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Hello everyone,

I want to share with you a project that I've been very very slowly working on in small bits over the past 4 years, ever since I first reached out to Bob Case to see if he might be interested in collaborating on a deck. For those who don't know, Bob illustrated the artwork for the Moirai deck years ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/we ... escription and I consider his work to be some of the best illustrations ever put on playing cards (and his non-playing card work is truly amazing as well). Needless to say I'm ecstatic to have been working with him on this vision of a new project that is finally nearing completion.

The deck is themed on the story of Alice in Wonderland (and yes, I realize that several other card creators have produced Alice decks in the past 4 years...but I think our take is quite original and worth putting out there). Our intention is that this is the first of a 3 deck series based on popular literary works (more details on this later).

The court illustrations and most of the other artwork are nearing completion and I'm now working on exploring some different layout options but wanted to share a few images with you all in the meantime...I'll post some updates here including a launch date once we finalize that.

Hope you guys are as excited about this as I am...

-David

I loved Moirai so I’m really happy to see something else by Bob. Looking forward to seeing more.

the illustrations look neat so far.

It's nice that you are back! Wish you all the best!

Okay, first look at progress images...front of the tuckbox + queen of hearts. Not totally final but getting there...

I'm always impartial to writing that might not be needed such as "The Queen of Hearts." Love to see that this might be a series of classic stories decks. Can't wait to see more.

kevork wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 1:11 am I'm always impartial to writing that might not be needed such as "The Queen of Hearts." Love to see that this might be a series of classic stories decks. Can't wait to see more.

To be clear, the text on the courts are the names of the characters, not the suit/value of the card. This character just also happens to be named the same as her card value. Other character names would include “The White Rabbit” and “Alice”.

I have so many Alice in Wonderland decks, I nearly couldn't even get the will to open the thread. Well, okay. This is looking good. Color me surprised.

I typically don't like decks that are very colorful on the inside and drab, monochrome on the outside. Having said that, I don't hate the tuck. I just think it's missing something but I don't know what.

Looks fine, but still wouldn't touch your projects with a 10 foot pole. You think your "apology" was good enough, but never responded to any emails when I had hundreds of dollars in limbo with you? No thanks.

vasta41 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 8:29 am I typically don't like decks that are very colorful on the inside and drab, monochrome on the outside. Having said that, I don't hate the tuck. I just think it's missing something but I don't know what.

I think the tuck probably just lacks excitement in the flat mockup. This gives a little more visual context, but imagine red metallic foil, clear reflective foil, and embossing and it starts to become clearer...

A look at the royal court for hearts

Here's a look at the back design - still finalizing the color scheme but considering this red on black look...

The courts look great but I’m not loving the tuck design. I feel like it needs more.

Regarding the back design. I think red and black can work but it needs one more colour to break it up a bit.

I would like the tuck well enough with a bit of emboss and perhaps a touch of foil - and it seems like its getting those

i fell like the back design just looks a little muddy with that small texture between all of the trinkets. i love the court art though.

The card back feels very busy, that thing of I have so many good ideas why not use all of them? And the colouring makes everything hard to see and isn't a particularly appealing combination imo.

It also makes it so hard to see what the logo in the middle actually is unless you pay attention closely. Just a zigzag line from afar when there's no elements helping it contrast. I'm not sure if adding some white onto the back might help with that.

Feel free to spank me if I’m out of line doing so, but pulled the image into procreate and tried a few things - didn’t really like bringing the elements further forward, nor did I want to lose them - I thought a bit vintage/muted helped (altered image on the right)

Thanks for the feedback and the idea mockup!

As I mentioned, this is still in progress and I've explored some different colorization variations (below). Bob is also taking a pass at colorizing the back in the same style that he colorized the court artwork and this is likely more the direction we'll go...

liking the leftmost quite a bit

Bob's art looks incredible - thank you for introducing me to this!

GandalfPC wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 9:19 pm liking the leftmost quite a bit

I vote the same one
To improve the Tuck (which is so so) maybe incorporate a 3d feel like the book's illustrator John Tenniel did

davegk wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 6:51 pm Thanks for the feedback and the idea mockup!

As I mentioned, this is still in progress and I've explored some different colorization variations (below). Bob is also taking a pass at colorizing the back in the same style that he colorized the court artwork and this is likely more the direction we'll go...

backdesign-3more.jpg

I’m in agreement with everyone else about the left.

I agree as well…that more detailed color version is in the right direction. I’m eager to see Bob’s color version and will share that here once I have it to compare with the one above.

Love the court drawings. The character names are unnecessary and take away from the pleasure of discovery. The back design has a nice concept, but it's too messy and I don't feel it actually works as a back design. It's somehow too illustrative and would be more fitting for the tuck case. In the image with the three colorization variants, the first one is much nicer than the others.

gap wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 5:20 pm Love the court drawings. The character names are unnecessary and take away from the pleasure of discovery. The back design has a nice concept, but it's too messy and I don't feel it actually works as a back design. It's somehow too illustrative and would be more fitting for the tuck case. In the image with the three colorization variants, the first one is much nicer than the others.

I don't mind the character names as they form a border which works IMO

A look at some of the court characters now with color applied...

Here's a look at my original colorized back (left) and Bob's color version (right)
His definitely captures more of a magical feel and the items pop much more...

I love both of those so much better.