The Expert at the Card Table

At the beginning of 2022, Hanjo, the director of the Erdnase movie, purchased my redrawn face card files on my website. For some reason, at that time the downloads had some hiccups, so that no email got send out automatically with the download link. A stupid error, but in the end it was quite positive for both of us.

Hanjo contacted me to get the files and introduce himself: “As a magician and filmmaker, I've been working on a docudrama about 'The Expert at the Card Table' for the past few years. You may have even heard of it. ... Within this year the movie should finally come out. Therefore, I would like to release an official deck for the movie and I'm looking for talented artists who would like to contribute to the design.”

Like always, I was busy with my own decks and the Orbits but of course I have heard of the movie and I felt honored that he asked me for help. It turned out that he is already working with a graphic designer but the designer never designed a whole deck before. That calmed me down in a way, because I knew the pressure to deliver something good in a short time wasn't really only on my shoulders anymore. Nevertheless, I designed two very minimalist back designs for him, one according to his ideas. But at the end they decided to do something that is more detailed. So mostly I’ve really just helped with questions that came up.

A few weeks later, Hanjo showed me the finished deck design. A few things here and there that I definitely would have done differently. But at the same time I was thrilled with the designer's work, especially knowing that everything was created in such a short time.

My only tip that changed the design in the end was not to round the corners of the back too much.

Without the time pressure I would have offered to draw the actor who plays Erdnase on a court card. That would have been a nice detail but I also didn't get the feeling that Hanjo really wanted that.

The film has been out since weekend. https://erdnase-movie.com/
I don’t want to spoil anything, just watch the movie if you haven’t done it yet – trust me. It’s worth to support all the work and I know you’ll like the movie as much as I do.

Hanjo invited me to the world premiere in Frankfurt, Germany on July 4. OF COURSE I accepted the invitation and had been looking forward to the premiere for days. And finally, on July 4… I had to visit the damn hospital. My neurodermatitis was so bad at the time that it made me an emergency patient. Because of this hospital visit, I slept only two hours the night before. I went there very early, hoping to be able to go to the premiere that evening. And that probably would have been possible had I not been kept waiting SEVEN hours (I'm not kidding). Warning strike by hospital doctors etc...
Completely overtired, I got out of there at about 6 pm. Too tired to drive 2 hours to Frankfurt with the risk to miss the start.

The next day I realized, I didn’t just miss all the people who are involved, I also missed the chance to meet Laura London, Ondrej Psenicka, Lloyd Barnes and of course Hanjo. That was still bugging me days later…

Of course, the focus is on the movie and not the deck. However, I have the feeling that the deck gets too little attention. Hanjo sends out the decks from his home. A few more orders would surely surprise him. Check them out:
https://www.erdnase-shop.com/merchandise/p/sagecedarwood-t25yk 

The name Erdnase has been used a lot in the card world to sell something. That's why I was skeptical about yet another Erdnase deck. But as an official deck for the movie, this deck only makes sense. And maybe I also release my Erdnase design at some point - just because there aren't already enough Erdnase decks *irony off*.

https://erdnase-movie.com/
https://www.erdnase-shop.com/

Thanks for reading

Daniel