Back of Cards

What pattern do you think would look good? This post is mainly to get peoples's creative juices flowing.

I think it completely depends on the style of the deck, however, without knowing more, I'd say minimal and on the abstract and/or atmospheric side.

only advice i'd have there is that some of the decks i have which feature asymmetrical art are a giveaway as far as card reversals are concerned - if you use those

Completely reversible designs, so you can't tell if the card is upright or reversed. Any general image that doesn't pull your attention away from the flipped cards. I didn't like the 'eye' on the Haindl back, it wasn't reversible and it kept getting my attention.

Ah. That's something that I didn't consider when I did my deck. The reversability, that is.

Although to be honest, while I don't have an extensive collection, what I had noticed when I was looking over the decks that I do own is that either the card backs seemed to be either *extremely* simple, or rather elaborate, and not much in between.

I finally went with an illustrative back which is absolutely NOT reversable, so I suppose that counts as a fail.

But then, does it really matter? I can see that with some layouts it might. But if you are reading the cards, you aren't reading the backs, so why should the knowledge that the next card out is going to be reversed make a difference. Is it all suggestion?

not a fail at all. i don't use reversals a lot

My deck is no where near ready to print, so I'm just considering ideas right now. It is very Element-based, however, so I might have a simple pattern (like the Rider-Waite) on the back, in different colours for each suit. Or potentially, I could have a reversible illustration on the back- like if the card was upright, and you were looking at the back, there would be one pentacle a couple cm from the top, then if it's reversed, there's another pentacle a couple cm from that side. I'm not sure, though. I'll probably have a colour theme per suit, or the same pattern universally. Or I might print out two versions- one that isn't reversible and one that is, since these cards are just for me, not to be published.

I was just wondering the same?
what is your fav card back design?