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Hey card lovers. Today is the launch of my second Kickstarter. I learned a lot from my first and cooked up a completely custom deck this time around. Introducing, The Movement, featuring revolutionaries from the 60s/70s. Also known as the Black Panthers, but not the one with the vibranium suit.

well... the back looks neat. without starting a whole debate again, lets just say this is a no for me, especially at $18.

STLBluesNut wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:21 am well... the back looks neat. without starting a whole debate again, lets just say this is a no for me, especially at $18.

I'm not familiar with the original debate. But, I will have to relaunch in a couple weeks. So I have to ask, what would be a good price point? I will have to sacrifice the foil printing on the tuck, but no use having it if the project will not get funded due to price.

i do not see in the campaign where it says foil on the tuck, only metallic ink. only within the past 6 months to a year? has a deck with a matte stock/embossing/foil tuck become more of a standard at $18 and i do not see foil or embossing on the tuck in the campaign. so i would say sub $15, which was the previous standard.

IMO, decks with political messages and themes just dont do as well overall. this deck has a very strong political theme and rhetoric in the campaign. this deck is ''... part social commentary on greater America’s perception of black revolutionaries. A perception that was negative...''. card collecting is kind of a niche thing and you push it even further to an even smaller group that has to not only be interested in political themes and statements but this particular theme. Personally, i dont purchase decks with political messages. i wont even get started on what i disagree with on certain messages in the campaign. i think this theme and message would only really appeal to a certain crowd and i dont think many in that crowd are into the card collecting.

as for design, there are those, myself included, that do not like courts separated by banners or lines like you have on these courts. i have no way of knowing how large that number of collectors is but i dont think it is insignificant.

i do really like the back design though.

To add another opinion, which will hopefully be helpful, I will chime in as well. Here is what I like:

• I think the theme is interesting and I would be interested

• Overall, I like the backs and the sweet looking fan it creates

• Love the images on the '10's and personally think they might work for interesting Aces

• I like the back of the tuck, not so sure about the front - but dont hate it

What I see as opportunities to improve:

• I think the pandemic enhanced, speculative-surge in card collecting has abated. Even some of the newest collectors among us have been at this for a few years now. A new deck has to really 'bring it'. Especially, hitting the $18-20 price point. The artwork, printing enhancements, tuck, story (if there is one) needs to create a holistic experience. I think this project could stand to pick a lane. The deck design as it stands doesnt seem to clearly be targeting a segment (art driven collectors, cardists, magicians, casual players, etc) Not withstanding interest in the theme itself. Who is the deck for?

• I agree that the line separating the two haves of the court images is not appealing. It doesn't create a unified image. I think this is an audience limiting design choice

• Personally, I am generally not a fan of 1-way designs (though I have made exceptions in my collection) The choice of the peace dove in the middle of the back design as well as the imbalanced courts make this a one way design. This is another audience-limiting design choice. Some magicians, for example, are usually not a fan of this unless very subtle

• Dont like words on the number cards. Again, not magician or art collector friendly. Cardists? Dont know. Not much of one myself . I see you speak about Cartimundi B9 stock and handling, so you are touching on this, so perhaps this is your target? If so, maybe some visual enhancements to the number cards can make for a more interesting flourishing experience

• The artwork on the courts is a bit 'meh' to me. I dont hate it, but it's not good enough for me to pull the trigger these days. I, like many, am becoming pickier. Thats not say there isn't an audience for it, but the competition is fierce

• Get out ahead of your launch by generating buzz/awareness. Omar (The Gentleman Wake) is a good example of this. He is active on these board and social media to make people aware of his projects well before launch. Even going so far as taking input from the community to improve his product. I think it may be getting harder to just drop a project on Kickstarter without upfront legwork (unless you have a following)

I like the idea of the deck, I'm always looking out for decks that are built around a specific culture or ideology (the more specific the better) but this one felt inconsistent in style and overstuffed in terms of ideas. Deciding what to leave out is as important as what to leave in and here it felt like the designer had so many ideas to choose from they couldn't decide which was best so they used all of them, which is never the right choice. Having multiple characters on some courts and not on others is just messy looking. Trying to fit in every aspect of the topic just leads to confusion.

The art style also varies too much, with screen print, cartoons, text, silhouettes and the back design with a black panther in some sort of medieval pose is just so random.

The whole thing feels like a mishmash of ideas and needs to be pared down and made more cohesive, imo.

steampunk52 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 3:46 pm

• Personally, I am generally not a fan of 2 way designs (though I have made exceptions in my collection) The choice of the peace dove in the middle of the back design as well as the imbalanced courts make this a two way design. This is another audience-limiting design choice. Some magicians, for example, are usually not a fan of this unless very subtle

I guess one-way is what you meant in regards to what you don't like.

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:05 pm

steampunk52 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 3:46 pm

• Personally, I am generally not a fan of 2 way designs (though I have made exceptions in my collection) The choice of the peace dove in the middle of the back design as well as the imbalanced courts make this a two way design. This is another audience-limiting design choice. Some magicians, for example, are usually not a fan of this unless very subtle

I guess one-way is what you meant in regards to what you don't like.

Ah, yes. Thank you. I edited my response.

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I wasn’t aware of the apprehensiveness of a banner in the middle of the courts. I will remember this for the future. For this project it may be too late as there is meaning to the asymmetry. I am completely aware that these will not work for magicians. But a completely custom deck usually doesn’t. But, certainly a lot to think about.

I’m not sure what percentage of people mind banners - I’m mixed depending on how they work in context - for me these are just fine though it would have been interesting to see the asymmetric halves merge (a challenging task to be sure)