AroundSquare v2 Concept Deck of Cards designed for Cardistry

The original Concept Deck was developed in 2016 as a design experiment, a "proof of concept". The goal was to set aside the conventional standards and styling, and to design a card deck purely for cardistry. Recognizing the art of cardistry as the manipulation of cards to produce striking visual effects, and seeing this as distinct from other forms of card handling, such as magic and casino games, Aroundsquare sought to produce a card design that would unlock the full potential of a card deck to produce visual effects. The quest to produce a card purely for this purpose resulted in a string of design decisions that, collectively, have resulted in a truly distinctive deck design. The first decision was to drop the standard card faces, numbers, suits, and pips. If the cards are not being used for card games or magic tricks, then there is no need for this visual clutter. Instead, AO2 has used the entire printable area, front and back, for the sole purpose of visual effects. All cards in t