Art of the Cards - William Classified

CONTEXT

The “Art of the Cards” collection is a piece of work deriving from my experience as a player, a card counter and an employee at the casino. As I imagine many others have, I was exposed to the idea of luxury, elegance and glamour of the casino through movies at an early age. James Bond’s Casino Royale, Oceans 11, Rainman and countless other pieces of media are all guilty of driving many victims to a battle where victory is nothing but an illusion.

I set myself to tell this story through small fragments of text within the designs.

Las Vegas’ Rio Hotel & Casino was the first ever casino I stepped foot into, I was 10. My dad and I had arrived from a 7 day car trip from Florida to Nevada, sleeping in motels, getting lost following an outdated GPS and getting into all kinds of unexpected trouble. My overflowing excitement and expectations completely shattered when all that stood before me was a city full of emptiness and an artificial sense of fun. I’m sure being 10 and naive didn’t help, I mean… we were on the lift on our way to the room and a “couple” stepped in. She was all over the guy as if there wasn’t a 10 year old standing right there, my dad to this day says she was probably a prostitute, but again it didn’t even cross my mind.

It wouldn’t be until 8 years later on my 18th birthday, that I would shoot my shot at the Empire Casino in London. As expected, I lost £50 at the roulette with one of my best friends. We went home and bought 8 decks of cards, I remembered watching Rainman years ago and I was about to do the same. After 2 whole days learning BlackJack’s basic strategy and card counting, we rushed to the casino. Long story short, we partied out until 3 AM and went back to the casino until 7 AM. We played every single day for a couple of weeks, earning around £2.000 of which we spent around 70% alone on partying. Countless times I’ve heard you need to be a genius to count cards, you just need practice, like most things in life.

I never went back to counting cards after those 2 weeks, my friend left the UK and I wasn’t about to spend my time alone in a basement with no windows, surrounded by people willing to bet their lifes’ savings on whatever number a random tiny silver ball decided to land on.

After moving back to Spain a couple years later, my friends and I visited the Casino a few times, but we never really played to win, we knew what we were in for. Card counting wasn’t even a possibility, because unlike the Empire Casino, they had Continuous Shuffle Machines here, which made card counting impossible. I guess, not being able to “cheat” my way around was just no fun, so there isn’t much to say about this era.

Development for the “Art of the Cards” collection began mid summer 2022. During discussions regarding the project, we jokingly tossed around the idea of working as professional croupiers. Me however, I took it as a challenge, so I applied for the job and got it. I thought of it as method acting, getting to know the subject from the inside in order to achieve better results (I also had high regards for the job and was excited to live that experience, so it’s not like I forced myself to anything).

It took 2 months of intense training to get a taste of the real deal. I was scared, there are many delicate procedures a croupier must follow; Never take money directly from the clients hand, empty your hands and show the camera before leaving the table, be aware of each players gamble, keep count of the money on the chip tray, whose priority is it to make decisions for each hand that’s played, hold the cards in a certain way, pick back up the cards in a specific order, the list goes on…

My shift ran from 19.15 to 04.15, I took the bus home and slept no longer than 5 hours to wake up at 11.00 and work on the brand. After 6 months of living in a constant state of mental fatigue I quit the job. I met a lot of good people during my time at the casino, both colleagues and players; turns out, the devil’s den is full of nice people (there are some exceptions, of course, but that applies everywhere). I haven’t stepped my foot in a casino ever since.

_{Photo shoot on home-made BlackJack table, April 2023}

I wanted to fully submerge into the subject, I needed it to feel real, so I hand-made a 1 of 1 Classified BlackJack table, designed a full set of cards, playing chips and custom money bills. The brand’s original plan was to start with a short 1 minute video to introduce the new collection and follow up with a 30 second stop motion mixed with motion graphics video, sort of like a James Bond intro.

To further give into our “classified” identity and following the initial teaser videos, the (secret) Classified Poker Tournament would take place. Every garment purchased included a random card from the set labeled as a Collector’s Item. By the end of the season, it would be revealed: everyone who had previously made a purchase of this collection had unknowingly been playing in the tournament for they had been “dealt” their cards by us. We would reward the client with the highest Poker hand with a cash reward and a trip to Monaco (where the Monte Carlo casino is located).

Some unexpected situations cut our budget significantly short so we were forced to improvise.

Making-of.

Home-made Classified BlackJack table. As depicted in the making-of video, we first used a green fabric, but it was later changed.

Classified Casino “Don’t Lose your Identity”

This short ad follows the story of a man whose pride doesn’t allow him to give up. A man who is so sure of himself that even in defeat, he feels like a winner. It’s a self reflection of what could have become of myself if I hadn’t stopped when I did.