New Deck I am Creating: Coat of Arms - Revised 2.0

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

My name is Justin and I am creating a new deck of cards to put on Kickstarter. The deck will be original art. My Theme is Coat of Arms. Each card will be unique art. Each court card will have a different coat of arms. Kings and Queens will have crowns and the Jacks will have Knight helmets. The number cards will have a shield in the background and the suits will be laid out on the shield. The Joker has a jester hat in place of a crown.  I thought it would be cool to incorporate a little history into the deck. In the 18th century the Swiss and German culture used different images for the four suits that are common today. They used roses, bells, acorns and shields. So throughout the deck you will find the old images incorporated in with the new. You will find hearts with roses, Diamonds with bells, clubs with acorns and shields with spades. Here is what I have done so far.

Let me know what you think!

[Don Boyer]

My name is Justin and I am creating a new deck of cards to put on Kickstarter. The deck will be original art. My Theme is Coat of Arms. Each card will be unique art. Each court card will have a different coat of arms. Kings and Queens will have crowns and the Jacks will have Knight helmets. The number cards will have a shield in the background and the suits will be laid out on the shield. The Joker has a jester hat in place of a crown.  I thought it would be cool to incorporate a little history into the deck. In the 18th century the Swiss and German culture used different images for the four suits that are common today. They used roses, bells, acorns and shields. So throughout the deck you will find the old images incorporated in with the new. You will find hearts with roses, Diamonds with bells, clubs with acorns and shields with spades. Here is what I have done so far.

Let me know what you think!

I would simplify the indices, right off the bat.  You want easy to read.

The coats of arms look not enough like real coats of arms.  Look over historical coats of arms for some ideas.  And making that one king with an eye on the shield looks a bit incongruous compared to the rest.

I've seen so many "aged paper" effects on decks these days, it's starting to become a bit overused.  Consider going a different way - maybe a stone/marble background or something similar.

Not so sure about the inclusion of the German suits - there's MANY suit variants throughout Europe.  But if you find a way to incorporate them into the coat-of-arms designs, that might work.  Another option might be to include other nations' card suits as well - for example, the Kings would have the German suits, the Queens would have the Italian suits, the Jacks would have the Spanish suits, etc.

The short version is that the idea has potential but needs more work.

So - what are your ideas for the card backs?

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Don,

Thank you for your input you have some great ideas.  I have some ruff sketches for the back but not really close to post anything yet. I am working with some ideas for a coat of arms for the back.  I have some ideas on how I am going to have some of the weapons on the back.  I want to position the weapons to make some cool designs when people fan the cards. 

[Don Boyer]

Hey Don,

Thank you for your input you have some great ideas.  I have some ruff sketches for the back but not really close to post anything yet. I am working with some ideas for a coat of arms for the back.  I have some ideas on how I am going to have some of the weapons on the back.  I want to position the weapons to make some cool designs when people fan the cards.

Find ways to make the back a two-way design, the same when viewed right-side up or up-side down.

Find ways to do that for the shields/crests used on the faces.  A lot of people are turned off by one-way courts and might find one-way faces (except for the obvious pip positionings) a little off-putting as well.

[Bill Collins]

I like your art and were it is heading, not a big fan of the indices but over all your off to a good start

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for your feedback! 

[Alex Willis]

I agree with Don on this one, you should have a closer representation to actual crests.  There are meanings to heraldry designs to include royal ranking.  My own family crest is a double pattern where two families combined, three talons over chevrons blue field and a lion over ermine.  I would suspect that a Jack might have a split or quartered crest.  If your goal is to make a artistic impression implying crests, I'm not sure how receptive the market will be.  It seems that detail is what's really getting people going nowadays.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Alex,  You make good points and thanks for the feedback.  I defiantly hear what your saying about the Royal rankings and you and Don make a good point.   I did some research on different crests when I was looking for inspiration for my deck.  Some of the images I put in the different cards were inspired by my own families crests.  I wanted to take inspiration for the crests and create my own.  I really wanted to make some cool images with a coat of arms theme and hopefully people enjoy the art.   

Thanks for the feedback everyone, you guys make good points and have some great ideas.  I will be able to take your feedback and tweak my deck.  I am already working on some of the tweaks people have given me.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Here is what I have so far with the Jacks.  I am still looking to change the font in the scroll, so for right now I just put the name of the card there as a filler.  Wanted to share with everyone the progress. 

[Alex Willis]

If I'm being honest, I don't think the art is quite there.  Look at recent KS projects like Elves & Orcs Bicycle Playing Cards and Iron Kings Bicycle Playing Cards that are fairly in line with your theme.  The first did very well, partially because of the fantasy theme and partially because of the incredible artwork.  The second did not get funded, but made a good showing and demonstrated that people want more than just people in armor.  For a fully illustrated deck you will need something that's really going to wow them!  Previous advice given was to make the cards closer to actual coats of arms.  If this is  your own artwork, then I apologize for the tough critique, but you are asking for advice to help you gain approval from a large market of consumers and frankly I've seen far better illustrations not get the funded.  I think idea of a coat of arms deck has some draw to it, especially if your own can be found in the deck.  I think it'd be very cool to even make it a teaching deck like Permaculture Playing Cards which uses more sketch like artwork.  I would make each suit a different origin (England, Germany, France and Spain) that was known to use family crests.  I would source the most common names from a set time in history (15th or 16th century) and represent those crests.  I would stylize them in the more modern fashion of garish leafwork as the coats of arms were plainer in those times.  See the two examples below, the plain and the garish.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Alex,
Thank you for your input I appreciate your honesty.  I started with a more clean look but I then changed it to look more like it would if the coat of arms was made in the 15th century.  Where the coat of arms did not have a clean look.  Here is a pic from the 15th century with the coat of arms being drawn on reused paper.  The art was more simple.  I wanted to go back to that time period and make it look similar. 

If you look at the white and red shield in the left corner you will see they are very similar to my Jack of Clubs.  They all have two symbols above a half triangle and an image below.  As you can see the lines are not clean, the circles are not perfect and they are not perfect shields.  The cards I am creating I want to be like that.  Hope this helps to see where I am going with the old not clean look. 

Thanks,


per the web where I found this image: Just a back ground on the piece:
"The coats of arms are estimated to have been painted in 1480, during a time when good quality paper was scarce and anything that was available was re-used. The banking records, only half-covered by the design, date from 1422-24 and hint at the extensive trade in wool and other commodities produced in Britain during the era."sourced from the web.

[Alex Willis]

Hey Alex,
Thank you for your input I appreciate your honesty.  I started with a more clean look but I then changed it to look more like it would if the coat of arms was made in the 15th century.  Where the coat of arms did not have a clean look.  Here is a pic from the 15th century with the coat of arms being drawn on reused paper.  The art was more simple.  I wanted to go back to that time period and make it look similar. 

If you look at the white and red shield in the left corner you will see they are very similar to my Jack of Clubs.  They all have two symbols above a half triangle and an image below.  As you can see the lines are not clean, the circles are not perfect and they are not perfect shields.  The cards I am creating I want to be like that.  Hope this helps to see where I am going with the old not clean look. 

Thanks,


per the web where I found this image: Just a back ground on the piece:
"The coats of arms are estimated to have been painted in 1480, during a time when good quality paper was scarce and anything that was available was re-used. The banking records, only half-covered by the design, date from 1422-24 and hint at the extensive trade in wool and other commodities produced in Britain during the era."sourced from the web.

Yep, I'm quite familiar with 15th century heraldry.  And if you were doing a spot on representation of that specific period of stylized art, not "inspired by" then I can buy it.  However, I don't believe the audience on KS will be willing to pay you money to produce it.  If you really wan to make a go of the theme I'd highly recommend you join several forums who focus is on heraldry to do two things:  1, to begin to build a fan base.  Cards like Permaculture launched and was quickly successful because they have a very successful following.  2, to get more insight into what people who are looking for that style of art would want. 

Best of luck to you.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Ok, great tips, thanks for your help! 

[dtsang]

I really like the initial design behind this deck 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thank you very much!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hello, Here is what I have for three of the Aces, Ace of spades is still being worked on.

[Don Boyer]

Hello, Here is what I have for three of the Aces, Ace of spades is still being worked on.

Those don't look like coats of arms so much as bicep tattoos.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Maybe I should put the pip on a shield like the number cards?  I just wanted the aces to be a little different then the other number cards.

[Don Boyer]

Maybe I should put the pip on a shield like the number cards?  I just wanted the aces to be a little different then the other number cards.

They already ARE different.  They're big and bold.  Isn't that enough?

The theme of the deck is Coat of Arms.  The name of the deck is Coat of Arms.  Incorporating the Ace designs into a coat of arms would seem to be the way to go here.  Like I said, in their present form, they look more like tattoo flash than ancient clan symbols.  Perhaps if you want it a little more different, you could place the Aces on wood or perhaps a cloth banner, as one would do with a symbol that's hung on the castle walls, rather than using a shield.

Did coats of arms often have scrolls with writing on them in English?  I would have thought Latin or some other ancient tongue more common.  It's worth a thought - using a different language.  Heck, you could try thematically dividing the coats by the countries in which they might have hung.  For example, the Ace of Clubs looks close enough to a fleur-de-lis that you could easily imagine it as a French clan standard - so write that scroll in Old French (you'd want a standard's scroll to be written in the period-correct version of the language rather than the modern usage).  One can be Welsh, one can be German, one can be Italian.  Scottish and Gaelic would also be worth considering.

BTW: nice touch, incorporating the old German versions of the suits on the Aces.

A question comes to mind. We've seen your Jacks, and they're OK.  But I think they could be better.  Consider creating two separate shields in the corners opposite the index.  Do away with the helmets.  Make a simple yet regal coat-of-arms design incorporating the appropriate suit, and make the framework around the coat of arms more ornate and "royal" the higher in rank you go.  The Queen's coats of arms can actually be placed on a silken kerchief of pink or white - if I'm not mistaken, female royalty were known to give a similar "favor" to a knight before a battle or a contest of fighting skills, either for luck or to indicate attraction.

Even simpler would be to make the Jacks with reinforced steel shields, the Queens with silken kerchiefs and the Kings with gilded shields.  There's a lot of ways you can play with this.

For the number/spot cards, consider a mix of standard shields and tower shields.  Tower shields would be especially appropriate for the higher-ranked spot cards.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Don, Thanks for your input, as always you have great thoughts and ideas. I like your idea of placing the aces on wood like they would have done on a castle.  I also like changing up the language, I would have to think about that one.  You have given me some ideas to brain storm.

Thanks for noticing the old German suits, I have incorporated them though out the deck. The queens also have the old suits on the shields.  Hopefully I will have those finished soon to post.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Don, Just saw your section on the queens and jacks.  I do have the queens with a cloth like background once the coloring and some changes are done I will post them.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Here is what I have for the queens, I am taking the suggestions and working on a syntactical background so this is just so you can see the queen illustrations.  I am also still working on the words. 

[speedyy400]

I'm curious if you are attempting to make the backs completely symmetrical. If so, you may want to work on the Queen of Diamonds for sure. I was looking at the tassels hanging out of the sides and the one on the bottom right of the back is not a reflection of the one on the top left. It is touching the part with the words unlike the other one. I would say that it going to be one of your tougher challenges in making the back identical looking.

[sprouts1115]

speedyy400 - His courts and pips all seem to be "1-way".  Which is fine; That is his artist style.  As a suggestion though, he probably needs to make the back of the card "2-way" to be functional or he is going to get a lot of flak.   

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

speedyy400 - His courts and pips all seem to be "1-way".  Which is fine; That is his artist style.  As a suggestion though, he probably needs to make the back the card "2-way" to be functional or he is going to get a lot of flak.   

you are right on Sprouts1115 about the artist style. The back of the card will be "2-way" for sure, I believe this is a must. 

[ronyo_faukx]

For the Aces, you could try doing the same thing with the four suits as these guys did with leaves.

[Don Boyer]

For the Aces, you could try doing the same thing with the four suits as these guys did with leaves.

I see that as being something much cooler for the Jokers!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I have taken some advice from the forum and a past post from Don and I have changed the background of the cards.  Here is a sample of what I have so far.  I changed the color to grey and made some changes to the back.  I think the grey goes better with the colors we have been using and the shields. I attached the old back and the new back so you can see the difference.

[Don Boyer]

I have taken some advice from the forum and a past post from Don and I have changed the background of the cards.  Here is a sample of what I have so far.  I changed the color to grey and made some changes to the back.  I think the grey goes better with the colors we have been using and the shields. I attached the old back and the new back so you can see the difference.

I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I think that is an improvement.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks Don, I appreciate it!

[Justin O.]

I really like the direction this project is heading! The classic coat of arms theme is a favorite of mine and I think you are on the right track to make an awesome deck using this theme.

I saw previously you were discussing the aces and wanting them to stand out as unique while still fitting the theme and an idea that was posed was to have them have their own shields to make them in line with the rest of the deck and I thought it might be interesting if the suits were the coats of arms themselves, making them both unique from the pips and in line with the theme of the deck.

With the aid of the ever-crappy MSPaint I threw together a quick image of what I mean sans clubs... Because clubs are marginally more difficult to throw together in MSPaint while I'm on the clock at work =P

Edit: With filigree, weapons, style, little stylistic curly-cues and such added in. Obviously.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I really like the direction this project is heading! The classic coat of arms theme is a favorite of mine and I think you are on the right track to make an awesome deck using this theme.

I saw previously you were discussing the aces and wanting them to stand out as unique while still fitting the theme and an idea that was posed was to have them have their own shields to make them in line with the rest of the deck and I thought it might be interesting if the suits were the coats of arms themselves, making them both unique from the pips and in line with the theme of the deck.

With the aid of the ever-crappy MSPaint I threw together a quick image of what I mean sans clubs... Because clubs are marginally more difficult to throw together in MSPaint while I'm on the clock at work =P

Edit: With filigree, weapons, style, little stylistic curly-cues and such added in. Obviously.

Great Suggestion Justin O.  I appreciate the feedback and support.  Glad you like the deck so far.  I will brainstorm some ideas off of your suggestion.  Thanks! 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Coat of Arms Deck: Revised 2.0 - New Beginning

I am excited to announce a friend of mine has joined me to design the coat of arms deck.  I have worked on a project with him before.  He is a terrific artist and I am thrilled with the new direction we are going with the deck.  All art work is 100% hand drawn and original.  Here are some completed cards of the new style I wanted to share with everyone.  Thank you!

[Don Boyer]

Coat of Arms Deck: Revised 2.0 - New Beginning

I am excited to announce a friend of mine has joined me to design the coat of arms deck.  I have worked on a project with him before.  He is a terrific artist and I am thrilled with the new direction we are going with the deck.  All art work is 100% hand drawn and original.  Here are some completed cards of the new style I wanted to share with everyone.  Thank you!

I strongly recommend changing the flags on which the indices are "hung".  Notice that the flags extend into the bleed area where the card is cut.  One can tell just from looking at the edges where the red and black cards are by just looking for the blue and gold at the cut edge.  Makes it tough to bluff having a heart flush when one of your cards has blue ink on that piece of the edge, among other things.  In magic, an inverted card in the middle of the deck will be immediately visible from the moving of the line from one side of the edge to the other.

Either get rid of the flags or terminate them within a border.  You can also solve this by making a matching flag on the back design and make all the flags have the same color at the edge that extends into the bleed (but that's kind of complex and may not be flattering to the design).  My preference would be to terminate the flag within a border - whoever prints this deck, you'll need to know their edge tolerances of their cutting machine to create a just-wide-enough border for keeping the design of the flag away from the edge of the card.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Don,

Great advice and good catch on the flag.  I will most likely bring it back down out of the boarder.  I am having USPCC print the cards so I will make sure I have the proper boarder measurements.

Thanks for the heads up. 

[adelsan]

From a creative designer's perspective:
The back is nice! But,
Point 1. The design is to bulky maybe a more detail will make it work.
Point 2. I'm with Don on the flag thing.
Point 3. The background is too much, I'd go with less texture or even lose it.
Point 4. I think the border around the illustration is unneeded.
Point 6. you should think making the illustrations 15~25% smaller to let the space breath a bit.

Sorry for being overwhelming and maybe a bit harsh, I'd love your project to sparkle because your idea is awesome in my opinion.

Keep up and continue!

Cheers,
A 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.  I agree with you and Don about the flag situation.  I am already working on a solution to that and I am contacting USPCC about the bleeding just to make sure I cover all details.
All the suggestions help and I am glad people are liking the new direction of the deck. 

Thanks,

Justin   

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey Everyone,

I have taken the advice of the great feedback I have received and made some changes.

I have eliminated the border.
I also changed the color on the KoH wing to a darker gold to make it more contrast.
I have come up with a solution for the flag situation where the flag bleeds off the edge. I have the flag hanging off a pole, I have two types I am working with, I am going to post both types and allow people to vote on which they prefer.

[Don Boyer]

Hey Everyone,

I have taken the advice of the great feedback I have received and made some changes.

I have eliminated the border.
I also changed the color on the KoH wing to a darker gold to make it more contrast.
I have come up with a solution for the flag situation where the flag bleeds off the edge. I have the flag hanging off a pole, I have two types I am working with, I am going to post both types and allow people to vote on which they prefer.

It's an improvement.  Removing the borders allowed you to open up the art more, making a larger-sized image.

I prefer the one bar with the knobs at the end - it looks more like the kind of rod a banner such as this would be hanging from in the real world.

I still think you need to make the spade on the King of Spade's shield a bit larger and the lion smaller!

If you're planning on using metallic gold ink, this should look very nice indeed - but remember that while the gold looks bright on the screen, when printed it's actually darker, closer to the shade of a yellow-brown deli mustard.  Keep it closer to fields with light colors and it'll look great, really popping off the card.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the feedback Don, Thanks for heads up on the color as well.  I will keep that in mind once I go to print.  I will keep it on the light side of the color as you suggested. 

Thanks for voting.  I hope people take advantage of the poll I put up to vote for which flag pole they prefer.  I really have been going back and forth on that.  So the voting will help me give what the people want. 

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for the feedback Don, Thanks for heads up on the color as well.  I will keep that in mind once I go to print.  I will keep it on the light side of the color as you suggested. 

Thanks for voting.  I hope people take advantage of the poll I put up to vote for which flag pole they prefer.  I really have been going back and forth on that.  So the voting will help me give what the people want.

I should say for clarity - the gold ink itself isn't available in shades, or at the least I've never seen it in any but the one shade.  I was referring to the neighboring fields of color it would be placed against.  If you surround it with dark, that whole section will print darker than it looks on the screen, whereas if it's surrounded by light colors, it would stand out more.  A nice choice for darker fields would be silver metallic ink - it appears brighter than the gold does.  It may or may not increase costs to use more than one metallic ink color, but I've seen it done and the result is usually impressive.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Here is the Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades and the 10 of Spades.

[Don Boyer]

Looks good.  I'm liking it.

The 10 of Spades looks a little busy with the pips pointing all over the place, though.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Check out the Queen of Hearts!  Getting closer to completion!

[BeDoubleYou]

I rather like the pips on the ten of spades.

If for no other reason than this, if it's good enough to be included in a royal flush, it ought to stand out a little bit. It gives the ten a little bit of  a head nod.

I also like the pole with the little knobs as Don mentioned.

As far as printing in two metallic inks, to be honest, I think that would be pretty bold in a lot of decks, but I think with these it would look terrific. Some of the armor bits and the mace on the clubs and spades and the gold on the diamonds and hearts.

I personally loved the old artwork as well, but the new ones really made me say "wow" out loud. From the time you first posted until now (I spent a while reading this whole entry) it's come a long way. What you started with was good, these look great and getting better thanks to all of the great advice.

[CordedTires]

It's gone from kind of clunky to polished and interesting. Fun to see the development here.

[popetown]

Commenting to stay informed. I very much like the new 2.0 direction even more. Agreed on the flag banners for the indices with the round stoppers. Keep it up, I love how this is going.

[Shebhnt]

I may be one of the few but for some reason I prefer the older courts to the new courts though I prefer the blue tint/texture than the brown.  Also the 2.0 back with the lions is just plain amazing.  That alone makes me want the deck.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for all the great and supporting comments, The feedback has been great.  The feedback from everyone has really helped transform this deck.  Thanks again for the support!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I rather like the pips on the ten of spades.

If for no other reason than this, if it's good enough to be included in a royal flush, it ought to stand out a little bit. It gives the ten a little bit of  a head nod.

I also like the pole with the little knobs as Don mentioned.

As far as printing in two metallic inks, to be honest, I think that would be pretty bold in a lot of decks, but I think with these it would look terrific. Some of the armor bits and the mace on the clubs and spades and the gold on the diamonds and hearts.

I personally loved the old artwork as well, but the new ones really made me say "wow" out loud. From the time you first posted until now (I spent a while reading this whole entry) it's come a long way. What you started with was good, these look great and getting better thanks to all of the great advice.

I am glad you went through all the posts from the beginning to the end. When I revamped the deck I sent Don a message to see if I should start a whole new post with the revised 2.0 deck version but Don thought people would enjoy the transformation of the deck.  He thought it would be great to see how the deck has changed.  Don was right, So I am glad people get to see the transformation and people do get to see how their input helps to shape projects.   

Thanks for the great comments and I am glad you like the deck!

[Don Boyer]

Thanks for the great comments and I am glad you like the deck!

You're welcome!  Have you considered entering the deck in the new design contest we're holding?  If you win, Expert PCC will print your deck and you'll get 36 bricks of it (yep, three gross!) free of charge.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the great comments and I am glad you like the deck!

You're welcome!  Have you considered entering the deck in the new design contest we're holding?  If you win, Expert PCC will print your deck and you'll get 36 bricks of it (yep, three gross!) free of charge.

Thanks for the suggestion Don, The contest looks great and this is a great opportunity.  I am going to launch the Coat of Arms deck soon but I do have a couple other deck ideas that I definitely would like to enter one of them in the contest.  I have some rough sketches and concepts that I have been working on.  Once we are done with the Coat of Arms Deck then we will go over my designs and concepts and see which one we could enter in the contest. 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Here is a little something we put together getting closer to a Kickstarter release.

[troy]

I really like the concept and a lot of the execution so far on your deck!

However, there is something I'd like to add. Sometimes less is more. With the court cards, I really like a lot of what you have going on, but the hair/ribbon on the sides of the shields don't work IMO. I think it would look much better removing it. Just with the shield, crown and sword.

I also think the shields look better straight up and down rather than at an angle, and standard alignment of the pips, straight up and down.

You've absolutely nailed the Ace of Spades and the back design.

Whatever you design designs, I wish you the best of the luck with your deck!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Thanks for the feedback! 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Just a quick update for everyone, just working on fine tuning everything before I launch my deck on Kickstarter, wrapping up all the little details. Currently we are working on the pics that will be on Kickstarter so everyone can see what items they would like to pledge for. I sent my image of my box to USPCC for a preliminary review and everything came back from legal as a go. 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Sneak Peek on how the boxes are going to look for the Coat of Arms Deck and the Dark Ages Deck! 

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

First Look of the Limited Edition Dark Ages Deck!  Going to be printed with gold and red metallic ink!  Limited Edition Deck - Only 2,500 decks are going to be sold!, More info to come! 

[troy]

I'm looking forward to these. Hopefully members of the forum get a special pre-event link to jump at the front of the line.

[Don Boyer]

The Dark Ages version is pretty cool.  What will the red-suited cards look like?

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I'm looking forward to these. Hopefully members of the forum get a special pre-event link to jump at the front of the line.

Glad you like them, I will for sure have early bird specials!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

The Dark Ages version is pretty cool.  What will the red-suited cards look like?

Glad you like them Don, I will post some red-suited cards in a couple of days.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I have had some request to see how the Dark Ages Red cards will look.  Here is the Jack of Diamonds - the Red will be metallic ink!

[Don Boyer]

I have had some request to see how the Dark Ages Red cards will look.  Here is the Jack of Diamonds - the Red will be metallic ink!

I think in both cases, black suits and white suits, you need to take the light gray and lighten it up a lot.  Too much darkness and the lack of contrast can cause the image to become murky and nearly vanish.  I've seen it happen to a number of decks.  If you don't want it to be a stark white, then perhaps something like eggshell will work better, or you could darken the white just a touch with a tint of green or red, perhaps even yellow.

On this card, it really looks like it's going to be DARK.  Not good dark, but "I can't see the art" dark.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I have had some request to see how the Dark Ages Red cards will look.  Here is the Jack of Diamonds - the Red will be metallic ink!

I think in both cases, black suits and white suits, you need to take the light gray and lighten it up a lot.  Too much darkness and the lack of contrast can cause the image to become murky and nearly vanish.  I've seen it happen to a number of decks.  If you don't want it to be a stark white, then perhaps something like eggshell will work better, or you could darken the white just a touch with a tint of green or red, perhaps even yellow.

On this card, it really looks like it's going to be DARK.  Not good dark, but "I can't see the art" dark.

I will for sure lighten the grey up to make sure it is not lost and the metallic will make the card pop.  Thanks for the tips Don as always.  I will get in touch with my contact over at USPCC and make sure the grey is not lost.  When the grey and the black are used correctly it makes the card look great, I will make sure I get the grey right.

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I also wanted to give everyone a heads up, I am submitting my Kickstarter page tonight, it should take a few days to get approved and then we are off and running!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

WOW, I just hit submit and I am officially live on Kickstarter already, I thought it would take a day or so to be approved.   

Early Birds are live now!  Kickstarter is live!

Thanks,

Justin

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Kickstarter is now live here is the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/86221149/coat-of-arms-a-new-bicycle-playing-card-deck

Thanks for the support!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Hey everyone, just a reminder The Coat of Arms Deck and the Dark Ages Deck is now available on Kickstarter.  The first 5 days have been great!  Thanks for the support.  Also wanted to share  some pics of the jokers.  The Juggling Joker is one of my favorite cards.

Kickstarter:  Some Early Birds are sold out but some still available:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/86221149/coat-of-arms-a-new-bicycle-playing-card-deck

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

I have had some request to display the whole card image. Here is the Court Cards for the Clubs! 2nd Early Bird has been added! Please keep spreading the word!

Thank you very much!

[sprouts1115]

So you have a Kickstarter project and I'm reading about your design still in Design & Development.  This is like their current Kickstarter project page.  I would suggest posting a new topic in the Plethora to get some more exposer.  You have earned it...

[troy]

If all the cards are done, why not show all of them? No better way to get more people to back your cards that to show them what they will be getting. Show everything!

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

So you have a Kickstarter project and I'm reading about your design still in Design & Development.  This is like their current Kickstarter project page.  I would suggest posting a new topic in the Plethora to get some more exposer.  You have earned it...

Thanks Sprouts1115, I am posting in both links just in case some hasn't been following the new post. 

[Don Boyer]

So you have a Kickstarter project and I'm reading about your design still in Design & Development.  This is like their current Kickstarter project page.  I would suggest posting a new topic in the Plethora to get some more exposer.  You have earned it...

Agreed - it's time to make a new topic in the Plethora for your deck, now that it's on Kickstarter.

Oh, wait - there IS a topic there already!

http://www.playingcardforum.com/playing-card-plethora/live-now-on-kickstarter-coat-of-arms-deck/

[Jamm Pakd Cards]

Just posting an update here in case anyone has missed the updates in the release page:

I am excited to say we are 78% funded!  Backers are pledging for the special combos and many have sold out!  Good news is there are still some special combos left!  Go to the link now and take advantage of the price discounts with the special combos!   With your help I know we can reach the project goal! We are almost there! Please share, like and post everywhere!  Thank you so much for all of the support!  http://kck.st/1tzWM5p