace "Lawman" with "Marshall" or "Sheriff" and it will look more like a traditional badge of the era while remaining symmetrical. There's something about that "USA" that doesn't work with the design - the letters seem too modern in appearance.
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Hey Everyone, Here is the Lawman Deck Back.
Looks good, but I think it would look better without the words in the center. Just repeat the six-pointed star motif in the middle of the badge, or make some other symmetrical design. Card backs often look better without words in them; despite the idea of having a "label" of some kind in the middle of the star, I think it works better in this case without it. It you really feel it necessary to have words, leave out the "USA" and replace "Lawman" with "Marshall" or "Sheriff" and it will look more like a traditional badge of the era while remaining symmetrical. There's something about that "USA" that doesn't work with the design - the letters seem too modern in appearance.
Thanks Don, Great advice as always.
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I hope you can meet your stretch goals! The metallic inks will look so awesome on these!
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I hope you can meet your stretch goals! The metallic inks will look so awesome on these!
Thanks, glad you like them, Yes I think metallic ink would be cool. Especially for the guns on the outlaw deck and the badge on the lawman deck.
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Hey, Thanks for all of the suggestions on the king of spades earlier. I have taken the suggestions and made some changes as suggested. I do like this format better, placement of pips and gun placement.
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Nice! :)
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Nice! :)
Agreed. Looking kinda sharp. You might want to use a somewhat darker shade for the name lettering under the index - printed in the border like that, it's going to be narrow and small, so a darker shade will aid with readability. You can also move it a bit further down the edge if you want to, perhaps even as far as center line.
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Nice! :)
Thanks!
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Nice! :)
Agreed. Looking kinda sharp. You might want to use a somewhat darker shade for the name lettering under the index - printed in the border like that, it's going to be narrow and small, so a darker shade will aid with readability. You can also move it a bit further down the edge if you want to, perhaps even as far as center line.
Thanks Don!
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Here is a new version of the lawman back, without words.
what do you think?
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I don't mean to be a buzzkill but the back has a lot of detail everywhere BUT the center. It's like it reads badge then goes to bulls eye. Better than the text though in my opinion. Doesn't grab me and has a strange feel to my eyes.
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I don't mean to be a buzzkill but the back has a lot of detail everywhere BUT the center. It's like it reads badge then goes to bulls eye. Better than the text though in my opinion. Doesn't grab me and has a strange feel to my eyes.
I appreciate the feedback Fes. I have a couple other variations that are similar. Maybe they will be a bit better. Feedback is good, that way I can nail down a winner! I do also like it better than the words.
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Here some variations of the lawmen back that we have tweaked. Let me know which ones you like best!
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I like B2. It's embellished in a two-way design without being overly embellished.
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I like B2. It's embellished in a two-way design without being overly embellished.
Ok thanks Don, I might have another variation as well, just messing around with some idea right now, might stick with these options
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Some changes we made to the Wild West Back, I like these better. Let me know what you think.
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It feels a little too baroque to me. Consider what the authentic badges of the old West looked like. A few had some ornate details, a few were absolutely covered in detail work, but the vast majority were very simple affairs, way less elaborate than what you're presenting here. This might be a case where less is more.
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It feels a little too baroque to me. Consider what the authentic badges of the old West looked like. A few had some ornate details, a few were absolutely covered in detail work, but the vast majority were very simple affairs, way less elaborate than what you're presenting here. This might be a case where less is more.
Thanks for the feedback Don, So you still prefer B2 from the previous post? This will be a tough choice for me :) I have been getting good and less good feedback on both styles.
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It feels a little too baroque to me. Consider what the authentic badges of the old West looked like. A few had some ornate details, a few were absolutely covered in detail work, but the vast majority were very simple affairs, way less elaborate than what you're presenting here. This might be a case where less is more.
Thanks for the feedback Don, So you still prefer B2 from the previous post? This will be a tough choice for me :) I have been getting good and less good feedback on both styles.
Well, in the end, you're the artist and the call is yours to make!
Try an experiment. Make the simplest, most utterly stripped-down version of a six-pointed sheriff's badge you can, with as few details as possible. Gradually add new, simple elements, one at a time, and look at the overall appearance with each new addition. At some point, you'll hit that sweet spot that looks just right to your sensibilities - some level of detail without being overly-adorned, lending the design a more authentic feel.
But before you even start, do an image search for Old West-style lawman badges and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about when it comes to the simplicity of most of the designs. Many were as simple as a hunk of metal shaped into a star or a shield with a few words engraved or stamped into them and that was it - they were in many cases perhaps the work of the local blacksmith rather than the local engraver, silversmith or jeweler, considering nearly all frontier towns would have the former but relatively few would have any of the latter! Fancy silver or metalwork would be the kind of thing you'd have to go to a larger town or city to find.
Remember, the replica badges a lot of sites will show you are representative of what was out there, often labeled with the names of cities you've heard of either in history books or in the modern day, but a lot of the actual badges of that time period were made for a lawman in some dinky, one-horse town consisting of "main street" and little else, a town that may no longer even exists. It would say "sheriff," the town name and that's about it. In more dangerous territories, it was a pretty thankless position and fraught with risk, especially if you happened to be the one officer of the law in a hole-in-the-wall town buried in the middle of nowhere, a place rife with lawlessness because it made for a convenient, out-of-the-way place to hide. There are stories of entire towns that were literally controlled by bandits, rustlers and other lawbreakers without a lawman in sight, the town's entire raison d'être being to serve as a hideout.
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Can the Joker be a spittoon?
Please?
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It feels a little too baroque to me. Consider what the authentic badges of the old West looked like. A few had some ornate details, a few were absolutely covered in detail work, but the vast majority were very simple affairs, way less elaborate than what you're presenting here. This might be a case where less is more.
Thanks for the feedback Don, So you still prefer B2 from the previous post? This will be a tough choice for me :) I have been getting good and less good feedback on both styles.
Well, in the end, you're the artist and the call is yours to make!
Try an experiment. Make the simplest, most utterly stripped-down version of a six-pointed sheriff's badge you can, with as few details as possible. Gradually add new, simple elements, one at a time, and look at the overall appearance with each new addition. At some point, you'll hit that sweet spot that looks just right to your sensibilities - some level of detail without being overly-adorned, lending the design a more authentic feel.
But before you even start, do an image search for Old West-style lawman badges and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about when it comes to the simplicity of most of the designs. Many were as simple as a hunk of metal shaped into a star or a shield with a few words engraved or stamped into them and that was it - they were in many cases perhaps the work of the local blacksmith rather than the local engraver, silversmith or jeweler, considering nearly all frontier towns would have the former but relatively few would have any of the latter! Fancy silver or metalwork would be the kind of thing you'd have to go to a larger town or city to find.
Remember, the replica badges a lot of sites will show you are representative of what was out there, often labeled with the names of cities you've heard of either in history books or in the modern day, but a lot of the actual badges of that time period were made for a lawman in some dinky, one-horse town consisting of "main street" and little else, a town that may no longer even exists. It would say "sheriff," the town name and that's about it. In more dangerous territories, it was a pretty thankless position and fraught with risk, especially if you happened to be the one officer of the law in a hole-in-the-wall town buried in the middle of nowhere, a place rife with lawlessness because it made for a convenient, out-of-the-way place to hide. There are stories of entire towns that were literally controlled by bandits, rustlers and other lawbreakers without a lawman in sight, the town's entire raison d'être being to serve as a hideout.
Thanks Don, having a simple badge like the old wild west badges was my initial thought as well. That is why we went with the USA and the lawmen but I just wasnt feeling it. I know words on backs are tough as well.
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I am leaning towards this design, made some changes to the middle and color changes.
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I am leaning towards this design, made some changes to the middle and color changes.
It strikes a decent balance between authentic appearance and somewhat baroque design. In custom decks, sometimes people really go for a more complex design, especially more complex than what they'd see in a standard "drugstore" deck.
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Hey, made changes to the Outlaw Back. Made changes to the guy, the hat, and the scroll work. Both cards tie in together better. Let me know what you think and what color you like better.
Thanks,
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I like the B2 version slightly better than any of the other ones. Just for a suggestion, have you tried a larger spur for the center with a narrower black band like B4? BTW, I'm digging these decks. Keep up the great work.
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Back F2 looks better - F1 is a little too much on the dark side, lacks enough contrast.
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Ace of Spades for the Outlaw Deck!
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Ace of Spades for the Outlaw Deck!
Using a "holdout pistol" design is an interesting choice - it was favored by ladies and gamblers looking for concealment, but they were notoriously inaccurate, used only as a last resort in a desperate situation.
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Ace of Spades for the Outlaw Deck!
Using a "holdout pistol" design is an interesting choice - it was favored by ladies and gamblers looking for concealment, but they were notoriously inaccurate, used only as a last resort in a desperate situation.
Nice catch Don, Yes we thought it was something different and I do like to play poker so I thought it would be cool to incorporate in the spade.
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Here is the King of Diamonds - Virgil Earp
"Virgil Walter Earp was Tombstone, Arizona City Marshal when he led his brothers Morgan and Wyatt and Doc Holliday in a confrontation with outlaw Cowboys at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881" per Wikipedia
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King of Clubs - James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok of the Lawmen Deck of the Wild West Playing Card Project.
"Wild Bill of the American Old West is known for his skills as a scout, lawman, gunfighter and gambler. He was a professional gambler who was involved in several notable shootouts. In 1876, Hickok was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon. The poker hand he supposedly held at his death has become known as the dead man's hand. There are a few hands that were suspected of being the Dead Man's hand but the most widely accepted was black aces and black eights." per Wikipedia
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Nice update with the Kings - can't wait to see the ladies :)
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LOVE everything about this deck. I haven't been able to afford decks in a while, but this deck will definitely be in my collection.
THAT ACE IS BREATHTAKING ;D
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Interestingly enough, as I re-examine the deck and the precise shape of the spade in the Ace of Spades, I noticed something interesting. One could re-envision that spade as a woman's cleavage while wearing something like perhaps and open bolero jacket, with the handles of the derringers almost forming the cups of a bra or a bustier. Perhaps the Outlaws deck can have a Wild West showgirl in such a fashion for the AoS... :))
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Interestingly enough, as I re-examine the deck and the precise shape of the spade in the Ace of Spades, I noticed something interesting. One could re-envision that spade as a woman's cleavage while wearing something like perhaps and open bolero jacket, with the handles of the derringers almost forming the cups of a bra or a bustier. Perhaps the Outlaws deck can have a Wild West showgirl in such a fashion for the AoS... :))
Cool observation Don ... :)
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Hey Everyone, I have been working on getting the project ready for Relaunch. I am going with United States Playing Card Company and I have changed the shape of the suits. Some of the feedback is people did not like the shape of the spades. We have changed the shape of the suits. Here is a preview. Thanks, Justin