The assingment was to design a full set of 54 playing cards with 4 suits of 13 and 2 jokers.
I began by getting inspiration for the cards.
It is suspected that playing cards were invented in 9th century China for something called “leaf game”. The card traveled through to Persia where they took on a familiar form with pips and face cards. In Egypt around the 11th century a third face card was added which brought the deck total to 52 and the four suits of sticks, coins, cups, and swords which would be style across most of Europe when they traveled there, probably through Spain, in the 14th century.
Playing cards as we understood them were more or less set in stone at this time but would continue their refinement with several innovations (such as backs, rounded edges, and the white trim) and changes (such as reversible face cards) we take for granted.
The French deck with the Spade, Club, Heart, and Diamond became the standard style in England, and then in the United States some time in the late 18th or early 19th century.
The United States invented the Joker as a distinct “trump card” during the civil war.
While all of this was happening, another thread was unravelling. Starting in 1377, John of Rheinfelden, puts a significance on the cards as being explanatory for the world which doubtless planted the seeds of mystery in the cards.
As the centuries went on an alternative sub culture of cartomancy grew. “Readers” began to detail their record of mystical card history as they told the future with tarot which itself began as a type of playing card.
Each successive reader and their decks compounded into a rich mystical tradition which pulled many elements and previous decks and the insights gleaned from peers. The most famous of these decks is doubtless the beautiful Rider-Waite tarot deck. The 78 card deck had 56 “minor” and 22 “major arcana and it has left an indelible mark on our culture.
All of this history, from the dead ends innovation left behind, vestigial quirks, and utterly alien ideas which belie the humble playing card formed a rich ground for me to grow my new deck.
I began by laying out a plan. I would change the suits to reflect some of more obscure suits of history found across Europe. I went with Coins, Cups, Swords, and Acorns.
I also changed the Jack into a Page and updated the 2 into a special "Deuce" card (like how the 1 is an Ace).
Lastly the 10 card would have an extra art piece as a compromise with my original vision to make each card a full art piece.
I next rendered the sketches as vector graphics.
The two jokers which are modelled in part off of Pagliacci and Harlequin. Two famous "clowns" from the commedia dell'arte.
The sword suit uses roman numerals instead of pips.
The queen of coins was inspired by Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) who was (perhaps) the first female self-made millionaire despite her family being born as slaves (she was born free in 1867 after the American civil war which ended in 1865).
The 10th card in each suit (with the exception of Acorns which is based on the 10th card in the Kaiserspiel deck) is based off a tarot card: cups, ten of cups; swords, nine of wands; coins, The Moon (major arcana).
The ace of each suit is based off of the ace of the suits in the Rider-Waite tarot deck. The deuce card is based off of Swiss/German playing card decks.
As in the standard French deck, two suits have their face cards with only one eye visible. With the acorns this is because they are facing right, for the swords it is because they are missing an eye.
The back of the card has a wheel to refrence the 10th card of the Major Arcana the Wheel of Fortune.
I had a lot of fun with this project. The last step was to make mockups to show off the cards.
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