Hey folks, it's been a busy summer! We're in the middle of production for Hobo Coins III and looking forward to getting coins in soon. Once that happens we'll be in full tilt shipping mode. Really looking forward to getting that project out to all the backers, but in the meantime I've been busy with my next project. Tentatively calling it "The Guild" and it'll be a tarot and playing card project based loosely on design from the early 1900s—one of my favorite design eras. 

This one began as a thought experiment of what a deck of tarot cards might look like if it was designed by an artisan from the arts and crafts era. As I got into it, I realized that one of my favorite artists from that era could be great source of inspiration—and he wasn't even an artist per se. Louis Sullivan was an incredible architect that the world has somewhat forgotten. I used aspects of his beautiful ornamentation as inspiration and homage on this card back design:

I'll be using that general motif for the tuck case and also integrating the design into the card faces, though here's a sample of the cards - still a work in progress:

There's a lot to do for this project, but I'm targeting a Jan. 1st 2020 date to launch on Kickstarter. Let me know what you think of the project and just a heads up that Dead On Paper will be off Facebook soon (privacy, etc.) so if you want to keep up with all our doings, be sure to join our mailing list.

Best,

Chris and Adria

Back when I first launched the Arcana project in 2015, it was intended to be a poker deck that was inspired by tarot art and had a few tarot cards as the jokers and extras. I quickly decided that the response warranted me developing a full tarot in the style of artwork that I was using. I figured out how to do that with a separate run of the Major Arcana cards as a separate printing which I termed the "Expansion" cards. It worked out well, but one thing I wasn't really able to do during the project was have a single tarot deck that had all the cards in a single fitting tuck case. It was something I wanted to do, but wasn't able to get to during the campaign.

Fast forward a couple of years and I'm releasing just that. An all new edition of Arcana where all the cards are housed within one tuck and not split up across two decks. I worked with The Expert Playing Card Company on a custom tuck and for printing the cards. 

The printing is exquisite, and that goes for the tuck and the cards:

It's been 3 years in the making, but it's my sincere joy to make the full Arcana Tarot Playing Cards available on Dead on Paper. Here's a link to check them out:

https://www.deadonpaper.com/collections/playing-cards/products/arcana-full-tarot-deck

Best,

Chris Ovdiyenko

This past week I got a great surprise - the Illustrated Guide to Arcana came in from the publisher about a week ahead of  time. I'm absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. The premium leatherette cover feels really nice in the hand, and the printing is crazy sharp and has a crispness that shows off the illustrations even better than the cards:

Can't wait to get these out to folks. This is the first book Dead On Paper has published, but I don't think it'll be the last ;)

http://deadonpaper.myshopify.com/products/preorder-the-illustrated-guide-to-arcana

The Major Arcana tarot cards are some of the richest imagery in the tarot. I've been hard at work on artwork for the expansion cards, here's a look at some of them. 

Here's a peek at a card in progress too:

Stay tuned, more art and news is coming!

-c

Now that we've finished up the first shipping from our Kickstarter campaign, We're proud to make Arcana Tarot Playing Cards available to the public. It's been a marathon shipping - 3200+ packages, 1000 international shipments, 2 months and finally we're done. We've put up the cards and coins with more items being added. 

Review the Arcana Collection here.

Now that we've gotten this shipment out, the fun work of creating all the expansion cards can get underway in earnest!