Illusionist Bicycle deck. The art of magic and the art of playing cards

 

I have talked many times about decks inspired by and for magicians. In this case, we have a new deck inspired in the magic as an art: the Illusionist deck.

This is the first deck by LUX Playing Cards and I have had the opportunity to talk to Bryan and know something more about the inspiration for the deck.

“I got the inspiration for the Illusionist deck from magicians. There are plenty of great magicians and sleight of hand artists in the world today, and obviously one of the main areas for magic is through cards. You’ll see that the artist for this deck, Megan Wyreweden, has put a lot of time and effort into designing the deck through our collaboration. To start, I knew we needed the playing cards to have Bicycle branding through the USPCC. Everything on the Illusionist card deck is unique: the pips, numbers, royalty cards, card back, and every facet of the card had to be special. We wanted to show some classic illusions for the royalty cards. Each new royalty card represents an Illusionist performing a trick.  As you go through the court cards, you’ll see card tricks, levitation, cup and balls, the ancient Chinese linking rings, fire, cardistry, and coin magic. We even wanted to give a nod to two classic animals: the rabbit out of the hat and the flying doves.

 

 

You’ll see the card backs are full of detail, and this card took longer than any other. We ended up going with the mask to represent that the Illusionist can be anyone, and to give some mystery to the deck as well.  I love how the card back shows the cards flying through the air in a perfect loop so that the card back stays with a mirrored design. Megan also gave an insane amount of detail by adding pips to the cards that are being thrown through the air.

Because this is the first deck of playing cards that we are putting out, we wanted that attention to detail on every card. We added a subtle design to the faces of the cards with a faint diamond pattern in the background. The designs of the Heart, Spade, Club, and Diamond, which you can see really well on the Ace cards, have the crescent moon showing up in a multitude of areas if you look really closely. I believe it’s small touches like these that will make these cards stand out. We also wanted to represent card decks of the past by keeping the same profiles on court cards. For example, the Jack of Hearts, Jack of Spades, and King of Diamonds all have one eye showing and another eye hidden. The King of Hearts is typically known as the “Suicide King” so instead of giving him a paper cut with a card trick image, we had him playing with fire as a tribute to Illusionists who incorporate that into their acts.”

 

This is therefore a deck where magic is the protagonist and will delight all card fans. If you like it, visit the project website and raise your pledge.

Good luck!