Randy Butterfield speaking :
Playing Cards and Bowling COMBINED into the perfect match – like Peanut Butter & Jelly, Milk & Cookies, Salt & Pepper, and, of course, Kickstarter and Exploding Kittens!!
After dabbling around with Playing Card designs for over three years now, I've worked on a lot of elegant, baroque and fancy designs. Last September I launched my first solo project, the Draconians. For my second solo project, I wanted to switch it up, go outside of the norm, and really have some FUN with the theme! Baroque swirls and little to no use of color are NOT allowed in this design!!
The Midnight Bowl-A-Rama designs have been in-progress throughout most of 2014, for about two hours each night. I'm proud to finally let them loose and see what happens. Let the Pins fall where they may!
Like the Draconians, the Bowl-A-Rama Decks will be printed by Legends Playing Card Co. and utilize their awesome Classic Finish. The Classic Finish is a softer and slicker paper, which is more comparable to a vintage Bicycle Deck.
The difference behind-the-scenes of this campaign will be the advantage of using Legends' fulfillment services. Using Legends for fulfillment eliminates the month-long boat ride the Decks would take on their journey to the U.S. It also allows for almost flat-rate shipping prices worldwide, since everything will ship from Hong Kong.
Who says innovation has to come with the "Collector" Decks and only involve Black, White, Gold, Silver or FOIL, FOIL and more FOIL?!! My favorite part of the Bowl-A-Rama Cards are the extremely unique Numbers Cards. The Aces through Tens on both Decks are designed to look like an overhead view of a Bowling Pins setup. 10 Pins = 10 possible PIPS, and plenty of different scoring leaves.
As a kid, I grew up Bowling on Leagues with my three brothers. It was a blast! Part of the fun of Bowling on a League is the creative and clever Team Names people come up with. The Numbers Cards for both Decks include easily readable, but subtly positioned, unique Team Names (80 different Team Names in total!). Most of the Team Names I chose are found in Bowling Alleys around the world. About a quarter of the Team Names are names I made up or chose to reference my personal life.
The Courts for the Bowl-A-Rama Decks further enhance the FUN aspect of the design. Each Court character is dressed up in their favorite Bowling attire (crowns and all!) and is ready for a night of Spares & Strikes! Like the Numbers Cards, there will be a set of Courts for the Black Deck and a separate set for the Red Deck. A Bowling Shirt just isn't complete without an embroidered name. The 24 names on the Courts are inspired from various people in my personal life, names from characters in Bowling Pop Culture, and random names that just have a Bowling "Vibe". My wife (Susan), daughter (Violet) and son (Aaron) each have their own Card!
I had a blast drawing the Joker character, so I thought it would be cool to make the 4 Jokers (2 for each Deck) named after myself and my brothers – Randy, Tony, Duane and Kevin.
The Back Cards truly evoke the Bowling spirit! The Red Deck's Back has a head-to-head design structure, and the Black Deck's Back has a Tally-Ho 'esque center based design structure.
The Tuck Boxes are colorful and have a cool retro vibe going on! The Bowl-A-Rama Logo design is inspired by Bowling Alley Signs from the '50s and '60s. Adding the "Midnight" moniker to the Bowl-A-Rama name serves two purposes. 1 - It illustrates that this is my most personal design yet and 2 - it's a little nod to all of the big Playing Card companies that make Decks for their X-brand "Casinos".
The Tucks will be printed in 4-Color Process on a Pre-Coated Premium Stock. The Pre-Coating treatment produces sharper and more vibrant colors.