"Smoke" a new custom deck

[Conturbia]

Hi, friends, we are a small start-up in Italy (anybody else from Italy?) and we are working on some ideas for new decks.

One of the most promising theme is "smoke": tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, people that usually smoke (think about casablanca!)

We are thinking of gangsters, cuban people, "femme fatales" and young seductive men.

the back is just a draft, based on "tobacco leaves", but I asked for something more "smoke" themed.

Please, find attached (if I manage to do it!) some images.

Ah, I'm not the illustrator, please forgive me if I'm not familiar with graphic formats, it could seem that the borders are really wide, but it' something that has to do with USPCC templates.. they should be normal-sized.

Ok, what's your opinion? Thank you very much

[Conturbia]

Ok, two more images..

[MagikFingerz]

So you're going to use USPCC? Maybe you could do some research on whichever factory that printed the Pr1me decks, which were made in Italy as far as I know. Those are some of the best non-USPCC cards I've handled. Though you should probably get more opinions on that than mine, many are VERY pro-USPCC

[Conturbia]

So you're going to use USPCC? Maybe you could do some research on whichever factory that printed the Pr1me decks, which were made in Italy as far as I know. Those are some of the best non-USPCC cards I've handled. Though you should probably get more opinions on that than mine, many are VERY pro-USPCC

Thank you!
I will surely contact them. And what do you think about our design? I'm happy to receive feedbacks from collectors, magicians and xcm performers

[Conturbia]

Ok, this is the last image

[volantangel]

So you're going to use USPCC? Maybe you could do some research on whichever factory that printed the Pr1me decks, which were made in Italy as far as I know. Those are some of the best non-USPCC cards I've handled. Though you should probably get more opinions on that than mine, many are VERY pro-USPCC

Thank you!
I will surely contact them. And what do you think about our design? I'm happy to receive feedbacks from collectors, magicians and xcm performers

I love the prime deck, and how it handles. i would have no problems with it being produced at the italian factory. The back design will get cleaned up right? I dont like the one way design due to the suits in the middle, i generally dont like any picture of the suits on a back design.

[Conturbia]

So you're going to use USPCC? Maybe you could do some research on whichever factory that printed the Pr1me decks, which were made in Italy as far as I know. Those are some of the best non-USPCC cards I've handled. Though you should probably get more opinions on that than mine, many are VERY pro-USPCC

Thank you!
I will surely contact them. And what do you think about our design? I'm happy to receive feedbacks from collectors, magicians and xcm performers

I love the prime deck, and how it handles. i would have no problems with it being produced at the italian factory. The back design will get cleaned up right? I dont like the one way design due to the suits in the middle, i generally dont like any picture of the suits on a back design.

Yes, the back design will be cleaned up, it's a draft of one of the two options (unfortunately the second option is not yet ready).

Thank you for your valuable feedback, volantangel!

[Sharpie]

I really like this one. Nice clean character designs (although the Jack of Hearts looks like he's eaten too many donuts).

I also agree with volantangel. The back design needs some re-working.
The repeated pipe in the 4 quadrants seems like a let down compared to the unique characters within.
And what is with the significance of the crosses in the corners? Seems random.

Also note the subtle one way in this detail.

back detail.JPG (5.65 KiB) Viewed 1423 times

Whatever happens, the court designs will keep me interested in this one. Good stuff!
Good luck!

[Eoghann]

The courts are excellent! I especially like the Queen. Very elegant design. I'll have to agree with many of the comments about the refinement that the deck will go through. Specifically the back design and the belly on the Jack. I know it's supposed to be his arm but it looks rather odd.

[Conturbia]

Thanks to everyone! The back design was just a draft, not intended to be "finished" by any means. The talented guy that made all the drawings used to draw comics and this is his first attempt in designing a deck. It's up to me (and to you! - if you like! ) to give the good advices for keeping him in track.

I love the queen of clubs the most. It was the first thing designed for this deck and I believe that that day was a lucky one

I suggested to draw a back design where the key element are wisps of smoke and not tobacco leafs. Let's see..

[chach]

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far and look forward to the revisions, but one thing that's bugging me is that the KoD & QoC look like they're from a different time period than the KoS & JoH. Is that done intentionally and are the other court cards going to be designed for the same period? For instance will the Edwardian era style apply to all the diamonds and 20's style to the spades or are you mixing it up? Because I don't think the queen shown really goes with the other courts. I believe a queen in a bit more of a Flapper style dress would go great with that mob boss looking KoS.

But as a former smoker and lover of tobacciana, I am highly interested in this deck. It could be what the Club 808 Cigar deck should have been.

[Conturbia]

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far and look forward to the revisions, but one thing that's bugging me is that the KoD & QoC look like they're from a different time period than the KoS & JoH. Is that done intentionally and are the other court cards going to be designed for the same period? For instance will the Edwardian era style apply to all the diamonds and 20's style to the spades or are you mixing it up? Because I don't think the queen shown really goes with the other courts. I believe a queen in a bit more of a Flapper style dress would go great with that mob boss looking KoS.

But as a former smoker and lover of tobacciana, I am highly interested in this deck. It could be what the Club 808 Cigar deck should have been.

chach, thanks for your comment! You are saying some of the things that a couple of weeks ago I said to the designer... You are right, style and outfits are (currently) different, we were playing with the idea of having a different "kind" of smokers for each suite (gangsters, cuban people, ..). And the drawing style is different too.. some of these choices are just influenced - not decided by me, because I still want the designer to be free to draw what he likes, but .. I'm making sure that the design is coherent.

I prefer to wait for the next revision to talk about the details, in a week or two you will see some updates..

[Eoghann]

I like the concept of "Smoking around the world and through the centuries" if you plan on going that route. Or like chach said to go for a specific period. Like the Bicycle Speakeasy deck.