First deck (tentatively 'Dualism')

[Lolwel21]

Hi, I've been working on this deck and would love to get some feedback on it!


Two variations on the back design (borderless, bordered).

The parliament and a selection of numbers.

[scottbre]

It's interesting and well done. Just not the style of deck that I have an interest in buying.

[BaconWise]

This is a great job for a first deck and I appreciate the effort to create a fully-custom experience. I really like the detail on the card backs and the pips are custom, but not over-designed. The courts are intriguing, though I have never been a huge fan of repeating courts (mostly repeating) and I think these might be a bit too on the abstract side for my taste. Thank you for sharing this!

[Harvonsgard]

Overall a good deck but a no-no from me as well for the (almost) repeating courts. Too many good decks out there that feature twelve truely individual/unique courts.

[caniveski]

the card back looks great, For me the courts look the same, if it wasnt for the J Q or K i wouldnt know which is which

[Lolwel21]

Inspired by BaconWise's critique about having 12 unique face cards, I decided to create new designs for the face cards, paying attention to the symbolism and traditional features of each one.


What do you think? Does anything need tweaking?

As an additional step, I'm considering slightly fading the picture components of the face cards to draw your eyes to the text and color a little bit more and thereby improve readability, but I'll decide the details on that after printing some candidates on my home printer.

[Fes]

I like this. First thing I notice is the card back, I want a bit brighter red on that, nice and vivid in the corners, maybe just a touch larger on the black ring around it with some white twix the two. Would make the red dot pop I think. I like the full bleed, I like the thin bordered back. I like them both. Spinny goodness is never a bad thing in my opinion.

I also like the courts, they're flowey and fun. The reworked jacks are a little on the plain side but I think they're great even with the overload of negative space, because it's clean and crisp. I don't see anything to complain about with the pips, they get the job done. The font is fine as well from what I see. I think this is a good deck, the KoH is a bit busy but not in a bad way. Lots of motion on the kings and queens. Good stuff.

Artistic taste is subjective but all in all I think this is well done and comes together quite well. I don't know what Dualism means for this deck as a title but okay. Yea, I like this design.

[Lolwel21]

Thanks for the complements and feedback!
I'll be trying your suggestion with the back, but I think I'll likely not use the white ring in the corner dots, as it may push that feature into 'overly busy' territory.
I agree that the Jacks are definitely more minimal than the Queens and Kings, but I'm not really sure what I'd add to the Jacks or subtract from the other two without breaking the balance, so I've decided I'm not forcing the design.


I've struggled a bit with naming this deck, to be honest. In the context of this deck, Dualism is about contrast.
The original inspiration for this deck came from the concepts of Yin and Yang, though it's evolved quite a ways from that point.
It's largely monochromatic black and white (though this is pretty standard on the front of decks)
It's pretty abstract, yet it's representational: There are human figures behind each of the face designs.
Each of the face cards convey motion, but that motion goes nowhere; it's cyclical.
Duality is also a feature of my thought process:
I'm into both the technical and the creative, which I think about very similarly. (this served as the inspiration for my logo/profile pic)

Since I haven't posted any advertising or campaign material yet, I'm still somewhat flexible when it comes to the title, but Dualism is the name I've like the best so far (that wasn't already taken by a much more popular deck).

I've just gotten to the point where I'm printing my first physical prototype deck!

Fancy Aces!

[Fes]

Dualism means something to you and you're the one that matters in that regard. Call it Frank if it makes you happy. This is your creation and I think whatever name you decide on is good. I don't have to understand it to like the deck and that I do! Great looking AoH. I like the elegant design. It's simple, not overly complex and just works. This is not boring by any stretch and quite creative. For me, it hits on all levels. It's a pretty sharp looking pip.

Exciting times, printing a prototype deck! This is fun. I hope you continue to show us some of this wonderful journey you're on with Dualism.

[Lolwel21]

The prototype deck arrived!!! I've got a couple edits I want to make, but I'm mostly satisfied with how the prototype came out.
As part of the next iteration, I'm renaming the deck to more closely match the original inspiration/concept. The new name is In-yō (陰陽). It means Yin-Yang (dual cosmic forces) in Japanese.
With it, I'm slightly tweaking some of the face card designs to fit the Japanese theme:

as well as some color tweaks: (0,100,100,0) looks a little *too* bright of a red.

The design also stood up to one of my main stress tests as well: It didn't seem to pose any noticeable disadvantage when playing Nertz.
Any other ideas for stress tests?

[Fes]

Design change based upon a name change, that's interesting to me. For some reason it seems like a strange choice, changing a design based upon a name change. That's just me though and this opinion is mine as well. Looks like they have little pick axe heads a top their heads. It's in contrast to the elegance of your design. I think you should lose the graduation hats. They don't need to be there and have a negative effect imho.

If you're married to your kings having little nail heads atop their heads, cool. Your deck, your design, your vision.

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by stress test of a prototype deck. I mean they're not anything like the final production deck would feel or move like muchless broken in to the point of stress. I guess it depends on who you're printing with and who you're prototyping with. If you're using MPC for everything then I think you'd have your stress test right there. If you went with MPC or another print on demand type service, then want to print with USPC they just don't fit. Apples and oranges. Head scratching moment here.

[Lolwel21]

I appreciate the feedback on the crowns. I agree they could use a little work. They should depict the Japanese imperial crown:



The edits inspired by the name change were mostly pretty minor, except for the addition of the crown. Mostly a removal/replacement of religious artifacts, and the straightening of the Jack's sword handle (changing from a Chinese sword to a katana).

In terms of "stress testing" the development prototype, I mostly mean testing the design's clarity, rather than the cards themselves. My rationale is that if the design can be used in a speed game (such as Nertz), it should be sufficiently readable.

And yes, my development prototypes were with MPC, and I'm thinking of doing my final print with Cartamundi's custom service.

[Lolwel21]

I have a revision of the kings:

I changed the crown to a topknot.

[Fes]

The top knot look is much better than the nail head looking graduation cap. Absolutely so. Will they, the top knots I mean, be on all the kings or will there be some variety?

[Lolwel21]

As of now, all kings have the topknot. I could add variation, but I haven't found any inspiration for it (yet?)

[Fes]

Your card back could inspire a little variation. I know it inspires me to want to play with it.