A Childhood Fantasy Turned Into Reality
A luxury card playing company created by Jackson Robinson, Kings Wild Project is the culmination of years of aspirations and experience. Having suffered an accident at the age of two that left him hospitalised for three months, Robinson’s mother encouraged him to start drawing as a way to distract himself during his period of illness. This turned out to become a lifelong hobby, with Robinson attending art school in Texas and going on to become a video game artist.
However, he felt creatively unfilled with his job and after spotting a Kickstarter campaign for collectable cards that had raised $150,000, he decided to attempt making his own for playing cards. After his first Kickstarter project raised a similar amount from over 2,800 backers, he handed in his notice to the video game job and started the Kings Wild Project company - which now employs more than 20 people.
The Start of Multiple Successful Kickstarter Projects
Robinson launched his first Kickstarter campaign in March 2013 for the Federal 52 card deck - a deck featuring designs inspired by currency. Having been fascinated by both the traditional engraving designs of banknotes and the idea of designing his own deck of cards for many years, Robinson merged these two passions in the creation of the Federal 52 deck, thereby fulfilling his lifelong dream. The campaign was an overwhelming success with 2,798 backers pledging $149,156, an overwhelming number compared to the goal of $7,990.
Since that first Kickstarter campaign, Robinson has gone on to launch over 30 different projects on the platform including playing cards inspired by luxury cigar brands, postage stamps, vintage matchbook printing, VHS tapes, and classic works of literature. His latest project, the Invocation card deck, was launched in February 2019 and was fully funded in less than an hour. It went on to raise $47,260 from 516 backers, with an initial goal of $35,000. The idea for the design of the Invocation card deck struck Robinson as he listened to an instrumental song of the same name, and he created the sci-fi and fantasy inspired deck as he listened to the song on repeat.
While many of Kings Wild Project’s card decks are priced relatively inexpensively at under $20, the company also offers luxury collector’s editions with rare and unique gilded edges which can fetch a much higher price. The company also offers a monthly subscription service for card enthusiasts who want to receive a new deck every month, with over 1,000 people having signed up for the service to date. With inventive and imaginative aesthetic twists on a conventional deck of cards, it’s easy to see why so many have given Kings Wild Project card decks a starring role in their card-playing experiences.
