Description
– Check out the YouTube review by The Card Guy
– This was launched on Kickstarter on 31 Jan 2020. Within 20 days, 424 backers contributed CA$30,927 or SGD$29,291 to bring this project to life.
🌟 Riffle Shuffle teamed up with author, illustrator, and brand designer Nathan Oser, who spent six months off the grid drawing inspiration from his own slice of coastal life, to create for you a deck that’s built on a dream and that started with a few burning questions: Why make a deck? To inspire. Inspire who? Anyone on a journey.
🌟 Imagine celebrities and movie stars at their European vacation villas. It seems like they’ve got it all. What deck of playing cards might a person like that bring to entertain guests on lakeside sojourns, to show off at sailing competitions, or to pass time on private cruises along the sun-kissed coast?
🌟 And how did those stars get to where they are? Well, sometimes the wind blows in your favour, sometimes it blows against, but either way it forces you to react in a way the can propel you toward, and even beyond, your goals. This idea was the Start/Finish Line for Sirocco.
🌟 The artwork of Sirocco is informed by classical themes and a Mediterranean aesthetic, but rendered in contemporary monoline style, which makes it all the more timeless and unforgettable. There are Two Editions: Sirocco Modern Edition (Bronze) & Sirocco Weathered Limited Edition (Pink)
🌟 The “Weathered” Edition is far more than just a color change. All the artwork has been completely redrawn with an innovative new method of digital texturing that promises to produce the most realistic wear and tear out there. Limited Edition of 1500.
🌟 Speaking of which, you’ve never seen a box with stock quite like this. The “color ravine” paper is durable and highly textured to give it an impasto effect that brings to mind the stucco and stone views of enduring Greek, French, and Italian shorelines. This requires Riffle Shuffle to employ highly accurate printing techniques to perfectly lay down the ink in those sunny Amalfi colors, also a staple of some of Riffle Shuffle’s most popular decks.
🌟 The art of this edition is also unique, most prominently on the back, where the four gods of the ordinal winds (NW, NE, SW, SE) respectively push, challenge, guide, and welcome your seafaring vessel. Because, for “weathering” the storm, you deserve a little extra!
🌟 Back design: This is their favorite part. If you’re like Riffle Shuffle, you’re keen to explore and discover, and this back design is a veritable sea chart waiting to be navigated. Everything is up for individual interpretation. Want to find out on your own? High five! Feel free to skip this section and cruise on over to the order button.
🌟 The central compass rose and five flowing rings (known as a quincunx) are to put you at the helm of your own destiny, so you can keep your bearings no matter which direction the winds of fate, breaking through the roundels, may blow.
🌟 The life preservers are exactly that. The journeys most worth pursuing are often fraught with danger. Stay safe, stay high in spirits, stay afloat, and no matter what, stay alive. For that we have the harpoon and trident in salute on the left and the oar and feather crossed on the right. Fight or flight.
🌟 The sea turtles are a charm for longevity, represent the globe, and are a majestic reminder that we can soar through oceans to distant lands but we can always find our way back home.
🌟 The doves carry an encouraging message to bring you peace of mind in the midst of strife: “The winds are fierce, yet fill our sails.” This idea is reinforced on the box with the phrase, “When night falls, see by the stars,” as we all strive day and night, and sometimes blindly, to realize our dreams.
🌟 The ornamental framing is born of a purposeful choice to avoid the usual floral decoration and acanthus leaves. Here we have stylized waves, coral reefs, thriving seagrass, and hidden pearls. In this arrangement they bring a fresh look to the card back and break up the overly common straight or repeating-pattern borders found on most playing cards.
🌟 And, last but not least, the mermaids trumpeting their conch shells provide a warning hurricane siren and a cheer to drive you onward.
🌟 Court Cards: They wanted to create an ensemble cast. The Navigator, the Vacationer, the Romantic, The Scholar, The Seductress, The Sportsman, the Racer, the Loner, the Celebrity, the Photog, the Student Abroad, and the Captain. Can you identify each?
🌟 The Weathered Edition uses vibrant yellow, soft blue, and playful pink to portray a holiday celebration.
🌟 Each number card sports and italicized index to build a sense of immediacy and momentum. No copy and paste here. For the Weathered Edition they’ve redrawn and textured each individual pip so that no two are alike. Go ahead, break out the loupe. The unique halftone accents are a stylized gust of wind, scraping across the art and blowing pieces away.
🌟 The spade is a relaxing dream-like beach scene (the very first idea imagined for the deck); the heart is a fanfare homecoming celebration and symbolized tying-of-the-knot with a loved one; the club is based on an actual event that happened near where Nathan Oser, their designer, lives, where an entire lighthouse got blown away by a typhoon, never to be found again; and the diamond is a yacht being driven by the wind, and shown racing forward in the rippling reflection below.
🌟 Jokers: Friend or Foe?
The wind gods. Maybe you’ve heard of Zephyr or Aeolis, two of the most prominent Greek wind gods. Mythology is full of fickle deities. Some are mischevious, others are benevolent, and there are those that like to play both roles in turn.
🌟 Here we have Sciron pouring out his jar of fierce and thunderous winds. He is paired with a female version of Apeliotes holding the fruits of her harvest. These two figures represent the obstacles at the start, and the bounty at the end of a long, tempering journey.
🌟 Sirocco Playing Card will be printed by CARTAMUNDI with their legendary True Linen B9 FINISH. Modern edition is Limited to 2500 Decks & Weathered Edition is only Limited to 1500 Decks.
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