Getting hired for a playing card design gig by one of the more successful playing card companies these days is no easy task. Great designers and their ideas are shelved all the time in this industry. We previously heard about how designer Lee McKenzie's first go at Ellusionist was even shelved. It is the nature of any industry that prides itself on only releasing the BEST designs and companies have no problem turning down or shelving great designers. These companies have excellence in their eyes and do not compromise.

Enter Joshua M. Smith, a tough but humble designer with even tougher skills and designs. Joshua is the man behind the design studio, Hydro74. Although Hydro74 is one man studio, Joshua has worked his way from small design jobs to design gigs for some heavy hitting clients all while giving the finger to anyone trying to stomp his style or hold him back.  Joshua knows first hand what it is like working with one of these playing card companies as he has been through the design process with one of the best in the biz, The Blue Crown. He was eventually picked up for a gig that went on to be one of The Blue Crown's most successful projects - Altruism Playing Cards including the very limited, Altruism Snow Owl deck. Currently, the Altruism Snow Owl deck is on Ebay for double the original asking price.

TuckCase spoke with Joshua recently about his work with The Blue Crown and his design career. Read further to get an inside look at the design studio that has accomplished so much yet is just getting started.

Tuck Case: Can you talk a little bit about your design background?
Joshua M. Smith: I’m a college drop out. I never wanted to be a designer. It was just one of those things that came forth out of spite towards my advisers in college. I went to college for elementary education since I wanted the good ol’ suit and tie sort of job and wasn't smart enough to be a lawyer or a doctor. You have got to love redneck DNA. When I found out I was ‘too punk’ for the student teaching part of the degree (I wasn't, I was just dirt poor and shopped at goodwill before the hipsters took it over), I decided to do liberal arts until I decided what the next choice was going to be. I could of stuck with it and changed, but it was the principle of a Christian college being judgmental without consulting me first that I just had to give the middle finger to.

Long story short - I took easy classes in art, drawing and painting just to keep the GPA up. I then discovered a class called visual communications. The professor was learning Adobe Photoshop at the same time the class was so I really  wasn't learning anything revolutionary. However, after posting some stuff online I started to get a gig here and there. Getting $500 to draw shitty anime characters back in 1997-1998 was kind of a big deal. I ended up dropping out shortly after that when my main adviser suggested I take drawing and painting classes instead of focusing on graphic design. I was perplexed because I knew that those classes wouldn't help me land a job or pay the overpriced cost of this school. In the end, I quit and forced myself to learn on my own. I remember doing shirts for $25 to $50 just to be able to get food. I was also working a full time job at Best Buy.

I stuck with it. Several years and several jobs later (from designer, production artist, art director to creative director), I called it quits on that hustle and started my thing full time. I hate the word freelance since it seems lesser than, so technically, I started up my own company Hydro74. The company is just me but I created an LLC (Limited Liability Company) and pushed forward. I've always freelanced but when I went independent more opportunities came forth with working with Hasbro, Lucas Films, Burton Snowboards, Mattel, Nike, Adidas, The Blue Crown and so on and so forth. Not bad for a college drop out.

Tuck Case: How did you team up with The Blue Crown?
Joshua M. Smith: Alex over at The Blue Crown is a great guy. He hit me up a while back when I went on this rampage so to speak of trying to develop playing card backs. Theory 11 contacted me earlier, which eventually went no where. However, it was fun to work with them so getting an email from Alex was exciting since my mindset was already involved in that style. We went back and forth a few times trying to figure out what to develop and we eventually landed on the owl concept. I wish I invested more time into the actual cards rather than the backs, box and a few other tidbits. However,  something is planned soon with The Blue Crown.