Gakondo Playing Cards by Rwandan designer

[Decknowledgy]

I might have talked about this a little elsewhere where I said Kickstarter doesn't work for a good majority of countries

Backstory:
So last October there was this guy, Maxime (https://www.instagram.com/maximus_099/), on Instagram who saw my page and dm-ed me to ask about playing card related knowledge. Turns out he was a graphic designer from Rwanda who was designing his very first playing card project, aimed at producing a deck for Rwanda's tourism and culture without cheaping out. I was pretty stoked at that time that he reached out to me since I was relatively new to the collecting community, but I did my best to reach out to Lorenzo (knew him only as Stockholm17 back then), King of Cards, JPGames, and a couple of Kickstarter creators for more information.

So I gave him as much information as possible including who to print with, different finishes, how to crowdfund, how to fulfill, different categories of card users (cardistry, magic, gameplay), and especially how a balanced deck should look. My peak participation was giving him advice when the deck he designed went WAY too customized that it lost the readability of traditional faces. At one point he was so happy to ask me to help campaign for him on Kickstarter, which he couldn't do because Rwanda wasn't on Kickstarter's country list, but I said I'm just a graduate student not looking for any opportunity to make profit out of my hobby (at least just yet). So afterwards he tried reaching out on his own to more people in the business, and I think one point he was face-timing with @UnitedCardists (I don't know who's behind this account ... sorry ha)

After all this time, recently he's finally printed his prototype of 200 decks from Cartamundi and it sold out immediately in a Rwanda storefront. But that's got to be extremely pricey for that low run with Cartamundi... Now he's planning to go into mass production but absolutely needs crowdfunding. There's a couple of questions he would like to know and get feedback from UC, but before that, here's the card based on the Rwandan culture:






(Lower right is the back design)


Back design


















The deck is named "Gakondo"---meaning "Heritage" in the Rwandan language and based on the Rwandan culture approach.

So here are some questions he's looking for feedback on:
1. Suggestions on the design?
2. What's the best company for tuck printing aside from Cartamundi?
3. For cardistry, which printing company and what finish would you suggest?
4. What would be the best crowdfunding platform for him aside from Kickstarter? (Rwanda is excluded from KS)
5. If eventually KS is the best option, how would he be able to approach the website or who could help him with the campaign?

Asking for honest feedback please

ps. I've encouraged him to join the forum, so if he eventually registers he might be able to reply directly. For now, I'll pass him the link to this thread.

Edit: He's created a new profile for the design on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gakondoplayingcards/

[Räpylätassu]

For starters, make the courts bigger with less white space. Also the court cards look nice but too repetitive, each court card must be more unique looking. The Jokers are nice. Put more color to the back design, it's Africa, bold and rich colors please!

KS is the best option. Find a partner who handles the campaign and shipping.

Cartamundi is a good choice, also popular lately. USPCC is a good choice too, although more expensive. LPCC/EPCC's "Classic Finish" is also one of the best choices for good quality.

Oh, please join the forum. Would be absolutely fantastic to have African members, especially a deck designer!

[JuFiN]

I agree with Räpylätassu and wanted to expand the point about white space to the backs as well, they feel like there is a lot of empty space, adding color could benefit that. Also the inclusion of the suits (spades hearts etc.) on the back as part of the border design is something that I feel should not be there. Everyone knows this is a deck of cards, including the suits in the design is unnecessary and looks bad in my opinion. Instead maybe incorporate a design that better suits the theme, I wont pretend to know what that would be exactly.

There is a lot to like here and I look forward to supporting the deck on kickstarter or wherever it ends up!

[hsbc]

A Rwandan playing card designer?! I am stoked

Yeah, the backs need less white space - at first I thought it was a very stylized pip card! And the font for the "A" on the ace cards needs to match the rest of the indices

[Decknowledgy]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm reading these and passing information to him, hopefully he'll be able to find this helpful or even come on board personally. But at the moment please don't mind that I won't be giving quick answers to address these issues since I'm not the designer but the messenger, though I'm sure he's very open to discussion!

One thing that I maybe am capable to answer to is that keep in mind that this is still a deck orientated towards promoting culture and not fully for playing card purpose, so for the blank spaces and back design those are modifiable, but for the Aces I'm guessing he would like to leave it like that for the sake of the cultural elements. I'll let him know your suggestions!

[JuFiN]

I think you may have misunderstood the feedback about the aces. Its about the font on the letter A, not the artwork contained on the card.

Literally the letter A in the corner is in a different font from the K,Q,J of the court cards. Would look strange and out of place when playing games, particularly trick taking games where you have a fan of cards in hand. I assume that the font in use (what appears to be pretty much the default playing card font) is not significant culturally but what do I know!

I would add in to this as well, the size of the corner indices of the different suits appears the be inconsistent. With the clubs (and hearts) in particular being notably smaller than the other suits, again just talking about the suit index under the number in the corner. They really should be more consistently sized.

[Decknowledgy]

I think you may have misunderstood the feedback about the aces. Its about the font on the letter A, not the artwork contained on the card.

Literally the letter A in the corner is in a different font from the K,Q,J of the court cards.

Thanks for the clarification, probably because it's late and I'm dozy

[Decknowledgy]

There's also a black back, does it make more sense than the white?

[hsbc]

I think the black back is MUCH better

There's no way to buy one of these decks??

[Decknowledgy]

I think at the moment he's engaged with the prototype sale that's exclusively in Rwanda and for Rwanda tourism, not sure if that's accessible but here's a new IG profile he created for the deck: https://www.instagram.com/gakondoplayingcards/

[JuFiN]

Black deck is 100% better imo, really addresses many of the issues I had with the previous back. That empty space doesn't feel as empty anymore! And it has a white border to match with the fronts which is fantastic.

[niyomax85]

Thanks guys ,
it's good to be here and getting all these feedbacks from Cardist community , i'm still new to this world of cards.

[MagikFingerz]

The first post of what seems to be the designer slipped through our cracks, but has now been approved (see the post above mine).

Welcome to UC!

[Decknowledgy]

Thanks guys ,
it's good to be here and getting all these feedbacks from Cardist community , i'm still new to this world of cards.

Hi brother!! Welcome abroad!!
So glad you've finally managed to come personally

[niyomax85]

Hello everyone,

Thank you all for the very useful feedback, we are currently working on improving our cards. As we design our next cards we are thinking of the right material to use for printing them and we would really appreciate feedback from cardists.

After consulting with the printing company these are the options they have given us:

Option 1:
Size cards : 63x88 mm
Number of cards : 56 (52 cards + 4 jokers)
Printed on Corona 300 (laminated playing card board)
Front & back printed in CMYK
With playing card varnish
Packed in cello and printed tuckbox + extra cello on the outside !

Option 2:
Size cards : 63x88 mm
Number of cards : 56 (52 cards + 4 jokers)
Printed on Superluxe 320 (laminated playing card board) with linen finish
Front & back printed in CMYK
With playing card varnish
Packed in cello and printed tuckbox + extra cello on the outside !

What option would be the best among the two mentioned above for standard high quality decks of cards and what would be the best material for "cardistry" standard decks of cards (Including the paper and box material) ? Which company would you recommend between cartamundi, makeplayingcards (MPC), and taiwan playing cards company (TWPCC) ?

Additionally, how important is it for cardists to have a seal on the deck of cards? what are the recommended practices for the tuckbox ?

Lastly, what would you guys suggest in terms of how to get funded on kickstarter or indiegogo since Rwanda is not part of the list of eligible countries?

[Decknowledgy]

The first print run of the prototype has been feature for its cultural aspects on a East African News outlet
Link here: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazi ... index.html

I think the description said it pretty well:

The cards are called Gakondo Playing Cards. Gakondo is Kinyarwanda for traditions. This deck of cards doubles up as an archive, preserving imagery of Rwandan heritage from clothing, hairstyle, dance, music, art and craft.

Gakondo is a unique deck of playing cards.

Instead of the normal red and black spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds, the Gakondo playing cards are colourful and feature cultural imagery images of an Igisabo (butter churn), inanga (music instrument), agaseke (the round woven basket), icumu (spear), ingabo (shield), and Imigongo (cow dung art) and with intore (traditional dancer) and old men dressed in the umwitero (traditional wear reserved for the noble class) on the front side of the cards.

The Gakondo are Rwanda’s first locally-designed cards and the only gaming product that has been designed in the country.

The cultural imagery are paired to complement with each other, such that, the image of the intore dancer is paired with the ingabo based on the Rwandan warriors who carried the spear and shield to the battlefield.

The dancing figure is characterised by elegance and grace, emphasised by the billowing silhouettes of the Intore dancers’ attire.

The women dressed in imishananas (Rwanda’s colourful national dress) is paired with the agaseke (basket) which is used to carry and store food and is carried by being elegantly balanced on the head.

Ladies and gents, we're witnessing Rwandan history here!

[Adonael]

I have no problem at all with the white space, I think it works and generally am a sucker for breaking the rules. The problem for me is just the repeating colour-swapped courts. If all the courts were unique I would absolutely help fund this. As for some of the other recent questions, absolutely should have linen finish, out of those Cartamundi is the most highly regarded, seals aren't a big deal, shiny tuck boxes are awful make sure whatever you do is matte. Maybe you can find a partner in a different kickstarter-friendly country to work with you and operate the project from there to get around the limitation.

[niyomax85]

Thank you for the feedback, we will consider your comments regarding the box and paper quality.

Here is a preview of the designs for our upcoming cards, to give you an idea of the direction we are taking.

Each character will be unique with a unique set of clothes and tools.

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[Räpylätassu]

I like it! Especially the fact that every court card is unique!

Could you give the court cards some color? I don't know much about traditional Rwandan attire but somehow I imagine it's not black-and-white

[acgardesign]

Thank you for the feedback, we will consider your comments regarding the box and paper quality.

Here is a preview of the designs for our upcoming cards, to give you an idea of the direction we are taking.

Each character will be unique with a unique set of clothes and tools.

20190320_144756.jpg

20190320_144821.jpg

IMG-20190319-WA0012.jpg

IMG-20190320-WA0013.jpg

Heyo, these look awesome and fresh to the industry! Originality is hard to come by now-a-days. I'm not much a drawer and wish I could strike up illustrations like this!

[Eric Lee]

This looks great! So good to have such a diverse group of designers here. The new design looks good, but as stated, there needs to be colours!

The amazing diverse colours of African traditional fashion needs to be displayed loudly and proudly. Seeing just black, white and red is just such a letdown when I see them .

Also, there needs to be a card which explains the different fashions like mentioned by Decknowledgy .

[Decknowledgy]

A quick note for people interested in this deck:

Maxime, the designer of this deck, sometimes has issues with accessibility with UC due to internet problems/blocks from his location in Rwanda. So if we haven't heard from him for some time, it's not because he doesn't want to engage the discussion but because his replies sometimes fail.

In fact, he's already almost finished with a 2nd version of this deck, and boy... I'm pretty sure folks will be amazed!

[niyomax85]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the late reply, I agree with you there needed to be more colors, so we went with gold to give them a more premium feel. Also characters are now dressed with a mix of gold, brown, black, while their skin remains with a dark gray tone except for the jokers. 2 joker cards will be included and the remaining 2 cards will provide more information about the characters and tools illustrated, and the culture in general.

[Decknowledgy]

Maxime, I'm so happy to be able to participate in this process!! Yes this was even better than what we've discussed and I'm agreeing to the decisions made here for the design. Thanks, buddy!

[wingedpotato]

These are looking fantastic!

[Decknowledgy]

While Maxime is working on the KS launch for the 2nd edition along with a collaborator, his design house has came up with this EPIC promo for the first edition which sold massively in Rwanda!

The quality and content of this promo is UNRREAL and unmatched...

EDIT: The video has been taken down for further polish

[Harvonsgard]

While Maxime is working on the KS launch for the 2nd edition...

Pretty cool deck, and a great job from you (@Decknowledgy) to bring people together. Just awesome.

If I understand correctly, the 1st edition where the 200 decks by Cartamundi, which were only available in Rwanda. And the 2nd edition will be the gold/black back design cards, which then will come to kickstarter, right?

[Decknowledgy]

While Maxime is working on the KS launch for the 2nd edition...

Pretty cool deck, and a great job from you (@Decknowledgy) to bring people together. Just awesome.

If I understand correctly, the 1st edition where the 200 decks by Cartamundi, which were only available in Rwanda. And the 2nd edition will be the gold/black back design cards, which then will come to kickstarter, right?

Yup, you got that right. This promo is meant for the first, and he's working on the promo of the second at the moment. He's also just visited Cartamundi HQ a few days ago and everything was awesome and gaining support from the company

[niyomax85]

Hi guys,
it's been long since we updated you on the Gakondo playing cards campaign from Rwanda.
We've been having some setbacks on the side of kickstarter, and we were not able to kickstart due to the limitation of our location, but we've been reaching out to different people to run our campaign through them. and soon we will be communicating the date for the campaign.

but on the design side we are 98% done ,
doing some last details inking on the kings , queens and jacks.

[Decknowledgy]

Quick update on the ongoing design by Maxime:

WhatsApp Image 2019-07-11 at 11.00.12.jpeg (113.29 KiB) Viewed 8925 times

The Queens are still undergoing upgrades and this is the base sketches: