Celebrate! A new deck coming in 2013

[RSLancastr]

Coming in 2013...

Celebrate!

a Holiday-themed Transformation deck I will be designing and creating over the coming year. I intend to create - and show here on UC - one card from the deck each Monday over the coming year, resulting in all 52 cards being done by the end of the year (I'll have to sneak in the Back, Joker(s) and Box designs in there somewhere too, as well as any Additional cards, advertising art and such).

As I said, the deck will be a Transformation deck (and not a semi-transformation deck - the pips will all be in the standard locations and orientations), with each card depicting a scene from a different Holiday (from nations around the world) or other celebratory event (wedding, birthday, etc).

I am planning (although practicality may dictate otherwise) to show here the design for each card on the Monday on or near the holiday depicted on that card (for example, the first card, to be shown here on 12/31/2012, will depict a New Year's Eve scene).

I (very tentatively) plan to show, within the frame of the face of each card, the name and date of the holiday depicted on the card, along with the name(s) of the country or countries where that holiday is primarily celebrated.

I can easily imagine a companion leaflet/booklet containing brief descriptions of the holidays depicted/celebrated in the deck.

I am currently envisioning the courts as either depicting people celebrating, or depicting characters associated with, a holiday (Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc). This will most likely change as the design progresses.

The courts might also tie in with another idea I am considering, which is to have all of the cards for a given suit to depict scenes from holidays within a given season of the year (All of the Spades showing Winter holidays for example, Hearts showing Spring holidays, etc).

Dunno if I will make this a Kickstarter campaign or not.

If I do, I will be relying heavily on this community to guide me through that process, as I have yet to even sign up on Kickstarter, and know almost nothing of how it works, nor even what is involved in working with a publisher to get a deck realized.

I also hope to receive instructions/opinions from you all on how to make a deck more appealing to the Cardist market. So far, all I keep seeing is "Thin borders!"

The deck will be designed and created using photorealistic computer graphics, much like my never-realized "Transformation 2000" deck I spoke of here in a thread by that name.

One of the weaknesses of that Transformation 2000 design was that it lacked a cohesive theme. I kidded myself into thinking that the unusual media used (photorealistic computer graphics) was the cohesive theme, but that did not work out any more than had I created the designs in pen and ink, and relied on THAT to be the deck's "theme".

I considered a holiday theme for that deck, and three or four of its cards reflect that, but I already had several non-holiday-themed cards created for it and was loathe to "redraw" them.

This time, I have chosen the theme in advance, and the deck will be designed from the ground up with that theme in mind, giving it - I hope - a strong thematic cohesion.

I fully expect that some overall elements (frames, etc) will be fine-tuned after some of the cards will have already been shown here, forcing me to regenerate already-shown cards with the new/changed element, but I am fine with that, considering it just a part of the whole creative process.

I wish I had some "test" images to show today, but I am going to wait and show the cards according to the Monday schedule I described above.

My thanks to all in advance for the help and constructive criticism I hope to receive here.

[MJF]

I'm looking forward to it and I'll gladly provide constructive feedback.

[RSLancastr]

Thanks, MJF! I look forward to your feedback!

By the way, I had initially thought to name the deck "Holiday" - For one thing, I hope to get it printed as a Bicycle deck, and "Bicycle Holiday" seemed a nice play on "Cycling Holiday", which, as I understand it, is what Brits call a vacation spent Bicycling.

But "Celebrate!" appealed to me, and opened the theme a bit, including such non-holiday events as birthday & wedding. I may change my mind back to calling it "Holiday", time will tell.

I also have an idea in the back of my mind of the deck being sold in various boxes - one featuring the Christmas design, others perhaps with Chanukha (sp?), Easter, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year... each to be marketed at different times of the year (and a "Happy Birthday" one could be marketed year-round) in greeting card stores and such.

Just a thought.

[RSLancastr]

NOTE TO SELF:

Remember to create both an "It's a Boy!" and "It's a Girl!" cards.

[Collector]

...
By the way, I had initially thought to name the deck "Holiday" - For one thing, I hope to get it printed as a Bicycle deck, and "Bicycle Holiday" seemed a nice play on "Cycling Holiday", which, as I understand it, is what Brits call a vacation spent Bicycling.

But "Celebrate!" appealed to me, and opened the theme a bit, including such non-holiday events as birthday & wedding. I may change my mind back to calling it "Holiday", time will tell...

You can name it “Holiday Transformations”. You’ll give it double meaning. We often do some special things (maintain traditions) during different holidays. But we don’t do that every day. So those holidays transform our life for a while.

...Just a thought.

[RSLancastr]

Interesting thought, Collector! Problem with that (from a marketing standpooint), is that nobody but playing card collectors know what "transformation" means in regard to playing cards. I can't think offhand of a transformation deck with the word "transformation" in its title on the box. Newt's Games (http://www.newtsgames.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) calls their (semi-) transformation decks "Hidden Pictures" decks for that reason. In fact, the only deck I can think of offhand with "Transformation" on the box is David Blaine's "Transformation" magic deck, which is NOT a transformation deck!

[RSLancastr]

All:

Is the (evident) lack of interest in this only because of my not having posted any images yet?

I intend to post the first card - the Spade Ace - on Monday, December 31 2012.

Perhaps I should have held off on creating this thread until then, but I had hoped to generate some feedback (about the deck's concept) and interest first.

[Strag]

All:

Is the (evident) lack of interest in this only because of my not having posted any images yet?

I intend to post the first card - the Spade Ace - on Monday, December 31 2012.

Perhaps I should have held off on creating this thread until then, but I had hoped to generate some feedback (about the deck's concept) and interest first.

I'm totally interested Bob! I love transformation decks and I am very interested in seeing yours. I do think this area of UC is rather low traffic so until there is something of interest to see you might not get much in the way of a response.

[RSLancastr]

Good to know, Strag - thanks!

[MagikFingerz]

All:

Is the (evident) lack of interest in this only because of my not having posted any images yet?

I intend to post the first card - the Spade Ace - on Monday, December 31 2012.

Perhaps I should have held off on creating this thread until then, but I had hoped to generate some feedback (about the deck's concept) and interest first.

For me, yes. I'm a typical left-brained person, so any feedback from me is usually very specific. Didn't see anything that needed nitpicking in the first post, so I decided to wait in anticipation

It's an interesting idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing it progress. Apart from the Curator deck, I haven't had much dealings with transformation decks before. I do like the concept of gradually designing and releasing each card.

[RSLancastr]

Fair enough, Tom. And thanks!

[RSLancastr]

In the interest of adding an image to this thread and, for those who did not see it in my thread about my old "Transformation 2000" deck project (which never came to fruition), here is the Three of Clubs from that design:



I doubt I'll be using that image in my "Celebrate!" deck - partly because I want that deck to be all new - but it DOES show the type of photorealistic graphics I intend to use for the new deck.

Thoughts?

[Sharpie]

Hey Robert,

I apologise in advance if these comments offend.

As I mentioned before, I don't mind full card graphics if they can be incorporated seamlessly (or thematically) with the card layout and corner pips.
Thematic Example:

SanFranciscoCards.jpg (72.67 KiB) Viewed 2675 times

With the 3 of Clubs example above, the hard cutouts around the corner indices as well as the full card coverage of the image are not pleasing to my eye

Also, when you post your Celebrate! pics, would you mind putting them in a card shaped border?
The square corners make it difficult for me to see the final outcome.

I love transformation decks, so I'll be looking forward to this one.

Thanks for listening,
S

[MJF]

Sharpie what deck are those cards from?

[Sharpie]

Sharpie what deck are those cards from?

Found them on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/100538986/s ... ying-cards

[RSLancastr]

Hey Robert,

I apologise in advance if these comments offend.

Sharpie, I asked for feedback. How could I take offense at your providing precisely that?

Even non-constructive criticism would be feedback, and your comments were NOT non-constructive!

Now, on to those comments:

As I mentioned before, I don't mind full card graphics if they can be incorporated seamlessly (or thematically) with the card layout and corner pips.
Thematic Example:

SanFranciscoCards.jpg

Sorry, but I'm afraid that I'm not clear on what you mean by this.

How do the borders in the example you provided succeed (or fail) for you?

With the 3 of Clubs example above, the hard cutouts around the corner indices as well as the full card coverage of the image are not pleasing to my eye

Again, I'm not clear on your meaning. What do you mean by "hard cutouts", and what would make them...softer?

I have made no decision on how I will format the "Celebrate!" deck's frames.

The three of clubs example is from my "Transformation 2000" design. I am totally open to any and all suggestions regarding the frames (and anything else) in "Celebrate!" (once I start posting them, that is).

I obviously can't promise that I will agree with and/or incorporate all suggestions, but I will definitely read and consider all points of view on everything.

Also, when you post your Celebrate! pics, would you mind putting them in a card shaped border?
The square corners make it difficult for me to see the final outcome.

I will definitely be rounding the corners on the images, and will be posting them in a more accurate poker-sized aspect (height/width) ratio.

I love transformation decks, so I'll be looking forward to this one.

Okay, now THAT I found offensive!

Seriously, thanks for saying that - and all that you said.

-RSL

Thanks for listening,
S

Always!

[RSLancastr]

Sharpie what deck are those cards from?

Until I noticed that the image file name was sanfranciscocards.jpg, I thought they might be from a Lord of the Rings deck!

[Sharpie]

As I mentioned before, I don't mind full card graphics if they can be incorporated seamlessly (or thematically) with the card layout and corner pips.

Sorry, but I'm afraid that I'm not clear on what you mean by this.

How do the borders in the example you provided succeed (or fail) for you?

Well, in those San Francisco Sketch Cards, the images end where they need to at the border (as yours do). But what saves them for me is the corner indices are also hand drawn, and they bleed over both the image and border. Kinda ties everything together "thematically" and makes it work... at least for me.

With the 3 of Clubs example above, the hard cutouts around the corner indices as well as the full card coverage of the image are not pleasing to my eye

Again, I'm not clear on your meaning. What do you mean by "hard cutouts", and what would make them...softer?

The way the image has to be "cutout" arbitrarily to accommodate the corner indices. Or that the image comes to a hard edge around the border (see above comment).
I think it would be nice if you either incorporate the indices into your designs, or make the transition between them, and the border more subtle.

Perhaps by not using the full space on the card to create your image. Meaning, leave the items you want the viewer to focus on, and lose the background.
Some Examples:

vanity-fair-transformation-playing-cards-no-41-united-states-playing-card-company-1895.jpg (250.88 KiB) Viewed 2659 times

Thoughts?

[RSLancastr]

Okay, looong post:

As I mentioned before, I don't mind full card graphics if they can be incorporated seamlessly (or thematically) with the card layout and corner pips.

Sorry, but I'm afraid that I'm not clear on what you mean by this.

How do the borders in the example you provided succeed (or fail) for you?

Well, in those San Francisco Sketch Cards, the images end where they need to at the border (as yours do). But what saves them for me is the corner indices are also hand drawn, and they bleed over both the image and border. Kinda ties everything together "thematically" and makes it work... at least for me.

Perhaps this what you just said (or at least a part of it), but looking at the sketch cards now, I notice that the indices are not on the frames per se, but are on white rectangles which almost look as though they were then glued to the (black) frame. It's an interesting effect, and one I had not considered. To me, the index is part and parcel of the frame (though I certainly own decks where it is not).

If memory serves, when I created the frames for my "Transformation 2000" deck, I was emulating the frame of a deck in my collection, on which the indices were, as I said, part and parcel of the frame.

Of course, on most decks, the image inside the frame is of a background color matching the color of the frame, perhaps minimizizing the issue you have with my three of clubs.

Actually, your comments have made me look at both the border and the indices in a different way. I think I may have treated them as somewhat of an afterthought rather than as an intrinsic part of the design (which of course they are, or at least they should be). Beyond making them three dimensional (which does not show well in my example), I did not pay them much heed. I will give this much more thought, and will be looking for more feedback on it as I experiment with it in future.

Thanks for waking me up to this, Sharpie!

The way the image has to be "cutout" arbitrarily to accommodate the corner indices. Or that the image comes to a hard edge around the border (see above comment).
I think it would be nice if you either incorporate the indices into your designs, or make the transition between them, and the border more subtle.

Perhaps by not using the full space on the card to create your image. Meaning, leave the items you want the viewer to focus on, and lose the background.
Some Examples:

vanity-fair-transformation-playing-cards-no-41-united-states-playing-card-company-1895.jpg

CircusTransformation.jpg

Hmm.

I think that part of what I have tried to do with my "Transformation 2000" deck is best appreciated by viewing more than one card in the deck. Have you seen the images in my thread about it? (This brings up an intersting point/issue: If something about an individual card's design requires the viewer to look at other cards in the deck to fully appreciate/understand that element, does that weaken the design of that individual card, that it cannot be fully appreciated on its own, or does it strengthen the design of the overall deck?

Regardless, part of what I tried to accomnplish with the images in the deck, which was encouraged, if not mandated by the program I used to create the images (POV-Ray), was a sort of feel that the images were almost photographs of actual objects, posed (or found) in such a way as to create the Transformation of the pips in a playing card.

In my thread about the "Transformation 2000" deck, someone (I forget who) posted a comment which I took to mean I was at least partially successful in this, when they said (and I am paraphrasing here) "It's almost like you are taking us on a tour of a virtual town".

The images are created using a "scene description" language, in which every object in the scene is described - its shape, color, texture, etc - and rotated and moved into a virtual 3D space.

Virtual lights are then placed, pointed and focused on the scene, and a virtual camera is placed and aimed, providing the Point of view through which the scene is viewed. The program then uses all of this information to generate the image.

So the frame, including the indices, is another object, placed in front of the virtual camera so as to frame the scene the way a playing card frame would.

Think of it this way: if you created the scene in my three of clubs using a REAL camera and objects, you would place the box on the floor, put the ornaments, tinsel and Christmas lights in and on it, point your photography lights on the scene, hold your camera directly over the box pointing down at the box, and then hold a big mockup of a playing card frame at just the right distance between your camera and the box, and take your photograph. If you later wanted to bkank out much of the scene other than the pips, it would have to be done in "post-production".

I could do "post-production" meddling/editing of the image, but I considered it a challenge (if you will) to create the entire scene "IN production" as it were, and keep post-prod touches to a bare minimum, zero if possible. Call it the purist in the computer programmer in me - for, make no mistake, using POV-Ray's "scene description language" is VERY much like writing a computer program.

Dunno how clear any of that was, but, bottom line, I do NOT want to blank out everything but the pips, as it would spoil the "photograph" look I am going for, and which I believe to be a strength of the whole usage of photorealistic graphics.

[Sharpie]

I understand completely what you're going for. Definitely glad you see that the indices can be used as part of the design.

If keeping the entire image is important, perhaps add a border of some kind (that could also include the indices). It could even be an actual picture frame. The old wooden kind with lots of intricate scrollwork that you could incorporate (I know I use that word a lot) into the corners. That would create a cohesive design element for every image you put on your cards.

And I agree. It's better to see an entire deck to get a good sense of its theme.
But in this case I was just talking about the design style of the card you posted.

[RSLancastr]

I understand completely what you're going for.

Phew!

Definitely glad you see that the indices can be used as part of the design.

I'm definitely glad that you made me see it - thanks!

If keeping the entire image is important, perhaps add a border of some kind (that could also include the indices). It could even be an actual picture frame. The old wooden kind with lots of intricate scrollwork that you could incorporate (I know I use that word a lot) into the corners. That would create a cohesive design element for every image you put on your cards.

As I think I said in this thread's opening post, I intend to include, as part of the frame, the name of the holiday/event depicted in the card, along with the name(s) of the country or countries where that holiday is primarily observed/celebrated. This would be part of a holiday-themed border, the format of which would be common to all cards in the deck. The ornate, carved frame is an interesting idea, but I was envisioning one more in keeping with the theme. Perhaps one made from ribbon you might find sold in a greeting card store. I will definitely be perusing the merchandise at a Hallmark's store and a Party World store for ideas/inspiration in this and other aspects of the deck.

And I agree. It's better to see an entire deck to get a good sense of its theme.
But in this case I was just talking about the design style of the card you posted.

Understood. I hope that as the weeks go by, and I post more and more cards from the "Celebrate!" deck, my concept/vision for it will become clearer.

Thanks again for your input! Multiple sets of eyes on a project always helps...

[RSLancastr]

Well, in those San Francisco Sketch Cards, the images end where they need to at the border (as yours do). But what saves them for me is the corner indices are also hand drawn, and they bleed over both the image and border. Kinda ties everything together "thematically" and makes it work... at least for me.

Giving this some more thought, I think I finally understand what you mean by the above:

The fact that the indices are hand-drawn (as is the body/scene of the card itself), ties the indices in with the card "thematically" in your eyes.

I did not understand that at first because I don't think of "hand-=drawn" to be part of the deck's theme, just the medium used.

But if I am understanding you correctly, then the indices on my Three of Clubs ARE tied in with the body/scene of the card in much the same way!

Although difficult to see in the pic I provided, bothe the numeral and pip in the card's indices are created using the same medium (three-dimensional, photorealistic graphics) as is the body/scene of the card. The Numeral (3) is drawn using shiny black cylinders/tubes rather than flat black lines. And the Pip (club) is three-dimensional as well, with the three round ends of the club made from shiny black hubcap-shapes rather than flat black circles, etc.

All of the cards' indices use the photorealistic graphics. For example, the Diamond pips have a "faceted" look.

While I did this to the indices in order to take advantage of the medium I was using, I think it also sertves the same purpose that you see in the SF Sketch cards' indices. I am going to look to see if I have any larger pics of any of that deck's cards to better show you what I am nattering on about here.

[RSLancastr]

Okay, here is a larger image from my "Transformation 2000" deck, where the nature of the indices can be more clearly seen:

==========[ Two of Diamonds: ]==========

[RSLancastr]

Well, I'm working on the card for next Monday.

Slow going so far. It has been nearly ten years since I used POV-Ray, and I'm going through a learning curve again. But I am determined to have a card ready for next Monday - Stay tuned!

[elcyciB]

Hey RS,

Just wanted to say I really enjoy the concept of transformation decks and will be following your progress as your deck unfolds.

GOOD LUCK!

[RSLancastr]

Thanks, elcyciB! (How is that pronounced, by the way?)

[RSLancastr]

Well, I'm jumping ahead of the game here, but I got in contact with USPC to talk about their eventual printing of my "Celebrate!" deck.

They sent me what I assume are their standard quote forms and such.

Now it's just a small matter of designing all 58 cards and raising the money to print them.

Okay, back now to working on the card I will show here on Monday.

I sure hope I'm not buidling this up too much and the design will not live up to the build-up...

-RSL

[Russell]

58 cards? Do you mean 56? USPCC won't print 58.

[RSLancastr]

58 cards? Do you mean 56? USPCC won't print 58.

You are, of course, correct. 52 + 2 jokers + 2 ad/promo cards = 56.

I was almost sure I had seen the number 58 in their emails, but reviewing them just now, it turns out that my poor eyesight was making an 8 out of a 6. I blame the font.

[Strag]

Well, I'm working on the card for next Monday.

Slow going so far. It has been nearly ten years since I used POV-Ray, and I'm going through a learning curve again. But I am determined to have a card ready for next Monday - Stay tuned!

Keep it up Bob!