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The SurrealScapes Body Art & Creative Photography Deck has been relaunched on Kickstarter:

Backed!

MagikFingerz wrote:Backed!

Thank you!

One more week to go, can we make it happen?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/274 ... ng-card-de

Here's my opinion on this deck: personally I believe it belongs in an art gallery, not a deck of cards.

The artwork is very beautiful and has the theme going across each card. However, it does not sit well with the average playing card collector.
With only 6 days to go I doubt it will reach it's goal. But I do believe you should relaunch them as actual art prints on canvas.

Again, very beautiful just for some reason looks out of place on cards.

i agree Sean. I like the art contained on this deck, but to fit in collectors' interests I suggested the artist to mix his amazing art techniques with playing cards iconography. Of course, it is a lot of new work but I think it would be stunning...

anyway, I backed this deck as it is nice IMO and I like to support artists with talent and new ideas.

Dude this are sweet. Backed as soon as I saw them. If they do not make it at least I had the honour to back these beauties.

max wrote:i agree Sean. I like the art contained on this deck, but to fit in collectors' interests I suggested the artist to mix his amazing art techniques with playing cards iconography. Of course, it is a lot of new work but I think it would be stunning...

anyway, I backed this deck as it is nice IMO and I like to support artists with talent and new ideas.

I do believe he said that he plans to do this some time in the future.

Anyway, I doubt these will get funded seeing how far it is from its goal. It's too bad, I thought they were something unique and really wanted them for my collection. It would have been one of those decks I would show other people, people to whom large amounts of various Bikes doesn't have any meaning at all.

Yes, it is unique. The art is amazing, but he has tried to move the project from one to other category trying to attract different audiences. It is a pity the deck is not printed as I think it would have been a nice deck but it seems the KS people out there is to interested on it.

SeanWhelan wrote:Here's my opinion on this deck: personally I believe it belongs in an art gallery, not a deck of cards.

The artwork is very beautiful and has the theme going across each card. However, it does not sit well with the average playing card collector.
With only 6 days to go I doubt it will reach it's goal. But I do believe you should relaunch them as actual art prints on canvas.

Again, very beautiful just for some reason looks out of place on cards.

Sean, thanks for the kind words! I've had my website set up to sell art prints for years, http://www.surrealscapes.net, but I wanted to see if I could branch out into another medium and bring my art to a wider audience, and have people get a lot of images in one place rather than having to spend $30+ just to get one art print. I also wanted to cast this art into a medium that was actually functional, rather than just something nice to look at.

MagikFingerz wrote:

max wrote:i agree Sean. I like the art contained on this deck, but to fit in collectors' interests I suggested the artist to mix his amazing art techniques with playing cards iconography. Of course, it is a lot of new work but I think it would be stunning...

anyway, I backed this deck as it is nice IMO and I like to support artists with talent and new ideas.

I do believe he said that he plans to do this some time in the future.

Anyway, I doubt these will get funded seeing how far it is from its goal. It's too bad, I thought they were something unique and really wanted them for my collection. It would have been one of those decks I would show other people, people to whom large amounts of various Bikes doesn't have any meaning at all.

Yeah, I WAS planning on actually creating photographs that were card-themed using my image projection techniques, but given that this first deck hasn't gained much traction, I can't take the financial risk to try create card-themed images only to have that deck fail as well. It takes many thousands of dollars to hire professional models to do this work, as well as the many months it takes to design and execute the images. At this point, I don't think I can pull that off.

walrus wrote:Dude this are sweet. Backed as soon as I saw them. If they do not make it at least I had the honour to back these beauties.

Thank you for the compliments and for your support!

So let me ask this: It looks likely that I won't have the funds to do a full run with the USPCC itself, so what do you guys think of me doing a short run of these decks with their third-party printer? I could probably pull the money together to make that happen. It wouldn't have the quality and handling of a USPCC deck of course, but that doesn't seem to be too important for some of you. I would offer the cards for sale directly on my website, http://www.fineartplayingcards.com, rather than trying to go back to Kickstarter again.

What do you think?

I would much rather have them printed in any quality than not printed at all. Most of my collection is comprised of decks of high quality as I am something of a flourisher and use those skills to enjoy my cards more, but some decks are exceptions because of their beautiful art. This is definitely one of them.

MagikFingerz wrote:I would much rather have them printed in any quality than not printed at all. Most of my collection is comprised of decks of high quality as I am something of a flourisher and use those skills to enjoy my cards more, but some decks are exceptions because of their beautiful art. This is definitely one of them.

I'll check back in with USPCC on the pricing for a short run of decks with their third party printer. Maybe if I can sell enough of those, I can get the funds to do a real run of decks with them.

zsalman wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:I would much rather have them printed in any quality than not printed at all. Most of my collection is comprised of decks of high quality as I am something of a flourisher and use those skills to enjoy my cards more, but some decks are exceptions because of their beautiful art. This is definitely one of them.

I'll check back in with USPCC on the pricing for a short run of decks with their third party printer. Maybe if I can sell enough of those, I can get the funds to do a real run of decks with them.

That's not a bad idea. Sometimes, we are excessively worried about the quality of the cards, and the design is really important, specially for collectors. You could try to make a limited release of your deck, with a decent quality and your nice design. You can make a limited run, signed and numbered, and this will have interest for collectors. You can investigate among your backers on KS just to know how many people would be interested on your limited deck so you can, at least, see your deck printed.

Of course, count on me!

Good luck!

I like Max's idea of the early limited run being numbered and signed!

From what I understand, the overall design quality is not nearly as good and as crisp, as a deck made directly by USPCC. The quality, as far as being able to use the deck on a regular basis, is poor. I am not sure that is the best way to go.

Thanks!

BMPokerworld wrote:From what I understand, the overall design quality is not nearly as good and as crisp, as a deck made directly by USPCC. The quality, as far as being able to use the deck on a regular basis, is poor. I am not sure that is the best way to go.

Thanks!

Indeed that is correct. But what else can I do? You know, even if I did have my own funds to print the SurrealScapes deck directly with USPCC, from the tepid response to my Kickstarter campaign, I think I would have a lot of unsold decks sitting around in my garage! So from that standpoint it doesn't look like it would make financial sense.

zsalman wrote:

BMPokerworld wrote:From what I understand, the overall design quality is not nearly as good and as crisp, as a deck made directly by USPCC. The quality, as far as being able to use the deck on a regular basis, is poor. I am not sure that is the best way to go.

Thanks!

Indeed that is correct. But what else can I do? You know, even if I did have my own funds to print the SurrealScapes deck directly with USPCC, from the tepid response to my Kickstarter campaign, I think I would have a lot of unsold decks sitting around in my garage! So from that standpoint it doesn't look like it would make financial sense.

I understand that, but maybe you need to realize that there just isn't enough demand for this deck. Maybe the best option, no mater how difficult, is to shelf this design at this time and try something new. Just food for thought.

Thanks!

BMPokerworld wrote:

zsalman wrote:

BMPokerworld wrote:From what I understand, the overall design quality is not nearly as good and as crisp, as a deck made directly by USPCC. The quality, as far as being able to use the deck on a regular basis, is poor. I am not sure that is the best way to go.

Thanks!

Indeed that is correct. But what else can I do? You know, even if I did have my own funds to print the SurrealScapes deck directly with USPCC, from the tepid response to my Kickstarter campaign, I think I would have a lot of unsold decks sitting around in my garage! So from that standpoint it doesn't look like it would make financial sense.

I understand that, but maybe you need to realize that there just isn't enough demand for this deck. Maybe the best option, no mater how difficult, is to shelf this design at this time and try something new. Just food for thought.

Thanks!

True again and I have myself come to that conclusion. I keep thinking that it was just a matter of exposure, that maybe if I got more exposure the deck would have succeeded, but I have already spent a lot of time and money promoting the deck via issuing press releases, submitting the deck to various websites and blogs, and even advertising on Facebook, but the conclusion is still the same: not enough demand for this deck and this type of art.

zsalman wrote:

BMPokerworld wrote:

zsalman wrote:

BMPokerworld wrote:From what I understand, the overall design quality is not nearly as good and as crisp, as a deck made directly by USPCC. The quality, as far as being able to use the deck on a regular basis, is poor. I am not sure that is the best way to go.

Thanks!

Indeed that is correct. But what else can I do? You know, even if I did have my own funds to print the SurrealScapes deck directly with USPCC, from the tepid response to my Kickstarter campaign, I think I would have a lot of unsold decks sitting around in my garage! So from that standpoint it doesn't look like it would make financial sense.

I understand that, but maybe you need to realize that there just isn't enough demand for this deck. Maybe the best option, no mater how difficult, is to shelf this design at this time and try something new. Just food for thought.

Thanks!

True again and I have myself come to that conclusion. I keep thinking that it was just a matter of exposure, that maybe if I got more exposure the deck would have succeeded, but I have already spent a lot of time and money promoting the deck via issuing press releases, submitting the deck to various websites and blogs, and even advertising on Facebook, but the conclusion is still the same: not enough demand for this deck and this type of art.

There is your answer then. But remember, you could always try again in the future. The market may be more interested in a year from now, who knows. Just remember it doesn't have to be forever. Shelf it for now and then try sometime in the future.

Thanks!

I don't see what would be different, say, a year from now than today, since I've been doing this art for many years already. Someone posted a meme on Facebook that read: "Sometimes the hardest decision you'll ever face is deciding whether to walk away or try harder." At this point, it's time for me to walk away, and there are a few other projects I've started working on that I hope will have better success, and that are more in line with my interests these days. I don't think I'll be coming back to SurrealScapes. 10 years invested in that with no return is enough.

The good news is that I'll be working on some more traditional card deck designs and maybe you'll be interested in carrying some of those when they're available.

zsalman wrote:I don't see what would be different, say, a year from now than today, since I've been doing this art for many years already. Someone posted a meme on Facebook that read: "Sometimes the hardest decision you'll ever face is deciding whether to walk away or try harder." At this point, it's time for me to walk away, and there are a few other projects I've started working on that I hope will have better success, and that are more in line with my interests these days. I don't think I'll be coming back to SurrealScapes. 10 years invested in that with no return is enough.

The good news is that I'll be working on some more traditional card deck designs and maybe you'll be interested in carrying some of those when they're available.

Actually nothing and 100% agree with you. I was trying to be polite as I didn't want to crush your dreams.

Thanks!

Heh heh, my dreams are not easily crushed, but I appreciate the tact anyway.

All righty then, I'm not ready to give up yet, so I've relaunched the SurrealScapes Kickstarter campaign. I simplified the reward tiers, added some new rewards, lowered the funding goal slightly, and added a T-shirt! Yes, I think the T-shirt will be the thing that makes the difference.

Check out the project here:

Pledged again! Hope it goes through this time

As do I. Let's see if that T-shirt is really the thing that pushes it over the edge.

You should probably update the first post in this thread with the new kickstarter.

Some images of the prototype deck.

I know your chances may not be that great but I am glad you are giving this a go. It is a very interesting artistic process that I know little about. I hope something is able to happen with these. Very unique idea.