One Way Back Design

[chicken_ql]

How do you guys feel about 1 way back designs? Any decks in particular that you like or hate? Also maybe why you like or dislike them.

[MagikFingerz]

I dislike them in general; For me, the whole point of playing card art is for it to be two-way (not necessarily completely mirrored) thus able to be appreciated without a need to rotate/align the cards first.

I can "not mind" one-way back designs if there's a good reason for it (artistically), as long as it's not blatantly obvious.

[Harvonsgard]

I'd say the huge majority of collectors and playing card fans will prefer two-way, with a very good chunk of those actually disliking one-way designs.

I personally don't bother at all. Would House of the Rising spades be better two-way? Would Wicked Kingdom be better one-way? In my opinion some designs work better if the art has more room to breathe (one-way) and some are better in two-way.
Cards were one-way for the longest time before at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century two-way designs came up.

Despite me personally not caring that much - as long as the artwork is great - I do however agree with Tom that two-way nowadays is kinda what seperates art from playing card art (I still love art so ).
How smart/well e.g. transitions are made adds another dimension opposed to "simply" (for the lack of a better word) putting nice pictures on cards.

Additionally, I like when designer do some nice play with one-way/two-way-ness. Examples are two-way courts that are actually one-way due to depicting characters in different states (e.g. aforementioned Wicked Kingdom by Wylie Beckert or Luminosity/Umbra by Jody Eklund) or when one-way court characters or made two-way like Jackson Robinson did for his General Admission deck.

[MagikFingerz]

I'd say the huge majority of collectors and playing card fans will prefer two-way, with a very good chunk of those actually disliking one-way designs.

I personally don't bother at all. Would House of the Rising spades be better two-way? Would Wicked Kingdom be better one-way? In my opinion some designs work better if the art has more room to breathe (one-way) and some are better in two-way.
Cards were one-way for the longest time before at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century two-way designs came up.

Despite me personally not caring that much - as long as the artwork is great - I do however agree with Tom that two-way nowadays is kinda what seperates art from playing card art (I still love art so ).
How smart/well e.g. transitions are made adds another dimension opposed to "simply" (for the lack of a better word) putting nice pictures on cards.

Additionally, I like when designer do some nice play with one-way/two-way-ness. Examples are two-way courts that are actually one-way due to depicting characters in different states (e.g. aforementioned Wicked Kingdom by Wylie Beckert or Luminosity/Umbra by Jody Eklund) or when one-way court characters or made two-way like Jackson Robinson did for his General Admission deck.

I actually agree with most of this when it comes to court cards, but the question at hand was concerning "one way BACK DESIGNS"

[Harvonsgard]

Member when you should wear your glasses before writing an essay? I member, haha. I indeed misread it.
I personally don't mind it still. I have for example Copag Neo Plastic cards for gameplay, all of them feature one-way back designs. Some antique/vintage decks sport one-way backs that I like a lot.

[saulriffel]

With some exceptions, I don't like one way back designs that don't work, I endorse what MagikFingerz said about not necessarily being completely symmetrical or mirrored, but for me, the design should at least works both ways (and I think it's kinda cool when they have some variations but makes sense looking both ways.

Before seeing this post I never thought about how many one way back design decks I have in my collection, but thinking about it, most of them are souvenir decks, the other ones are a Super Mario deck by Nintendo, the deck looks great, but the one-way back design bothers me a little bit, and Bicycle Vintage Disney Posters Deck, that the back design could be better if worked both ways.

Now, thinking about tricks, the one-way back design probably is terrible, one way face cards can be helpful, but the one-way back design will limit some moves (I know very little about this subject, but I know a couple of tricks that won't work).