Playing Card: My Ideas and Research

One of my ideas I had while brainstorming was to match chess pieces to their respective playing card.  That both games used Kings and Queens, and how the other pieces would match up was something I had thought about as a child.  I thought this idea would suit a clean, simplified style  

I had the feeling that this concept would probably have already been explored so I did some research online and found the three following designs. 

Figure 1: Icelandic Chess playing cards. Alf Cooke. 1942. retrieved from http://www.wopc.co.uk/alfcooke/chess.html

Figure 2: Chess Playing Cards (Italy). n.d. Retrieved from http://www.hgimages.dircon.co.uk/playcard/ita/catita.htm

Figure 3: Chess Themed Playing Cards. Oscar Chea. 2013. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/gallery/7412287/Chess-Theme-Playing-Cards

Another idea was to create a nursery rhyme themed pack.  I had thought first that there were so many nursery rhymes with kings and queens and jacks that I could use these for inspiration and draw characters based off them.  For example there are rhymes about Jack- who jumped the candle stick, or who ate pudding pie in a corner; or the Queen eating bread and honey.  Or even:

The Queen of Hearts

She made some tarts,

    All on a summer's day;

The Knave of Hearts

He stole those tarts,

    And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts

Called for the tarts,

    And beat the knave full sore;

The Knave of Hearts

Brought back the tarts,

    And vowed he'd steal no more

I found that the nursery rhyme idea was popular amongst other designers with many such decks already existing, although seen more often in old maid decks.

Figure 4: Mother Goose Cards. n.d. retrieved from http://www.blackdogaccessories.com/card_games_main18.htm

Figure 5: Old Maid. n.d. Retrieved from https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/190971689/vintage-old-maid-childrens-playing-cards?ref=related-3

Figure 6: Old Maid Cards. n.d. Retrieved from https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/201850641/vintage-childrens-old-maid-playing-cards?ref=related-5

The third idea I chose to research was the Animal deck idea- where each suit would be represented by a different animal eg cats, dogs, birds, and rodents or maybe reptiles.
I found a couple of decks with animal themes but neither of these examples use the suit set up. In the WWF cards the different suits seem to relate to different habitats

Figure 7: WWF Animal Kingdom cards.  n.d. Retrieved from http://juliakuo.com/my-work/animal-kingdom-playing-cards/

During my research I also came across this awesome inverted colour deck

Figure 8: Black Tiger Playing Cards. Ellusionist. n.d. Retrieved from http://www.kardify.com/2014/05/deck-view-black-tiger-playing-cards.html