2018 AotY nominee: ALEXANDER CHIN & DotY nominee: APOTHECARY SERIES 2

[Don Boyer]

Alexander Chin is no stranger to either the Diamond Awards or 52 Plus Joker - he's been nominated before for his work and has been a member for a number of years, an early member of the new wave of modern and custom deck collectors encouraged by Club President Lee Asher to join.

He's also no stranger to innovations in playing card design.  The deck he designed for the club last year had a layer of actual wood applied to the tuck box, forming a bamboo-like pattern.  His Deck of the Year nominee, Apothecary 2, continued the practice of releasing a Black Label Edition and a special White Label Edition using a specially-treated tuck box that changes color when touched due to thermal-sensitive inks and colored gilding for the card edges.  Lastly, for the National Playing Card Collection 2017 deck, he used six different colors for the two-part tuck boxes, distributing them at random to people playing orders while insuring that people wouldn't receive more than one of the same color when ordering multiple decks!

{Kardify article: interview with Alex Chin on designing the 2017 Club Deck}

{Kardify article: 5 Things You Should Know About the 2017 NPCCD Deck}

{National Playing Card Collection Day website}

{Kickstarter page for Apothecary 2}

{Seasons Playing Cards website}