Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Designing a deck? Need input? Show us here!
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kason1011
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Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by kason1011 »

Hi everyone,

I'm a design student from Tasmania, Australia. Passionate about playing cards.

Recently I have been working on a deck design called Checkmate. It is a chess inspired design.

I am a beginner in playing card design, any comments and input would be much appreciated!

I have illustrated a few back designs, but I don't know which one is best. Please give me some advice on them and any changes required?

1. Minimalist design with rotational rays and simple shapes:
design 1.jpg
design 1.jpg (942.96 KiB) Viewed 697 times
2. Black and white circle of chess pieces:
desgin 2.jpg
desgin 2.jpg (809.42 KiB) Viewed 697 times
3. Similar to design 2 but with an enlarged circle.
design 3.jpg
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Thank you very much guys!
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by MagikFingerz »

As someone else here will no doubt tell you (it starts with Spr and ends with outs) you might want to consider having some corner elements, but if you're going for minimalist it might break away from that. Depends on what you want as a designer, of course, nothing inherently wrong with not having any. Experimenting and comparing is always good though.

I find the second one very boring, I could find numerous decks that have a similar background and the centerpiece isn't unique enough. Same with the third, and the "enlarged circle back" has been done several times on recent decks. Although I do like the very middle part, with the 4 Queens.

The first one though I like, but it's a bit of a diamond in the rough. Centerpiece is much better, and I'd like to see those 4 Queens in this one. The small circles/squares/triangles between the pieces help spread them out and will provide more options when (or if) you put some color in there.

The striped background is okay, it works but something else could potentially be better. The white triangles break the monotony of the background, but are boring in themselves. Simply putting another element on top of or inside them might be enough (a single chess piece, perhaps? If you put Queens at the very center, you could put a King here and have all the pieces - unless you use the Kings as corner elements, in which case you'd have as many Kings as Queens).

All in all, I think you're off to a good start! I think a chess themed deck is hard to pull off well though, since you don't really have that much to draw from (6 pieces and a checkered pattern). Looking forward to seeing more :)
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kason1011
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by kason1011 »

Thank you Tom! Your comment really helps. I never thought of the corners, I will definitely work on that!
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by DragonSoul »

I actually like the second one, depending on how minimalist of a design you are going for with the front. I also like the circle from the first but, the rays and big empty triangles aren't working for me. Like Tom suggested, corner elements are nice because they help make interesting fans. For me, the more intricate the back the better. In which case I would suggest playing around with something besides a circle. After all, chess boards are square. Maybe take that as a base and turn it 45 degrees. Or, use the chess pieces themselves as the main focal points and build from there.

Can't wait to see more. Good luck!
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by kason1011 »

DragonSoul wrote:I actually like the second one, depending on how minimalist of a design you are going for with the front. I also like the circle from the first but, the rays and big empty triangles aren't working for me. Like Tom suggested, corner elements are nice because they help make interesting fans. For me, the more intricate the back the better. In which case I would suggest playing around with something besides a circle. After all, chess boards are square. Maybe take that as a base and turn it 45 degrees. Or, use the chess pieces themselves as the main focal points and build from there.

Can't wait to see more. Good luck!
Really happy that you like my design :D ! As you say, a more complex and intricate back may be better. I will think of some new idea to put behind the circle! Thank you very much for your comment!
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

MagikFingerz wrote:As someone else here will no doubt tell you (it starts with Spr and ends with outs) you might want to consider having some corner elements, but if you're going for minimalist it might break away from that. Depends on what you want as a designer, of course, nothing inherently wrong with not having any. Experimenting and comparing is always good though.

I find the second one very boring, I could find numerous decks that have a similar background and the centerpiece isn't unique enough. Same with the third, and the "enlarged circle back" has been done several times on recent decks. Although I do like the very middle part, with the 4 Queens.

The first one though I like, but it's a bit of a diamond in the rough. Centerpiece is much better, and I'd like to see those 4 Queens in this one. The small circles/squares/triangles between the pieces help spread them out and will provide more options when (or if) you put some color in there.

The striped background is okay, it works but something else could potentially be better. The white triangles break the monotony of the background, but are boring in themselves. Simply putting another element on top of or inside them might be enough (a single chess piece, perhaps? If you put Queens at the very center, you could put a King here and have all the pieces - unless you use the Kings as corner elements, in which case you'd have as many Kings as Queens).

All in all, I think you're off to a good start! I think a chess themed deck is hard to pull off well though, since you don't really have that much to draw from (6 pieces and a checkered pattern). Looking forward to seeing more :)
@MagicFingerz - Since you called me out Ill give some good advise.

@Kason1011 - So you want to make a chess deck. That's nice. Just know this is a tiresome theme. This guy almost got it right. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ch ... nav_search Just a few tweaks and he would be king. Make the back of card your pawn, but make the center a checker with 28 red and 28 black = 56 cards. What I'm asking you is to make a marked deck. The theme is Checkers, Chess, and Poker Game. Give the sheet board for the the Checker or Chess game as an Add-on most ppl want just the cards. Poker players now must hide their cards to play better. The cheat is in the center of Back of Card. Red checker means Heart or Diamond. Black means Club or Spade. OF course this would be true for the courts. 2 red and 2 Black to make a chess board. (K), (Q), (J)ack = Bishop, (J)oker = Knight (A) = Rook. Also Check out other chess decks. I'ts an old theme...
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

Oh I forgot; Make the 4 Jokers or Knights have a back of card as if the Pawn was Kinged. That should cover it. If a person has more than 4 Kings in checkers, They already won.
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Re: Checkmate Deck Design, need comments and input!

Unread post by kason1011 »

sprouts1115 wrote:
MagikFingerz wrote:As someone else here will no doubt tell you (it starts with Spr and ends with outs) you might want to consider having some corner elements, but if you're going for minimalist it might break away from that. Depends on what you want as a designer, of course, nothing inherently wrong with not having any. Experimenting and comparing is always good though.

I find the second one very boring, I could find numerous decks that have a similar background and the centerpiece isn't unique enough. Same with the third, and the "enlarged circle back" has been done several times on recent decks. Although I do like the very middle part, with the 4 Queens.

The first one though I like, but it's a bit of a diamond in the rough. Centerpiece is much better, and I'd like to see those 4 Queens in this one. The small circles/squares/triangles between the pieces help spread them out and will provide more options when (or if) you put some color in there.

The striped background is okay, it works but something else could potentially be better. The white triangles break the monotony of the background, but are boring in themselves. Simply putting another element on top of or inside them might be enough (a single chess piece, perhaps? If you put Queens at the very center, you could put a King here and have all the pieces - unless you use the Kings as corner elements, in which case you'd have as many Kings as Queens).

All in all, I think you're off to a good start! I think a chess themed deck is hard to pull off well though, since you don't really have that much to draw from (6 pieces and a checkered pattern). Looking forward to seeing more :)
@MagicFingerz - Since you called me out Ill give some good advise.

@Kason1011 - So you want to make a chess deck. That's nice. Just know this is a tiresome theme. This guy almost got it right. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ch ... nav_search Just a few tweaks and he would be king. Make the back of card your pawn, but make the center a checker with 28 red and 28 black = 56 cards. What I'm asking you is to make a marked deck. The theme is Checkers, Chess, and Poker Game. Give the sheet board for the the Checker or Chess game as an Add-on most ppl want just the cards. Poker players now must hide their cards to play better. The cheat is in the center of Back of Card. Red checker means Heart or Diamond. Black means Club or Spade. OF course this would be true for the courts. 2 red and 2 Black to make a chess board. (K), (Q), (J)ack = Bishop, (J)oker = Knight (A) = Rook. Also Check out other chess decks. I'ts an old theme...
Thank you very much for your advice. But I would like to keep my deck design close to my original concept. The other deck had its own style and perks, but it is not what I want from my design :)
Anyway, your comment also helped perfect my design :D I appreciate your help!
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