Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Jokers by Randy Butterfield of Midnight Cards

I am thrilled to show off my collection of jokers designed by Randy Butterfield of Midnight Cards.

I'll start with one of my favorites: This elegant egg joker design. Reminiscent of the Faberge Egg, it features a traditional crown on top of an enameled egg decorated with a gaily  grimacing jester. It is decorated with gold leaf and four jeweled legs.  The crown is decorated with gold and diamonds and emeralds with a type of cross on top. The inside is purple enamel.  (yes, I know that this egg might nor really exist).


There are jokers with the egg closed and opened.



Here are the four variations on the egg. They are open or closed. With small or large lettering at the bottom.


Thanks to Tom Klein for the next image from which I learned that this joker is part of the Imperial Playing Card deck, by USPC. 


These next two will get cataloged in the collection in the bust and headshot section.

This joker, in classic black and white, will go into the bicycle section (which I just realized I have not yet put online. Maybe I'll do it tonight.  Could be a late night....). I see the USPC (US Playing Card Company) dollar sign-like insignia in the corner which is typical of the Bicycle and Congress decks.  Was this joker designed for USPC?  Probably so. If I was running USPC, I would definitely get Randy to design for us!


The next jokers are bowling which as far as joker taxonomy goes, belongs in the sports section (yikes, it's also not yet online!)


For those of you have not yet clicked through to read about Randy Butterfield at Midnight Cards, his day job is commercial design for packaging and point of sale display for the liquor industry. He designs cards at night. He has a gorgeous family (which you have to click through to see) and sells decks from his website: 



I'm not entirely sure who the card player on this next card is but I want him to stay away from my daughters. And even if he was on my team, I'm not sure that I'd trust him


These next two jokers look much like my son and his friends. 



I think this next Butterfield design belongs in the juggling section of my collection.

Augustus, speak up, what's on your mind? How feelest though about being on a playing card?

Shields! There is a shield section in my albums. Not my favorite section so also not yet online. Usually, when I say shields I mean little insignias or designs, not literally a shield to use in a sword fight.  Maybe, since these are weapons, they could go in the armed jokers section.





Saving the best, at least my favorites, for last. Here are Randy Butterfield's Jester on Sticks. As a reminder, jesters carry little wands or baubles which have miniatures of this head. These jokers are just close-ups of these traditional wands, beautifully designed in 3D.  (Boy, I really need to improve my photography).



 Here is the complete set of eight of jester sticks: four with light backgrounds, four with dark.

So while that's not a complete photo display of my Randy Butterfield jokers, it is a large sample. 

Thank you Mr Butterfield for creating these beautiful designs for us.  And shortly, I don't doubt, joker and card design will become widely recognized as the significant fine art that it truly is. 

Forget canvas and giclĂ©es on the wall, art galleries will soon become regularly dedicated to displays of finely designed cards.  And reigning supreme will be Mr. R. Butterfield. 

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Thanks for your input and for reading and thinking about jokers.