Hello, I am Leo
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:05 am
Hello Everybody!
Thank you very much for accepting me as a new member of the forum, I am very happy to be here.
I have had a great love for playing cards for most of my life, picking up interesting decks whenever I came across any. As a graphic designer for many years, I have often taken inspiration from playing cards — and even designed two decks myself, the first one about twenty years ago, the second a couple of years ago. But not until recently, when I started research for a new deck I'm currently working on, did I know such a huge community exists around the love for playing cards.
It has been almost a revelation for me to discover so many great artists working on art and stories for new customly designed playing card decks, and so many people juggling, throwing, manipulating, playing and collecting those cards. I totally understand why you do it, I just didn't think there would be so many of you (us).
Okay, so earlier this year I stumbled across a couple of new-ish playing card decks, which ignited my desire to know more about the contemporary culture of playing cards — is it a new art-form, that has evolved without me noticing? I knew that sometimes somebody would make and distribute a deck of cards that would maybe promote something, or be ironic of something and so forth, but the decks made by Thirdway or Kings Wild, I could never have imagined. I honestly see this as something comparable to modern dance or installation arts in the ways of telling stories (which is a good thing, I may have to add!).
If this is indeed an art-form, like litterature or ballet, I very much appreciate the lack of linear narrative, that is a given with playing cards that are individual seperatable items, changing neighbours every time they are shuffled. This makes the storytelling more depending on ambience than plot, something I really enjoy.
Maybe it's just me putting too much into this, the first sign of somebody being totally obsessed with something — but maybe I still haven't seen more than just the beginning. That's why I am here. At least, I hope that's why I'm here.
Also, I have this theory about the abstract, which comes from my working a lot with making typefaces: Designing a typeface is essentially a work of abstraction since the individual letters have to have the recognizable characteristics that make them those individual letters. An 'R' has to look like an 'R' in order to be legible — and still, there are so many ways to achieve this. You can make it tall, thus providing it with eg. an ambience of the wild west, or flat with an inline (like on the 'Royales' deck), making it super-classy — but it is still first and foremost an 'R'. The same goes for playing cards, there are certain rules they have to abide by in order to be recognized as a deck of playing cards. If they don't, they will be nothing more than a personal arty project and assessed as such, but if they do, they will actually be able to tell stories nobody comes prepared for.
I'm still working on that theory, some time I may be able to explain it clearly [smiley].
Briefly about myself: Living on the island of Møn (we call it 'Moon') in Denmark, I'm married with four grown-up, moved-out children. I work as a graphic designer, primarily for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival (which was cancelled this year due to the virus), and on the side on both commercial and self-initiated projects (which among other stuff also cover my obsession with playing cards).
I am looking very much forward to being part of this community, so thanks again for letting me in!
Best regards to you all from Leo
Thank you very much for accepting me as a new member of the forum, I am very happy to be here.
I have had a great love for playing cards for most of my life, picking up interesting decks whenever I came across any. As a graphic designer for many years, I have often taken inspiration from playing cards — and even designed two decks myself, the first one about twenty years ago, the second a couple of years ago. But not until recently, when I started research for a new deck I'm currently working on, did I know such a huge community exists around the love for playing cards.
It has been almost a revelation for me to discover so many great artists working on art and stories for new customly designed playing card decks, and so many people juggling, throwing, manipulating, playing and collecting those cards. I totally understand why you do it, I just didn't think there would be so many of you (us).
Okay, so earlier this year I stumbled across a couple of new-ish playing card decks, which ignited my desire to know more about the contemporary culture of playing cards — is it a new art-form, that has evolved without me noticing? I knew that sometimes somebody would make and distribute a deck of cards that would maybe promote something, or be ironic of something and so forth, but the decks made by Thirdway or Kings Wild, I could never have imagined. I honestly see this as something comparable to modern dance or installation arts in the ways of telling stories (which is a good thing, I may have to add!).
If this is indeed an art-form, like litterature or ballet, I very much appreciate the lack of linear narrative, that is a given with playing cards that are individual seperatable items, changing neighbours every time they are shuffled. This makes the storytelling more depending on ambience than plot, something I really enjoy.
Maybe it's just me putting too much into this, the first sign of somebody being totally obsessed with something — but maybe I still haven't seen more than just the beginning. That's why I am here. At least, I hope that's why I'm here.
Also, I have this theory about the abstract, which comes from my working a lot with making typefaces: Designing a typeface is essentially a work of abstraction since the individual letters have to have the recognizable characteristics that make them those individual letters. An 'R' has to look like an 'R' in order to be legible — and still, there are so many ways to achieve this. You can make it tall, thus providing it with eg. an ambience of the wild west, or flat with an inline (like on the 'Royales' deck), making it super-classy — but it is still first and foremost an 'R'. The same goes for playing cards, there are certain rules they have to abide by in order to be recognized as a deck of playing cards. If they don't, they will be nothing more than a personal arty project and assessed as such, but if they do, they will actually be able to tell stories nobody comes prepared for.
I'm still working on that theory, some time I may be able to explain it clearly [smiley].
Briefly about myself: Living on the island of Møn (we call it 'Moon') in Denmark, I'm married with four grown-up, moved-out children. I work as a graphic designer, primarily for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival (which was cancelled this year due to the virus), and on the side on both commercial and self-initiated projects (which among other stuff also cover my obsession with playing cards).
I am looking very much forward to being part of this community, so thanks again for letting me in!
Best regards to you all from Leo
Really good stuff! But I like to have a laugh. Those serious sorts may need to have a good poop before they can appreciate them.