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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Design & Development => Topic started by: davegk on October 13, 2012, 09:52:58 PM
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Hey folks,
In my (very limited) spare time while running the Vända kickstarter project, I've been working on a new deck design that will be coming soon.
It's called 'Polaris' and will be a 2-deck set in 'Lunar' and 'Solar' editions. The primary inspiration behind the design for Polaris was to create a deck that looks amazing when fanned...the rest of the design has been falling into place from there.
More images to come...
-David
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That's pretty cool. Although I feel the backs are lacking, I feel with some work these could evoke very successful decks.
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Planning on a Kickstarter project or straight to retail?
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This will be a kickstarter project.
Face images coming soon...
-David
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the aces (lunar + solar)
-David
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I love the four colored pips! I still feel iffy about the backs though.
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I really like these! All i would want added is very thin borders. Maybe even shadow borders or faded borders.
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I really like these! All i would want added is very thin borders. Maybe even shadow borders or faded borders.
But that'd ruin the whole point of these decks. They are supposed to be border less to look cool during fans.
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I really like these! All i would want added is very thin borders. Maybe even shadow borders or faded borders.
But that'd ruin the whole point of these decks. They are supposed to be border less to look cool during fans.
Well, it would largely depend on how those borders were done. Look at the borders of the Ornate deck - they enhance far more than they detract. Either could work, it's just a matter of design focus.
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I really like these! All i would want added is very thin borders. Maybe even shadow borders or faded borders.
But that'd ruin the whole point of these decks. They are supposed to be border less to look cool during fans.
My thoughts exactly!
Well, it would largely depend on how those borders were done. Look at the borders of the Ornate deck - they enhance far more than they detract. Either could work, it's just a matter of design focus.
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okay...working on the Polaris designs and need some opinions...
trying to decide whether to go with a border or borderless background for the face cards. do you like the group on the left or the right?
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okay...working on the Polaris designs and need some opinions...
trying to decide whether to go with a border or borderless background for the face cards. do you like the group on the left or the right?
I like the clean look of the borderless courts, but personally I believe the bordered versions on the left match the card backs better.
Also, it's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walkin' around here. That is all.
EDIT: OK I changed my mind, I like the borderless versions with the beveled pips from the bordered.
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It's going to depend on what you want to do with this design. Honestly, I think the pattern on the left is very busy - but for some, that might just be exactly what they want in a custom deck. Some people will love a bordered card, or a thin-bordered card, or no border at all.
Who and/or what are YOU aiming for with this design?
Without knowing that, all the questions just add up to "design by committee", which rarely brings a desirable result. I'm not saying disregard your potential customers, but I am saying find your vision and bring it to fruition.
If the Pedale Design/Misc. Goods deck was brought to the Design/Dev board for tips and pointers from the peanut gallery, a lot of people would have picked the design apart, saying how awful it was, whatever. Many people were saying negative things about it at first on the Playing Card board, and I was among them, though eventually the design did grow on me. Meanwhile, it blasted the previous deck project fundraising record out of the water by tens of thousands of dollars - and that now-dethroned project itself had broken the previous record by tens of thousands of dollars! The only design input he took from anyone was in regard to his court cards having indices in mismatched corners, which he corrected simply by flipping the art on some so they now all have left-corner indices.
I'd wager that only a small number of Discourse or UC members even invested - but the designer had a vision and he looked BEYOND just the card-collecting community to fulfill it. It paid off in spades. He didn't ignore his customers, but he did maintain the core of his vision from day one.
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I would hope you'd complete one project by getting decks into your backers hands before starting a second kickstarter. It will prove you can deliver the goods so to speak.
I do like these and will most likely pledge when the time comes.
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Honestly, I'm not too fond of the color. The design looks great, but I think that there's just too many different colors going on. I think that if you picked a uniform theme, it would bring the deck together very nicely.
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I'm now putting together the details for the kickstarter project for Polaris and wanted to share some of the new images and info...
I've decided to keep the backer levels very simple and straightforward - I hope this will make everything easier for backers to order exactly what they want and for me to keep track of who purchased what items. They will basically be a base level and everything (additional decks + accessories) can be added on a la carte.
I'm creating card-sized limited edition laser-etched wooden cards - each backer gets one. They will have laser-etched serial numbers and you can choose any card from the deck to be etched on the front.
I'm working on putting the video together and plan to launch on kickstarter in the next week or two - I'll keep you updated on the actual launch date/time once I get the finalized.
-David
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a few more images...
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I've also designed a set of poker chips to go with the Polaris design - I found a company that produces high-quality chips that look and feel fantastic (casino-quality) and these are gonna be really sweet!
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It all looks good to me. Consider possibly converting some of the wood cards - laminate them and put a cork or rubber backing on them and you've good either a trivet (if you use heat-resistant laminates) or a coaster. You can leave a window open underneath to expose the title and serial number.
Some people will whine about a four-index design - let them! I think it's useful and the Bent Castle decks have proved they can be quite popular.
I see for the dark suits you have blue and light blue (or at least it looks light blue - is it green?), while the light suits are red and yellow. Consider using either pink or orange instead of yellow. Those colors are much closer to red while still allowing you to use a four-color design.
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It all looks good to me. Consider possibly converting some of the wood cards - laminate them and put a cork or rubber backing on them and you've good either a trivet (if you use heat-resistant laminates) or a coaster. You can leave a window open underneath to expose the title and serial number.
Some people will whine about a four-index design - let them! I think it's useful and the Bent Castle decks have proved they can be quite popular.
I see for the dark suits you have blue and light blue (or at least it looks light blue - is it green?), while the light suits are red and yellow. Consider using either pink or orange instead of yellow. Those colors are much closer to red while still allowing you to use a four-color design.
I'm actually planning to design coaster sets as additional accessories - they will be like large versions of the poker chips.
I agree about 4-color decks...having played plenty of poker myself, I find it so much easier to be able to instantly identify potential flushes, especially when looking all the way across a long table.
Regarding the color used for clubs on the solar deck, it's actually a muted green - I think the distinction will be clearer when printed. I like the idea of using orange on the lunar deck instead of yellow as it better matches the color scheme of the solar deck.
-David
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I've darkened the blue background on the lunar deck a bit for more of a midnight blue color...
-David
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Just wanted to share with you guys the Polaris kickstarter page (in progress)...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216
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Just wanted to share with you guys the Polaris kickstarter page (in progress)...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216 (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216)
It looks good. I still think you should do something with the "red" pips.
A thought occurs to me. I'd originally suggested pink to go with the red. But you're working on a celestial theme, Solar and Lunar Decks. The dark suits are colors suited to the Moon, the light colors should be suited to the sun. What about using YELLOW AND ORANGE for the "red" suits, without the red? It would actually better fit the theme, I think. Just as with the blue and the light blue, the yellow and orange combination are closer together on the spectrum so as to allow distinction without creating confusion about what card is what color. And instead of the green on the Lunar deck, I'd use a white outline filled with the background blue - like a new moon or a solar eclipse. It allows for matching colors in both decks.
But again, it's all just my opinion.
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Just wanted to share with you guys the Polaris kickstarter page (in progress)...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216 (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216)
It looks good. I still think you should do something with the "red" pips.
A thought occurs to me. I'd originally suggested pink to go with the red. But you're working on a celestial theme, Solar and Lunar Decks. The dark suits are colors suited to the Moon, the light colors should be suited to the sun. What about using YELLOW AND ORANGE for the "red" suits, without the red? It would actually better fit the theme, I think. Just as with the blue and the light blue, the yellow and orange combination are closer together on the spectrum so as to allow distinction without creating confusion about what card is what color. And instead of the green on the Lunar deck, I'd use a white outline filled with the background blue - like a new moon or a solar eclipse. It allows for matching colors in both decks.
But again, it's all just my opinion.
I actually changed the pip color for the diamonds on the lunar deck from yellow to orange, following your previous suggestion :)
The orange/yellow (no red) suggestion is interesting but I like that the red works well on both solar and lunar whereas yellow on the white background wouldn't show very well.
As for the outline idea for the lunar deck, that's also a good suggestion but with the fine detail on the illustration, an outline wouldn't look as sharp and the design would lose consistency from filled to outlined versions.
Also, the poker chip samples run arrived today and they look sweeeet! :)
-David
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Also, I've added an extra incentive to the early backer pledge level...
any early backer who pledges $100 or more will receive a FREE T-shirt! :)
-David
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Well, the video is done and the project has been submitted. Hoping to launch this weekend, but will depend on how long it takes to get approval.
In the meantime, please check out the video:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216
-David
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Well, the video is done and the project has been submitted. Hoping to launch this weekend, but will depend on how long it takes to get approval.
In the meantime, please check out the video:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216 (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldklangdesign/384151433?token=5596c216)
-David
The video's a riot! I love it.
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Hey David,
The video is great and the Poker Chips are perfect!
I'll definitely be pledging.
thanks, Randy
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Thanks, guys!
Polaris is launching on kickstarter tomorrow (Dec 27th) at 6pm PST.
Facebook launch contest with free prizes here:
http://www.facebook.com/VandaPlayingCards/posts/444819612238666?notif_t=like
-David