...a little boy started playing around with cards. A few years later after he had finished high school he found himself studying communication design. He had the idea of combining his interest for design with his old love for playing cards. So finally, in 2019, the creation of a self designed deck seemed to be inevitable...
Well, evidently this boy was me. So I invite you to join me in bringing this deck to life!
Alright, so I keep talking about generative design, but what does that actually mean? The omniscient Internet puts it like this:
To me, the true beauty of the generative process in design is that you are not in charge of every brushstroke. You provide a framework in which things can happen that a human would never think of.
The name {braces} arises from the curly braces that are frequently used in coding, for example to define certain functions. That said, it literally brings together the world of playing cards and the world of coding.
So for {braces} I created 4 different of these "frames" in the appearance of a small program. One for each suit.
I ran the program for each card so that I would get completely different and individual results each time.
The numbers from 2 to 10 all display their value with the amount of patterns on the card. The Jack, Queen and King have some more specific patterns that belong together. The Aces show the design of their suit in the purest way by using simply basic shapes.
To design the back I used an iterative rapport of the logo itself. After a long time of experimenting with different sizes I guess I found a good balance.
The deck is standard poker size and ready to use straight out of the box.
{braces} comes with 56 cards:
1 title card
52 generative playing cards
2 Jokers
1 double back card (for a little bit of magic or as additional joker for the players)
This choice opens up the possibility to perform an even greater variety of routines for the magicians. But without any restrictions the cardists among you will also get their money's worth.
So let’s have some pictures speak for themselves.
The deck will be printed and produced in Belgium by the friendly guys from:
And if you already know the COPAG 310 or any other deck printed by Cartamundi you will know that the deck will be printed in the best TRUE LINEN B9 FINISH! They put it like the following:
"The soft but springy nature of the cards, and the smoothness of handling, lie in a carefully constructed balance between stock, coating, linen finish and cutting. Tailored to your needs."
Ok, joking aside. Anyone who ever came in contact with cards by Cartamundi, knows they are pretty decent.
Rounding up the look of the deck, it is going to be delivered in an elegant and colorful tuck box.
To not lose any of the carefully developed print quality, the cards will be packed in a very specific way. A double wrap. For protection against the evil dust of shipping the tuck is wrapped in thin cellophane foil. In addition to that, the cards inside will also be pegged into cello wrap to ensure the most celebrating unboxing experience as well as the best protection.
And I know we all love that unboxing feeling!
You can easily stay up to date by following us on {Instagram}. If that is not your type of thing you can just sign up to the email newsletter on {Launchrock} for more news. Or just use the simplest of ways and drop me a line at {braces.playingcards@web.de}
It will really mean the world to me, if you support this project and will be a part of this journey! You, the worldwide playing cards community have been so kind and supporting. Thank you for everything!
I think, this would be an appropriate point to say thank you to every single person who helped me on this crazy project as well as everybody I annoyed to death by talking about card stuff for the past months. Without you {braces} wouldn't be possible and by far not as much fun.
