Studio Brief 1 - Initial Ideas

Initially I looked at quite an illustrative approach for the Tarot cards, this was to connote the Akbar Ali cards I looked at previously. These were only rough designs but inverting them made them seem far more authentic and mystical. Each scene is representing Fado scenes of longing, loss and importantly - the sea.

I also looked at creating digital designs using handmade textures, I found these less successful as the design seemed flat and less organic. I added a large circle for the mouth here as I thought it might seem more distorted and interesting - perhaps this could have been explored further. Most of the tarot cards I looked at were hand drawn which gave then a far more authentic and raw aesthetic to them.

Another idea was to create designs inspired by Pamela Colman Smith, who was the queen of tarot cards and pretty much popularised them with her designs. The idea was to look at her style and recreate it with softer shapes and brighter colours. This was eventually the idea that was taken forward as it seemed to have the most grounding, people also said they liked this style most in a crit.

Imagery inspired by Smith

All these designs are influenced by original illustrations of Portuguese sailing in the 1800s, there was also some research into sea mythology to link to the fado theme - influencing the siren 'Death' card and the dead shark 'Strength' card.