My appreciation for analog tools extends to other areas, like games. I like board games! Card games I’ve never been obsessed about but I sure played a lot of them when I was young. I still play card games, gin rummy mostly, whenever M and I want to take a break from all the digital screens and do something together. They’re so familiar and unfussy that it’s nice to have a deck around for such quick breaks.
For a long time, we just used cards that we already had, the ones that were given to us by relatives or others as promotional items. Design was never considered when we played cards. That was the case until we saw the Iceland Air deck featured in a Monocle issue, and our interest in good looking playing cards was piqued. We now have a tiny collection of interesting decks that we’re pretty proud of, ones we chose to have around, including the Iceland Air deck and the orange DDC “Thick Lines” deck. Yes, playing cards designed by Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co., the co-founder of Field Notes. Now you can kinda see why this post is here. It’s all tangentially related, I tell ya!
If you are a fan of Aaron Draplin, you’ll probably appreciate how these cards look. Orange shades, thick lines, bold text, with some humor thrown in for a good measure. Needless to say, l like them very much.
The cards feel great in my hands, too. They feel well made, not flimsy, and I really like the linen texture. The design is a lot bolder and fresher than the traditional playing cards that I grew up with. Definitely a good mood-lifter among our analog toys.
I first saw these on Aaron Draplin’s Instagram last year and snatched them up when he made them available on his own site. The cards were designed for the 2014 HOW Design Live Conference. For more insight into how they came to life, you should read this Kardify interview with the designer himself. I have the “standard” edition, not the MagicPak version but it looks like you can still get the MagicPak version from Dieline here. The “standard” version can be purchased directly from DDC here.
These days, M and I are waiting patiently for this Fictive Kin Kickstarter project to update. I want those cat cards soon! But we’re also trying hard not to fall into another rabbit hole of collecting. It seems like any interest these days can be a rabbit hole, so better watch out! :)
We’re also practicing this cool 27-card trick we saw on Numberphile. Have you seen this trick? Numberphile is a Youtube channel all about math, and I came across it while researching the Riemann Hypothesis found in Field Notes Arts & Sciences edition.
See how it all relates, eh?