birch

The

BIRCH'S BEER COMPANY deck

Daniel F. Birch is a young Brooklyn based illustrator and designer who graduated from the Syracuse University Illustrations Program as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005. Originally intended to pursue a career in advertising design, he soon found out that he liked drawing so much that he is now also trying to make a name for himself as an independent young modern designer. His artwork reflects his advertising background.

Dan's self-portrait

But there's another influence reflected in his artwork too. Dan also homebrews very alcoholic beers and the two things he loves are beer and poker. These two come together in this deck and in what I would best describe as a delirious style.

The Birch’s Beer Company doesn’t actually exist. It’s the name he gave himself for his homebrewed batches of beer. He also wanted to have the same initials as the B.B.C. for a little tongue in cheek humor. The idea for this deck was born during a drunken night with a close friend. Dan's first intention was to use the deck as a promotion for his hand painted beer tables, but after finishing the card designs he realized that he had created "one bitchin' deck of cards".

The Royalty are Battledroids on Clubs, New Jersey Zombies on Diamonds (The queen is based on Snookie), Apes and Monkeys on Hearts and Eye Ball Freaks on Spades. The designs of the aces are not related to the court cards. The Ace of Spades is based off the Motorhead front man Lemmy and the Ace of Hearts is based loosely off the band Eagles of Death Metal.

The designs in some of the suits refer to the international pattern and this deck could have been in our xpo about the anomalies of this pattern. But we've decided to show it here, because we were taken by the fresh and modern designs and the "delirious" style in which they were done. The center design of the Spades is the most outspoken reference to the international pattern. But also the nicknames of some of the cards are represented in their design.

The Jack of Spades is often referred to as the "One-eyed Jack" and in this suit he's literally portrayed as such.

	The King of Hearts is often referred to as the "Suicide King" and in this suit he has actually plunged his sword through his head. But hey, he's a gorilla!

The set of aces reflects Dan's advertising background and they are presented as posters with a smart line for each of the suits.

(of course Dan was also nice enough to sign the Ace of Spades for us, so we could add the deck to our artist signed sub-collection)


Almost all courts have a perfect double image, but on the Queen and Jack of Clubs there are minor differences in the
	design......

The deck was printed in India and consists of 52 cards, 2 jokers and an extra card.

It was published in a limited, signed and numbered edition of 1000 copies. Each deck comes with signed and numbered card.