Adobe Deck

In 1988, Adobe Systems decided to showcase their emerging graphics tools and technology. They created the first-ever digitally produced deck of cards. The deck was designed using Adobe Illustrator 88™ software, the typefaces were from the Adobe® Type Library, the artwork was transmitted to printers for printing using Adobe Postscript®, and Adobe Separator™ was used to create the plate-ready separations. The deck was produced as a corporate give-away for the 1988 Comdex Show.

As Ruth Kedar remembers it: “I was approached by Adobe to design a playing deck for them for the Adobe Illustrator Introduction... but one of the biggest barriers of entry for a software aimed at designers was that designers were very apprehensive about digital tools because they believed that all designs would look the same and it would be the end of creativity. So I suggested instead of having me design the whole deck, we should instead assign a different designer to each suit, and achieve two goals: showcase illustrator capabilities and also show the individual styles of each designer.”

Ruth Kedar designed the spades suit and a joker; Paul Woods designed the clubs and the second joker; Russell Brown designed the hearts and Gail Blumberg and Ross Parsey designed the diamonds.

Gail Blumberg comments: “When I look at the deck now, I think the quality of the printing was really quite nice. I do regret the lack of rounded corners and the four color gray on the back of the cards looks a little on the red tint side to me. It should’ve been a neutral gray. And because we were printing for color process and not Pantone colors we had to make the gray from cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.”

Above: the Adobe digital deck by multiple artists and designers, published by Adobe Systems, 1988. 52 cards + 2 jokers.