Creative cards: a deck of 54 different artists

September 7, 2012 11:00 AM

Creative cards is a deck of 54 playing cards, each card by a different artists. The cards are framed in the same way with the same typography for the suits, but the art has no over-riding theme.
posted by filthy light thief (17 comments total)

Cool, thanks for posting.
posted by tuesdayschild at 11:04 AM on September 7, 2012

As works of art: very cool. As a deck of cards that would actually be practical to play with: I dunno.

I think it would be tough to recognize what is your hand at a glance given how much the artwork tends to overwhelm the number/suit of each card. So, while the artwork is pretty cool, it fails on the design/functionality aspect (at least for me).
posted by asnider at 11:05 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

St. Michael's Printshop in St. John's, Newfoundland puts together a project like this as a fundraiser once in a while.
posted by oulipian at 11:10 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I first found the project by stumbling across the six of diamonds, and for a moment, I thought and hoped that Louis Wain made a deck of cards. Then I found the deck on Gods of Art, which presents the cards in larger format and on a long page. I think that form reads better, in terms of viewing each card as a piece of individual art, though it's missing the backside art, and there are no bios or links for the individual artists.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:18 AM on September 7, 2012

These make great iPhone wallpapers.
posted by oulipian at 11:37 AM on September 7, 2012 [3 favorites]

Very nice! I could use 'em as cards (wouldn't though) because the way I fan them I can only see the top left corner of each anyway, excepting whichever card is in the front of the hand.
posted by Mister_A at 11:39 AM on September 7, 2012

The lack of a theme makes them stand out as single art pieces, but makes the deck as a whole look like the mumblejumble mess that it is.
posted by k5.user at 11:46 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I like the idea of 54 little pieces of art in your hand. I doubt you would ever get round to playing anything with them though, as too much time would be spent looking at them.
posted by Jehan at 11:56 AM on September 7, 2012

Oh, I would buy at LEAST three packs of these. One to frame & display, one to play, and one unopened pack as a collectible.
posted by KingEdRa at 12:08 PM on September 7, 2012

Poetry-and-diagrams website DIAGRAM did something kind of similar a couple years ago, as a tenth-anniversary promotion.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:10 PM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

They're awfully proud of them -- $32 for the deck.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:22 PM on September 7, 2012

They're awfully proud of them -- $32 for the deck.

If you think of them as an art piece, rather than a deck of playing cards, I think the price is fairly reasonable.
posted by asnider at 12:27 PM on September 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

I bought one. I have no intention of playing with them, but I love having neat art around and I'm pretty much out of wall space.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 12:59 PM on September 7, 2012

I should mention that the DIAGRAM cards aren't actually very good as playing cards, though they're fun to look at and read. They're printed on some kind of paper card stock, not that slippery playing card stuff.
posted by roll truck roll at 1:34 PM on September 7, 2012

Yeah, $32 is pretty damn cheap for a piece of art that 54 pretty great artists collaborated on. Thanks for the post!
posted by churl at 2:44 PM on September 7, 2012

i also find it difficult to work when i'm hongry
posted by twist my arm at 8:52 AM on September 8, 2012

Ah, I just now noticed the backside contest, with 14 more art pieces by 14 more artists.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:25 PM on September 8, 2012