Description
– Launched Feb 2018 on Kickstarter, 602 backers contributed CHF 24,598 or approx SGD$34,299, out of CHF 17,500 goal, to bring this project to life.
– Check out the official trailer at
– and the YouTube review by VJose32 at
– and the Kickstarter page at
– Available editions:
1. Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Silver – 2018
2. Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold – 2018
3. Leonardo MMXV Edition Silver – 2015
In the designers’ own words:
“Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Silver | Tenacious Design
The Leonardo cards are designed with great respect for Leonardo’s work, and his constant, yet daunting, strive for perfection. The two tens shown above aptly illustrate this. Every card in Leonardo MMXVIII is unique, from the pips, to the famous Leonardo mirror script, to the background parchment, to the distressing of the ink.
Leonardo MMXVIII | Updated, Improved, and Re-Imagined.
❝ Art is never finished, only abandoned.❞ ~ Leonardo da Vinci
In the same spirit that Leonardo devotedly re-worked and re-engineered his masterpieces, we have gone back to our originals and made the following improvements and enhancements:
I. Card Faces ☛ Every card face has been revisited and adjusted for brightness, gamma, contrast, colour fidelity, sharpness, hue, and saturation. All our Leonardo artwork has received delicate adjustments in the fine details to improve the overall harmony and playability of the decks.
II. Card Backs ☛ The card backs have been subtly redesigned to be more magician friendly. This improvement required great care and patience in the manual adjustment of the myriad elements on the back to maintain the organic quality of this delicately balanced design.
III. Tucks ☛ We have improved and updated the graphics on all sides for brightness and colour harmony. We have exchanged the Leonardo quotation on the inside. In addition, we are in the process of considering a change to the inside foil pattern – which could now be based on Leonardo’s Rhombus, rather than the suit symbols.
IV. Stamp Seal ☛ New postage stamp/seals have been designed, based on the Rhombicuboctahedron and include the MMXVIII moniker of the new collection.
Leonardo MMXVIII remains true to the original, but with strong substantial improvements across the complete work.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Silver | Ace of Hearts
Leonardo’s lifelong interest in anatomy was profound. He utilised these anatomical studies across the entire spectrum of his work. Our Ace of Hearts, with it’s unborn child in the womb, conjures up a symbol of life, which stands in bold contrast to the Ace of Spades, the chilling icon of Death.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Silver | Queen and Jack of Hearts
The Heart Queen is from The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, at the National Gallery in London, a work of exceptional light and shadow. Notice the integration of the background imagery on the Jack, a blend of four different folio drawings, primarily from the Codex Atlanticus.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Silver | King of Hearts
Leonardo was unsurpassed in his ability to render movement within a composition. Depicted above in Edition Silver, this is The Suicide King, the King of Hearts. This dramatic and ferocious figure comes to us from The Battle of Anghiari, the original of which is lost.”
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold | Card Back
Leonardo was keenly interested in the hidden patterns of nature. He found great delight in rendering subtle details. The back of the cards feature the beloved L’Uomo Vitruviano, surrounded by numerous small drawings of the master.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold | Jack of Spades
This iconic work of Leonardo, The Bust of a Warrior in Profile, initiated our idea of designing art playing cards based on his Renaissance masterworks. Compositing this card, The One Eyed Jack, from the soldier’s head to the crossbow elements demonstrated that the concept, though dauntingly difficult, had great potential. Leonardo’s original silverpoint drawing can be found today in The British Museum.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold | King and Queen of Spades
A most royal couple indeed! The King of Spades, shown in Edition Gold, is sourced from four different works in graphite by Leonardo. The Queen, also rendered from a variety of folio work, is portrayed amid the timeless Tuscan landscape.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold | Two Jokers
This empathetic view of a prisoner begging, set within the front left section of the drawing for The Adoration of the Magi, forms the basis for one of the two Jokers. The other is from a whimsical costume drawing for a masked ball, done for one of Leonardo’s wealthy patrons.
Leonardo MMXVIII Edition Gold | Ace of Spades
Careful study of this card reveals the Rhombicuboctahedron at the centre. Leonardo drew this geometrical illustration for his friend Luca Pacioli’s book The Divine Proportion. It is believed to be the first of it’s kind. The anatomical study of a human skull is from The Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. All together they conspire to form The Death Card, the Ace of Spades.
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