Playing Cards

I was looking around online and saw this picture of beautiful playing cards. It got me thinking about how something as simple as playing cards can be turned into beautiful typography.  I then started looking for other playing cards and the different and creative ways designers have put twists on them and used really nice typography.

This is the deck that I saw first and got me thinking. It's design by Simon Frouws, and was picked by David Copperfield as one of his "necessary luxuries" in Departure Magazine in 2013.

Artisan Cards

I love the branding of it all. The very decorative elements, especially the spade on the back filled with all the awesome flourishes.

This one is by Chris Cavill, an english based designer.

Type Deck

I love the beautiful ligatures on all of the cards. The designer made them very elegant. I also love the small detail of the pattern on the back of the cards, the image on the face cards, the slight texture on the others, and just how all of it works together but there's still some big differences between the far cards and number cards (not sure if that's the right terminology). It's really the very subtle details in the type that make it so elegant and beautifully done.