Over the course of the pandemic, I designed a deck of cards to reflect the beauty of nature--of the world we all dearly missed.
Each suit is a different biome with a unique color scheme.
Each card is a different species within that biome.
And each deck is 56 pieces of art tucked neatly into a box.
The process began with research and quick study-sketches, aiming to capture the character and movement of each animal. This is followed with a few digital composition sketches, working through several rounds to find the best pose.
The best composition was then taken into Adobe Illustrator, where I rendered out the final illustration using the colors and gradients I had predetermined for each suit. Once I finished all 56 illustrations, I compiled everything—including the numerals and custom suits—into an Illustrator document with the proper formatting and bleed for print.
As seen below, I designed each suit with it's own color scheme. I aimed to utilize unexpected colors; for example, the rainforest suit has no green at all. Instead, I emphasized the vibrance of that particular environment through primary colors, black, and white.
While the Ace of each suit features a more static landscape or visual, the Ace of Spades is special—as per usual for almost all playing card decks (because of the significance of the card in many games). I reflected this tradition by using the negative space around the pip for the illustration, as opposed to inside the pip.
While I did not originally plan to print the cards, word spread among friends and family about my in-progress creation, and demand gradually increased. And I thought, why not?
I created a Kickstarter to raise funds for printing throguh the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC), the creators of the classic Bicycle card decks.
The campaign ran from June 23rd to July 23rd, 2020, and surpassed the goal of $5,100 in less than a month. In total, we raised a whopping $6,844, over a thousand dollars past the initial goal.
You can view the Kickstarter, and even purhcase a deck of your own, here.
I worked with USPCC to print over a thousand decks, fulfilling the Kickstarter orders and shipping over 500 decks to over a dozen countries.
I am eternally grateful for the amazing opportunity to print, ship, and share my work to so many people. Look forward to V2 in the future!