Week 3: Meaning 2

Playing Card: The King of Clubs

Representational: The role this card represents is one of the Highest Ranking Cards (if not the highest, it is outdone by the Ace) in a standard 52 deck of playing cards. Usually cards are ranked (lowest to highest) from Ace (one) to Ten, then Jack, Queen, King. Depending on what card game you are playing, the King can have great impact, including Blackjack, Poker, and many other card games where it is desired to have a higher card than your opponent. Whenever someone sees this physical card, they know the connotation of it being the highest card due to its markings and designs. The "K" denotes a King, while the picture represents an interpretation of what a Medieval King would stereotypically look like: regal, decorative, and someone with power.

Abstract: The abstract design of it, why the image is mirrored upon itself is not just for decoration purposes, it also serves the purpose of being able to see what the card is on either side. A playing card company could have just wrote the word "KING" or "K" with a Clover/Clubs symbol underneath it, or even a picture of a real king. However, they decided to use a simplistic representation of a king. They break it down to just 4 colors: yellow, red, light blue and black. A special note of black: the Clubs symbol and the K are colored in black which helps denote this is a black-suited King. Various card games, such as Canasta, requires the use of colors to match off pairs. Abstractly this piece represents a Black Suited card of a King. 

Symbolically: Possibly the strongest on the three when you see this card, the King is noted as a very powerful card in play for many games. Many playing cards in the West use the French Symbols to denote what suit the card represents. These symbols include: Hearts, Spades (which take the form of a spade head), Diamonds and finally Clubs, which uses the symbol of a Clover (a symbol that is radically different looking than the aforementioned other symbols). Throughout the world and history, the clover symbol may have been replaced with another symbol, such as an Acorn, but the reasoning is this helps differentiate this playing card from the other three suits. 

How it all relates: When you look at this card, you can automatically determine various facts about this card: How it ranks compared the rest of the cards of the deck, what suit it is, what color it is, and depending on the game, the importance it represents. On a standard 2.5" to 3.5" inches of plastic and cardboard, the card combines all three: A representation picture of a King, the coloration of Black dominating the card, and the symbol of a Clubs suited card. Cards have been around for hundreds, even thousands of years, and the style and power the card represents has minimally changed throughout time.