"Egomaniac faces" 🌝

I took some time to redesign my King of Diamonds. I'm quite happy with it so far, but I'm sure it will take me a while to get completely used to it. It’s very likely that I’m also going to change a lot more details but I’m so happy with the card that I wanted to share it with you.

When I started to draw people on court cards I thought it's a good idea to make these faces as eye-catching and different as possible. Over the years I changed all my courts to come closer to the standard design. But I never really changed my own card since I got so used to it. Right now, I’m also not sure if I really want to replace my old King of Diamonds completely. I need to look at the new card a bit longer until I decide.

On the left you see a version from 2014/2015 with a crown. Never used it in an USPCC deck. The triangle shape from the head and crown without the long hair simply looks weird.

Magic Orthodoxy reviewed the MxS Casino Playing Cards on his YouTube channel a few weeks ago. One guy sad that he would “hate decks with egomaniac faces” and he won’t buy any of them. “Chris Ramsay made a change on his last deck.” (…) It's sad that some people are so stuck thinking negatively instead of appreciating certain details.

When I design a deck of cards, it's a lengthy process. I'm creating a piece of art that is very close to my heart. When I saw Madison’s King of Diamonds for the first time nine years ago, I was blown away by the fact that this is his face on the court card but it still looks like a standard court card with all its details. From an artistic point of view, I was fascinated that it is possible to do this. I didn’t think, “wow how egomaniac.” As I have said, my decks are very close to my heart. It’s something personal that I share with the world, where I'm happy when it gives something as well to other people. Since I'm able to do it, of course I put my own face into my own decks. It’s like a signature that every artist puts under his own canvas.

The standard USPCC King of Spades is David, King of Israel from the Old Testament. The King of Hearts is Charlemagne, King of France. The King of Clubs is Alexander the Great etc. All these court cards have real people as model. That’s ok but nothing else…

“Chris Ramsay made a change on his last deck.” – a change by keeping everything standard? The standard faces are "ok", especially when you want to keep it standard for magic purposes. But it’s almost a slap in the face for every designer / artist if you compare standard faces - where nobody put even one second of work into it anymore - with custom faces that take hours and hours of work.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

Much love

Daniel