Raptor back - draft v1

I finally got around to drawing the new concept out onto a piece of paper as a (very) rough draft. Initial revisions will need to be:

• make the fleur-de-lys in the corners more prominent
• make the feathers in the raptors' wings slightly more distinctive and seperated
• do something with the centre circle, currently made up of the raptors' fantails, maybe put some legs and talons over the top
• make the circles more obvious and distinctive from a distance
• make the background flourishes fade into the background a bit more, bring the raptors out into the foreground a bit more

Very sketchy initial rendering of this new concept, but it's definitely a worker once it's had a few revisions and some detail and attention put into it.



Back design geometry and symmetry

Model showing the symmetry and geometry template for the new look Raptor backs...

New Raptor box

New box art and colour scheme from left to right for blue deck, red deck and black deck Linoid Finish Raptors.

These are gonna look sick!

Back design's hopefully getting drawn up during the week so watch this space.

Ace of Spades concept v2

This would require me drawing the eagle out and dropping it in there to replace this photoshopped version which I have included only as a concept, what do people think? I'm running with a finalised version of this or the skull beneath. Probably this.

Thoughts?

Ace of Spades v1

The skulls are back in town the skulls are back in town...

The Ace of Spades is the death card though right? So it fits.

Raptor is the name of the deck since the back is going to feature birds of prey, and the faded wings around the edge tie in with this theme as well.

There is another Ace of Spades concept on the way shortly...

Poll results...

Artwork on the aces?

Just the Ace of Spades - 24 votes (vs. all aces - 11 votes)

Tuckbox: 1 colour or 2?

2 colour - 17 votes (vs. one colour - 16 votes)

New colour scheme on fronts or traditional?

New colour scheme - 26 votes (vs. traditional scheme - 8 votes)

High Court

This is actually a 7 colour face scheme compared to the standard American faces which are 3 colour. I really went to town on the detail, with faces and hands, fingernails, hair and eyes all receiving their own unique colour. I want these picture cards to wow everyone who looks at them because of their beautiful colour scheme, but also to impress upon closer scrutiny once all the details are taken in.

The Jack and Queen of Spades are both holding something black to show their allegiance to their king, as the Jack and Queen of Hearts are both holding something red.

The colour scheme is based on a European style deck but the addition of the racing green was an idea of my own that I haven't seen anywhere else and I think works incredibly nicely.

I will get to work on the Ace of Spades (which I have sketch designed) and the Jokers very shortly and complete the full set of face cards before returning to the back designs.

With a splash of green...

Looking good?

Or not?

Thoughts?

Another colour scheme...

Slightly European in its origins, I really like this one too. The standard faces are again included on the left for comparison.

Face Recolours...

I have decided to add a subtle skintone to the face and hands of the picture cards, and add a light grey to the hair on the kings and queens. Take a look at these examples...



I'm pleased with this look, and I will start colouring all the cards to this style.

Turns out in the end the deck will have custom faces all the way through! Sweet :-)

New dress?

Sick colour scheme concept based on a Japanese casino deck I just dug out of my shoebox of magic tricks earlier this evening. I've included the standard cards on the left for comparison. You have no idea how sweet this colour scheme looks on a deck of cards in real life...

Thoughts?





Legal approval and design updates

The USPCC legal department have just approved my tally-ho style tuckbox design, there was potentially an issue with it being very similar to the existing tally box which is obviously a deliberate homage on my part given the stock I will be publishing the deck onto but I have just been given the all-clear to use a tally-style box which is great news :-) although the name and design will be changed slightly if I run with the eagle concept and not the gears n skulls, I'm almost certainly gonna be using a tally style box. Love it! It has always been one of my favourite boxes, and I think it will make a welcome change to all the custom bike designs/boxes there are out there at the moment.

On a design front, I have started concept-designing in a different way and have had immediately pleasing results, I will post my first and second drafts and a slightly developed mock-up version over the weekend, the eagle-back concept has become much more streamlined and aesthetically pleasing now incorporating the circle-heavy symmetry I've always wanted my deck to exhibit. I'm excited! I'm also gonna start vectorising my artwork at this stage in the design process and move onto the Ace of Spades, Joker, and Artwork card designs asap. I am toying with the idea of working up a slightly embellished ace design for each ace, not just the ace of spades, although I'm not sure. What do people think? I'll make a poll...

More on the way soon guys...

Imperial Eagle concept

OK, this took a few attempts to get to anything even halfway respectable. The first 2 iterations were horrrendous. This is looking promising though. What do people think? It doesn't have any skulls in (yay)!

The next iteration of this design will look a heap better by:

• bolder more prominent wings with less feathers reaching all the way out to the side borders and set to a new circle aside from the circle the eagle sits in
• less scribble detail, slightly bolder overall
• revised legs and scroll details
• fleur-de-lys weapons revised to look how they're supposed to!
• Wing feathers in a radial flourish in the centre circle to complement the wings in each quarter

This is pretty much it now. I'm gonna revise this to the point where it's a runner and then work this and the skull design up into a polished print-ready image and decide which one I want to develop at which point I will only develop the ace, jokers, artwork card and tuckbox for the design I have chosen and put the pedal to the metal towards getting the deck published. The other design I will work up in my own time and maybe publish at a later date once the first one has sold thousands :-)

New Concept!

Forget everything you ever thought you knew...

I've just had a completely new design concept, which I've spent the last hour or two researching and sketching and working some preliminary things out for, and it rocks.

I'm gonna work some designs up over the weekend so stay tuned, oh, and there's no skulls!

2 Tone box concepts

Little bit of flavour

Box mocks

Even though the back design is far from finalised, I decided to put the box into a net template and see what it turned out like. I'm enjoying this look, and can't wait to see the finished product!!!

I get ahead of myself sometimes...

Ace of Spades, Joker, Artwork card all need to be designed now, and the back design still needs finishing off, and is still in need of something in terms of revising the gears etc. to give it more pop.





Tallys no good no more?!?

I just heard some incredibly disturbing news: apparently tallys from the new factory are horrible!!!! This is terrible news, and means I will most likely be printing on bikes now, which means a re-design for the box :-( and none of the added prestige or quality from printing onto what has always been a slightly superior playing card brand.

!!!!! Bollocks!!!!

Oh well, onwards and upwards...

Edit to add: I just got my hands on some of the new factory tallys and they spread and handle like a dream. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about? They appear to be perhaps slightly thinner than their predecessors, although not drastically so, but they fan supremely and are cut at the edges nicely etc. etc.

Does anyone have anything to add?

Distance test...

What do they look like from a distance? The overall shape and symmetry impression, artwork and intricacies aside, is incredibly important. These are looking good in my opinion, perhaps could be improved slightly though. Will get on it later in the week...

Notes to self:

• do something more interesting with the central gear/circle
• try filling the peripheral gears white and see what it looks like
• try different blade arrangements coming off the central gear with and without skulls

Border test...

What do they look like with 5mm white borders?

Slight amendments to latest skull design

I faded the wings out, put some lines over the skull so it wasn't so white, added a double border, and set the design off to the official pantone red and blue colours used by the USPCC for their Bicycle decks, although judging from the look of the boxes in front of me the tallys may be printed in a slightly different shade of red and blue, so I will have to look into this.

To be honest, I mocked up a design based on this but with no skulls, and it looked terrible, I mean so bad I don't even want to post it. It needs some serious work even to get it looking OK, so maybe that's for another time. Tonight was a slightly fruitless design session in that respect, although I am wise enough to know there's no such thing, it still feels a bit that way.

I like the skulls though, I think they add interest, I'm thinking of keeping them although I haven't made my mind up yet.