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Simply billiant, i love to see these stage by stage works. Really helps me to see how every detail comes about.

Lorenzo, one change i might ask for the king is for the clubs(the big one besides the king's head) to be a different colour so that it can be more easily distinguishable from the back ground. Perhaps have it as a void instead of a fill.

hi!
thanx!
I tried to have it empty and with a texture, and empty again. But there was a lot of confusion with the rest and the king looses his silhouette..kinda. I give another try, let´s see how it could work
I have time btw
thanx for the hint
Lorenzo

Thanks for showing the design process - it certainly explains what I was asking.

I guess I was confused because on the finished card it wouldn't matter where you cut the card, providing the cut goes through the centre - both halves would still be the same. (mathematically the axis of symmetry is the centre point rather than any particular bisecting line)

But I can see that might not be true of the design process - as you've come up with some lovely unique courts!

Lorenzo- this looks amazing! I'm easily in. I would take this opertunity to say how beautiful the deck is in Italian but unfortunately my family only taught me the bad words. And BTW it's very refreshing to see someone care about the symmetry of the courts. A wicked pet peve of mine is when a designer just says, "F it- I'm just going to invert my design and draw a line through it." I mean really!? Che cazzo fai!? Hehe

@Tom- you're too easy on the girls- I say a deck with no women at all!! j/k

Nice back! Very balanced. The back has thin boarders. Your going to please some people. Your courts are original and don't follow the old Bicycle 808 theme. i.e KoC with an Axe and JoH being a woman. Very Bold. Like the little top right corner badge with the star and moon. Makes the card a "One-way" but works in this situation. The only thing I see is you can go a bit taller in the JoH. You got some play. Maybe she would not look so hunched over.

Great design Lorenzo!
Although I think that the clean-cut style of the courts doesn't entirely justify the aged look of the paper. But either way, brilliant!

Hi!
thanx for the comments
@Lotrek, I know... I tried a few levels of aging, and this is just a slightly aged. Not too much. The pure white was too bright for Heretic
@Sprouts, the ladyjack of heart is shorter hehe
@vasta41, haha true che cazzo fai? indeed.. copypaste is a good and super helpful and time-saver tool, but with abusing it. Next deck is called: Copy-Paste Deck ahah

Yeah, well I say make all the jacks and kings women and all the queens men!

naaaah, just the jacks.

meanwhile I opened a new facebook page just for Heretic: http://www.facebook.com/hereticcards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
so I keep the 2 decks and their updates separated.

Hehe, I know. That would be TOO heretic.

MagikFingerz wrote:... strikes me as odd is having a woman as a jack...

Had the same reaction, but I'm new to these things so don't know if a jack ever was a Jill?

I took part in the Requiem deck and I'm a big fan of this design as well.

Good luck with this.

Lorenzo... this is a great job! Congratulations!

Lorenzo !

Have you got something against me ? Why you want to kill the lastest pieces of reason in my mind ? I'm surely a consenting victim but please, be kind and careful : i'm a weak man and i want to last until the release of the deck

Anyway : your step by step description of your work on the king is just amazing !

Thank you !

Looks AMAZING! Man, I was going to launch an alchemy themed deck I've been working on in May on KS - but I'll hold off until fall to give yours good "run time" on KS. Great job Lorenzo, looks awesome!!

Best,

-c

oh gosh Ovdiyenko, really? O_O
we can launch it together and do some cross promotion Think that I started this deck in september 2012 when I started to look into sacred geometry and alchemy.

LoLO!!!! you know that I like you, that´s why I make nice artworks ehhe
Thank you for the comment!

Hey man, it's all good - I'm pretty early in the design process for it with just a few elements done, so it's cool. By the way, I was going to call it Splendor Solis after the German illuminated manuscript (though I wasn't picking up that look and feel).

So I'll switch to plan B - I was working on ideas for a tarot based deck, so I'll be moving forward with that. So if other designers are reading this, fair warning, I'll be trying to launch it in May/June.

Thanks Lorenzo - best of luck!

-c

@Ovdyienko: You're not alone buddy! I was planning to make a deck named "Requiem" and Lorenzo did it first!!!

Designkiller wrote:oh gosh Ovdiyenko, really? O_O
we can launch it together and do some cross promotion Think that I started this deck in september 2012 when I started to look into sacred geometry and alchemy.

LoLO!!!! you know that I like you, that´s why I make nice artworks ehhe
Thank you for the comment!

At least the original name for it wasn't "Oracle", then we have a double-first pump, eh? Thanks, Chris!

Norbie wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:... strikes me as odd is having a woman as a jack...

Had the same reaction, but I'm new to these things so don't know if a jack ever was a Jill?

I took part in the Requiem deck and I'm a big fan of this design as well.

Good luck with this.

Well, you've got to remember the theme, and it's purposefully going to push the boundaries a bit. Don't expect all the 'rules' to be obeyed, after all this is heresy, right?

Backstage about the names.

First name in 2012: Der Alchemist (german, there is also a book from Paulo Cohelo) but Bicycle did Alchemy 1 and 2, and I decided to change.
Second name in 2013: Oracle (decided together with HOPC) ... but as you know while I was waiting for it, the Oracle deck came out. Heretic was the second choice, but we chose Oracle in early 2013.
Third name in 2014: Heretic finally. It fits quite well, to me better than Oracle.

About Requiem instead.
I had no idea in the beginning... then i was walking in Stockholm in september 2013 and I saw a sign for a theatrical show. Mozart Requiem something bla bla. SOLD! that´s it. Thank you Mozart. Sorry Lotrek, blame the girl that was with me who wanted to take a walk instead of the metro ahaha

and after this, I should start working for real. I arrived in the office 30 minutes ago and I didnt do anything yet O_O
later!

hi all!

Still tweaking a bit the Heretic deck, please let me know if you have time which is better in your opinion.
(it´s about the symbol next to the king, or queen, or jack)
thanx

Definitely not alt.02, can't decide between the others though. The pip looks better on alt.01, but it takes away some focus from the actual court (in this case, the king).

My humble opinion :

I prefer the first version. The pips' background is discrete and coherent with the rest of card's background. We already have a pip under the card sign (A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2). For me, no need to highlight it again...

[EDIT] Perhaps an all black pip...

I'm going with actual. No need to highlight the larger pip, having one on the edge already.

Actual! Figure stands out better.

Lorenzo,

Have you planned a wallpaper for our computer ? it will help us wait until deck release

With permission, and "You Saw it Here First" - the Heretic King of Diamonds: (thanks, Lorenzo - he's peacefully asleep as I punt this to tweet and FB shortly)

On the King of Diamonds it looks like the diamond pip is slightly lighter in hue than the background, though I don't see that on the King of Clubs. A subtle effect like that seems fitting, and definitely puts "actual" above the others.

MagikFingerz wrote:On the King of Diamonds it looks like the diamond pip is slightly lighter in hue than the background, though I don't see that on the King of Clubs. A subtle effect like that seems fitting, and definitely puts "actual" above the others.

Agree. Gives it a nice 3D effect somewhat.

Designkiller wrote:hi all!

Still tweaking a bit the Heretic deck, please let me know if you have time which is better in your opinion.
(it´s about the symbol next to the king, or queen, or jack)
thanx

Seems we are mostly in agreement on this one: either of the ALT.0x versions takes a bit of focus away from the actual court. I'd stick with your first version, though I remember somebody wanted you to go towards ALT02, I think it's just overpowering the konge af diamanter/kung av diamanter/re di denari/KoD! (I'm flexible, though)

Bip... Bip... Bip... ok, it's regular, my brain could survive to this heresy... I hope !

Mike Ratledge wrote:With permission, and "You Saw it Here First" - the Heretic King of Diamonds: (thanks, Lorenzo - he's peacefully asleep as I punt this to tweet and FB shortly)

What ! Wtf is that !!!!

Bip.... Bip.Bip... Bip.... BIIIiiiiiiiipppppp... Silence... no No NO NOOOOooooooo....

Ok, now, i'm no brain : you are happy !!!!

It's a conspiracy of you and lorenzo : I'm sure !!!!

Anyway : the pip looks better !