About

Over the past year and many hours of work, New Zealand designer and illustrator Rick Davidson has researched and re-imagined the art of 15th and 16th century playing cards to design a new deck, the Origins.  

Exploring the art of museums and archives, and gleaning information from card experts, Rick’s art is inspired by historic cards particularly from the region of Rouen, France.  These patterns were copied in Britain and spread around the world to become the art we are all familiar with in today’s standard deck.

With a love for historic art, the Origins were initially a purely personal project for Rick.   Until he submitted his early designs to Dribbble, a site for designers to share and critique their work.  The postive feedback by card enthusiasts who noticed his work put Rick on a journey of research and design.  And the chance of seeing a dream realised - reinventing the historic art and creating a high quality deck through the United States Playing Card Company.