IAmA Playing Card Designer AMAA!

I graduated with my Masters in Design last summer and have been freelancing doing graphic work when I remembered a long dream of mine. Playing cards!

I am here to talk about design, playing cards, process, crowd funding, doing a project as a single person with a small network, and I am sure you can come up with more interesting questions than I can think of :)

It all started with a dream. I love playing cards and I've always wanted to make my own deck. I started the initial work years ago but took it seriously a few months ago. I launched the campaign on Kickstarter about a month ago. It took a lot of work to get it rolling and I couldn't have done it without all the great people on /r/cyberpunk[1] , /r/glitch_art[2] , /r/graphic_design[3] , /r/cardistry[4] , etc…

Now I am here to share.

Here a some pictures of the project (* I had a lot of fun :) http://imgur.com/a/MKnES

Proof: https://twitter.com/SoleilZum/status/480797268576985088

Comments: 38 • Responses: 12  • Date: 

Flyingpieman8 karma

Do you think a Masters in Design was required for you to do this or could you have done this project without what you learned in Collage?

soleilz3 karma

Oh Uni has been an invaluable experience! Especially with something like design, where the fundamentals are so important :) I am very glad to have gone to school!

seishi7 karma

How many headaches do you think I'll give people walking down the street wearing the Ace of Spades shirt? It warps my brain looking at it (in a good way).

soleilz4 karma

Hehe, I hope many! :)

lumonisity6 karma

Which particular card was your favourite?

soleilz11 karma

To design or generally? My grandmother always says: Herz, mein Herz (Oh heart of mine) when she plays the queen of hearts - so I'd say queen of hearts is my favorite as it makes me think of my amazing grandmother!

quyla5 karma

I don't play cards that often, but I know quite a few card games. I also love glitch art, so this project seemed perfect! Thanks for doing this!

How long did it take to finalize the art for each card?

soleilz5 karma

Thanks for your support!

The individual cards took maybe half a day. What took the longest was the experimentation phase, figuring out exactly how to glitch the values while still being able to identify it :)

plessis2043 karma

Do these print on KEM cards? KEM is the best thing.

soleilz3 karma

No, I am having them printed by USPCC, the same as the Bicycle brand.. But I will check out KEM for my next project for sure :)

compoundingquestions3 karma

How much (on average) do you make per year?

soleilz1 karma

I did say almost anything :)

Rozay01722 karma

I'm new to KS but I added enough money for the framed glitch art. Are they limited?

soleilz0 karma

Thank you so much :) Let me know on KS who you are…

The original framed art is limited to 54 (52 cards + 2 jokers)

Rozay01721 karma

Thanks! I've send you a message on KS. Do you have any plans for a new project yet?

soleilz0 karma

Yes, I love to design playing cards. It is such a great format - so much room for activities :)

socialite-buttons1 karma

Hi, I'm too late for the KS, but congratulations on getting funded, and reaching the stretch goal for the app. When do you think it will be on the App Store?

soleilz1 karma

Actually you aren't :) An early bird just opened - be number 500!

IslaNublar1 karma

Why do some cards have a B, D, and K instead of a Jack, Queen, and King?

Sexy_party-time3 karma

In Germany they have der Bube (Jack), die Dame (Queen), and der Konig (king) so the cards have B, D, and K printed instead of the usual J, D, and K.

soleilz1 karma

of course :) Thank you for answering!

soleilz1 karma

Huh? I am sorry, what do you mean?

kevgr1 karma

I was looking through the album, and I noticed that there was a picture of an exacto-knife and some cut up cards. Did you cut up various cards to come up for the designs of your cards?

soleilz3 karma

How attentive of you, yes, I cut up the cards to figure out what kind of glitch I wanted :) and how much I wanted to apply...