Busso Striscio Volo is a redesign project aimed to reinvent the traditional playing cards used in Romagna to play an old game called “Marafone“.
Busso Striscio volo
A second chance
In 2017 I finished a special design project about a playing cards deck used in the Italian zone where I was born and raised: it was called Busso Striscio Volo, you can find it here on this same site.
I designed in a vectorial format all the cards following a new concept regarding the history of Romagna and the seasons of the year. 40 cards, with all the characters and the signs, a retro and even some special contents. The next step would have been crowdfunding but somehow I lost interest in the work and the dissatisfaction with the output grew inside me.
I abandoned the project and devoted myself to other things but the main original concept never left my mind completely. During the last five years I got to research the lore of Romagna for another project – “Dopo il trattino” – and I developed an interest and some skills for digital bitmap illustration.
Eventually, I took over the project again, and maintaining the original concept I started a redesign with a totally new approach.
The concept and the characters
The new deck is composed of 40 cards divided into four suits: coppe, bastoni, spade e denari. Each suit counts 10 cards of which three are figures, three high-value point cards (cricca) and the remaining four are fewer value cards called lisce.
Each suit is assigned two themes: a historical period in the past of Romagna and a season of the year.
| SUITS | history 's period | Season of the year | Figure's characters |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coppe |
Late Middle Ages and Renaissance |
Spring |
Jack: Cesare Borgia, Knight: Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, King (Queen): Caterina Sforza. |
|
Bastoni |
Risorgimento |
Autumn |
Jack: Giuseppe "Lazzarino" Afflitti, Knight: Don Giovanni Verità, King: Stefano "Il Passatore" Pelloni |
|
Spade |
High Middle age |
Winter |
Jack: Severino Boezio, Knight: Odoacre, King: Teodorico il Grande |
|
Denari |
Roman Empire |
Summer |
Jack: Legio's Soldier, Knight: Mounted Centurion, King: Julius Caesar |
The design process can be followed on the social accounts on instagram, facebook, and in the journal below.
I activated a mail address dedicated to this project only: bussostrisciovolo[at]gmail.com.
Journal
October 21th, 2022
It’s done! I just get approval from Kickstarter and the crowdfunding campaign for Busso Striscio Volo: new regional “romagnole” playing cards will be officially featured as my first crowdfunding project on Kickstarter. It has been a rough but satisfying journey and now we have the chance to make it real. The project gets to the “closure” stage, it gets a special permanent page here and now goes into the hand of fate and many kind backers around the world.
Here is the link to the campaign that will start on 31st October 2022 and will end on 11th December 2022: Busso Striscio Volo: new regional “romagnole” playing cards kickstarter campaign.
Thanks to every future backers and to past and present collaborators and we’ll see each again in the next project.
July 6th, 2022
Designing Phase is over! All 40 cards have been drawn, colored, and put in the card template. I’m not sure what’s going to happen now but we’ll see. Here the four “cricche”.
July 4th, 2022
The characters are done. 12 historical figures from 4 major era in Romagna’s history are here presented in a single strip: Cesare Borgia, il Lazzarino, un fante della Legio XIII, Severino Boezio, Sigismondo Malatesta, Don Giovanni Verità, Odoacre, un centurione della XIII, Caterina Sforza, il Passatore, Teodorico il Grande e Giulio Cesare.
June 29th, 2022
Started coloring the elements for the “bastoni” suit and “denari” suit. Then I finished the two relative aces.
June 28th, 2022
Started coloring the elements for the “spade” suit and “copper” suit. Then I finished the two relative aces.
June 22th, 2022
I ended the shading process for all of the characters in the deck. It was a long and boring task but now it is done.
June 16th, 2022
With the “asso di bastoni” the digital tracing of all elements is done. Now We need to colorize the cards and create the layout of every single card by arranging the colored elements.
June 14th, 2022
Just published on Instagram and Facebook a survey to help me in the design choice about the back of the cards of #bussostrisciovolo. Willing to help me in this tough moment? Just hit the socials above or drop me a line at bussostrisciovolo@gmail.com. Thank You, I really appreciate it.
June 8th, 2022
I completed the lineart for 10 out of 12 characters. I’m currently missing to draw the knight of spade, King Odoacre, and the Queen of coppe, Caterina Sforza.
After these two figure I’ll start the colouring session and scouting printers to have some estimation on printing costs.
June 2nd, 2022
I completed the lineart for two of three characters of copper‘s suit: the Jack will be impersonated by Cesare Borgia and the Knight will be interpreted by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. Five figure on twelve are ready to be digitally colored. We have 5/12 of the characters drawn. Hope in a few days to reach completion.
May 24th, 2022
The three characters (figure) of denari‘s suit have been sketched and scanned. Photos of the sketches area available on Busso Striscio Volo‘s facebook page.
May 23rd, 2022
Great session today, drawn four linearts for three suits. The deadline is getting closer, but I will be ok if I can keep this pace.
May 17th, 2022
Designed a new logo to match future uses in merchandising and packaging. This is the extended and colored version. There will be a special version with the four suits in the center in place of the rooster. The thing is called “caveja” and it is an old rural tool used by farmers in the fields.
May 16th, 2022
Completed lineart of the base element of “denari” and of the “due di denari”. I shared the linearts on Instagram as suggested by Lari Arantes in the Domestika course I attended last weekend.
May 3rd, 2022
I rethought the historical characters for the “spade” sign: I’ll go with Severino Boezio, the last roman philosopher as Jack, Odoacer, former king of Goti who sacked Rome as Knight, and the Great Teodorico, buried in Ravenna, as the King.
April 11th, 2022
I started this journal on this post to help me keep track of advances in design while at the same time having something to post online to raise interest in the project.
STATUS
- Definition
- Initiation
- Planning
- Execution
- Closure
Related contents
"Dopo il trattino" is composed so far of three elements: a book, a photographic portfolio, and a series of graphic contents and illustrations.
About me
My name is Daniele Prati and I was born in Italy in 1976.
I’m a multidisciplinary creative designer and content creator.
I’m a location-independent freelance aiming to make a living while traveling, learning, creating, and changing.
That’s my way of becoming myself.
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I am interested in exploring, researching, and developing projects and content that combine different arts, disciplines, and platforms while being solid, functional, and unrepeatable.
I am available for commercial and no-profit projects and open to collaborating on engaging projects anywhere.
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