Jazz Riff by Wondercraft Cards (ill. John Battalgazi)

[kevork]

Over the next few months I’ll share a single photo each week from the upcoming Jazz Riff deck. Today’s photo features the amazing card back designed by John Battalgazi.
The card back of Jazz Riff playing cards features a sophisticated, seamless design where musical instruments flow into one another, embodying the improvisational nature of jazz. This intricate pattern creates a sense of depth and continuity, making it hard to discern where one instrument ends and another begins.
The cold foil edition further enhances this effect, with strategic applications of gold holographic foil adding a shimmering, dynamic quality that accentuates the artwork's depth and complexity. This design mirrors the layered, rich textures found in jazz music, inviting the card player to explore its detailed and harmonious composition.

The Jack of Clubs in the Jazz Riff playing cards deck features Gene Krupa playing the drums, showcasing his drumming influence in the world of jazz. The design uses simple shapes and a limited color palette, employing basic geometry in intriguing combinations to capture the essence of jazz music in a non-traditional and beautiful way.
Holographic gold cold foil strategically placed on the card, in places you would expect, give the card an extra dimension of exclusivity and class. Altogether the stunning artwork on this card captures Krupa's rhythmic flow but also reflects the dynamic and improvisational spirit of his music, making the card a fitting tribute to his legacy within the jazz genre.
Design: John Battalgazi
Art Direction: Chris Hage
Photo credit: Frank Alan Cuvin
Production: Wondercraft Playing Cards
Printing: WJPC

[Honeybee]

This design mirrors the layered, rich textures found in jazz music, inviting the card player to explore its detailed and harmonious composition.

I can remember when work meetings used to have a designated person as 'crap detector' when we were reviewing drafts

[Evilgamer]

This design mirrors the layered, rich textures found in jazz music, inviting the card player to explore its detailed and harmonious composition.

I can remember when work meetings used to have a designated person as 'crap detector' when we were reviewing drafts

I have plenty of them on my team I don’t need to pick one.

[hsbc]

Fun style and excellent use of foil, I like these a lot

[crhage]

This design mirrors the layered, rich textures found in jazz music, inviting the card player to explore its detailed and harmonious composition.

I can remember when work meetings used to have a designated person as 'crap detector' when we were reviewing drafts

You don’t like my crap? It’s layered.

[crhage]

Fun style and excellent use of foil, I like these a lot

Thanks for the comments. We used foil exactly where you’d expect the foil to be.

I’ll reveal another court card in the next couple of days.

[Honeybee]

You don’t like my crap? It’s layered.

Sorry Chris but

[vasta41]

Color me interested.

[Harvonsgard]

Not quite the art that suits my fancy but fun and colourful.

[kevork]

The Jack of Diamonds in the Jazz Riff playing cards deck features Charlie Parker playing the saxophone, capturing the essence of his groundbreaking bebop style. Known for his virtuosic technique and complex improvisations, Parker revolutionized jazz with fast tempos and intricate melodies. The card's design reflects Parker's innovative spirit, paying tribute to his significant influence on the evolution of jazz. This portrayal honors his legacy, celebrating the dynamic and transformative impact he had on the genre.
Shown in both the Holo Gold Cold Foil version and the Standard Version.

[BaconWise]

These look fantastic, Chris. I'll be backing.

[vasta41]

I wish the courts were somehow two ways, but I'll definitely be backing!

[bdawg923]

From the dude who sponsored the jocu Christmas holiday wheel then vanished when it was time to send out prizes. The cards are nice but easy skip for me.

Edit: I was sent a code, so wanted to give that update to be fair. There may have been more to the story and I apologize if I took it out on you if it wasn't your fault. Can't wait to see more of the jazz deck

[JazzBaloo]

From the dude who sponsored the jocu Christmas holiday wheel then vanished when it was time to send out prizes. The cards are nice but easy skip for me.

I like the cards
My friend was supposed to get a 25% off coupon on the wheel for TGW shop. He hounded Jocu a bit for it but still doesn't have it to this day so he gave up. I'm not sure if there was any mixup or one or both of them reneged.

[Leo Scherfig]

From the dude who sponsored the jocu Christmas holiday wheel then vanished when it was time to send out prizes. The cards are nice but easy skip for me.

I also won some stuff from Wondercraft Cards — among which was a deck called Trics from the Carolina Close-up Convention, which at the moment is my favorite deck that I use for every card game I play. Everything about it is great, even the courts that are standard but very well positioned and colorized (I am normally not a fan of standard courts, but these I like).
Also they were quite friendly when arranging shipping and so on.

Just saying: Not everything is bad with Wondercraft Maybe write to them again to get the issue resolved.

[crhage]

From the dude who sponsored the jocu Christmas holiday wheel then vanished when it was time to send out prizes. The cards are nice but easy skip for me.

I do apologize you seem to have been caught in this. I have not vanished and I’m on every forum and card related community. I’m quite easy to find.

Did you reach out to me to claim your prize? If so, I missed that email or PM.

I reached out to Anthony again about the winner yesterday and he let me know who to contact. I’m assuming you’re the winner, and if so, you’ll be getting a coupon. Also, in the message I got from Anthony today, he apologized for not confirming or telling me directly who the winner of the prize was.

I’m glad you like the cards!

[crhage]

I wish the courts were somehow two ways, but I'll definitely be backing!

We explored two way courts but nothing felt right. The one-way design is more in line with John’s art style so we stuck with that.

[crhage]

From the dude who sponsored the jocu Christmas holiday wheel then vanished when it was time to send out prizes. The cards are nice but easy skip for me.

I also won some stuff from Wondercraft Cards — among which was a deck called Trics from the Carolina Close-up Convention, which at the moment is my favorite deck that I use for every card game I play. Everything about it is great, even the courts that are standard but very well positioned and colorized (I am normally not a fan of standard courts, but these I like).
Also they were quite friendly when arranging shipping and so on.

Just saying: Not everything is bad with Wondercraft Maybe write to them again to get the issue resolved.

So glad you like the cards! For any of our regular customers, you know we give away lots of decks (FREE Deck Friday) and my wife is the master of shipping and customer service. She takes great pride in taking care of each of one of you who buy from us.

[crhage]

These look fantastic, Chris. I'll be backing.

Thank you! Glad you like them. I’ll share more in a few weeks about the campaign, etc. it won’t be a crazy one.

[kevork]

Mark your calendars

[crhage]

Just one week from launch!

[kevork]

[Adamthinks]

I love what I've seen so far for this deck. I'm excited for this.

[KGthePrince]

I backed for a single cold foil deck and with shipping it came out to $27 which feels on the steeper side but I'm still excited about this project

[Disenchanted_11]

The theme has a very niche target market and more on the oldies side. I got a little intrigued by the courts sample posted here, but now I'm good to pass when I've seen them all.

I hope to see you back on Omar's podcast to discuss this project chage.

[Adamthinks]

I love these. Currently backing for a foiled version. Would do the gilded if I wasn't currently backing 6 other projects.

[JazzBaloo]

It has very low funding goal. It looks like it is not relying heavily on ks funding for it to be produced. It was fully funded with about 25 backers. It seems like sort of a big risk to invest so much into it himself. I can't imagine that 2000$ is anywhere close to what is needed in order to produce the 3 decks and box and whatever else, coin, etc. It's still very early to tell but I wonder what are the reasons for the slow/low turnout. I think that whatever the issues are, they need to be solved in a hurry. I like having Hage's decks around.

[SRO]

I like these. My wife is a big jazz fan so it's a great purchase for both of us. I've really gotten into Wondercraft cards recently and given how much I like their feel, this was pretty much an automatic buy for me. I really liked what came with the cards; the stickers are some of the best I've seen, and getting the extra tuck cases was also awesome. I stopped in the middle of this post to change my pledge from one gilded deck to the collector's box, LOL.

Chris, I saw where you were on the thread - would you happen to have any of the black nickel dealer coins around? I'd really like to buy one or two.

[crhage]

Thanks for backing! Don’t see any “issues” so far, so that’s good. Kickstarter did have some site issues at launch that caused people to not be able to complete their pledge and in some cases they couldn’t see the campaign. I couldn’t even update or reload the page. They fixed the website issues at Kickstarter after about 3 hours.

Right now we’re tracking ahead of where I expected we’d be at this point.

To the other question about the goal. The decks are already printed and will ship in November. That’s covered in the campaign text or FAQs. So there’s ZERO risk that you won’t get what pledge for.

[SRO]

Thanks for backing! Don’t see any “issues” so far, so that’s good. Kickstarter did have some site issues at launch that caused people to not be able to complete their pledge and in some cases they couldn’t see the campaign. I couldn’t even update or reload the page. They fixed the website issues at Kickstarter after about 3 hours.

Right now we’re tracking ahead of where I expected we’d be at this point.

To the other question about the goal. The decks are already printed and will ship in November. That’s covered in the campaign text or FAQs. So there’s ZERO risk that you won’t get what pledge for.

In the post just above, I inquired about the availability of the coin - I was referring to the spade-shaped coin reward from a previous Kickstarter you've run and was hoping a spare copy might be around somewhere. As far as Jazz Riff is concerned, the more I looked at the deck, the more I liked it. Congratulations on your success!