Welcome to El Reino de los Muertos – Expert Edition, an artistic and cultural project that celebrates life and death in the Mexican culture. This project is not only a card game, it is a narrative, a desire to recover and exalt Mexican traditions.
In this tribute – to our ancestors and heroes, to Guadalupe Posada and to the great Mexican engravers; to Death, to Life — you’ll find iconic characters from Mexican culture, from classics like La Catrina, to revolutionary heroes and pre-Hispanic gods.
We retake iconic elements of Mexican culture, from pre-Hispanic times to the present day, and adapt them congruently to the classic language of the poker deck, with a deep respect for the aesthetics of our country and the style of the court card figures.
We also intended to create a balanced and eloquent graphic mix that harnesses the power of the traditional aesthetics of the Day of the Dead and expresses itself through the language of Poker figures to achieve a style never seen before in this type of object.
“Only those who pass the nine tests can enter the Mictlan. Only he who is worthy will live eternally with his ancestors in The Kingdom of the Dead. ”
El Reino de los Muertos – Expert Edition Playing Cards
El Reino de los Muertos – Expert Edition Playing Cards features original art for every card it contains (court cards, aces, joker, regular number cards and back design) inspired in the Day of the Dead, the design focuses on 2 main elements:
The back design combines traditional elements that represent the day of the dead like the cempasúchil flower color (the traditional flower used to honor the dead), papel picado, pre-hispanic imagery and calaveras.
The aces integrate a combination of elements from the traditional celebration of the day of the dead and pre-hispanic glyphs and symbols, For the Ace of Spades the traditional Calavera is at the front and center, mixed with some Cempasúchil flowers and pre-hispanic imagery adorning it.
The court cards have been designed to depict different iconic characters from the Mexican culture in a Calavera / Catrina fashion (Revolutionary heroes and pre-Hispanic gods.)
The tuck box design centers around the celebration of the day of the dead integrating each and every classic element from the day of the dead celebration over a black layer that helps the designs and colors pop out.
The Jokers designs are a Devil that represents the story of the graphic language of the past in México and a Bagpiper that represents the foreign armies that have helped Mexico in past wars.
The Numbers, Indexes and Figures (spades, hearths, diamonds and clubs) have been combined with modern elements elements to enhance and complement the unique curves and lines that form the overall design of the deck.
The decks will be printed by Cartamundi on their new Slim Line B9 finish a specific varnish designed for thinner stock, better handling and durability.
We are aiming to print 3000 decks for this version of the El Reino de Los Muertos Deck.
Fulfillment will be done from México and as soon as we get the cards from Belgium (where Cartamundi its located) we will ship each and every pack. Every shipment will be done through Correos de México (with tracking numbers), México’s national mail service. We are currently evaluating a EU fulfillment option for our EU backers.
How does ADD-ONs work?
You add one or more items on top of your current pledge. If you selected a reward (for example: 2 decks) and you want to add one or more of the following items:
– MORE ADD-ON OPTIONS TO BE ADDED LATER
How do i make it work?
Your Reward price + Add-On price = Total pledge
Here are the steps:
1. You back the project by choosing a reward. In this way you become a backer.
2. Once you decided what to add, you go to the campaign page and you find the Manage your Pledge button. It is the first thing you see under the kickstarter logo on top right of page
3. You do a simple sum and you add the amount of the item you want.
These are the original artwork pieces done using watercolor techniques, available as rewards and/or add-on in the campaign, only 1 of each are available and are the original paintings that gave life to this project.
Take the opportunity to own a part of the history of this deck.
*international shipping is included when selected as an add-on
Inspired by one of the most representative elements of the Day of the Dead, “Papel Picado”
These tuck boxes are laser cut in our studio and assembled by hand, they come with a special numbered seal (only 100)and signed by the designer of the deck, Guzo Borboa.
Available as rewards and/or add-on in the campaign for $900.00MXN ~ $45.00USD
*international shipping is included when selected as an add-on
These are the original sketches done using ink and color pencils, available as rewards and/or add-on in the campaign, only 1 of each are available and are the original sketches that gave life to this project.
*international shipping is included when selected as an add-on
Sextante Estudio is a project that was born in Mexico city, with the objective to offer integral design solutions. We don’t create limits, we believe everything is possible. We use design as a weapon to better our environment and to leave this world as a better version of what was given to us.
Some of our past work with playing cards include the Bicycle Mythical Creatures Deck (Designed for Gent Supply Co.) and the first edition of el Reino de los Muertos Deck, which was printed in México in 2016, and that is now sold out, unfortunately it was printed in a out of business printer partner in México that wasn’t up to the international standards that we have now.
Our design is complete and ready for production. The main risk and challenge would be to overcome production time and the fulfillment process once the project gets successfully funded. We have spent some time studying other successful and unsuccessful Playing Card projects by other creators that have gone before us to learn from their strengths and weaknesses.
We believe that with the help of our print partner Cartamundi, we can overcome any kind of problem that may arise quality wise.