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The Ancients Bicycle® Playing Cards Deck on Kickstarter : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/262 ... cards-deck" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Printed by the United States Playing Card Company on premium Bicycle® stock, topped with their famous Air-Cushion Finish.


Intricate card back design
Fully Detailed Tuck Box
Printed by The United States Playing Card Company
Air-Cushion Finish
Premium Bicycle® stock
Unique, Original design by Wisdom Alchemy Creative
Custom Designed Pips
One of a kind court cards
56 total cards - 52 custom faces, 2 custom Jokers, and 2 custom Gaff cards

I am such a sucker for custom pips....

Hopefully they can fix that one-way back. If they do, this deck has some promise depending on what the court cards and AoS looks like.....

*edit* Ok, watched the video on their KS page and while the AoS is OK, I am not impressed at all with the court cards. Sadly I'm finding my interest fading quickly.....

Kinda bland back design. Thin borders would help, but I dunno...

The pips and aces are cool but the back design is very plain and not appealing.

Also, are there any pics of the court cards?

There's a video on their Kickstarter that shows what the court cards will look like. It looks like just text (e.g. King of Spades). I like the tuck box.

Kleetz

The pips have an awkward ressemblance of those from Bicycle Templar Knights.

I'm not digging that back design, it won't look good over paper.

sway wrote:The pips have an awkward ressemblance of those from Bicycle Templar Knights.

I thought the same thing as soon as I saw them. It's just has a silver outline instead of gold like the TKs, along with text court cards.

Hey everyone. I'm Brian Hakes, I designed The Ancients Bicycle® Deck. I appreciate your input. I'm sorry some are not feeling certain aspects of the deck. I was trying to stay away from the more traditional court cards. I went for different and unique while still functional, some love the idea and some don't. As with most things in life, you can't please everyone. I do value the constructive critisism though, it will help to improve future decks. I'd be glad to pre-flight future decks on United Cardists before they go live on Kickstarter. The next deck should be much more traditional with 15th century Germanic pips like hearts, leaves, bells, and acorns. Thank you for all your feedback and support. Oh, almost forgot, I've never seen the Templar Knight cards until just a few minutes ago. I must agree there is a resemblance, but my pips are stroked in stone, not silver. I'll try to upload a more detailed view for you...

You lost me at the lack of proper court cards. Decent execution of the word courts, but for a custom deck or even the use of the phrase "custom court" I don't think the word courts cut it.

The deck theme is there but the court is where you could really drive it home and complete it.

I agree, no pictures on the Court Cards is a deal-breaker for me. Shame, the aces look pretty nice.

wisdomalchemy wrote:Hey everyone. I'm Brian Hakes, I designed The Ancients Bicycle® Deck. I appreciate your input. I'm sorry some are not feeling certain aspects of the deck. I was trying to stay away from the more traditional court cards. I went for different and unique while still functional, some love the idea and some don't. As with most things in life, you can't please everyone. I do value the constructive critisism though, it will help to improve future decks. I'd be glad to pre-flight future decks on United Cardists before they go live on Kickstarter. The next deck should be much more traditional with 15th century Germanic pips like hearts, leaves, bells, and acorns. Thank you for all your feedback and support. Oh, almost forgot, I've never seen the Templar Knight cards until just a few minutes ago. I must agree there is a resemblance, but my pips are stroked in stone, not silver. I'll try to upload a more detailed view for you...

Welcome to the forum Brian!

CBJ

Hey Brian,
First off, welcome to the forums. I personally agree with the comments on the "courts". They aren't really courts. However, that is not to say they are bad. The back is the problem I am having. It looks too...clip artesq. Perhaps if the KS does not reach funding you can apply some of the ideas you will get on the forums and relaunch. Your deck is not a lost cause like some others.

The tuck case (without that back design)


The Aces and Jokers (without that inharmonious and awkward "The Ancients" on them
+ "Joker" should be smaller to avoid contact with a star)


The number cards


Their back design


The court cards


overall


But I agree with this

wisdomalchemy wrote:...I was trying to stay away from the more traditional court cards. I went for different and unique while still functional, some love the idea and some don't. As with most things in life, you can't please everyone...

so, good luck.

Kudos to Collector for a visually awesome post on his impressions

Thanks CBJ and Sinsandman for the welcome!

Collector, nice presentation. Only the Ace of Spades will be printed with The Ancients on the bottom of the card. The graphics you are refering to are for the t-shirts only.

The text courts were my attempt to stay away from the stereotypical court cards. The depth and texture of the brushed gold compliments the all black background very well. I revised the backs so they are symmetrical now. I am also in the process of attempting to redesign the court cards. I can't make any promises at this point, it's 12 cards to deal with, as opposed to just 1 card. I am making the attempt, but it seems like a picture of my neighbors cat would make everyone happier than the text at this point... ha ha!

Thought I would share what I've come up with so far as replacements for the text court cards.

The improved court cards are nice, however $12 for one deck is still a bit high for my tastes.

The kings, queens and jacks won't have identical images, right?

@Eyeball, I tried to keep things affordable. Short runs of anything custom result in higher production costs.

@lel, the K, Q, and J will vary in some degree, but won't be identical.

from a photoshopers point of view I would say blend the layers a bit ? so they dont seem like 3 separate layers with emboss filter applied on them.

MagikFingerz wrote:Kudos to Collector for a visually awesome post on his impressions

wisdomalchemy wrote:...Collector, nice presentation...

wisdomalchemy wrote:...The text courts were my attempt to stay away from the stereotypical court cards...I am making the attempt, but it seems like a picture of my neighbors cat would make everyone happier than the text at this point... ha ha!

This attempt isn't something new. You try to combine two different subcategories of playing cards more or less traditional playing cards (Jokers, number cards) and typographic playing cards (court cards). A combination of two different categories of something in one thing is always at your's own risk.

wisdomalchemy wrote:Thought I would share what I've come up with so far as replacements for the text court cards.

Revised-Courts.jpg

King2.jpg

I like only Clubs but as The Ace of Clubs in your deck.

IMHO: you should keep your original idea and see what will happen with your kickstarter project. Blowing hot and cold at this stage won't help. You will have a chance to reconsider your project later in case of necessity (failure of first launch on Kickstarter). Try to avoid greed and haste as prevailing (up to date) problems of appropriate Kickstarter projects. Again good luck.

Ok...there is a huge red flag waving at me. I may be completely off in this so don't take it too much to heart. With the first courts having just type and now the new courts having a glamourized pip, it appears as though you are simply lazy and trying to hide behind the whole "non traditional" shroud. Either lazy or just not talented enough to make court cards but you still want money in your pocket for making a "custom" deck that you ripped off from an existing deck anyway. Kickstarter will tell you just how well your attempt goes. And the name/theme, Ancients, is not reflected in the deck at all. You could name it "Stone Shit" and it would work just as well.

You are trying to enter a world where the artistic likes of Emmanuel, Lance Miller, CCC, and Albino are rocking us...and you bring this? A half hash of a deck that didn't get mad reviews to begin with in the Templar deck?

Best of luck to ye lad

Sinsandman wrote:that you ripped off from an existing deck anyway.

Ha ha, I'm lost, just what are you insinuating that I ripped off? I have all the original art files. I'm not trying to enter anyones artistic world, I'm simply trying to exercise my own artistic freedom. As I've said before, some get it and some don't. I'm cool with that...

Sinsandman wrote:Ok...there is a huge red flag waving at me. I may be completely off in this so don't take it too much to heart. With the first courts having just type and now the new courts having a glamourized pip, it appears as though you are simply lazy and trying to hide behind the whole "non traditional" shroud. Either lazy or just not talented enough to make court cards but you still want money in your pocket for making a "custom" deck that you ripped off from an existing deck anyway. Kickstarter will tell you just how well your attempt goes. And the name/theme, Ancients, is not reflected in the deck at all. You could name it "Stone Shit" and it would work just as well.

You are trying to enter a world where the artistic likes of Emmanuel, Lance Miller, CCC, and Albino are rocking us...and you bring this? A half hash of a deck that didn't get mad reviews to begin with in the Templar deck?

Best of luck to ye lad

Wow that seems more than a bit over the top. I wouldn't expect everyone to come up to the same standards, he listened to feedback from the community and tried to respond. And really, if you are going to make an accusation that he ripped off another deck, it would be good if you could actually say which deck that is. I don't recall seeing one like this.

By the way, he's at 70% right now, I fully expect this deck to get funded.

I did say which deck Strag. It's ok though, I don't read full posts before I hit the reply button either sometimes.

Sinsandman wrote:I did say which deck Strag. It's ok though, I don't read full posts before I hit the reply button either sometimes.

Ah right, it was buried at the end of your post (assuming you meant "Templar") since that's the only deck directly mentioned (and not matter how many times I read your post, it's not clear at all that was what you meant, that he was ripping off the Templar deck). So fine, my bad on that (sorta). In any case, can you help me out as to what he ripped off? Here is the Templar deck;



Here is an image of the Ancients deck;



Similar? Somewhat, in that all decks are somewhat similar. Ripped off? Really don't see it, and the back designs are VERY different, as are both the old and new courts. The Aces of Spades is nothing all alike (look up above and below).



BTW, I am not trying to be snarky here, I really am generally curious about your statements which just don't seem supported to me.

The pips is what is ripped off. Granted most decks have the same standard pips. But if you are going to claim customization, why take another deck's pips and claim them as though you came up with the idea?

But those aren't the same at all?