Make Them Borderless!

The_Hydra

This here is my humble little petition for all of you in manufacturing, creation, etc etc of tarot/lenormand/oracle decks to make all your decks borderless. It makes them extremely pleasant to read, the "story" flows that much easier, and they showcase the art a lot better without distracting borders. Also, you spare some decks awful haircuts they never recover from... {Moment of silence for those that had to be repurchased.}
 

Falcor

I do not agree. 95% of decks are perfect with their borders. It's part of them and I prefer it that way.
 

Tanga

50 - 50 here.

I like them borderless most of the time... and so do get my long scissors out...
But I have regretted de-borderning once, where I discovered the border enhanced the work.
Lol.

*silence* - that one has not been re-purchased...yet.

Plus - I had an interesting new thought today, whilst considering a deck with white borders
for Magical group work. The white borders actually draw the eye to the card - so it makes them easier to look at and focus on in this scenario (important if one is doing ritual by twilight with torches for instance...) :)
But of course - this is a use in the minority.
 

blue_fusion

If you are willing to pay extra for customized decks (a borderless version), I am sure a lot of independent creators would not mind creating a borderless one-off version for you.

Borders can be part of the final artistic execution, and not every artist envisions their decks as borderless, and there are also people who do not mind (and even actually want) decks with borders.

For those creators who have their decks printed in bulk, making a second version of a deck (borderless) from an original bordered deck also poses some more additional cost, which they might feel unjustifiable, unless there are a lot of actual people who do preorders for said version. I have seen creators who follow people's instructions when they say, for example, "hey, I'd totally buy that if it were borderless " (again, just an example), and then other people second this, and when the creator finally puts it out in the market, only half or less of those who said they'd buy the deck actually end up buying it.

The bottomline of my take on it: if you really want a borderless version of a deck, you can either put some extra effort by trimming it, or be willing to shell out extra. It might be nice for a deck to have a borderless option for people who are into it, but that just does not happen all the time (because of practical considerations, etc.).
 

Gwynydd

I like the idea of both options being available. For me, I think it depends on the deck. I like the variety
 

Nemia

It really depends on the deck (and it's a matter of personal taste). There are decks where the art is very self-contained, like Robert Place's, and they look great with borders around them. A little "air" around each motif.

Other decks have such an interesting design that without borders, interactions between the cards develop which you couldn't see before. The Thoth is an example for that - the use of projective geometry becomes clear when the deck is trimmed. (Of course, you have to know the information printed on the frames but that's no problem, it's the most basic information anyway, and keywords are for me better kept in my head than in reading before me - it would frame my interpretation....)

Another kind of deck has such a strong narrative pull that they look best borderless. The Silhouettes is a point in case; the 2nd edition is borderless and in readings, the deck really starts to move - before you notice it, the little figures start to jump from card to card ;-)

Then there are decks where the borders are simply very, very ugly and you ask yourself, why didn't they choose a nice, unobtrusive border? Spiral and Celestial have suffered from that treatment. The weird characterless colour of the Haindl's frames really upset me, it didn't harmonize at all with the cards and I cut it off.

The Lo Scarabeo has really horrid overdone frames - some knotwork thrown in for good measure - after I trimmed it, it looked really nice and fresh and the water colours could breathe.

The ugly, asymmetric green borders on the Vacchetta with the multilingual titles - ugh. I felt this deck was really happy when I liberated it!

But in other decks, I feel the frames add something - Kat Black's decks, the Shadowscapes (lovery colour choice and perfect proportions), Anna K.

I've seen that others trimmed them but I didn't. I really like those borders. They add something. Most of my decks are un-trimmed but I can't promise anything for the future ;-) But I love giving them a nice edge treatment.

I could have lived with the white frames of the Cosmic and Renaissance, but trimming and edging set them free for me. And the bleak Night Sun looks much better without the visual relief that borders give. I trimmed it and edged it in black - now it really looks sombre indeed!

The Commemorative looks nicer to me trimmed and edged, others would hate to do that to their precious deck.

Isn't it great that we're all different?
 

reall

HA HA HA! this is interesting topic!^^ your petition will be taken in consideration!XD lolz
I agree with 50/50 theory, imo borderless is relatively modern trend best fitted for modern art style?x,x and all classical/older decks are traditionally with borders?XD
my preference is somewhere between?x,x (edged is best!^^ lolz I'll be posting some test img soon so would like to hear your opinions about it!^^ ;)))

and for creators note, with POD it's easy to make borderless and border regular version,
but for large print maybe best option would be something like kickstarter/preorders so people can vote/pick their preference in advance?!^^ lolz ;))
 

gregory

As Nemia said - it depends SO MUCH on the deck.

But one small point - borders protect against chipping of the actual image.
 

Falcor

As Nemia said - it depends SO MUCH on the deck.

But one small point - borders protect against chipping of the actual image.

It's a HUGE point for having borders.
 

Achlys

Personally, I rather like the borders.
I think they frame the art nicely and help draw the eye to the cards when they're placed on a spreadcloth, etc.
I never thought about the protecting the art from wear part, but that is definitely helpful. I have already had to replace a borderless deck for this reason.