One of the key inspirations behind Good Pals was that I wanted to create a brand that had some meaning to it. This is where our brand motto comes from:
"Good Pals - A Testimony to Life & Friendship through Collectable Art"
Friendship is very important to me and I've always been been reflective and introspective in nature, collecting various quotes that I find meaningful and important to me. Therefore the brand is centered around those two things: friendship + meaning. Collectable art (aka playing cards) is a way of physically bringing that to life.
The brand name + mascots are a visual reference to the friendship element of the Good Pals brand, whereas the theme of "life" can be explored in various ways, such as through celebratory decks (e.g the celebration of Halloween and Christmas, two popular holiday periods often celebrated with people important to us), but also in the form of meaningful quotes.
For instance, whilst the Chancers deck can be looked at as a casino themed deck, it has a deeper theme to it. The "Chancer" is known as someone who is willing to take a risk in order to gain a reward, and this is why we built upon the gambling theme of this deck. The deck is a physical representation of taking a risk on life and just going for it, an attitude that when applied has benefited me greatly in life.
The jokers of the Chancers decks share a quote by Randy Pausch: "It's not the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand" - a really powerful quote. I think a deck of cards is a cool way to promote messages that are thought provoking and useful, especially when decks are printed hundreds at a time, meaning the message can reach so many people.
Admittedly, as the Good Pals brand has developed over the years I have lost sight of the 'meaning' aspect of the brand. Whilst we've still created cool decks, and I am proud of that, I have missed opportunities to add more meaning to my decks.
That is soon to change, with the Good Pals logo series I am trying to incorporate quotes back into my playing cards. I recently did this by sharing a small message on an advert card in the TCI Clubhouse Playing Cards that briefly spoke about my journey with The Card Inn and how it's important to just go for it in life sometimes, no matter what others think.
Through the Good Pals Logo series I will be contemplating bringing quotes back to ad cards, quotes that really resonate with me. The reason why I care about this kind of thing is because over the years I have come across various quotes that really helped shift my point of view or helped me get through a difficult time.
Perhaps the most meaninful quote I have ever come across is actually the kind of quote that I could say brings me purpose in life, and influences what I do in my career of creating playing cards but also in working with young people:
"Be the person you needed when you were younger" - Ayesha Siddiqi
Quotes or affirmations will not resonate with everybody, and they can be taken as seriously or as light-heartedly as you like, but I enjoy sharing things that have meaning to me.
Playing cards can survive generations, and some maybe never die. There's a lot of potential regarding the amount of generations that could possibly see such a message, the message having various degrees of significance depending on who comes across it.
The Good Pals Mascots + "Lore"
Only in recent times I have actually come up with a Good Pals "lore" of sorts, explaining a back story of the mascots and how they link between each deck.
Our skeletal mascots from our logo, Skel + Eton, feature in every single deck we have produced. Whether on the back design, a court card, jokers or an art card at the back of the deck.
Since I've been so focused on bringing meaning back to the brand, I went overboard and created a backstory as to who they are and what their purpose serves.
As you have seen they are skeletons, and so far with Good Pals we've had the Chancers decks, Halloween Tales, Logo decks, and soon to come Christmas + Pirates deck. But how do these all link together? They don't have to link together, but I thought if I thought of all this as some kind of Good Pals Universe it could tie everythign together in terms of our deck releases.
So our mascots Skel & Eton are travelling throughout this universe but for what purpose? Well, due to their skeletal form, you could argue they take on some form of immortality. What is their purpose? Other than going on cool adventures, it could be inspired by Ayesha's quote to "be who you needed when you were younger".
This inspires my purpose by adding quotes to each deck. With each release of collectable art I can try to add a useful quote that may resonate with someone. For each new release, our skeletal mascots travel to a new part of the Good Pals universe to bring back something that can be of use for those younger and less wise as they.
That's just a fun way I thought of creating a story out of the brand's purpose of celebrating life, friendship and sharing important messages along the way.
If you read even half of that then I can only assume you're a real fan of the Good Pals brand! I thank you for that, and would love if you could get in contact with us on instagram or to email us at thecardinn@gmail.com to let us know your thoughts.
Cheers - James
