Brad Fulton (Fulton’s Playing Cards)
I grew up in Southern California (Oceanside and Santa Ana) and wanted to be a movie director. It’s all I thought about—besides skateboarding. I also wanted to make the title sequences and posters for my films, so art and design were a huge part of the whole dream. After making it to USC Film School and making a lot of films … I got more into the photography and design side of things. I worked retail at one of the first Apple Stores to make ends meet and have free time for my personal projects…there I met Dave Buck who had just rolled into town from Sonora CA (a small town) dreaming of being a movie director. We clicked and began working together and decided playing cards were in need of some new designs for his work with his twin Dan Buck. This was when your only choice of cards was Bicycle or Tally Ho—so the idea looking back was revolutionary and later spawned an industry of designer cards.
The Buck Twins and I are abnormally picky and our relationship was forged based on making things really nice and cohesive and to our tastes. That’s how the card thing began.
From there we made hundreds of decks. Some under Dan & Dave, some under Fultons and later Art of Play. But we always remained passionate about any project we designed and produced.
TGN: Where did you grow up, and did playing cards play a role in your childhood games?
BF: The only playing card game I loved as a kid was Go Fish — I played it with my grandmother. I also liked memory because I’d win it quite a bit. But we never played poker or anything. I was outside skateboarding most of my youth in California having pipe dreams of being a pro but that never happened. As for games I was way more into video games…Nintendo and Street Fighter.
TGN: What inspired you to become a playing card designer, and how did you get started in the industry?
BF: I had no money and making films was expensive—or you lost creative control. So I decided to make what I called “cinema in a box” where the entire project had a theme and atmosphere akin to a film. They existed within a time and place and I would try to carry out a theme to every card. I just like designing things. If I could have made posters, or skateboard graphics or movies…I’d have taken any of them as long as I was in control of the art. Playing cards came because of my relationship with Dan & Dave Buck who are the greatest cardists and card producers that ever lived.
TGN: What design of yours are you most proud of, and what is the story behind its creation?
BF: They’re all like children and I love them all but for different reasons. I’d say Clip Joint which was the first deck made at Fultons as its own company. I had a traumatic brain injury from falling down stairs and was out of this earth for a few minutes and when I came to and began to live again I had these ideas of a card deck in a place called Fultons Clip Joint. A real noir type of place that suited my grandpa Sam Fulton and his tough guy exterior. All set in downtown Los Angeles. The theme is something I love and Dan Phillips is a lifelong friend of mine and his art in the deck is exactly what I envisioned. I still love it and usually looking back I see mistakes but Clip Joint I wouldn’t change anything.
TGN: As someone who creates playing cards, have other types of games had an impact on your life, such as other tabletop games or video games? If so, what are some examples?
BF: Video games for sure. I still play all the time. I had the Coleco Vision as a kid then the original NES. I love all sorts of games. Even today I love Red Dead Redemption 2 and Splatoon . Board games? I was really into Monopoly and Checkers. Even today I play checkers and love it.
TGN: What is your favorite card trick, and card based game?
BF: Go Fish or blackjack I’d say are my favorite games that use cards. As for tricks, anything Dan & Dave Buck did stands to me as the most amazing stuff to see — even after photographing it over and over they made it seem like real magic. The skill and creativity they have is not of this earth.
I would like to thank Brad Fulton for this interview.
Be sure to visit fultonsplayingcards.com for more information, and also my LINK section at the TOP RIGHT of this site.
TheGameNarrative 