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HI, last year I tried a kickstarter project with these cards which failed to reach it's goal. I have been working on them again for the past few weeks in the hope to put it back on kickstart again at some point this year. I have touched up the courts a bit and created a new back design but would love some feedback on what makes a successful campaign and of course any design issues people have, any feedback is welcome!!

I'll offer feedback, but unfortunately, it's not positive. As a whole, it doesn't work.

The back design seems unfinished. The linework and negative space just doesn't work. The things in the corners look annoying.

The lined suits make it more difficult to read than regular pips would. The fonts aren't great.

I think the line work on the court cards are nice, but the faces aren't. Uncolored just doesn't work in this case.

If you decide to do a Kickstarter, I wish you luck, but these cards aren't for me.

TGunitedcardists wrote:I'll offer feedback, but unfortunately, it's not positive. As a whole, it doesn't work.

The back design seems unfinished. The linework and negative space just doesn't work. The things in the corners look annoying.

The lined suits make it more difficult to read than regular pips would. The fonts aren't great.

I think the line work on the court cards are nice, but the faces aren't. Uncolored just doesn't work in this case.

If you decide to do a Kickstarter, I wish you luck, but these cards aren't for me.

Thanks for the honesty, I agree the back needs work but don't understand what you mean by the negative space.

The thing in the corner is meant to by an eye so when people hold their cards it looks like its peaking into the next card. It's a feature I would quite like to keep unless a lot of people don't like it.

I've tried some black highlights to try and make the courts more interesting and quickly done bold pips to give an idea of what it would look like.

Let me know if this is better or worse.

Olly Swinyard wrote:
Thanks for the honesty, I agree the back needs work but don't understand what you mean by the negative space.

The thing in the corner is meant to by an eye so when people hold their cards it looks like its peaking into the next card. It's a feature I would quite like to keep unless a lot of people don't like it.

I've tried some black highlights to try and make the courts more interesting and quickly done bold pips to give an idea of what it would look like.

Let me know if this is better or worse.

I meant that the balance of line work and empty space on the back design doesn't seem balanced. It seems too busy in the middle and blobs of empty space near the corners.

The pips seem blobby and not crisp at all. Maybe it's a style you like, but not me. For example, the diamond looks like it ate another diamond and is 5kg overweight. Same with the club, but it was squished inward. The spade is unshapely, but OK at best. The font you chose just doesn't work in my opinion, but it's your deck.

Where I really have problems is with the eyes of the court cards. They just don't look good or clean. They have too many line details, which could lead to them looking smudgy, kind of like they all are wearing too much black makeup around the eyes. I'd also worry that all the fine details could be smudgy in the final printing. Some of the lines are really too close together.

I would say slightly better, especially the solid color pips, even though I don't like the shape. I can see how the solid color pips contrast with black and white court cards.

Sometimes less is more. I'd suggest cleaning up some of the details in the middle of the court cards, concentrating on slightly thinner lines and more space with the details and making the pips look crisper or more shapely, rather than like they just had a big dinner.

Lastly, the eyes in the corner, as they are now, just don't work.

TGunitedcardists wrote:
I meant that the balance of line work and empty space on the back design doesn't seem balanced. It seems too busy in the middle and blobs of empty space near the corners.

The pips seem blobby and not crisp at all. Maybe it's a style you like, but not me. For example, the diamond looks like it ate another diamond and is 5kg overweight. Same with the club, but it was squished inward. The spade is unshapely, but OK at best. The font you chose just doesn't work in my opinion, but it's your deck.

Where I really have problems is with the eyes of the court cards. They just don't look good or clean. They have too many line details, which could lead to them looking smudgy, kind of like they all are wearing too much black makeup around the eyes. I'd also worry that all the fine details could be smudgy in the final printing. Some of the lines are really too close together.

I would say slightly better, especially the solid color pips, even though I don't like the shape. I can see how the solid color pips contrast with black and white court cards.

Sometimes less is more. I'd suggest cleaning up some of the details in the middle of the court cards, concentrating on slightly thinner lines and more space with the details and making the pips look crisper or more shapely, rather than like they just had a big dinner.

Lastly, the eyes in the corner, as they are now, just don't work.

Those pips were just an example to give an idea, these are more like the style I would use.

I've changed the eyes to something a lot more simple and I agree it works better!

With some of the courts I agree the line work is too busy but with most of the courts when printed out looks more cleaner than they do on the computer screen.

I've also attached an idea for the joker cards. Will probably give a tiny bit of detail on the crown but you get the idea.

Again let me know what you think?!

The court cards look much better, but still a ways to go. The eyebrows don't work on any of the court cards. It's got the mono-brow type of thing going on.

The pips look much better except for the heart. The butt crack heart/upsidedown ball sack isn't the best in my opinion. The other suits are fine.

The hats on both the King of Clubs and Jack of Hearts are don't work. They seem slanted/lopsided. The hair on the Jack of Hearts seems too close together compared to the rest of the court cards.

I'm not a fan of the jokers.

I still hate the font.

TGunitedcardists wrote:The court cards look much better, but still a ways to go. The eyebrows don't work on any of the court cards. It's got the mono-brow type of thing going on.

The pips look much better except for the heart. The butt crack heart/upsidedown ball sack isn't the best in my opinion. The other suits are fine.

The hats on both the King of Clubs and Jack of Hearts are don't work. They seem slanted/lopsided. The hair on the Jack of Hearts seems too close together compared to the rest of the court cards.

I'm not a fan of the jokers.

I still hate the font.

Haha I really do appreciate your feedback cause I feel its improved the deck already but I feel I would have to change the deck completely for you to like it. So much so that it wouldn't be my deck.

I think this deck just isn't for you, but thank you for your help

If you want my advice it would be this:

It is unusual for detailed b/w linework to improve on printing at playing card size compared to how it looks on the screen. If you have tried it then fair enough, but I would expect the opposite. And most of your linework seems very detailed when viewed on the screen at playing card size. Possibly too detailed for me to discern most of it.

I would definitely consider making equivalent line spacings more similar over the series of court cards. For example, the hair lines are very much wider on the KC than the JH. Same thing about the swords in KC and KS.

The eyes look a lot less weird in their stripped down form.

The index typeface is very distinctive and unusual to the extent that it is almost dominant. If you want that, fine.

That is all echoing what has already been said.


But: I don't really see a problem with the original pip style. For me, the back looks okay. I think it is pretty obvious that the thing in the corner is an eye, seeing. But maybe not everyone gets this. You may want to have a look what it looks like without some of the lines around the eye there as well.

shimmering wrote:If you want my advice it would be this:

It is unusual for detailed b/w linework to improve on printing at playing card size compared to how it looks on the screen. If you have tried it then fair enough, but I would expect the opposite. And most of your linework seems very detailed when viewed on the screen at playing card size. Possibly too detailed for me to discern most of it.

I would definitely consider making equivalent line spacings more similar over the series of court cards. For example, the hair lines are very much wider on the KC than the JH. Same thing about the swords in KC and KS.

The eyes look a lot less weird in their stripped down form.

The index typeface is very distinctive and unusual to the extent that it is almost dominant. If you want that, fine.

That is all echoing what has already been said.


But: I don't really see a problem with the original pip style. For me, the back looks okay. I think it is pretty obvious that the thing in the corner is an eye, seeing. But maybe not everyone gets this. You may want to have a look what it looks like without some of the lines around the eye there as well.

Hi, thats a good point about the hair line I didn't think about, Ill neaten those up.

In terms of the type I've had a lot of people who like it so I think ill keep it unless more people say otherwise.

I am currently simplifying some of the line work on the cards to make it more clear in some parts but I got a deck printed last year by MPC and the detail was mostly clear and crisp.

Here is another back design with a simplified eye, I think I prefer this design. Let me know!