Tragedy of Macbeth Playing Cards - Design Thread

[CallOn84]

The chainmail could use some light shading as well to match the rest of the art. Looks too flat in my opinion. I also wonder what it would look like if the elbows weren't cut off and continued from behind the columns to the other side.

The biggest issue with applying light shading to the chainmail is that, from prototype testing, we noticed that with red cardstock, the paper would absorb all ink except for black.

So, any shading we apply would be lost due to the ink absorption. This could be negated if we use a white cardstock and then apply the full illustration to that cardstock. We keep the red background in doing so, but extra details like shading become possible.

[Honeybee]

The dude with the crown looks like he could be your next door neighbour (not like a historic figure/face) and at first glance something about his eyes made me think he was wearing glasses.

[CallOn84]

The dude with the crown looks like he could be your next door neighbour (not like a historic figure/face) and at first glance something about his eyes made me think he was wearing glasses.

Lmao, that was quite funny.

Below is the changes we did for the front and back. Let me know what you guys think.

Oh, for context, the lighter red is suppose to mimic the metallic red ink we're planning to use. I believe the gold will also be metallic ink, but I got to double check with the guys.

[RandyButterfield]

So, any shading we apply would be lost due to the ink absorption. This could be negated if we use a white cardstock and then apply the full illustration to that cardstock. We keep the red background in doing so, but extra details like shading become possible.

If you print ink on a dark color paper stock, the printer would need to do a White Undercoat hit first, for lighter colors to show up (or maybe even two White Undercoat layers). The White Undercoat plate would be a silhouette of the character that would be printed with inks.

Thanks, Randy

[CallOn84]

So, any shading we apply would be lost due to the ink absorption. This could be negated if we use a white cardstock and then apply the full illustration to that cardstock. We keep the red background in doing so, but extra details like shading become possible.

If you print ink on a dark color paper stock, the printer would need to do a White Undercoat hit first, for lighter colors to show up (or maybe even two White Undercoat layers). The White Undercoat plate would be a silhouette of the character that would be printed with inks.

Thanks, Randy

I didn't know this. Thanks Randy!

[CallOn84]

Good day, everyone!

We have the final draft of the tuck box for the limited edition, which you can see below.

Let us know what you think! Yes, the text is missing, but it will be in the final product. As mentioned previously, the lighter red you see for the roses, branches, and on the side of the tuck box is supposed to replicate the red metallic ink we plan to use.

We're moving on to the design for the standard edition. See you soon!

[Honeybee]

Lose the columns to make it look less cluttered and thus match the back

[kevork]

Lose the columns to make it look less cluttered and thus match the back

I like that suggestion of removing the columns.

[CallOn84]

Hello guys!

We've updated the tuck box design for the limited edition since there were comments about the centre being a bit too busy. You can see the new design below:

I would also like to show you guys the tuck box design for the standard edition, which takes inspiration from the tuck box design from Darren Brown Playing Cards.

Except for font changes, we're finished with the tuck boxes (I know the text is missing in the limited - we're going to add them in; we haven't forgotten), and we're moving on to the illustration on the inside of the limited edition.

See you soon!

[manu]

The limited edition is much better. I'm curious to see how the red metallic ink looks.
The standard edition is great, I think it's my favorite of the two actually. Good job!

[Honeybee]

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

[Adamthinks]

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

It looks a lot cleaner without the columns. Definitely improved IMO.

[kevork]

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

It looks a lot cleaner without the columns. Definitely improved IMO.

They're still there but there's a frame around that art now. Helps make it feel more contained. This was a welcomed change even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

[CallOn84]

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

It looks a lot cleaner without the columns. Definitely improved IMO.

They're still there but there's a frame around that art now. Helps make it feel more contained. This was a welcomed change even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

Prior to the previous design, we had something like this design without the pillar. I think the issue, at the time, was that we had negative space at the below the arms that we didn't know what to fill. So, we redesigned it the previous design in the hopes of reducing that negative space.

Since we're back to this design, I think we can remove the pillars without it having too much negative space. From there, I think we would just extend the light ray to below the arms and that should be fine, since the light ray isn't much of an illustrative significance compared to what we had prior.

[CallOn84]

The limited edition is much better. I'm curious to see how the red metallic ink looks.
The standard edition is great, I think it's my favorite of the two actually. Good job!

So basically you didn't improve the overly busy center of the Limited tuck at all LOL - in fact I think it might be busier!
The standard tuck is MUCH better than the Limited

It looks a lot cleaner without the columns. Definitely improved IMO.

Thanks for the kind comments. I too like the standard edition out of the two, tbh, and this type of design was what I was gunning for from the very beginning of the design process. Glad that everyone agrees with it!

[Honeybee]

Since we're back to this design, I think we can remove the pillars without it having too much negative space. From there, I think we would just extend the light ray to below the arms and that should be fine, since the light ray isn't much of an illustrative significance compared to what we had prior.

YES

[CallOn84]

Since we're back to this design, I think we can remove the pillars without it having too much negative space. From there, I think we would just extend the light ray to below the arms and that should be fine, since the light ray isn't much of an illustrative significance compared to what we had prior.

YES

We are beginning prototyping the tuck box to see how it is physically. One thing that isn't evident in the digital design is how it will look like with metallic ink, foiling, and embossing.

Once we get the prototype in, we'll know for sure if we need to make changes.

[CallOn84]

Hi everyone,

Below is the design for the numbered seal for the limited edition if you buy it. We took the coat of arms from the Ace of Hearts and used it to design the seal, with space for where the numbers go.

Numbered Seal.png (80.01 KiB) Viewed 2772 times

And with that, we're officially done with designing the deck! We have two ad cards to create, but they're nothing special.

I want to thank everyone who designed the deck and everyone here who has shared their thoughts with me or just casually browsed through this forum thread because it shows that the two years of work are worth it!

We aim for a Kickstarter campaign in April, but that depends on IRL stuff. If we release it in April, I'll post the link to the campaign here and a dedicated post in the "New and Custom Deck" thread.

Thank you, and have a wonderful day!

[rousselle]

Duuuude. Congratulations on getting the designs wrapped up. That is a huge undertaking. Well done!

[Honeybee]

Very nice seal

[CallOn84]

Duuuude. Congratulations on getting the designs wrapped up. That is a huge undertaking. Well done!

We made it.

[CallOn84]

Very nice seal

Thanks!

[CallOn84]

Pre-launch link coming soon

[CallOn84]

Hello everyone!

I'm happy to announce the pre-launch page for the Tragoedia Macbethi Playing Cards is now live! After two years of designing our deck, we finally made it. We had many challenges if you haven't followed the design thread on the "Custom Deck Drafting Board" subforum, from having to change illustrators and, effectively, throwing ten months of work into the bin and starting from scratch again, to having the very unfortunate road accident in December last year that left me hospitalised during Christmas with two haemorrhages and pneumocephalus.

But even with all that, we finally arrive at this point.

I want to thank the many people I had lovely discussions with on the "Custom Deck Drafting Board" subforum who not only gave me some lovely comments about the designs but also gave us some feedback. Without all your help and opinions, we wouldn't have gotten our design to where it is now. So again, to those people who interacted with me and the 167,000 viewers who clicked the design thread and even considered taking some time out of their lives to read it, thank you.

Here's the pre-launch page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ar ... ying-cards

If you want to be notified of the launch, click the "Notify me on launch" button. Otherwise, we'll see you all soon.

Kind regards,

Viet-Anh

[CallOn84]

Here are more pictures of our deck in its full glory.

I can't wait for the 26th of April!

[CallOn84]

Continuing with adding the themes and concepts of Macbeth to our playing cards, we designed custom pips that simplify the suits' meaning.

• The spade pips represent the supernatural, witchcraft, magic, and darkness. To illustrate those themes, we ingrained two crows into the pip. Crows were often seen as symbols of the supernatural, evil force, and witchcraft during Shakespeare's time, so they made the most sense as a symbol for the spade pip.

• The diamond pip represents cruelty and the victims of Macbeth's tyranny. It took some time for us to decide what symbol to incorporate into the pip, but we later decided to go with a single rose. The rationale came from Remembrance Day when red poppies are used to remember those who have fallen and as a sign of hope for a peaceful future. So, we went with something similar but with a rose instead.

• The club pip represents the royal court of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This was the second most challenging thing to figure out due to the unique shape of the pip. We then decided on a cross to be incorporated with the pip as an ironic play. When the play was set in the 11th century, Christianity would have gained its foothold, and religion was heavily used as part of the royal assent. If you became a king or queen, you were effectively given the role by God, a.k.a God-given (divine) right to rule. Often, Christian symbolism uses bright and warm colours, such as white and yellow, as it was seen as purity and the symbol of light. Using that logic, the inverse should also be true, where dark colours like black would be seen as corrupt. So, we thought, why not stick the cross into the club pip and create the antithesis of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?

• Finally, the heart pip represents the light and the eventual prevail of good from tyranny and evil. We took the ideas of the club pip and found symbols that mean a symbol of light, with the sun being an evident conclusion of our search. Throughout history, the sun has been seen as the symbol of life, light, warmth, power, and divinity. Incorporating the sun as part of the pip created a perfect contrast to the club pip, and as you see from the court cards that we'll show you soon, it makes an ideal symbol for the heart pip.

If you have any questions, let me know!

[Honeybee]

Excellent pips My only question with the deck is whether the Courts have too much white space - not usually a concern of mine so it is probably nothing

[CallOn84]

Excellent pips My only question with the deck is whether the Courts have too much white space - not usually a concern of mine so it is probably nothing

That's a result of a miscalculation of ours. We decided the court characters first and then the pips later, and we might have forgotten that the courts had pips in them

We did try incorporating the pips to the courts - some worked, some failed. At the end, most didn't work out, so we decided to skip it and move on.

There's many things I would want to improve upon in the future, but we got to get this done first!

[VillainousIndustries]

LIVE NOW! WOOO!

Got some add-on shipping price problems, but they are aware and are employing a remedy.

[CallOn84]

Hi everyone.

You may have read the update regarding the Tragoedia Macbethi Playing Cards, which I'll rename to the Tragedy of Macbeth Playing Cards, and here's what I've done so far.

I've resized the designs to fit within the poker die lines from USPCC, as the original illustrations weren't within the safe printing lines for some reason. Two court cards should be revised in a couple of weeks, and then I'll transfer them to the poker die line. I will also need to look at how to do spot channels for the areas where metallic ink will be. If someone has access to Pantone Metallic Coated and/or Premium Metallic Coated, I would like to borrow it.

Here's the overview of the cards.

Aces

Back Design

Joker (Duplicate)