Pictorial Review: Creative decks from Legends

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Pictorial Review: Creative decks from Legends

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LEGENDS PLAYING CARDS: Creative Decks

While cruising the internet in search of beautiful playing cards, I've kept coming across mention of "Legends Playing Card Company" as a publisher of very high quality playing cards. The playing cards available from their website features decks that are nothing short of spectacular quality. Behind the company is Lawrence Sullivan, an American magician based in Hong Kong. As well as a successful career in magic, he established the Legends Playing Card Company in 2013, applying his pursuit for perfectionism to playing cards. Legends very own "Legends #852" was an instant success, and from here they went on to produce custom decks of playing cards for high end clients who wanted a quality product. While they also have some luxury playing card accessories in their catalogue, their main market is in producing custom cards, with a quality that rivals that of US Playing Card Company, and even tries to surpass it. Lawrence Sullivan conceived the Legends Playing Card Company as his answer to the frustration experienced with many "premium" brands of playing cards, many of which were poorly cut and sub-par quality. He's committed to quality in design, details, paper, finish, and manufacturing, using a proven factory in Taiwan to bring his vision to reality. In this review, I will show you some of what I consider to be their creative decks that I own myself and have first-hand experience with, and I will give you a pictorial overview of them. These are ideal for performing magic, or for using at the card table, and while they are creative in their own way, they are still very functional and usable.

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AQUILA DECK

Legends also produced the Aquila Playing Cards deck, which was a collaboration between Kardify Projects and "Three of Clubs" from Indonesia, with artwork by Indonesian graphic artist Ade Suryana. Aquila means eagle, and the deck artwork especially features the Garuda, a large eagle like statue often seen in Bali, Indonesia.

This deck is inspired by Balinese mythology, and is designed to be exotic, elegant, and beautiful. This is evident already from the tuck box pictured below, which has beautiful embossed lettering, and rich copper foil accents. Especially the design on the back of the tuck box looks vibrant and stunning when placed in the light - far more attractive than the photo below can capture. People I've shown this deck to have been quite blown away by the quality of the tuck box alone.

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The card-backs have intricate borders, and detailed patterns that are adapted from the design of popular Balinese textiles, with the aces inspired by the Balinese wooden statue of Garuda.

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The face cards have beautiful and subtle background patterns, in keeping with the style of the rest of the deck, while at the same time being very clear to read, and in line with standard cards, making this a very functional deck.

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Each of the court cards is unique. Despite this, they aren't too busy or distracting, and the use of minimal colours and a more minimalist interpretation of the classic figures helps strengthen the overall classy feel.

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One thing I really appreciate about the court cards is how the black suits are more clearly distinguished from the red suits than in a traditional deck, by the overall colour scheme.

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This is a beautiful deck that will appeal to the collector, and to anyone who has an interest in Asian culture and artwork.

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Magicians will love this deck because of the hidden marking system it contains (it's both ingenious and very clear - just take the deck "to the movies" to discover it), and the addition of a "reveal" built into one of the jokers. A magician I know has had great fun using this hidden reveal to create some real "wow" moments.

JONES PLAYING CARDS

It is possible to keep up with the Jones after all, with the help of a deck of Jones Playing Cards, which was another project printed by Legends. It was produced in 2016, and designed by Brett A. Jones.

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Two different types of deck were produced:
- The Standard Colour deck is like a traditional "red and black" deck, but uses the whole color spectrum throughout the entire deck.
- The Standard Ghost deck creates a very different feel by using only red, black, grey and white colours.

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Both are available in red-back and blue-back versions, as seen with the Standard Colour deck below.

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The designer Brett A. Jones previously published his "White Knuckle Playing Cards" in 2010. He has been working on the design for his "Jones Playing Cards" for 8-10 years!

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Brett's aim was to retain the overall familiar feel and ease of a standard deck, but improve the functionality. In his words: "The design plan from the very beginning was to recreate the genre of standard English playing cards to be not only much better aesthetically than what has come before but also much improved functionally with the use of subtle colour coding, much more lifelike courts and painstakingly considered composition, proportions and detail on every single card in the deck."

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The detail of these court cards is beautiful, and I love how they have much more character and colour than the corresponding cards in a traditional deck.

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MEMENTO PLAYING CARDS

This deck of Memento Playing Cards was illustrated by Valerio Aversa. While a white deck is also available, what I'm showing you in the pictures below is the Dark/Night deck that I have.

The tuck box is truly exquisite, with elegant accents of silver foil that immediately exude class on the jet black background, which also features finely embossed details. This is truly what elegance should look like in a tuck box! I also like what is written on the sides of the tuck box - on one side it says "Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but playing a poor hand well", while the other side says "Trust everyone but cut the cards."

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The Memento deck was inspired by the history of playing card design. The word "memento" refers to a keepsake or object kept as a reminder of an event or person or place.

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In this case the deck is intended to help us remember and reminisce about the roots of card design. This is done in two ways:

Firstly, there's the historical figures traditionally portrayed in playing cards. As the Legends ad copy says, "The standard court cards of today trace their design roots back to the 16th century. The individuals portrayed on each card are figures of historical significance, heroines and heroes from antiquity, biblical sources and latter European history such as Charlemagne and Julius Caesar. "

Secondly, there's the symbolic meaning of each suit. The historical characters were selected to feature on the suits in line with what theme they fit with: Spades = Death, Hearts = Love, Clubs = Knowledge, Diamonds = Ambition.

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As an example, the King of Spades depicts the Biblical king David with a harp and a sword, and this conveys his different roles as a warrior, musician, and poet. The Queen of Diamonds depicts Rachel, as she is called on the French deck, possibly as a reference to the Biblical figure, and seen here holding a flower. Jacob's wife Rachel was a shepherdess, and so a lamb is often found in works of art depicting her, as is also the case on the card seen here. Note also how the character names are also mentioned on the cards.

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The stories of some of the cards is fascinating. For example, I learned that the Jack of Hearts is called "La Hire", and while of uncertain origin, he is typically depicted with a moustache, holding a leaf in the right hand, and an axe behind his head. As the creators of the deck explain: "The origin of the leaf is unclear, it’s argued that it was a mistake by an artist around 1800 misinterpreting a truncheon. However, in literature passages talk about people covering La Hire ‘with leaves and flowers’. The meaning of his nickname is said to be ‘the wrath of God’ and his reputation at the time was for being a notorious bandit and pillager to the extent where mothers would threaten naughty children with ‘La Hire will get you’. The grapes represent the coat of arms of the house Vignolles." Isn't that interesting?!

The Aces also have secrets to reveal; usually in tiny print, with the Ace of Hearts below reading "We love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving."

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One noteworthy detail on the number cards is that the numbers are placed on all four corners. This is unusual with American produced cards, but is common in some parts of Europe, and greatly assists left-handed players in being able to read the cards while fanning naturally. Notice also how the arrangement of the pips has been distributed geometrically rather than using the standard configuration.

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CONCLUSION

For most people, the benchmark of quality is a deck produced by US Playing Card Company. However in my opinion Lawrence Sullivan and Legends Playing Cards Company have come up with a solid process that is a quality that rivals and in some respects exceeds that of the USPCC decks, especially in terms of the cut. Reviews of the Legends' playing cards bear this out, and are consistently very positive, and this mirrors my own experience with these playing cards. While the card stock seems somewhat thinner than Bicycle stock, the cards are very durable, and have a great snap and handling. The printing is precise and crisp, and not only does Legends Playing Card Company assist designers in bringing their dreams to fulfilment, they also have a very wide range of creative and custom decks available for sale on their website.

Legends might not be going the way of the majority by opting to use a factory in Taiwan, but it seems obvious that their choice isn't coming at the cost of quality. If you're looking for a quality publisher for a custom deck of playing cards in larger quantities, they have the experience and expertise to meet your needs. But even if you're just a gamer or card collector like me, it's well worth a look to check out their website, and see if they have a deck of playing cards that is just right for you. The decks you see here in this review are fine examples of the legendary playing cards that this company is producing, and they are quickly becoming a legend of their own!

To learn more, head here:

Official website: http://legendsplayingcards.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Online catalogue: https://legendsplayingcards.com/collect ... ying-cards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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