Different deck. A completely different deck
After his labyrinthine playing cards, the Mazing Bicycle deck, a real successful project, not only for the deck itself but for the way he handled it, Brian Daniel South and Teach by Magic comes back with a completely different deck… yes, it is The Different Deck.
I have talked to Brian and I have preferred to directly write his thoughts as some of them are full of emotion and I don’t want to contaminate them at all. Furthermore, there are many tips and secrets you would be interested on so read till the end. This is what he said to me about the project:
“The deck is called the Different deck. I have been wanting to do this deck for almost 8 years now and I have been working on it with various artists for a little over a year.
In a nutshell the deck is flipped so instead of a 2 of clubs you have a club of 2s or instead of a jack of Diamonds it is a giant diamond made up of jacks. And not just Js and Jacks in English but in over 100 different languages and lots of symbolism and imagery as well (a chess piece on a queen, or a toy jack on a jack or an 8 ball on an 8 and so on). There are some really fun things going on with Ambigrams and words sharing the same letters and using ancient numbering systems or binary code.
So that is the visual concept and I think the cards look AWESOME – like I say I have spent over a year working with several artists and the last 8 months working with my final artist on a daily basis adding things and tweaking things so that there is layer upon layer of symbolism and fun.
I want the deck to be a reminder that we don’t have to just take things the way they have always been, that we can think outside the box or try to do the same old thing a little different and suddenly it becomes completely different and probably more interesting.
I am a firm believer that our lives are more fulfilling and richer when we look for meaning in things. Even if its not there on purpose if we look for symbolism or patterns we will find them and that makes everything more interesting.
An example I like to give is in the clouds – when we are kids we look up at the clouds and we see animals and cars and dragons and dragons eating cars and it is fun. as adults we see clouds and we think – Rain or cloudy day.
Perspective is such a powerful thing and if we look for more we will find more. So that is the concept behind the deck. I have traveled the world in the past few years (I have been to Egypt, Italy, France, Denmark, Turkey, China, Brazil, Greece, Honduras, Scotland, Ireland, and so on. I have touched the pyramids, stood on the great wall and seen Stonehenge I am fascinated with the mystique behind these landmarks and I have learned about cards and numbers in different cultures (like the number 4 is unlucky in Chinese – so we never put Chinese on any of the 4s).
The plan is to do 2 decks, an unbranded version and a Bicycle branded version (in the back the word Bicycle is hidden in the design over and over again) . There will be a lot of secrets and mysteries. For example I will show what the branded back looks like but the unlimited deck back will be revealed only when the decks ship, and I will let people submit ideas for that back design and if we use your back design you get a case (144 decks) free.
There is also a secret (that wont be much of a secret because I will blast it everywhere but I don’t want it mentioned on the kickstarter page ever). If you back the $37 level which the reward says it is just a H.O.P.E. sticker (it will be a sticker with a club, a heart, a spade and a diamond with he corresponding numbers for the word hope) you will not be getting just a sticker – you will get 2 of each deck (so a sticker and 4 decks if we don’t hit the black deck stretch goal – BUT if we hit the black deck stretch goal you will get 6 decks (again 2 of each deck produced by this project). So hopefully lots of people will back the sticker level and to an innocent bystander it will look strange that so many people are opting for just a sticker on a deck project :) that makes me smile)”
After all this information and secrets, you can only wait for the launch of the project next 7th of January. I will publish here the link to the project so keep connected.
Good luck!
