Playing Card: History and Designs

I decided a good place to start before going too deep into my own design ideas was to research the playing card's history and some of the existing designs.

Playing cards possibly arrived in Europe in around 1350 ("A Brief History of Playing Cards", n.d., para.4), with the English pattern of playing cards evolving from a 15th century design which originated in Rouen, France ("A Brief History of Playing Cards", n.d., para.2).

With this long history it stands to reason that the playing card has undergone many changes in both design and interpretation.  Some believe that represented the world, "The 52-card pack with four suit signs and a hierarchy of court cards was an allusion to the late medieval world: four seasons, four cardinal points, four elements, 52 weeks in the year" ("The World of Playing Cards", n.d., para.1)

The suit's have also gone through a number of changes.    The Suit's seen on the cards we play with come from the French designs, however over time and in different countries suit's have greatly varied.   In some cases they were different coins, in others were represented by Swords, Sticks, Cups and Coins.  In the late 14th century other suits also emerged in different countries: The ‘Latin Suits’ of Swords, Batons, Cups and Coin,  German and  Swiss's Hearts, Bells, Leaves and Acorns, and the  Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds in the French Designs ("A Brief History of Playing Cards", n.d.)

Modern designs have sometimes seen these suits being replaced with ones to fit with the designers chosen theme.  Card design collaborations, or even new designs by individual designers seem to appear quite often.  

A recent project I came across was Creative Cards- a collaboration of 54 people to create a full deck of cards.  These is an amazing project to look at as it showcases such a variety of styles.  I really like the clean lines of Nate Coonrod's design and the black on black of Micheal Molloy's Queen of Spades.  These designs are a bit more detailed then a simplified style I am considering if I go with the chess piece idea, but are really nice inspiration of a slightly different direction I could take the design in.

Figure 1: Jack of Diamonds. N, Conrod. 2013. Retrieved from http://creativecards.cc/nate-coonrod/

  

Figure 2: Queen of Spades. M, Molloy. 2013. Retrieved from http://creativecards.cc/michael-molloy/

A couple of other images I really liked are Raphael Vicenzi's 3 of Spades- with has a really nice loose feel to it (I had thought about doing something with a hand-drawn look to it), and Matai Apostolescu's 6 of Diamonds.

Figure 3: 3 of Spades. R,Vicenzi. 2013. Retrieved from http://creativecards.cc/raphael-vicenzi/

Figure 4: 6 of Diamonds. M, Apostolescu. 2013. Retrieved from http://creativecards.cc/matei-apostolescu/

There are so many creative decks out there it is impossible to show all the ones I like here, but there are also some awesome designs compiled here: http://www.creativebloq.com/design/custom-playing-cards-8133759

Figure 5: The Poop Deck. J, Burlinson. n.d.. Retrieved from http://www.creativebloq.com/design/custom-playing-cards-8133759

References:

Whiteknukle playing cards. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://whiteknucklecards.com/history/briefhistory.html

World of playing cards. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wopc.co.uk/