UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

We too love card design as much as you do probably. For that reason we recently designed a deck of cards that will hopefully amaze you!

The card deck is inspired by the South-African game named Thunee.
Thunee has been part of South African culture for over a century.
Thunee, which means water in the Tamil language, is a popular trick-taking card game that originated in Durban, South Africa.

The game was invented by indentured Indian Labourers who were brought to South Africa in the 1800’s to work on the sugar cane plantations.

The deck has been meticulously researched and the design has been inspired to commemorate the origins of the game of Thunee. We have designed two decks, a regular deck and a limited edition deck. Whilst the deck will appeal to Thunee players, it will be equally appealing to magicians, cardists and collectors.

- Trumpmen.

Hi there, is the deck a work in progress/fully designed/produced ? What stage are we looking at ? We would love to see a couple of pictures =)

Hello. the deck is fully designed. it will be launched in Kickstarter end May and will be produced by USPCC. our marketing campaign has commenced. we have given an exclusive to the Sunday Times Newspaper in South Africa because of the historical significance of the deck.

We have pictures on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Trumpmen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I like it! Wishing to see more....

Pictures for our non-facebook users:











Trumpmen: Is the back design like the back of the box in the first picture?

This is the back of the regular deck.......

So the regular deck is the colourful one, and the Limited deck is the monotone one ?

Looking goood!

I'd buy it if the courts were more unique. Although they're all different, they look too similar to each other.

I kind of like that....actually. The art is very appealing.

Already has the potential to be a very nice deck(s. Might I suggest that you show us a little more so we can help you fine tune things and help you nail down a few potential problems before you launch? I will add you to the Deck Artist group...

I like what I see! Anxious to see more of the courts and I would love to see customized pips.

I actually like this deck, looks like it has lots of promise! I have no doubt it'll be funded, barring any extraordinary circumstances, especially with all of the surrounding story and historical significance!

Question, is the tuck box embossed, or am I just seeing things?

I agree, I think it does have some potential. I prefer the colored deck to the dark deck, although the colors seem a little to vibrant to me.

I like what I see....

Thats a bad thing at the moment. I'm grounded from buying things for a while... My wife found my card receipts...

So far it looks interessting.
Some fine tuning is necessary...like a suicide King etc.

OnTheGrind wrote:I actually like this deck, looks like it has lots of promise! I have no doubt it'll be funded, barring any extraordinary circumstances, especially with all of the surrounding story and historical significance!

Question, is the tuck box embossed, or am I just seeing things?

We are planning for the tuck box of the Limited Edition Deck to be embossed

Cbkimble wrote:I agree, I think it does have some potential. I prefer the colored deck to the dark deck, although the colors seem a little to vibrant to me.

The vibrant colours represent the colourful clothes (sarees) and culture of the hindu community which largely represented the indentured labourers in SOuth Africa.....

I really like the design. I like the details and especially the colors! Very high chance I will pledge for this when it launches.

I'm not a huge fan of the way the colored back is colorized. I love the colors, I just think a less... diagonal (?) style would appeal to me more. Also I like the courts as a first draft and think they certainly have potential. But even if the courts and back stayed the way they are, I'd still pledge. Great deck- especially the tuck (embossing= necessary!)!

What I'm worried about is the borders, which I always am when we're not shown a bordered back render. The back of the box usually lies, and often makes taking the cards out a disappointment. And that big frame around the back design is just going to add to the borders. Not a fan of frames in deck design in general, including faces.

Also, the indices should be moved closer to the edge, the way they are now they'll have to be spread quite a lot to see the whole index.

Not to complain but ... if you're going to have one-eyed courts, there really is an established pattern for *which* courts are one-eyed.

The King of Diamonds should be one-eyed. None of the others. The Suicide King (Hearts) should have at least some sort of special treatment, at least with the sword behind his head. If anyone has an axe, it should be the King of Diamonds. And of course the one-eyed Jacks (not shown yet) should be the Jack of Spades and Jack of Hearts.

OK, this is a pet peeve of mine. It's one thing when an artist just decides that he or she isn't doing anything one-eyed. But when the decision is made to make some profile and some full-front, I just don't understand why the illustrator deliberately goes against the conventional one eyed Jacks and the man with the axe, and my personal favorite, the suicide King.

Sigh.

Usually that boils down to the creators not having enough understanding of the history and traditions involved, its definitely not intentional (but it doesnt justify that its right).

volantangel wrote:Usually that boils down to the creators not having enough understanding of the history and traditions involved, its definitely not intentional (but it doesnt justify that its right).

Agreed, but then don't you start to question why the creator is designing a deck of playing cards without knowing enough about them? Red flag IMO.

vasta41 wrote:

volantangel wrote:Usually that boils down to the creators not having enough understanding of the history and traditions involved, its definitely not intentional (but it doesnt justify that its right).

Agreed, but then don't you start to question why the creator is designing a deck of playing cards without knowing enough about them? Red flag IMO.

Well nowadays every tom dick or harry wants to design a deck of cards, its not a red flag for me just doesnt reflect very well on them, but then again it never bothered me too much.

volantangel wrote:

vasta41 wrote:

volantangel wrote:Usually that boils down to the creators not having enough understanding of the history and traditions involved, its definitely not intentional (but it doesnt justify that its right).

Agreed, but then don't you start to question why the creator is designing a deck of playing cards without knowing enough about them? Red flag IMO.

Well nowadays every tom dick or harry wants to design a deck of cards, its not a red flag for me just doesnt reflect very well on them, but then again it never bothered me too much.

I guess what I mean by a red flag is just what you said- someone just trying to cash in on a possible money-maker. Which might not necessarily be a bad thing. Hell, we all want to make money. But if I were going to create something to sell that I didn't know enough about, I would be sure to do my research.

Is there a specific source material that lists the traditional courts? I'm just curious, because I've only learned about it by reading the forums.

Sher wrote:Is there a specific source material that lists the traditional courts? I'm just curious, because I've only learned about it by reading the forums.

I don't think there is, at least not a very publicly known one. Which is probably part of the problem.

The observations are noted and the constructive criticism will allow for the refinement of the deck. Will post some fresh images soon

thunee wrote:The observations are noted and the constructive criticism will allow for the refinement of the deck. Will post some fresh images soon

I must say- well said! It speaks volumes to me when designers listen to their audience. Not that the customer's always right or anything or that you have to heed our advice but it's just nice to know you have a presence here. BTW I can't wait for these to launch!