It’s been a quiet few weeks, but things are now really hotting up on the PlayCards production front.
After an interminable delay as a box sat at Stansted Airport waiting to be released from customs (obviously nothing to do with Brexit), I received samples from the printers in Italy that I’m intending to use to produce the physical PlayCards.
Seeing them has really helped to make me clear that the box for the cards, which is part of the practical tool rather than mere packaging, needs to be of a more robust construction that the typical playing cards carton. It does mean the box will end up costing nearly as much as the cards themselves to produce, and it does make we worry I’m heading for a Blue Monday-type scenario, but thankfully there will still be some margin on the finished product (although I’m really not seeing this as a get-rich-quick scheme… if I recoup everything it costs I’ll be happy).
When we do eventually go to press, it is also going to be a little like when you used to send films to be processed. At the production scale we are looking at (probably 300 in the first pressing) it’s not cost-effective to produce a pre-production prototype. Fingers crossed and all that.
I’ve also now started working with Ellie the designer from Studio KT 1 on the final artwork. Having been nearly two years from her original designs, she’s now had plenty of time to reassess and wants to take the look of the cards in a different direction. Some of her early sketches point to something a little more figurative. I’m happy as long as she is happy with the final product, and I’ve employed a graphic designer for a reason.
Ellie’s work reminds me of how much I wish I could draw well!
We are also thinking about how the pattern on the back of the cards can tesselate so that you can create larger patterns.
Finally, I’ve been tinkering with some ways that the cards might manifest in virtual worlds. There is a low-res version of the deck that you can play with here: https://playingcards.io/jt6g5m and also some experiments in Virtual Reality that you can see here: https://videopress.com/v/CYIaCk1o
That’s it for the time being. More updates to come next week I hope.
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mmitII 