Synopsis — Independently illustrated a complete deck of 54 nature-themed playing cards, and raised over $6,800 through a Kickstarter campaign to professionally print and ship over 500 decks around the world.
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.
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Each suit has a unique color scheme that is intended to be somewhat unexpected: for example, the rainforest suit, Hearts, has no green at all.
All of the ace cards lean more environment, with the ace of Spades being the accent of the deck (as per usual in cardistry decks).
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.
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 through 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.
Interested in working together?
Send an email to lena@cordeliart.com!