Educational Playing Cards for Airship History
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Kirk and I'm the administrator of the largest airship enthusiasts group on Facebook: Airships, Dirigibles and Zeppelins with nearly 20,000 members! https://www.facebook.com/groups/airshipblimpzeppelin.
Since I was a child, airships have always fascinated me. Specifically I was surprised that aircraft of such enormous proportions and seemingly straight out of fantasy (real flying ships!) had actually existed, but today were largely unknown. Being an entrepreneurial dreamer I always imagined somehow bringing them back or at least sharing them with others to show just how amazing they were.
GOAL
The goal for this project is to create something lovely for anyone to enjoy that will simultaneously present interesting facts about this esoteric branch of aviation to a broader audience, or to at least bring a smile to the faces of other airship enthusiasts!
Currently the 4 suit symbols, backside design and King of Spades have all been designed, but help is needed to pay for the talented design work necessary to finish at the same level of quality to what you see here.
CONCEPT
- The four playing card suits match the 4 main types of lighter-than-air craft:
- Balloons (hearts), Blimps (clubs), Semi-Rigids (diamonds), and Zeppelins (spades).
- Face cards will correspond to famous persons or aircraft.
- Ideally all cards, but at least face cards, will have interesting facts about those people or craft.
- Ace will be a pinnacle craft for a suit's aircraft type
- King will be a famous inventor, pilot or leader within the development of that suit's aircraft type
- Queen will be another famous craft for a suit's aircraft type
- Jack will be another person instrumental in the development of that suit's aircraft type.
- Face cards will feature interesting facts around the edge of the cards
- Numbered cards will be like standard cards, but with the potential for shorter factoids printed in the middle of each card for that suit's aircraft type.
Keeping within the theme described above I'm very open to suggestions for famous people/craft as well as interesting facts by those who choose to donate.
CURRENT PROGRESS:
- Backside design complete
- King of Spades (Count of Zeppelins) complete
- Four Suit Symbols complete
- Print company found and samples printed (see below).
- Regulation white border will be on final backside.
DESIGNS TO DO (and potential artwork)
- Ace of Zeppelins Design - TO DO - (Graf Zeppelin)
- Queen of Zeppelins Design - TO DO - (Hindenburg)
- Jack of Zeppelins Design - TO DO - (Hugo Eckener)
- Ace of Semi-Rigids Design - TO DO - (Norge)
- King of Semi-Rigids Design - TO DO - (Umberto Nobile)
- Queen of Semi-Rigids Design - TO DO - (Lebaudy Patrie)
- Jack of Semi-Rigids Design - TO DO - (Henri Giffard)
- Ace of Blimps Design - TO DO - (US Navy M-Class)
- King of Blimps Design - TO DO - (Alberto Santos Dumont)
- Queen of Blimps Design - TO DO - (British SSZ class / No. 5 airship)
- Jack of Blimps Design - TO DO - (TBD)
- Ace of Balloons Design - TO DO - (Montgolfier balloon)
- King of Balloons Design - TO DO - (both Montgolfier brothers top/bottom of card)
- Queen of Balloons Design - TO DO - (perhaps a modern high altitude balloon)
- Jack of Balloons Design - TO DO - (Steve Fossett)
Design options will be voted on in the Airships, Dirigibles and Zeppelins group and finalized before being designed.
Once all designs are created a Kickstarter project will be launched to fund the production. Your feedback on the famous persons and craft to choose or any interesting facts to include are greatly appreciated!
If you know anyone who loves creative projects like this or airships, please share and thank you for your support!
Organizer
Kirk McGinnis
Organizer
Oklahoma City, OK