This project was for my digital illustration class. The task was to make an entire set of playing cards, including a box.

I started think in broader design themes, since for this assignment we were not allow to use properties or characters that already existed. I thought of design themes that would be simple to execute and good to look at, since this was 52 cards worth of work. I settled on a modernist look with heavy influences of Bauhaus.

I based my designs on the traditional bicycle cards but I deconstructed them and simplified there elements to where they would be recognizable but incredibly distinct from the original. I made the back of the cards and the box with design elements from the face cards as a sort of easter egg. I called the set Karten Spielen, the german word for playing cards, as an homage to the German Bauhaus.

I learned a lot about abstracting things. Taking designs and then reinterpreting them into a different aesthetic was something I've never done before and I have new admiration for anyone who does this all the time.