My final Project

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My final project for this class was a challenge.  I created a deck of cards that would use the remainder of my check list and work as gifts for my family.  After I was unable to get a price quote for producing mass quantities of my magnetic book, I had to fall back on something else.  So, I chose something that was useful and I thought I could use variable data. 

I started this project with 28 cards and the box.  That was 2 suits of 13 cards, plus two jokers.  I was originally going to have the symbols for the cards be done by variable data, however, I realized this would have taken a lot more work for the printer.  Instead, I created the shapes and substituted them in myself.  This brought my “pages” total up to 55.  (52 cards, +2 business cards + 2 Jokers).

One of the most fun parts of this project was also the most challenging.  I hand drew the face cards to use as my bitmap images.  I had to start by sectioning off a rectangle for my image area, then drew the face of the character, then copied the image and taped it on the opposite side.  This gave me two identical “shoulders”.  I filled one in, then copied and taped again to create the final product.  Then the whole image was scanned in and corrected in Adobe CS5 Photoshop.  Here I manipulated the color and direction they were facing (so that I could make then 4 suits) as well as shrunk the size so that they would fit on my cards.   I did this process with all three cards.   

The logo was based off a logo I made my sophomore year.

I really enjoyed working on this project, however when it was printed I found some problems.  First, I had not set up an individual document for the back cover of my cards.  I talked to my printer about this and he pulled it out into a new document.  The printing process wasn’t difficult after that.  However, when I got my cards I was severely disappointed.  I had asked for my cards to be cut to their 2”x3” measurements.  When I got them back they were almost 1/4” shorter than I’d asked for on both sides.  I had also had to make a guess on the width of the box because I didn’t know how thick the cards would stack.  The box is just a little bit too thin. 

I do not have the money at this time to re-print my cards, but I will probably adjust it for future use.