SurrealScapes Body Art & Creative Photography, v2.0

[MagikFingerz]

If you could get those to work, I think that would look awesome. And please the people wanting red pips as well

[Strag]

Something like this?



However, when I presented this to the prepress folks at USPCC, they said that since the red is actually made of up two colors, magenta and yellow, if there's a registration problem between one of the plates, either magenta or yellow, you'll see that color creep into the white area of the pip. It's not that they won't print it, it's just that they are warning me that there could be issues.

I've been trying out different colors of the red pip and no matter what color I choose, there's always at least one image that the red color clashes with, and having the red pip there really changes the feel of the card. I'm thinking I need to stick with white all around.

-Z

Man I like these, but yeah I get it about the registration issues. Then again, might be so small as to be unnoticeable. Definitely do need 2 colors for pips tho.

[DukeBoy]

People say red because it is what they are comfortable with. you could do yellow and white, blue and white....

[Strag]

People say red because it is what they are comfortable with. you could do yellow and white, blue and white....

Agreed, doesn't need to be red, can be any two colours which work.

[zsalman]

Okay, here are two options:

Option 1:



Option 2:



I like option 1 better because having the white facing towards the inside of the card isolates the red from the colors in the face image and reduces the impact when the red color clashes with whatever color is in the image. I also like the fact that the pips are still hollow and the black background shows through, whereas in option 2, the pips are now completely filled with color.

Option 1 also seems to fit the design motif of the cards better.

-Z

[MagikFingerz]

I concur, option 1 looks much better.

What are your thoughts on the indices (A, K, Q, J and 2-10); will they be the same or remain white?

[zsalman]

People say red because it is what they are comfortable with. you could do yellow and white, blue and white....

Agreed, doesn't need to be red, can be any two colours which work.

Yeah, I thought about different colors other than red and white, but I need to minimize the amount of exotic coloring on the card elements. I'm trying to keep things as neutral as possible so there aren't discordant colors. People say that only artists worry about these things, but even if you're not an artist, you can tell when the colors in an image are off. You may not be able to put your finger on it, but you know something about the image isn't right or doesn't feel good. That's the big headache with cards like these that have photographs on them.

-Z

[zsalman]

I concur, option 1 looks much better.

What are your thoughts on the indices (A, K, Q, J and 2-10); will they be the same or remain white?

All the indices will be white. I played with coloring them, but doing the vertical split coloring of option 1 didn't work, and coloring the whole index added to the amount of color that would clash with the image.

Here's what option 1 pips look like on the cards:



I'm actually going to change the assignment of the images to the heart and diamond suits to choose images with which the red color matches better. But this king of hearts image shows the worst case situation and it still looks okay.

-Z

[MagikFingerz]

Love it!

One more small thing (and I'm being very picky now ): The vertical lines along the edges crossing behind the pips bothers me a bit. Could you make them fade earlier and maybe even shorten them a bit and see if it looks better? Maybe have them end the same distance from the edge as the horizontal lines?

[zsalman]

Love it!

One more small thing (and I'm being very picky now ): The vertical lines along the edges crossing behind the pips bothers me a bit. Could you make them fade earlier and maybe even shorten them a bit and see if it looks better? Maybe have them end the same distance from the edge as the horizontal lines?

The gradients on the vertical lines have been troubling me, because I'm not sure exactly how they will end up in the final print. I've been doing test prints on my inkjet printer and they have been looking different depending on how I've set the black point settings, and of course they look very different on the screen than in print. I'm thinking that no matter what I do, short of signficantly changing the size of the borders, there will be some unpredictability in exactly where the gradient fades out. It depends on how USPCC does their image processing to make the plates.

Here's an example of shorting the vertical borders. I don't quite like it.



-Z

[MagikFingerz]

I actually didn't realize the lines went all the way around and were just faded in the corners, I had to look very closely to see that.

What I meant was for the fading to be the same distance from the corner, like this (probably not entirely accurate):

[zsalman]

Ah, yes, the vertical lines being closer to the corners than the horizontal ones is done on purpose, to emphasize the vertical aspect ratio of the image. It looks better on the spot cards with the single border than it does on the court cards with the triple border. But I need to keep them all the same for consistency.

-Z

[zsalman]

Okay, here are two options:

Option 1:



Option 2:



I like option 1 better because having the white facing towards the inside of the card isolates the red from the colors in the face image and reduces the impact when the red color clashes with whatever color is in the image. I also like the fact that the pips are still hollow and the black background shows through, whereas in option 2, the pips are now completely filled with color.

Option 1 also seems to fit the design motif of the cards better.

-Z

You know, the more I look at it, the more I'm not feeling the gray. I think I need to have an actual color. The pips with red just pop, while the pips with gray just sort of fade off into nothingness. I'm thinking maybe a sort of dark blue. That would create additional opportunites for more clashing of colors between pip and main image, but hey, we're already clashing with the red so we might as well have pips that pop all over. Wow, did I just write that?

-Z

[MagikFingerz]

I think you're right. A deep blue just might work.

[badpete69]

Deck looks great...and of course couldn't resist to pick up the first version on Amazon...I should get it tomorrow

[zsalman]

Deck looks great...and of course couldn't resist to pick up the first version on Amazon...I should get it tomorrow

Ah, thank you for your support! And I think you'll be a lot happier with this new deck, both in terms of the design and the quality of the product.

-Z

[zsalman]

I think you're right. A deep blue just might work.

After wrangling it for another several hours, I don't think a blue is going to work. I can't find a blue that looks right: it's either too cyan or too purple. But worse than that, with the pips being red and white, and blue and white, when the cards are laid out together, the whole thing just turns into a red, white and blue frenzy. I think I'm going to stick with red/white and gray/white, it looks classier.

-Z

[zsalman]

The prototype deck is in production at the USPCC!

Here is a proof of the uncut sheet for the faces:

http://www.surrealscapes.net/depot/uncu ... _faces.jpg

And here are the backs:

http://www.surrealscapes.net/depot/uncu ... _backs.jpg

The black background on the cards is made of up a CMYK value of 0/0/0/100, so that's why it looks gray onscreen. But USPCC tells me it will print as a rich black so the cards will look right when they're printed.

-Z

[MagikFingerz]

Simply amazing. After seeing crappy deck after crappy deck pop up on kickstarter, it's decks like this one that brings back the joy of collecting

[zsalman]

That's awesome to hear. Thanks! That's a high compliment coming from the people on this board.

The artwork side of this project is done. Now I have to do all the math and structure the rewards for the Kickstarter campaign. With recent heavy increases in the cost of shipping items outside the US, it's going to be less attractive for international backers but I'll do what I can to keep the costs for everyeone as low as possible while still making sure that I don't run out of money.

I'll post the preview link for the Kickstarter campaign when it's ready.

-Z

[zsalman]

In case anyone missed it while UC was down, the Kickstarter campaign for the SurrealScapes deck is now ongoing:



There are still plenty of early-bird slots available so get in on the action!