Try having the second design changed so the tops of the pips meet at the clusters instead of the bottoms. It may reduce the visual confusion some are having. Perhaps enclose each cluster in a simple shape as well, to make it clear that the cluster's a single "pip" instead of a 28 of hearts... A circle might look nice.
In fact, try a different shape for each suit cluster, giving better visual differentiation. I was using the "Patriotic" deck series - each deck represents either the Coast Guard or a branch of the military, and the center pips for all the suits are military rank symbols - for example, the Navy deck as two "apprentice seaman" ranks for the deuces, three "seaman" ranks for the treys, etc., with the highest ranks (admiral, different number of stars on each) on the aces, and the high-level command ranks like captain, commander, etc. appearing once on the "face cards". The deck was difficult to use because of the overall lack of visual differentiation, though the index pips were traditional suits. A diamond shape for diamonds clusters, a square for clubs clusters, a circle for hearts, etc. - something along those lines.