The making of New Jersey Go Fish!
New Jersey Go Fish! has been available for nearly a month, and I’m beyond grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm everyone has shown for the project so far. It really makes me so happy to know the cards are going to new homes where they’ll be admired and played with.
I thought it would be fun to share some more about the story of the how the deck came together along with some behind-the-scenes photos. Be sure to read until the end if you want a list of markets I’m doing this spring—it would be great to see/meet you and you can look at the decks in person!
I honestly don’t remember how long ago I wrote the words “New Jersey Go Fish?” in my “Jersey Collective project ideas” notebook that I carry around with me—months, definitely, and maybe even almost a year before we made it. But *some time ago,* I thought that would be a fun project to work on and bring into the world.
Naturally, the only person I wanted to partner with for it was Alex Flannery, whose work longtime Jersey Collective followers will recognize from the illustration on the cover of New Jersey Fan Club among many other things, and who people who know me in real life will recognize from being my boyfriend. =)
Once Alex agreed to bring Go Fish! to life, we had a lot to figure out as far as logistics. How many cards should the deck have? What illustrations should we include? Do we need instruction cards or anything else, and what should the packaging look like? What color scheme and style are we going for? Where are we getting it printed? Etc.
We worked on the list of possible images while cooking dinner and then Alex got to work on the drawings.
Alex’s process is to draw everything by hand with pencil and paper, refine it with a marker, scan it into the computer, and edit further from there.
I took out a few books of card game rules from the library and consulted the Internet to write up the most concise version of rules so they could fit on a single card. I didn’t stress over it too much, because I figured people can just play the way they learned, or look up ruled online if they don’t like ours!
We looked at all of the decks of cards we own—I really can’t pass up nicely designed decks so we have a lot1—to get ideas for packaging and wording.
I ordered a sample pack of cards from the printer so we could see the different options and their quality. We agreed on a linen finish, which I love because it reminds me the most of classic playing card decks that I’ve moved from junk drawer to junk drawer of every home I’ve ever lived in. And because the feel so smooth and nice!
Alex made some box prototypes by printing them out and cutting them and taping them together. I remember waking up one morning and he handed me the first one he made, which wasn’t even in color and was far from the final design we landed on, and I gasped. It suddenly felt that much more real. We were making a thing that people would be able to hold in their hands!
Watching the cards come together on the screen was exciting, too. We had a lot of discussions about the color scheme and I’m thrilled with where it eventually landed. I wanted something vintage-y and fun, but not too childish. I said no to primary colors or anything too pastel. I wanted it to be something kids would like, but adults who cared about design would really like, too.
Getting proof photos emailed from the printer was a really thrilling step in the process! After I approved them, all that was left to do was obsessively refresh the FedEx tracking page until all ten boxes of the shipment arrived at my door. And they looked perfect.
A lot of attention to detail and care went into making these, and I’m thrilled with the final result. It has been so fun to send them out into the world and imagine families playing them for years to come.
I would’ve absolutely lost my shit over these as a child, and thinking about some other little kid who collects issues of Weird NJ and asks to go to Waterloo Village on weekends and exclusively uses a ruler with photos of the scary dioramas at Fairy Tale Forest2 on it to this day getting a set of these cards as a gift makes me really happy.
Want a deck? Shop online here, or pick them up in person this spring:
Here’s a list of everywhere I’ll be vending this spring (so far—stay tuned for any additions). At each event, I’ll have plenty of Go Fish! decks, plus stickers, books, and other merch, along with the sticker machine.
Bell Works Fresh Saturday Makers Market
March 9, 2024 from 12:00-5:00 PM
Bell Works
101 Crawfords Corner Rd
Holmdel, NJ
Pop-Up @ Co-Lab at South Orange
March 23 & 24, 2024 from 11:00-6:00 on Saturday and 11:00-5:00 on Sunday
The Co-Lab at South Orange
57 South Orange Ave
South Orange, NJ
Geek Flea
April 20, 2024 from 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
First Presbyterian Church of Arlington
663 Kearny Avenue
Kearny, NJ
