blue-blood-01

The deck was published in June 2012 by the Uusi Studio from Chicago in a LIMITED edition of 2500 copies.

Uusi means "new" in Finnish, but when pronounced it sounds like "you see". The studio was founded in the fall of 2010 by the artistic duo Peter Dunham and Linnea Gits. It also provides a space for other artists to produce their work for the studio, but these two artist/designers are responsible for the artwork and design of this deck. It must have been a wonderful back-and-forth cooperation, as they both worked on these images either late at night or early in the morning. Linnea set up the design and did the faces at night and Peter did the detailed line work of the costumes in the early hours of the morning. And the amazing thing is that style and technique of both mix so well, that the result shows such a perfect unity, that it could have been made by a single artist. But maybe that unity in design can be explained from the fact that Peter and Linnea are a couple in daily life too.

During the creative process the story of the Blue Blood deck unfolded. Of course it's their sort of artist statement for this deck, but they gave each suit and their courts a story of their own. We've copied these descriptions here with each of the suits.

The SPADES.....

The oldest and wisest of the suits. Revered, reclusive and quite a bit eccentric, the Spade is the symbol of philosophers and visionaries.

Its Queen is a child-bride whose thoughts are tuned entirely to the beyond. Her King is a powerful, but shadowy royal from an exceptionally old family. Their Jack is a wild force to be reckoned with.

The King is honest and peace-loving. As passionate as their symbol declares, these are rulers of the people. Loyal, appreciative and fair they are capable of true devotion.

The HEARTS.....

His Queen is playful and flirtatious - but forever faithful - and their Jack will risk his own life to protect a kingdom he believes in.


The aces are all illustrated with different animals, but in the same decorative style of ornamentation as on the courts. The Ace of Hearts and the Ace of Diamonds also have a ribbon with Latin words. Cor Unum means "One Heart" and Memento Mori "Remember you will die" or in a more free translation "Be aware of your mortality". Of course we thank Peter and Linnea for signing our Ace of Spades and thus contributing another one to our sub-collection of artist signed decks.

Nowadays most artists have their decks printed in low-budget countries like China or India, but Peter and Linnea went for established quality and the deck was printed by the USPCC. Of course you can immediately feel the excellent quality of the cards when you first take them out of the box, but the cards are linen finished, which is not my personal favourite choice in the finishing of cards. It's probably very good for maintaining the soft tones of the designs, but I like to take a magnifying glass to the cards and look at the designs in detail. Here the finishing leaves a grid of small white dots on the cards. Even without a magnifying glass it's already pretty visible on the Ace of Clubs. When enlarged all these white dots are quite disruptive for the designs, but fortunately with the bare eye this grid is not visible in the designs of the courts and they remain as enjoyable as intended.

The CLUBS.....

Trouble makers skilled in the art of deception - this is a dangerous monarchy. Their suit begets great difficulty and chaos.

The Jack of Clubs is one-eyed and full of sneaky tricks. Their King is not above cheating and the Queen is a beauty capable of great manipulation.

They come from a long line of rulers wise to the politics of the court and wealthy from shrewd business dealings with the trades. A symbol of energy, money and well being, the

The DIAMONDS.....

diamond suit is a powerful dynasty. Rulers such as this have a true assassin for their Jack. He guards their secrets and wealth with deadly skill.

The deck consists of 52 cards, 2 jokers and 1 "back" card. The latter shows the back design, which seems to be inspired by a fractal.

Linnea and Peter are established artists. Linnea has had expositions in galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Her illustrations and design work were used in different publications, like the New York Times, and commissioned by clients like Herman Miller, Chronicle Books and Prismacolor. Together they create exclusive designs for companies such as Design Within Reach and of course for their own Uusi Studio.

The Uusi Studio is also the place to be to order a deck. The decks can already be found on eBay too, but it's always better (and cheaper) to buy directly from the artist.
And....... if you want that.... and ask real nicely, they will probably be happy to sign a card for you as well.
Unfortunately the Blue Blood deck is sold out, but these other fine decks here below are still available at uusi.us.