Who is Lee McKenzie?
British designer Lee McKenzie is a name that many people in the playing card industry might not immediately recognize, but that's only because most of the decks he has designed are more widely known for the brand they were published under: Ellusionist. Lee designed decks for Ellusionist for around five years, from 2008 to 2013, at a time when it was one of the biggest players in the industry, and just when custom decks were really starting to boom.
You might recognize some of the decks he created, which include popular titles like Arcane, Artifice, Infinity, and Fathom. These designs were among the first non-Bicycle branded custom decks that entered into the mainstream, at a time when the playing card industry was really starting to take off, and it's Lee McKenzie's creativity that lies behind the success that these Ellusionist decks had. Though his name might not be well known, he is in fact a leading figure from an important time.
In 2013 Lee decided to stop freelancing under the Ellusionist banner, and set out on his own by successfully using crowdfunding to launch his Empire Playing Cards deck, and subsequently its follow-up, the Empire Bloodlines series. He has since launched a brand new website, which serves as the online portal for his lifestyle brand Kings & Crooks. It features cutting edge graphic design and stunning visuals, and includes branded items like playing cards, clothing, and more.
Lee's own life journey illustrates his qualities as a risk-taker, artist, and explorer, who is willing to take bold steps into new territory as an independent designer and creator. He's also a perfectionist, and invests an enormous amount of himself when creating a deck of playing cards, and indeed into everything he does. His love for playing cards began with an interest in magic at a young age, and he was able to combine this with his skills in art and design, and his interest in the visual story-telling worlds created by movies, music, and photography. Equipped with this passion and these skills, Lee's design career has produced many popular playing cards.
With his proven track record, credentials as a successful designer, and his fascinating life story, Lee McKenzie is well placed to share some fascinating observations not just about how he makes custom playing cards, but about the playing card industry as a whole, and perhaps more importantly, about an attitude to life. I'm very pleased that he was willing to share some of his thoughts for our readers. As always, Lee has a lot to say, and it's worth reading carefully and reflecting on.
The Interview (Part 1)
For those who don't know anything about you, what can you tell us about yourself and your background? What do you do for a day job and/or what are your other interests?
Today, after many years of building and sacrifice, I'm fortunate enough to be able to work on my passion full time. I devote every second I can to designing the kind of playing cards I wished existed and sharing them with magicians, collectors and card lovers like myself, all under my company, Kings & Crooks.
I was originally born in Manchester, UK and growing up I was always fascinated by the cinematic worlds of movies, art and just getting lost in my imagination. Alongside martial arts, ninjas and spy movies, my curiosity for the mysterious and doing the impossible naturally led me to a huge interest in magic and playing cards at around 10 years old. An addiction to practicing and learning magic for endless hours each day became a big part of my early teens back in the 90's. That's when books, a mirror or face-to-face were the only ways you could learn anything.
I first went to the Blackpool magic convention in '96 with my best friend and fellow magician, and that's when I realized just how many other people love this stuff like we did. Whenever I saw a Bicycle or Tally-Ho deck (instead of the crappy paper playing cards that creased and tore easily), I knew I was in good company. Every week we'd go to Affleck's Palace in Manchester on the third floor to a little magic shop where we could watch and learn from some much older and more experienced magicians (Ian and Mark) who had a huge impact on us. There was also Mushy Pea Juggling shop that had an awesome magic shop at the back (run by a guy called Simon). It was such an exciting time, constantly learning the secrets of this art I'd come to love. It was clear though that my focus was on playing cards almost exclusively. Something about them just felt simple and right but also powerful. A small normal object but that offered endless techniques, effects, skills to practice and amazing secrets to learn. A world of impossibility made real, right in your hands. I couldn't resist.
From a young age, I had always been into drawing too, and that continued with me throughout school and college where I developed my "professional" career as a graphic designer. I worked in the post production industry mostly, designing motion graphics and highly visual design for DVD movie menus and TV graphics amongst other projects. That was where I could combine my love for design and visual storytelling with movies to create high impact and striking imagery to bring the viewer into another world and make them feel something. That's mainly what floats my boat.
When did you start designing playing cards, and what got you started?
I was always drawn to expressing myself outside of the confines of a traditional job, and so was often coming up with side projects to keep me stimulated ( one of which was a t-shirt brand ). Magic and playing cards were still a heavy part of my life and I'd continued practicing and learning from 11 yrs old to this day. Around 2007, I was hit with a spark of inspiration when I saw Ellusionist's Vintage 1800 decks and some kind of gut alarm bell started ringing inside. Given my love for graphic design, playing cards and magic, I felt compelled to start designing my own. Like a green light came on and the gates swung wide open just for me. During travel to Rome, inspired by some of the old-world gothic architecture I'd seen, I began work on my first deck.
A year later, I had met my Australian girlfriend in Edinburgh and we eventually both decided to set off to travel the world. I spent a good chunk of change to get some decks printed in the US of my first concept, then I sent it to the CEO of Ellusionist, Brad Christian. I had dreamed my deck would be put alongside their own and help me bring the deck to other magicians via awesome brand I really admired. Brad simply responded with "All I can say is wow, I'll be in touch soon" and my heart skipped a beat, I was thrilled! With excitement coursing through my veins, our travels began and so did an opportunity to become the signature deck designer for Ellusionist. I initially wanted to launch that first deck of mine with them, and be part of their offerings, but they offered me to run with another idea they had and so I thought that would still be a great way to go. It was an amazing experience with great people and I truly felt like I was a part of something that was so right for me.
After your success with Ellusionist, how did you come to start your own playing card company?
4 years, 5 decks and 15 countries travelled later, after the loss of my Grandfather, it became extremely clear that life was too short to put off doing the things you want. I decided I needed to realize my original dream to create my very own decks. To "build my own dreams instead of being hired to build someone else's" as the quote goes. It was a big risk as I didn't feel I could do both, so I left Ellusionist, determined but hugely under-prepared financially. I designed and launched my first deck on Kickstarter called Empire Playing Cards.
The dream came true. It became a humbling success supported by almost 1000 card lovers from around the world. That was the next green light I needed and I couldn't believe it was actually happening.
From then I decided to officially launch my own brand to continue sharing my vision and art for designing playing cards with all the magicians, card collectors and card lovers like me. Kings & Crooks was born and since then it's been what I've been working on every single day. The journey here has had so many challenges and fraught with sacrifice (as anything worth doing is), but I still think the risk was worth it and hope to keep pushing for my mission to inspire others with my art.
What is the significance of your brand name, Kings & Crooks?
The name Kings & Crooks itself is a reflection of the mindset it takes to create your own path in life, take risks and do what matters to you most. Even if that means breaking some rules in order to make your own, to live your own life and tell your own stories.
It also relates to both the magician performing in the spotlight and the sleight of hand artist honing his deception skills under the cover of shade at the table. Magicians and mechanics, card men and con men, believer and deceivers.
The imaginative and cinematic-like images these words conjure up in your mind is one of the big inspirations behind my work. I love to take those movie scene style visions and try to capture that feeling and put it on the back of a card. I always believe art should say something to you, to your eyes, your heart or your soul. It's a vehicle for expression. You can either contribute to the rest of the noise in the world, or say something that's worth hearing.
What other interests have shaped and helped you as a designer?
While my focus is primarily on Kings & Crooks, travel is a huge passion too. After selling everything I owned and leaving the UK in 2007, we went through poverty to paradise and back over the next few years. From traveling across south-east Asia, living on an almost deserted Thai island for months while freelancing and worrying about where my next dollar would come from, to sailing the Pacific to remote paradises, coast-to-coast USA and living in a downtown Vancouver penthouse. Amazing experiences of both ups and downs. The swings, both emotional and mental have been huge, but I believe travel is one of the absolute best things you can do for yourself in this life.
I also used to mix and scratch (DJ-ing), break dance (a little) and big into martial arts. I love a lot of music, awesome beats and sound that transports you somewhere. Photography goes without saying, anything visual (art, design etc) always captures my interest.
I love learning about psychology, how the brain works, everything to do with human behavior and the 'whys and hows' of life's mysteries (which makes sense why magic is such an allure for me). I guess advertising and copywriting also falls into that category, art with words and pictures that have a purpose in the art of influencing our behavior. Entrepreneurship is also a huge element, learning how to give your art to people, doing what you love and be able to support yourself in return. Learning, in general, is addictive. I love movies too. Martial arts.
And one of my favorite things is just going outside looking, walking, being IN the world makes me feel good. I'm pretty deep about a lot of things, which has it's positives and negatives too. But I'm mostly very easy going, but very passionate about things that really matter to me, as you'll probably hear in this interview. But sometimes you just gotta breathe, smile and move on. Life's just one big ride, it's up to you if it's a good one or not.
How would you see yourself as a designer today, compared to when you started?
Every new deck design has its challenges. It's one huge puzzle that can be solved in 1000 different ways. Using your experience and eye for balance, composition, detail, and style you just have to experiment and try to make something "feel right". That's the best way I can put it. The more design you do, the more you flex your "feel" muscle and get better at making choices that serve you instead of detracting from your overall vision for a deck. I often like to tell such striking visual stories with my design and so it often calls for a lot of detail, which can very quickly become a monster if not tamed. However, executing simple designs is also its own skill. It's hard to do well, and its very easy to do it in a lack-lustre fashion. But as this is all art, it's subjective, so anything can appeal to anyone.
However for myself, I'm still battling against my need to give people as much value as possible, which indulges my perfection and can end up taking over a year to finish a design, versus, trying not to get so lost down the rabbit hole that the deck is never finished, never gets released and I never get to eat. I love the process so much I hang in there for way longer than I should. I'd say the difference between me then and me now is becoming wiser to recognize that making an amazing design that I'm happy with is important, but it's also equally important to not indulge my perfectionism too much in order to get the deck out there. As Seth Godin would say, "Ship it. If it's perfect, you've waited too long". It's a constant battle between the inner artist and entrepreneur, but if I don't get better at that, I won't be able to continue to support myself doing this and will have to change course.
What motivates you as a designer?My primary motivation is always because I love playing cards, magic and design, and want to share my ideas with our community to make what we love even more enjoyable. For me money is not a primary driving factor at all, but it absolutely has to be taken into the equation and balanced well with time if I want to build a life doing this. And I do. It's not just a job to me or something someone else has hired me to do. It's a very personal part of me, which is also why I get irritated when I see decks that in my view are more about people trying to grab money than doing what it takes to contribute something great. It's injustice, a lack of respect and I despise it. But again, it's art and subjective. What do I know and what makes me think I know the reasons behind someone else's decisions? I don't, but I know what it takes to design, so when I see someone taking shortcuts or disrespecting the art or community with just a plain lack of effort, it gets to me a little. To me it's like a bully getting away with stamping all over the little guy, and I hate that. Ultimately it drives me to do better for our community, create more beautiful things to drown out the noise. You can only control your own thoughts and actions, so I'll just try to focus my attention there instead of trying to change the world.
Truth be told, variety is the spice of life and if all decks that existed were only ones that I liked, it would get pretty boring after a while. That's the flipside. Just like if all there was in the world was light, never darkness, we'd never really value it because it's all we know. There's nothing to compare it to. It's only because darkness exists that we can actually appreciate the light. You need both to give value to either.
So all in all, after my initial emotional responses, my logical side keeps me sane and I'm fine with it in the grand scheme of things. No matter the result of a piece of art or a deck, especially created by the individual not a big business, it's not easy to stand out there and be judged. To go through the process and actually get your art made, I have nothing but admiration and respect for people doing that, regardless of what I think of the art itself. The act of creating takes courage, and above all the fact it's being made at all makes me so happy! I wish more people would.
What are some of the things you especially enjoy about designing playing cards?
What I enjoy most is engulfing myself in lots of materials, research and inspiration around a chosen design. Music, the feeling, the movie that plays in my head, they all spark off a style and visual direction I want to inject into a design. I love being in THAT world and trying to do it justice throughout an entire deck. When you hold the final deck, I want people to feel exactly how I felt when living and breathing this idea while creating it. That's what I feel could be something that may set my work apart. It's not just a deck to me, it's an experience you can become a part of when you hold it in your hand and when done well, it's one that's executed with the utmost care and attention. That all flows through every choice that goes into making the final deck.
The actual design stage is a battle. A long hard fight to chisel out your vision. It's a tough process and takes a lot to get through. That's the journey, the zone. And I hang in there because I love the challenge. Having a vision for what you want is one way to keep pushing and refining to try and uncover the design at the end. That's when you look at it and say "THAT'S IT!!". At that point, I see it's all worth it, and I hope everyone else can feel just how much goes into it too. Until then, it's a battle of creativity and discovery to unearth a vision that fits and bring it into focus.
How do you come up with an idea for a deck design?
It's hard to nail down one particular method. It's not a process. No guide, not for me anyways. But there are definite things that spark off glimmers of ideas in the mind and over time things form and something begins to manifest. Inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. I always hate those answers when I read them in interviews like this, but it's 100% true. A piece of music in a movie, an emotion, a photograph, pure imagination, a word, a person. The way something smells feels - it's endless.
But by far for me, it's visual inspiration that speaks to me most, then audio. I'm a very sensual person, but mostly visual, to the point of making movies or trailers in my head of my deck (or anything for that matter) and just watch them and wonder how I can re-create that visual experience and feeling. I'd love to be able to produce the kind of movies I see in my mind ... maybe someday I'll find a way to make that a part of Kings & Crooks. Being just one person, managing time is tough and you have to do it wisely.
This interview is continued (Part 2) in a separate thread here:
Author's note: I first published this article at PlayingCardDecks.com here.
Submitted April 17, 2019 at 05:42AM by EndersGame_Reviewer http://bit.ly/2Gkf6vy
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