Well, It’s About Time.
Scratchboard artwork of the Forbidden back design.
INTRODUCING MARK STUTZMAN CARDS!
I have been designing playing cards since 2007, when David Blaine asked me to create a custom back design for his brand, Split Spades. I had no idea what I was doing, but I always marveled at playing cards. In fact, when I graduated from art school, I designed my business card as a playing card. I created a promotional poster featuring images of my illustrations to sell my work. Patience is a virtue, since that may have been a foretelling of what would come almost 30 years later.
The Split Spades card design was, as I’ve been told, the first individual’s custom design printed by the U.S. Playing Card Company. If anyone had the balls to do it, it was Blaine. Together, we developed concepts and what content could adorn his db brand. The shape isn’t always the easiest to work with because it’s so geometric. I admire his logo, which I did not create, by the way. It’s often incorrectly credited to me, probably because I’ve developed alternate versions that were beveled and dimensional.
Blaine has gotten many miles out of three basic back designs: Split Spades, GatorBacks, and a step-and-repeat logo back design. The tuck cases, aces, and jokers are usually refreshed along with an occasional court card to honor a friend or two. I have been the Jack of Hearts. Just look for the mole next to my eyebrow.
My card designs have been exclusively with Blaine and his close friends, with the exception of a few friends of my own, and, of course, U.S. Playing Card Co. Collectively, I gained some real experience in creating back designs and packaging that apparently has a distinct “look.” When I’m making a design, it is dictated by the content or message being communicated. I’ve never done something that was strictly decorative without it having a purpose or a story. Time and time again, collectors would ask me when I was going to create my own deck, to which I would often reply with a shrug. “Don’t know.” I was staying busy and couldn’t imagine carving out time for a personal project.
After being asked enough times, I finally began to ask myself this question, followed by an even bigger one. “What’s stopping you?” It was then that I realized I had an idea nagging me. I wanted to tell the story of my hometown, one I had already shared in a five-part documentary I was dragged into. After years of being entrenched in my town’s history, and starting and promoting a festival to celebrate it, I decided I was either being really lazy or just stupid if I didn’t make a deck of cards about it. And so I did! It’s called Forbidden. The card and tuck artwork is completed, but my launch has been delayed as I continue to edit and rewrite a companion book to tell the story.
That decision put a fire under me, and I realized I needed to create a name under which I could continue to make collectible cards. Pondering clever card brand names is fun, like Shuffler, Cardini, Well Suited, Decked Out, and the list goes on. Probably half of them are already purchased domains. It took my wife and lifelong studio mate, Laura, to tell me that “It needs to be your name!” Thankfully, she left off “you idiot.” And she qualified her assertiveness with, “People already know you design cards.”
People who know me know that I’m not comfortable tooting my own horn, even though it’s a necessary evil of being self-employed. Plus, having my name be a brand felt a little 2024. But Laura was right, yet again, and I’ll warm up to the idea with time. So, Mark Stutzman Cards it is. It’s not clever, fun, or unique, but it is just me. I have no Idea where it will lead, but I’m now invested in making a go of it.
Creating a brand around my name was yet another challenge. I didn’t want to use my initials since every contractor where I live does that, so I thought a playing card emblem seemed appropriate. The spade gets so much attention, yet few people talk about the club. “Club,” I thought, sounded kind of fun. I like nightclubs and smashing things with clubs, and with a road less traveled, maybe it will feel less predictable. I loosely worked the letter M into the top leaf of the club, so it has some meaning. The rest is purely decorative. I’ll likely modify it over time, as I did with Blaine’s brand. Perhaps I’ll start a nightspot called the Stutzman Club.
