I’ve always loved the notion of being a Royal Guard, watching over the royals of a medieval land, patrolling the castle walls, standing guard in gleaming armor with my comrades in arms along the walls of the throne room. With this deck I was able to partially make that dream come true.
The pips (suit icons) for this deck were really important to me, as they would most likely become the standard for the first few Happyakrz Playing Cards decks. Working from the standard shapes, I was able to make some adjustments to the framing and “stability” of the design, and the Happyakrz Pips were born.
I knew that I wanted to use my 3D modeling background, in combination with the line-art standard of playing cards, to create the new look for the Royal Guard deck, and after a few trials, I developed a great combination of effects that presented my knights to their best, majestic effect.
The backs were a bit of a trial and error process, and I came up with many great designs, but what we ended up with was a smattering of all of the best design elements. Printed in metallic inks, this back should really POP in fans!
And finally, the tuck … this went through its own variations, but ultimately, the rich tone of navy matte paper emphasized with the embossing and foil-stamping of the Royal Guard design was the perfect choice!
March 1, 2022
Here’s a short CG video I put together as a promo for the Royal Guard’s launch on Kickstarter, March 1, 2022. This gives a good approximation of the embossing and foil-stamping on the final project — I’ll post actual photos here when the deck is produced!
