Spanish Civil War (36-39) Theme - New (first ever) Deck

Bookatar · Unread post by **Bookatar** » Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:11 pm

Hello - this is our first deck and it will be on Kickstarter within a few days, to take advantage of their Make/100 January offer.

The deck features vintage posters from the Spanish Civil War (SCW), mostly from the republican side. It is a relaunch of our original MILICIANAS book project. The original Kickstarter book design was too costly. The new book format significantly reduced our funding goal. Together with the deck of cards we will be able to give our backers accessible value and additional variety.

We decided to add a deck of cards (unfamiliar article to us) and turn this entertainment into a knowledge tool, encouraging further exploration of the SCW time. In the process we just discovered this amazing forum. It is too late to take advantage of the huge collective wisdom and goodwill hosted here. But please, don’t hesitate to give us feedback. We fell in love with this playing cards phenomena and plan to attach a deck to all our future publishing projects.
(This is our second Spanish Civil War themed drive. Our first KS campaign, The Republican Calendar ( https://cutt.ly/crr6jHh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) was an oversubscribed success).

Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/15 ... n=f45a2617" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/80x80milicianas/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/80x80" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RepCalendar2019" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.bookata.com/80x80/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

P52 · Unread post by **hsbc** » Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:12 pm

Cool idea!

But the back design is not as good as the rest of the art IMO

Bookatar · Unread post by **Bookatar** » Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:21 pm

Thanks for the feedback and kind words.
Would have be nice to have more time to discuss design issues and changes.

Harvonsgard · Unread post by **Harvonsgard** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 1:24 am

hsbc wrote:Cool idea! But the back design is not as good as the rest of the art IMO

I have kind off the same feeling here. I would include the tuckbox though aswell. The art style of the cards is very different to the back and the tuckbox. I like the cards and it is an interesting theme for sure, but the tuckbox and back are kinda not good.

theCapraAegagrus · Mon Jan 13, 2020 7:52 am

Easy pass.

Bookatar · Unread post by **Bookatar** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:27 pm

I feel like a martian on this forum, I have no idea what this mean: "tuckbox and back are kinda not good", or "Easy pass".
My box and back looks fine with me.... but on the other hand am totally open for creative criticism.
As a total greenhorn I was probably hoped for some constructive, practical improvement suggestions.
This is not the case, I am wasting your time.

P52 · Unread post by **hsbc** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:28 pm

Bookatar wrote:I was probably hoped for some constructive, practical improvement suggestions.
This is not the case, I am wasting your time.

There's a Deck Design subforum here that's more geared for that sort of thing! I bet you could "Report" your own post and ask a moderator to move this post there if you want to - but it also sounds like you're committed to launching very soon so maybe people don't feel like substantial feedback would have any effect?

As for the back design, here are a few of the designs that were nominated for this year's Deck of the Year awards here on UC:

The designs are detailed with clean lines and - importantly - they are two-way, i.e. if you turn them upside down it looks the same

Eric Lee · Unread post by **Eric Lee** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:33 pm

From what I can gather from the feedback and also my own opnion, is that while the art of the courts and jokers are great, the back and tuckbox art doesn't match with that.

The box and backs are what most people will see and our idea of what to expect is shaped by those 2 images. I would expect a minimalist art style with a colour scheme matching the back and tuck, but the face cards are different from that. I understand that the Gerda image is what you've chose as the basic image for the larger book campaign, while the courts are poster art represented in the calendar. So there's 2 different art styles put into the deck.

Our feedback comes from the deck as a standalone without other frames of references. So without the book or calendar, the deck can't really standalone. Not sure if the calendar images are going to be in the book to give the courts art a better frame of reference.

As one who like history, this is a great theme and I'm glad to see this part of Spanish history given due coverage. I wish your campaign success.

Harvonsgard · Unread post by **Harvonsgard** » Wed Jan 15, 2020 3:48 am

Bookatar wrote:I feel like a martian on this forum, I have no idea what this mean: "tuckbox and back are kinda not good", or "Easy pass".
My box and back looks fine with me.... but on the other hand am totally open for creative criticism.
As a total greenhorn I was probably hoped for some constructive, practical improvement suggestions.
This is not the case, I am wasting your time.

I'm sorry that you feel that way. But don't we all feel a bit alien when coming to a new space?

Some things to clarify. First of all, most of us in here are consumers/customers not deck designers ourselves.
As for constructive criticism - I'm not a native English speaker therefore, there will always something be lost in translation. I simple interpreted the following statement:

Bookatar wrote:Would have be nice to have more time to discuss design issues and changes.

As that there is no time for design changes and therefore didn't put exact points in my résumé. As others mentioned the deck draft board is more catered to discussions about decks that are still in the design stage.

Second, always keep in mind that not everyone likes the same stuff and most importantly it is impossible to find something that everybody loves, appreciates or likes. You'll always have people who like what you put out there and you'll always people that don't like what you put out there. It doesn't mean that your work is bad, it simply means it is maybe not to the liking of some.

Unread post by **shimmering** » Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:59 am

Bookatar wrote:.... constructive, practical improvement suggestions ....

One thing I would definitely do is change the pip cards so that they are two-way. (all the pips on your pip cards are facing the same way at the moment. look at any standard pack of cards to see how they are typically done. I mean sometimes there are reasons for one-way pip cards, and I have done it myself often, but I don't see why they would be better as one-way in this case, so almost certainly better to change it.)

theCapraAegagrus · Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:47 am

Bookatar wrote:I feel like a martian on this forum, I have no idea what this mean: "tuckbox and back are kinda not good", or "Easy pass".
My box and back looks fine with me.... but on the other hand am totally open for creative criticism.
As a total greenhorn I was probably hoped for some constructive, practical improvement suggestions.
This is not the case, I am wasting your time.

The back design is so bad that there is no constructive method for me to convey how to 'fix' it.

The tri-star shape in the aces is ugly. As for the rest of the deck, it simply isn't within my taste, despite that it isn't bad.

Bookatar · Unread post by **Bookatar** » Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:20 pm

Printing projects financed on the KS platform were the main creative drive for us, centered on vintage posters from SCW time. Books and calendars came instantaneously to mind.
Making playing cards was just an postscript, a meager secondary vehicle in supporting the book/calendar projects.
What an astonishment we have had, when discovering the subtlety world of making cards, and the passion of collectors in forums like yours.
Yes, this first project is full of deficiencies but, by Hermes, cards are as beautiful as posters, and we intend from now on to add a deck to any printing project in the future. Thanks again for your tolerant insights / suggestions.

Bookatar · Unread post by **Bookatar** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:31 pm

Bonjour de Montreal,

Our KS project was launched 4 days ago.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/15 ... s-relaunch

So far so good, but no cigar.
Is far from the spectacular successes of other KS campaigns seen on this UC hard to please platform.

Despite the interesting subject, and the intriguing court design, I was warned by the UC community that the deck doesn't look good.
Alas! It was too late for us to stop the train, so we are going BANG into the crowdfunding wall.

But if you are an anarchist at heart, by all means, go ahead - support MILICIANAS!!
The deck, the book or both!!