5th Kingdom Playing Cards from PCD (ill. Maria Fedoseeva)

[PipChick]

https://www.behance.net/gallery/60401923/5th-Kingdom









Hopefully we'll see these soon

[Merlebird]

If those are the queens up top then it's a full deck.

Somebody should reach out to her and see how quickly she's planning to take my money.

[PipChick]

If those are the queens up top then it's a full deck.

Somebody should reach out to her and see how quickly she's planning to take my money.

She's stated in her comments section that it's only a concept, but I sent her a message to inquire about her future plans with this project and if we can expect these cards to ever be produced as some point in the near future or for a KS campaign to be launched to raise funds for production. (considering the design is pretty complete with the exception of a tuck, I don't seen any reason why not) Hopefully, she'll write back and we can learn more

I only go on Behance about once a month to check out what artists are up to and see if there are any card design WIP that we might see later either on KS or elsewhere. Most often, the projects are pretty incomplete concepts and are just to showcase and promote a designer's skill in executing a variety of different types of projects for possible work opportunities; still quite fascinating but, I typically don't expect too much as these still are just concepts and may never actually be produced; but this project was posted about 2 weeks ago and these cards just got me excited as I love transformation & semi-transformation decks; her concept is really well done and the pips are cleverly incorporated into the design. I do hope she would consider launching a KS if nothing else

[TheGentlemanWake]

Yep these are great

[rousselle]

I'm not generally into semi-transformation decks; Emanuel Jose and Pipmen and Natalia Silva are rare exceptions whose work has made its way into my heart.

This work here is effing brilliant and I want it!

[Bradius]

Wow! These are really well-done. The back could be better, but the fronts are great. Yes, I want to see these made, and more importantly, add a few to my collection.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

[TheGentlemanWake]

I actually love the backs. Unique. Owl goat and panther it would seem


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Merlebird]

I actually love the backs. Unique. Owl goat and panther it would seem

There's more. I see a koi curled under the goat's chin, a flanking pair of hooded cobras (with rattles - zoologically incorrect, apparently, but it looks cool!), a dragonfly under each of the owl's wings, and a bird on either side of the tiger's head.

I'm not normally a fan of one-way backs but this one is very well executed in my opinion.

[PipChick]

This is the message I received back from the artist, Maria Fedoseeva:

"I am really happy to get your message. It is great that you like my project. I can’t produce this deck right now. Unfortunately, I don’t have the proper technical knowledge to produce the deck production. Here in Russia it could be a huge challenge to print thing like this. I am really looking for a person or a company who can help me to produce this deck. I will be extremely grateful if you give me a hint of where I can do it. Anyway when I do it, surely I will let you know.

With best regards,
Maria"

Can anyone help her out? maybe an experienced creator can give her a few pointers on where to begin

[Merlebird]

Can anyone help her out? maybe an experienced creator can give her a few pointers on where to begin

Honestly I know people here like to bag on NPCC's printing capabilities but I think they could do a fine job with these. Just based on the two decks of theirs I have (Noah Whippie's Ebon and Nicholas Aaroe's Culminus: Infernum) I know they can execute full-bleed backs like the kind shown here. Now, judging by her renders she had foiled backs in mind and I don't know if they do those, but even if they do she might not be ready for that kind of sticker shock as a first-time deck designer. And NPCC can certainly handle the more common bells and whistles she might consider for the tucks: foiling, embossing, inner tuck printing, custom seals, etc. Their metallic inks don't have the pop of USPCC's, it's true, but frankly neither do the Taiwanese printers'. And NPCC would be a step up from domestic printers like NageCards and on-demand outfits like MPC. For a Russian artist they also have the advantage of being based just across the border in Ukraine.

Of course, that's my opinion as a (fairly small-potatoes) collector, not a creator who's dealt with any of these companies before. But to my mind it seems like a good opportunity for both parties.

[PipChick]

Can anyone help her out? maybe an experienced creator can give her a few pointers on where to begin

For a Russian artist they also have the advantage of being based just across the border in Ukraine.

Having several successfully funded KS campaigns under her belt and also being a Russian designer, I suggested that maybe she could try getting in contact with Natalia Silva for some guidance as well; hopefully she can get some insight on the steps involved in making this deck a reality from someone that has the experience and know-how that's done so with their own work.

[Fedoseeva]

Good evening everyone! I am the artist of this cards. PipChick shared contacts of another artists and prints companies with me. I already wrote few of them. But I see that main problem of production is that I based in Russia. I can't print good product here and it is a problem to deliver cards here if I will print them in other countries.

Maybe somebody knows companies, who can help with production and sell in the USA and Europe? I found a LUX playing artist company. Do they make help with the realization of products?

[PipChick]

Hi Maria, glad you could join us here

[rousselle]

Hi, Maria.

I may be able to help you. I'll send you a PM once you have made a couple more posts (I don't think you can reply to PMs until you've posted at least three times to the site.)

However, if Mike R. contacts you about helping out, definitely take him up on his offer. There was one other time I found a creator from overseas who I wanted to help out, and Mike beat me to the punch, and the results were fantastic. So, yeah. If you hear from Mike, go with him. If not, I'll make a few suggestions.

[PipChick]

Hi, Maria.

I may be able to help you. I'll send you a PM once you have made a couple more posts (I don't think you can reply to PMs until you've posted at least three times to the site.)

However, if Mike R. contacts you about helping out, definitely take him up on his offer. There was one other time I found a creator from overseas who I wanted to help out, and Mike beat me to the punch, and the results were fantastic. So, yeah. If you hear from Mike, go with him. If not, I'll make a few suggestions.

this community makes my heart sing

[MagikFingerz]

this community makes my heart sing

You mean like some sort of... wild thing?

[PipChick]

this community makes my heart sing

You mean like some sort of... wild thing?

OMGawd YES!

[Fedoseeva]

Thank you for your help, rousselle! I will wait when Mike R. contacts me.

This community gives me an inspiration. I just couldn’t imagine printing of this cards a few days ago. And now I really want to make the perfect product that I can hold in my hands.

[guru]

Thank you for your help, rousselle! I will wait when Mike R. contacts me.

This community gives me an inspiration. I just couldn’t imagine printing of this cards a few days ago. And now I really want to make the perfect product that I can hold in my hands.

Welcome to UC, Maria.

I do hope & wish you hold this deck in your hands within this year itself.

[sinjin7]

Honestly I know people here like to bag on NPCC's printing capabilities but I think they could do a fine job with these. Just based on the two decks of theirs I have (Noah Whippie's Ebon and Nicholas Aaroe's Culminus: Infernum) I know they can execute full-bleed backs like the kind shown here. Now, judging by her renders she had foiled backs in mind and I don't know if they do those, but even if they do she might not be ready for that kind of sticker shock as a first-time deck designer. And NPCC can certainly handle the more common bells and whistles she might consider for the tucks: foiling, embossing, inner tuck printing, custom seals, etc. Their metallic inks don't have the pop of USPCC's, it's true, but frankly neither do the Taiwanese printers'. And NPCC would be a step up from domestic printers like NageCards and on-demand outfits like MPC. For a Russian artist they also have the advantage of being based just across the border in Ukraine.

Of course, that's my opinion as a (fairly small-potatoes) collector, not a creator who's dealt with any of these companies before. But to my mind it seems like a good opportunity for both parties.

I'm probably one of the foremost advocates against NPCC here on UC. There's nothing wrong with their printing quality. Their print resolution, registration, and color saturation are all fine. For strictly collection purposes, NPCC decks are completely adequate. The shame is how the decks handle. Forget about cardistry or magic, NPCC decks are terrible for even regular card play. A couple of hours of poker and they become unpleasant, clumpy messes. It really pains me when I see a fantastically designed deck being printed by NPCC. I just don't understand why an artist would put so much heart and energy into creating a beautiful work of art and waste it by not using a high quality printer.

USPCC and the Taiwanese printers may be relatively more expensive to use than NPCC, but I've always felt if you have excellent design and competent marketing, a beautiful deck will always sell itself and meet the higher funding goals required when using the best printers. With the technology and services available in modern society, you don't have to be physically close to the printer to successfully produce a deck of playing cards. A person in Europe can just as easily work with the USPCC in America or EPCC/LPCC in Asia as they can with NPCC. Utilize a reputable fulfillment company like Gamblers and packaging and shipping is taken care of.

Maria should go with the tested and proven strategy: Use USPCC, or even EPCC or Carta Mundi, make a beautiful tuck box with embossing and foiling and use metallic inks on cards for the 2000 print run standard edition at $12:00 - $14.00 per deck shipped. Then make a 1000 print run limited Signature edition (with only 800 decks made available for sale on the KS campaign and 200 decks for her own personal private reserve) with handcrafted embellishing on the tuck or a custom carat case, use foil on the card backs, and individually number and sign the tucks or certificates of authenticity, and price them at $40.00 -$50.00 per deck shipped, and she should easily be able to attract the 450+ backers needed to blow past her funding goal of $26,000.00.

Worst case scenario (other than failing to fund) is she doesn't get too far past her goal and finishes around $30,00.00. Using USPCC with these features and a good fulfillment company will make her margins razor thin, but Maria will have the satisfaction of making her creative vision a reality and get her name out there in the playing card community, plus she should have several hundred decks still left over after fulfilling her KS backers that she can sell after KS to further pad her profits. A more likely scenario, if Maria has great marketing, is that she sells out most of her limited Signature edition decks and finishes around $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 on KS. That gives her a pretty decent chunk of change and she still has the left over decks to continue to sell and pad her profits.

Personally, I'm not a fan of (semi)transformation decks. A lot of times they seemed forced. But transformation or not, I like the themes and design on this deck and I see a foundation for a great deck. The only thing I would like to see is the back design turned into a two-way back, which can be easily done by mirroring the existing one-way design and modifying it for scale. I wish her the best and do hope to see these come to life.

[Merlebird]

Maria should go with the tested and proven strategy: Use USPCC, or even EPCC or Carta Mundi, make a beautiful tuck box with embossing and foiling and use metallic inks on cards for the 2000 print run standard edition at $12:00 - $14.00 per deck shipped. Then make a 1000 print run limited Signature edition (with only 800 decks made available for sale on the KS campaign and 200 decks for her own personal private reserve) with handcrafted embellishing on the tuck or a custom carat case, use foil on the card backs, and individually number and sign the tucks or certificates of authenticity, and price them at $40.00 -$50.00 per deck shipped, and she should easily be able to attract the 450+ backers needed to blow past her funding goal of $26,000.00.

That's the tried and true formula for established designers who've done it before, maybe. But that is an incredibly daunting game plan for a first-time creator. She hasn't put out one deck and you want her to do two? And handle the logistics of having tucks imported from the manufacturer, to her in Russia for signature, and exported back out of Russia for deck assembly? I don't want her getting discouraged because she thinks she has to do all that stuff right out of the gate. It's okay to start simple.

The only thing I would like to see is the back design turned into a two-way back, which can be easily done by mirroring the existing one-way design and modifying it for scale.

I think it's way harder to turn a one-way back into a two-way back than you're making it sound. Any time you change the aspect ratio of your canvas - which is what she'd be doing, since she'd have to fit two copies of the image in the same space instead of just one - you basically have to rethink everything from composition on up. In this case, bare minimum you'd be talking about either losing the tiger, completely reworking the owl and the goat horns, and/or making them all so small it'd be hard to appreciate the details - and adding a lot of filler out on either side. If the designer doesn't have a two-way back in mind from the beginning, resizing and cropping it in post isn't likely to be an improvement.

[sinjin7]

That's the tried and true formula for established designers who've done it before, maybe. But that is an incredibly daunting game plan for a first-time creator. She hasn't put out one deck and you want her to do two? And handle the logistics of having tucks imported from the manufacturer, to her in Russia for signature, and exported back out of Russia for deck assembly? I don't want her getting discouraged because she thinks she has to do all that stuff right out of the gate. It's okay to start simple.

I think it's way harder to turn a one-way back into a two-way back than you're making it sound. . .If the designer doesn't have a two-way back in mind from the beginning, resizing and cropping it in post isn't likely to be an improvement.

It's not 2 decks, its one deck with two tuck versions. I don't see it as an impossibly complicated task to ship a set of tucks to Russia once, sign and embellish them, and then return them. The relatively simple logistics and extra sweat equity is built into the higher cost of the limited Signature edition. In this day and age, you have to do the super-blinged limited edition to reach a higher funding goal. It's what the collectors crave and it provides the highest profit margin for artists to get them well over the hump.

Maria may be a first time deck creator, but there are more than sufficient resources here at UC to provide guidance to get her though a KS campaign. I never said it would be easy to convert something into a two-way design (and sometimes it's not practical, or even possible to do in some instances), but looking at her current design I think it's doable and simply made a suggestion, and given her body of work so far, I certainly believe she has the artistic ability to pull it off. In general, a two-way back design is always an improvement and preferable for most people. Would it be an ambitious project? Of course, but it's a credit to her talent that I see enough potential here to encourage her to go big and do it right.

[Fedoseeva]

Hello everyone! I still haven’t a good plan for this campaign.
After reading your interesting messages I’ve decided to focus on the tuck box because I know how to do design and it is easier for me than marketing and KS.

I love the idea about two versions of the tuck box, so I began with a premium version. It will be a version with gold and silver foil.

So when I was making this illustration I thought that it would be better to make one version but with the best premium quality. I plan to make only one expensive premium version with gold foil on the back of the cards and gold and silver foil on the tuck box.

This is my version and I will be happy to hear your feedback on it!

[PipChick]

First off, I'm SO EXCITED to see Maria back here again! YAY! and, of course, also for the progress she's making in designing a tuck - DOUBLE YAY!

This looks like a really, really nice tuck design - personally, I can't find anything to complain about and, as always, the gold and silver foil will be striking against the black. I could also imagine how some embossing and/or debossing could really make that crown stand out quite nicely from the rest of the silver foil of the background details.

We do miss a little bit of the same transformative features on the tuck that had been so well executed when pulled from the design of the faces onto the back design, but honestly, that's just nit-picking. This is beautiful work and thanks for sharing it with us

[Merlebird]

Hm. It's quality design work, for sure - I particularly like the font choice for the title - but for such an eclectic deck it feels very traditional, and not like a good fit with the overall aesthetic.

The back of the tuck box is usually the back design on the cards, right? Your back design is so densely detailed, with excellent use of a range of grayscale values, that I think the simple linework you have here may feel underwhelming by comparison, even in silver foil. It's certainly not a dealbreaker - I am going to buy this deck when it's printed regardless - but I think there is a way to make the tuck a more harmonious whole.

May I make a suggestion? The crown and the flowers feel out of place because they don't recall anything on the cards themselves, but I think you're onto something with the three birds. Try building something with them and with some of the other animal/plant features you've already used - like the peonies from the Six of Diamonds or the peacock feathers from the Seven of Spades, for example. It may feel a bit like overkill if you incorporate the pip shapes too obviously, since they're so prominent in the back design, but it might be nice to make some more subtle nods to them here as well.

I offer the above as humbly as possible. My aesthetic sense is by no means trained or refined, but since you were kind enough to request feedback I thought I would give mine.

[PipChick]

Hm. It's quality design work, for sure - I particularly like the font choice for the title - but for such an eclectic deck it feels very traditional, and not like a good fit with the overall aesthetic.

The back of the tuck box is usually the back design on the cards, right? Your back design is so densely detailed, with excellent use of a range of grayscale values, that I think the simple linework you have here may feel underwhelming by comparison, even in silver foil. It's certainly not a dealbreaker - I am going to buy this deck when it's printed regardless - but I think there is a way to make the tuck a more harmonious whole.

May I make a suggestion? The crown and the flowers feel out of place because they don't recall anything on the cards themselves, but I think you're onto something with the three birds. Try building something with them and with some of the other animal/plant features you've already used - like the peonies from the Six of Diamonds or the peacock feathers from the Seven of Spades, for example. It may feel a bit like overkill if you incorporate the pip shapes too obviously, since they're so prominent in the back design, but it might be nice to make some more subtle nods to them here as well.

I offer the above as humbly as possible. My aesthetic sense is by no means trained or refined, but since you were kind enough to request feedback I thought I would give mine.

solid feedback right here ^^

[Fedoseeva]

Thank you for comments!
I need a little bit of time to think about it. If I have a better idea for the tuck box, I will try to do something closer to all deck design.

[Eric Lee]

It's been a quite awhile since we saw any new transformation/semi-transform deck on Kickstarter (KS). It's what got me sucked into the playing card collecting addict... err.. hobby. Maria, glad to see you willing to take that bold step of making your creations and ideas into reality. This is a beautiful set of designs you've created.

Not sure if you've already got this contact, but I would also recommend reaching out to Agitcom (agitcom.org or on FB https://www.facebook.com/Agitcom-540159136139402/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) . They're from Ukraine and have produced a few successful as well as a few failed KS playing card projects . So they would be a great help if they have the time to advise you on making your ideas reality. You've already got a small but growing fanbase here if it does become real!

[Merlebird]

PlayingCardDecks.com apparently has "prototypes" of this deck listed for sale on eBay

Is there anybody here who follows Maria on Instagram or Behance? Has she mentioned any plans for future print runs with a better printer or more bells and whistles? USD23 is pretty steep for an MPC deck, but if there are no plans to reprint in the near future and this is the only way to own the deck, I might pull the trigger.

[flashcards]

Will at Playingcarddecks.com included these in the August pipbox. He should be carrying quality printed decks in his store shortly.