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I have been busy the past week helping out with our troop only "best ever" scout camp, which was epic.

Anyway, back to reality and tons of work. I was hoping my decks would be waiting for me, but alas no. I will have to wait a bit longer I guess.

That said, I am super stoked at the future prospects of a special edition deck. So, I will just say "Thank you Montenzi".

Hopefully I can post the arrival of my Number 7 decks soon.

Edit: I posted too soon. They just arrived.
Edit again:

I just opened one of my classic decks...

That is the improvement over Neo Wave I have been waiting for. The only person to improve on the use of cold foil for playing cards was Montenzi...again. This is sets a new bar for other designers hoping to push the boundaries of what cold foil can do. What I find amazing is how the white in the courts pops and stands out amongst all of the shiny cold foil.

Thanks again for all reviews and confirmations!!! I did not respond to every post, but read everything!

1. Thanks to everyone for your support!

2. I revisited the artwork I had one year ago when Mike confirmed the project. Wow! That was just a concept! How? It's a completely different deck now.

3. I am very happy with the result!

4. I have TONS of ideas on how to make No.7 even more classic. I know for sure that at least two or three unpublished back design ideas could be used in almost any of my projects.

5. I like that you did not kill me for the last-minute redesign of the borderless back.

6. And yes, this deck is still unique as I cannot find another cold foiled deck to use as a reference.

Any news on UC2020?

p.s. I give up taking photos of the deck. 3D images are more accurate! Updated 3D: http://montenzi.nz/files/uc2019digital.zip

I got my mixed brick and I continue to be blown away that cold-foiled decks can maintain this level of handling. If there is one thing I would nit pick about is that I wish the courts had more variation. If you had just a quick glance at all the courts, they almost look like repeating courts. They are all facing the same direction and I would like to see more variation in hair styles and clothing to help differentiate them more, especially between the Kings and Jacks. But I love the foiling on both the front and backs of the cards, love that there's no pesky and unnecessary deck seal, love that there is cello wrapping both the tuck outside and the cards inside, and I really love the extra tucks you threw in. This is a very excellent and worthy addition to the line of Annual UC decks.

I picked up my parcel from the PO box today. What I can say now is "Montenzi is the king of designers delving into foil medium for custom playing cards".

Can’t seem to attach a video but want to share this
I prefer hot foil in general, but this is amazing!

https://www.reddit.com/r/playingcards/c ... ame=iossmf

After looking at the cards further, I realised the cold foil has colour gradients. I don’t own a lot of cartamundi cards, but this is the first time I noticed foiling with gradients. Is this something new not done before? It’s most obvious in the jokers.

supernova wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:27 pm I prefer hot foil in general, but this is amazing!
After looking at the cards further, I realised the cold foil has colour gradients. I don’t own a lot of cartamundi cards, but this is the first time I noticed foiling with gradients. Is this something new not done before? It’s most obvious in the jokers.

Thanks for the video!

It's not something new, but there are just a few decks on the market with this feature (overprinting vs. using silver/gold/holofoil). Why? I have no idea. It's FUN designing such decks! I am aware of two decks (foil on two sides of the cards), both printed by Cartamundi and designed by me There is another deck printed by Somnium Cards, but they use green color only to color foil. At least it's something different than gold/silver only.

Yes, epcc/lpcc uses cold foil in some projects. If we talk about technical details only, it's impossible to beat Cartamundi. It's like comparing 20 years old Hyundai Getz and Maserati. Their foil looks cheap. I know why, but it's too boring to explain.

p.s. I see deliveries in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea) but not in Canada. Transit time confirmed: 18 days to Asia. Not bad at all.

montenzi wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:11 am

supernova wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:27 pm I prefer hot foil in general, but this is amazing!
After looking at the cards further, I realised the cold foil has colour gradients. I don’t own a lot of cartamundi cards, but this is the first time I noticed foiling with gradients. Is this something new not done before? It’s most obvious in the jokers.

Thanks for the video!

It's not something new, but there are just a few decks on the market with this feature (overprinting vs. using silver/gold/holofoil). Why? I have no idea. It's FUN designing such decks! I am aware of two decks (foil on two sides of the cards), both printed by Cartamundi and designed by me There is another deck printed by Somnium Cards, but they use green color only to color foil. At least it's something different than gold/silver only.

Yes, epcc/lpcc uses cold foil in some projects. If we talk about technical details only, it's impossible to beat Cartamundi. It's like comparing 20 years old Hyundai Getz and Maserati. Their foil looks cheap. I know why, but it's too boring to explain.

Thanks! Just so I understand correctly, it’s a single colour foil but you print CMYK ink over it? Is this what you mean by overprinting? I thought the foil had gradients!

Yea I wasn’t impressed by the cold foil on the Entertainer deck. It’s too grainy. So... why?

But the hot foil application is nice.

Color over silver cold foil. It is a fairly simple process, but I understand that it is tough in that it is really difficult to determine exactly how the color will turn out. This process is used in a lot of other applications, such as marketing materials. I think possibly the easiest comparison is printing over Mylar balloons. You are just printing over a foil surface. It does dull the reflectiveness a little, but I find the effect still amazing.

Bradius wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:16 am Color over silver cold foil. It is a fairly simple process, but I understand that it is tough in that it is really difficult to determine exactly how the color will turn out. This process is used in a lot of other applications, such as marketing materials. I think possibly the easiest comparison is printing over Mylar balloons. You are just printing over a foil surface. It does dull the reflectiveness a little, but I find the effect still amazing.

Thanks for the explanation! I wonder how things will turn out if it’s printed over holo foil rather than silver foil!

supernova wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:40 am Thanks! Just so I understand correctly, it’s a single colour foil but you print CMYK ink over it? Is this what you mean by overprinting? I thought the foil had gradients!

Yea I wasn’t impressed by the cold foil on the Entertainer deck. It’s too grainy. So... why?

But the hot foil application is nice.

@Bradius explained this correctly. As soon as you apply foil using all available methods (hot, cold, lamination), you can overprint it. But most of the time, it's not cost-effective, and results are not predictable. To overprint, you need a perfect registration. In the case of cold foil by Cartamundi, it's 0.01-0.03mm. You can find some silver dots/lines if the registration is not ideal. Overprinting is hard to achieve with hot foil and lamination.

You can also try it at home! Lamination is the simplest method. Print something in black on your laser printer and then use special (?) foil and your office laminator All black areas will be foiled. It's the same idea - you need heat or glue to attach the foil to paper. Search youtube! Some commercial laminators exist so it's also not new. This method is good and cheap if you need one color only.

For me, designing such decks is fun, not tech! And I find cold foil more suitable for such fun work as I can use more than one color.

New review by Magic Orthodoxy.



Thanks!

Check this @decknowledgy post (photos and videos)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCTVZuiHcTy/

Thanks for the share, Alex!!

Btw, how is the cold foil applied to the cards? Is it one-color-one-plate? Or is it set to one plate with multiple colors and printed all at once? It's just so fascinating how the cold foil could be applied with such precision and registration...

Here is a good page with information on cold foil process.

http://www.itwfoils.com/design-center/u ... ld-foiling

Bradius wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 2:35 pm Here is a good page with information on cold foil process.

http://www.itwfoils.com/design-center/u ... ld-foiling

Thanks Brad! That's pretty informative, so basically it means that having the colors printed first and then coating the surface with either gold or silver foil, if I'm not mistaken?

I am not sure completely, but I am fairly sure to get colored foil (other than like gold foil or silver foil), you first have to apply the cold foil and then ink over the silver foil to get the colors. They are not as bright as hot foil and there are some drawbacks. However, you can get near infinite colors over the silver foil. It sounds like that there is some UV process involved in bonding the cold foil, but I think it is essentially printed onto the surface instead of pressed onto the paper as is the case with hot foil. However, I could be wrong.

@Decknowledgy, the process is simple:

Design -> Kickstarter -> Paper -> Glue printing-> UV camera -> Silver/Gold/Holo foil -> CMYK/PMS Printing -> Coating -> Embossing (texture) -> Cuttung -> Wrappng -> Packaging -> Backers

If you look at courts, you can find that some areas are shinier as dark colors on top of foil will remain relatively dark. Bright colors will always shine. Everything was printed, including gold colors. Even silver was slightly colored by light grey.

Double/two color fans now

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCYdhS6scP1/

All I heard was design, Kickstarter, paper, magic, cutting, sorting, shipping, enjoyment...

Bradius wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:51 pm enjoyment...

I went back to edit my post and add this! It's the most important part of the process + magic

One last post with photos and video from @Decknowledgy

I like this Classic deck fan!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCgLmdCsmAy/

p.s. All three decks are available in my montenzi.nz shop EU/UK friendly shipping is subject to availability.

Thanks for all the reposts, Alex!!

New review by The Card Guy (@KingfisherZero on UC) https://www.instagram.com/thecardguyyt






Thanks!

I got my decks a little while ago and all three editions are definitely among my favourites this year. The quality of the craftsmanship is just amazing. Thanks Alex!