Pictorial Review: Decks from Art of Play (1) - Cardistry

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Pictorial Review: Decks from Art of Play (1) - Cardistry

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*** MORE PLAYING CARDS FROM ART OF PLAY ***

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Dan and Dave Buck

Dan and Dave Buck are household names in the world of cardistry, or card flourishing, with an insane ability to manipulate playing cards in a creative, visual, and original way. These twin brothers live in San Diego, California, where they run Dan and Dave Industries, a lifestyle brand and design firm that produces luxury playing cards, apparel, and accessories for magicians and cardists. Now in their early 30s, Dan and Dave first made their name as magicians. They have since branched out into the world of card flourishing, where they are considered pioneers and innovators; they have even appeared for this purpose in Hollywood films. As an example of their impact on this growing art-form, they helped organize the inaugural Cardistry Con in 2014, which has since become an annual event, drawing an international crowd of cardistry leaders from around the world.

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In September 2017, the Buck twins were featured by Great Big Story as part of their "Human Condition" series in a three-minute Kings of Cardistry micro-documentary entitled "Inside the Hypnotic Art of Card Juggling" (link). Definitely check this short video out right here, to get an idea of what cardistry is about, and to see the kinds of crazy moves that Dan and Dave buck are capable of with a deck of playing cards!



The official overview of this video gives an accurate assessment of the skills that Dan and Dave have, and the respect they have earned in the world of cardistry: "Cards twirling, knuckles blazing, hands-a-blur - welcome to cardistry, the sleight of hand acrobatic sensation all done with a simple deck of 52. The kings of the cards are Dan and Dave Buck, twin brothers dealing out some of the best moves in the game. Their mesmerizing, seemingly gravity-defying flips and tricks stem from card flourishes originally used by magicians to introduce their tricks. Now, thanks to artists like Dan and Dave, cardistry has spun off as an art form all its own—keeping the magic without the abracadabra."

Art of Play

As well as being highly regarded in the world of cardistry, and having had a major impact in its development and growth over the last few years, Dan and Dave Buck also run Art of Play, a subsidiary of Dan and Dave, and an online retail outlet which they founded in 2013 with the purpose of embracing the wonders of the world and connecting people through a state of playfulness. When Dan and Dave tapped into the playing card industry by producing custom decks of their own, the remarkable success of their published decks bred further success, and they have continued to produce designer playing cards of the highest quality. In 2016 they produced no less than 16 original decks of custom playing cards, and they've shown no sign of stopping in 2017, with many more new and wonderful designs.

It was inevitable that Art of Play would branch out from playing cards to other games and puzzles, and today it is home to a collection of amazing and playful curiosities from around the world. Dan and Dave explain its mission as follows: "We travel the world in search of objects designed to dazzle the eyes and fascinate the mind. From luxurious playing cards to ingenious puzzles and stimulating amusements - each beautiful item in our collection holds a whisper of mystery, brimming with potential for surprise and delight ... From the finest playing cards in the world, innovative puzzles and games, and magical amusements for the home, we collaborate with artists to create remarkable products unlike anything else."

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Luxury Playing Cards

In this article I will cover about a dozen beautiful decks of playing cards produced by Dan and Dave under their Art of Play label. Not surprisingly, many of these are ideal for cardistry. But featured in this article are certainly other beautiful decks that you can use for playing games as well, so whether you are looking for something classy and sophisticated for your card magic or poker game, or a quality deck to play some cards with friends, at Art of Play you're almost certain to find a deck that is right for you.

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*** CARDISTRY DECKS ***

Let's begin our tour of some of Art of Play's decks by taking a look at some specialized decks that are particularly suited to cardistry.

Cardistry Con 2017 deck

Cardistry-Con is an event in which people who all share a love for cardistry gather together and together explore all the possibilities that can be done with a deck of cards, and the Buck twins are significant organizers of this event.

This year's Cardistry-Con of 2017 took place in Los Angeles, and was so popular that the tickets sold out in a minute! Created specifically for this event was the Cardistry Con 2017 deck of playing cards.

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Designed by Next Exit, a design company that works primarily within the music industry, these cards feature a borderless, colourful, wave-like design.

The cards are housed in a colourful tuck box with a wraparound design the same as the backs of the cards.

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This design and colours are said to have been inspired by the at the time current fashion trend in Los Angeles, the location of this year's Cardistry Con.

The card backs are very colourful. As you'd expect, there is a custom Ace of Spades card that mentions the cardistry convention, along with its location and date, and which also reflects the overall design pattern of the deck.

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The borderless back design has different colours going to the edge, allowing for beautiful and eye-catching spreads and displays, all helped and enhanced by the bright and visual colour choice.

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Aside for the Ace of Spades, all the face cards of this deck are quite standard, with only small changes in size and colour. The colour of the faces of the cards has been adjusted to match the colours of the back (i.e. so the reds of the hearts and diamonds are more of an orange), and the courts have slight colour modifications as well to match the back design’s colours, creating a great looking deck that has an internal consistency.

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The courts colours have all been toned down and faded, which makes the yellow stand out far less than usual, a very nice touch.

Since this deck was made especially to coincide with Cardistry-Con 2017, these cards are a limited release of 5,000 decks, of which some were sold before the event and some for the attendees to the event. They are already sold out at the publisher level!

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These cards are a great grab for anyone who loves cardistry, as they have an excellent design for spreads and fans.

They have also been printed on the USPCC’s premium crushed stock, which Dan and Dave say has resulted in one of their best handling decks to date!

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Lucky Draw deck

The Lucky Draw deck is a brand new deck for 2017 that was produced in collaboration Sideshow Press, a company which claims says of themselves that "Sideshow Press celebrates curiosity, nostalgia and function with their modern line of lifestyle necessities for the desktop, tabletop and travel."

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Lucky Draw Playing Cards come in a beautiful matte tuck case, with stylish embossing, luxurious gold foil, and printed letterpress making it an absolutely nice to handle box. A perforated seal looks great and closes everything off nicely. It's easier to just show you how amazing it looks than try to explain it!

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The back design of these cards is a minimalistic design composed with a large bold orange diamond in the centre. This minimalistic design makes the deck ideal for cardistry, and the bold diamond in the centre looks especially great for packet cuts and rotations.

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You can immediately tell that the faces of this deck are entirely custom, and very well designed with strong geometric lines.

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The court cards are composed of a large variety of simple shapes and fit in the simplistic idea, creating a very unique looking style of court cards, very different than most. The way that stippled dots are used to create a shading of colour also looks amazing!

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The simple back design looks great in motion, and fans and spreads also showcase how wonderful it can look with the tips of colour showing at the edges.

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The Aces all feature a simplistic design composed of lines filling the interior, which creates a very different and unique look, pleasing to the eye.

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All the other number cards are of a similar design, with the pips made up of lines filling their inside. The hearts and diamonds are a red/orange to match the colour of the diamond on the back, rather than the usual red.

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Meanwhile the two Jokers are made up of a large capitalized letters in the two colours of orange and a very dark blue navy/black. This complements the back design of the cards uses the same colours, and also is keeping with the overall minimalism of the deck.

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The cards of the Lucky Draw deck are printed on a premium crushed stock by the United States Playing Card Company, and they handle amazingly. Right out of the box they are nice and soft, and handling them is a dream!

Thick Lines deck

Next up is a colourful deck that brings us back to the colourful times of the 1970s, those heady days of orange sofas and brown wall-paper.

The man behind the Thick Lines deck is noted designer Aaron Draplin, creator of the Fields Notes memo book company, and hee produced this deck in 2014.

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The design on the cards has a mirrored and playful design that is based on thick lines and seventies colours. In Aaron's words: "I wanted to make something that felt oddly “off.” Like, big, thick lines that just feel good in your hands."

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The effect of the colours on the card backs is amplified when fanned or ribbon spread, or when performing cuts, creating a fabulous visual display of colour and patterns!

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As for the court cards, these have been completely redone, in line with the Thick Lines theme of the deck.

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Even the pips have been re-designed, as is particularly evident here with the over-sized Aces.

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The Jokers give a visual reminder of the entire colour palette used in the deck.

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The two main colours are orange and brown, creating a real retro and throw-back feel. That means they might just match beautifully with your basement wallpaper, or the old shirt that resides in the back of your closet after you received it as a birthday gift in the 1980s!

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But this deck is at its best when creating blurs of colour - ideal for spreads and flourishes, and very visual when in the hands of an experienced cardist.

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It's also worth mentioning that a special box was produced for this deck - the Burgopak packaging system. It has a unique and innovative mechanism that seems to magically slide when opened or closed, and is super impressive - people I've showed this too were blown away by how novel and cool it looked!

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And in case you're lost for ideas about what to do with this or any of the above decks, there's some helpful suggestions on the back of the Thick Lines deck box: "Multiple Uses: Passing Hard Time, Card Houses, Throwing, Cardistry, Loose Magic, Dimwitted Cons, Shuffling Stunts, Solitaire, Poker, War, Euchre, Gin Rummy, Go Fish, Blackjack, Pinochle, Spoke Flickers and Sketchy Sleights of Hand."

Prime deck

Sticking with bold patterns and bright colours brings us to the stunning Prime deck, which was designed by the UK's Ben Newman.

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Designer Ben Newman wanted to only use primary colours and simple shapes, to create a deck that is both striking and playful. He hit all the right notes with this imaginative and colourful deck, which makes an immediate impression with its vibrant back design.

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The card faces all have custom illustrations, with the court cards created as composites from simple shapes, with minimal colours just like the card-backs. These add elements of amusement and life that fit the overall tone and feel of this deck. At the same time the geometric and colourful focus of the court cards ensures that they don't distract too much when used for cardistry.

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Besides the completely custom court cards, the Joker has also been customized with a similar style.

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The Hearts and Diamonds employ regular pips, whereas the Spades and Clubs use triangular and circular geometric shapes, which is particularly noticeable on the number cards. The indices are clear and precise, so each card remains recognizable despite the unorthodox design on the card faces.

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The borderless back design will especially be appreciated by fans of card flourishing, because it is ideal for fanning and for elaborate cuts, which do a good job of showcasing the colours, while the patterns will help accentuate the moves themselves.

Unlike most borderless card backs, the edges of each card are still very distinct courtesy of the bordered pattern, making this deck ideal for cardistry moves of all kinds. This clever design is one of this deck's real strengths, and once again cardistry fans will especially appreciate what this aspect of the design contributes to its usefulness.

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The Prime deck was produced by Dan and Dave, and printed in Taiwan by the Expert Playing Card Company, respected for their high quality cards.

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*** RECOMMENDATION ***

So are decks from Art of Play something for you? This isn't the first time I've sourced cards from Art of Play, and I continue to be impressed with the playing cards that Dan & Dave Buck have created themselves, as well as the other playing cards and products that they offer.

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Cardistry: Since Dan and Dave Buck are cardists themselves, they have a real love for card flourishing, so it's no surprise that a large number of the decks that they have created lend themselves particularly well to this growing art-form. Card flourishers are fussy about the decks they use, because it is essential that playing cards handle well. But equally important to them are the colours and patterns of the design. Cardists know that the visual aesthetics of their art-form will be magnified when combined with colours and patterns that accentuate the movement of cardistry, and Dan and Dave's own expertise in this area ensures that the decks they have created for cardists are truly a dream to use.

Creativity: I love the creativity that has produced designs like the decks reviewed above. The cardistry decks like Thick Lines and Prime are full of flowing colours and patterns, while decks like Lucky Draw and Drifters offer original and fresh designs that are fun to look at and use. The Typographer's deck is especially unique and attention getting.

Sophistication: The Dan and Dave brand is all about sophistication and style, and this is evident from the moment you first hold these decks in your hands. Not only are the cards themselves good quality, but a great deal of thought as gone into designing and producing the tuck boxes. Carefully placed foil accents and embossing add elegance and style, while even the more earthy decks like Antler and Camp Cards have been carefully and thoughtfully crafted to accentuate an outdoorsy feel that is still refined and suited to the discerning gentleman.

Quality: The quality of these decks from Art of Play is consistently excellent. Most of their decks have been produced by US Playing Card Company, a reputable and established printing company that produces the Bicycle brand of playing cards with their proven air cushion finish. Using an industry leader like this ensures that we can expect consistently good card-stock and finishing that will be durable and will handle smoothly. It's evident that Dan and Dave only want to produce and stock playing cards with a high standard of quality and performance that matches the good looks of the cards themselves.

Visuals: One things I really appreciate about the Art of Play website is how professional its graphic design is. Not only is it easy to navigate and well laid out, but I especially love the fact that all the products have an image gallery, so you can see some of the cards from each deck, and know exactly what you are getting before you make a purchase. The accompanying promotional photography of their products is also outstanding.

Range: The selection of decks reviewed above in no way exhausts what Dan and Dave have produced. As was mentioned at the start of this article, in the calendar year 2016 alone they produced 16 new designs! In addition to decks they have produced themselves, they also stock a wide range of other quality playing cards, as well as puzzles and games - but only those of the highest quality.

If you're a cardist or a magician looking for a an eye-catching and quality deck of playing cards that looks great and performs well, Art of Play is hard to beat. I'm very pleased to recommend the decks I've featured in this article, so head over to Art of Play and you're almost certain to find some stunning playing cards, puzzles or games that you just can't resist!

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What to learn more? Check out:
- Art of Play official website
- Art of Play on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
- Dan & Dave official website
- Dan and Dave on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
- Dan & Dave Youtube channel
- Brand Spotlight: Art of Play

Direct links for the decks featured in this review:
- Cardistry: Cardistry Con 2017, Lucky Draw, Thick Lines, Prime
- Outdoors: Camp Cards (Ranger Edition), Antler (Limited Edition), Drifters
- Classy: Hollingworths (Emerald Edition), Hollingworths (Burgundy Edition), Voltige (Special Edition)
- Collectors: A Typographer's Deck

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BoardGameGeek reviewer EndersGame => Playing Card Reviews <=>Magic Reviews <=> Board Game Reviews <=

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