Hi Everyone, my name is Chris Mayhew, I am a magician living in Toronto Ontario Canada.

This my official entry into the 2nd Annual PCF Deck Competition.

I am submitting my deck called "Leon Playing Cards". I got full permission from Hiro Sakai (Dr. Leon), to use his lion image in a deck of my own paying homage to his playing cards. I decided to go the opposite route of the Dr. Leon cards and go for a more minimal feel. I am a fan of a lot of the minimal decks coming out right now, and think that this design works perfect for that style.

The back design consists purely of the Lion Silhouettes resting against a beautiful burgundy backdrop. The borders are thin to help compliment the sleek design, and you will notice some fine line details to help bring out the imagery. 

The faces will all be standard faces, this was a feature that I really liked about the Dr. Leon cards (especially at the time when I found them among all the black tigers and ghost decks) and something I want to maintain with this deck.

The ace of spades is one big solid ace (Something I have always wanted to see in a deck, but rarely have!) and the Jokers are the lion silhouette each facing opposite directions.

The card box will be a solid burgundy box with no writing on it at all. The only image that will be seen on the box is the lion logo, this will add a touch of mystery to the cards and also reminds me of the way fashion designers tag their shirts and sweaters with just their logo (think Lacoste even though I don't wear them haha). The box will be printed on a thick matte paper with texture, and the lion logo will be embossed. (My designer didn't have time to make a professional image of the box so I had to mock one up myself, my apologies).

Some good food for thought. Cheers!

That's a great idea if we go custom court cards! One of the features I loved about the Dr. Leon cards was that they were standard faces. This actually stood out to me at the time because the magic shop had nothing but crazy looking cards with custom faces, all still very elegant and beautiful (well some). But now that you brought up the idea I can see the court cards being silhouettes and I like it. Damn you haha!

Hi everyone,

I love the Dr. Leon Playing cards put out by Hiro Sakai so much that I asked him to use his design in my own deck of cards. Hiro gave me full permission to use his design, and this is where all of you come in. I have a basic design of what I would like the deck to look like, I wanted to keep it within the minimal realm of designs (I dig that style) but the deck is open to any and all suggestions. Below you will see the back design which is your basic silhouette of the lions placed against a nice burgundy background (keep it classy SanDiego!). Next is the Ace of Spades, I've always wanted just a solid ace of spades, I think it would look great in a deck of cards, but I get that the ace of spades is everyone's chance to experiment, I just would love to see a solid spade for a change. The jokers are the lions facing opposite directions, nice and simple and matches the theme, and then we have a card to give credit to all the artists involved. Please let me know what you would want to see on the Leon Playing Cards and we can make it happen! Cheers!

Hi Don, we have met before! Great to hear from you! I look forward to exploring these forums and meeting the rest of the community. Cheers!