Coat of Arms playing cards review. Hand illustrated with an old and medieval touch

 

Coat of Arms is a company that provides original post-production services, including editing, color, motion graphics, visual effects, illustration, scoring, and sound design for film, television, and the web.

Trying to consolidate their own product line, they designed a deck of cards with nice and original hand-drawn illustrations. They have been so kind to send me one to make a review and I have made my own photos to complement my opinion (you can click to see them bigger as they have higher resolution).

 

 

The deck was printed by Quality Playing Cards Inc. using what they call “plastic-coated, linen card stock” (I would say it is more a linen finish). Although the quality is lower than the typical Bicycle stock you would be more familiar with,  the cards spread quite well. The print run was intended to be of 500 decks but the printer accidentally made 1000.

 

 

 

The design is much more interesting. All the cards have been customized using four different houses: Royals, Mariners, Bandits and Knights. I sincerely like these hand-drawn court cards characters full of “secret” symbols. Aces and jokers are also customized following the same theme.

 

 

The one way back depicts a Belgian horse’s head and a crest adorned by flowered vines design.

 

 

Finally, it was funny that I had to check with them about the misprinted aspect of the cards. Some of them seemed to be stained and worn. They confirmed me it was completely intentional (as they clearly state in the description of the deck) because they wanted “to make the cards feel ‘vintage’ and ‘used’ – so that’s why you have the particles and smudge-like designs on some cards. Like they’ve been used over and over again.

 

 

Summarizing, I would say this deck is perfect for collecting due to its beauty and for playing due to its clearness. If you like it, you can contact Coat of Arms or go directly to their shop.

Good luck!