Designing the Tarot

I started playing around with Tarot when I was around eight. I didn’t particularly take it seriously, if I’m totally honest. I mostly found the idea of figuring out the future pretty appealing and I absolutely loved the art. By the time I was eleven I started working on my own Tarot deck but being a mercurial Gemini, I abandoned the idea pretty quickly as nearly impossible.

So fast-forward to age 49 and Quarantine 2020. By this time, I’ve spent my entire adult life as a professional artist and later as a professional tattooer. When my non-essential tattoo studio closed its doors, it seemed like a perfect storm.

I found Tarot such a comfort that I decided I was going to complete my Tarot deck. I truly was The Fool taking a leap of faith. As the process moved on, I went through every card of the Tarot. I really felt like I was stepping off the cliff: really excited, a little bit scared but fully committed.

I wanted to create something gorgeous and to me, that meant something really, really colorful and totally lux.

I love color and find myself obsessing over beautiful colors. I hoped others might feel the same. I wanted to offer a series of illustrations that honored the diversity of modern society. I wanted to make something magical that others wanted to use in their own practice of Tarot.

I felt particularly called to create something that honored the history and imagery of the classic Rider-Waite-Smith and so early on I decided to keep the classic identifiers in terms of the Suit and Court card names. I used western numbers to keep it easy and English which is my language of origin.

Human faces fascinate me. I love the inspiration of human faces. I wanted to capture the emotion of many card’s protagonists by using humans rather than symbols, animals or plants. As a bisexual woman artist, it was extremely important to me to represent people from different eras of time, BIPOC, LGBTQIA, different genders and different compositional perspectives. I feel a major turn off to me in the original RWS is the lack of diversity.

Designing an inviting, warm and powerful tarot card box and ancillary packaging also mattered very much to me and it was my first experience in package design. I was definitely seeking a powerful and beautiful “covergirl” and felt the Strength card best represented something that I was trying to do personally - overcoming my fears by doing something brand new to me.

Orange and purple have always given me good vibes, so I chose those to be in the palette I used in the branded packaging. Orange is such a sweet, summery color and purple is so psychically powerful that the two went together beautifully offering both depth and openness. Of course white and black represent the creative forces of the Universe and I needed them included.

Creating a completely immersive brand experience that delivered positive, inclusive and gorgeous vibes mattered to me. I wanted an art object that instantly invited seekers to create a powerful connection to their new tarot deck. I also wanted a rose-petal soft feel to the deck so the cards themselves physically felt great when you touch them. I chose a matte finish to avoid card slips which happen (to me) with gloss.

In my mind’s eye, I hoped to create a deck that could journey with its user throughout the years and might even be something gifted to someone loved. I wanted to balance a card that was flexible enough to shuffle well but thick enough to endure over time. 350 German black core delivered the flexibility and the strength I wanted for my tarot deck. 

Because your deck is your valued friend, I felt it important to give your friend a nice place to rest so I wanted the longevity of a hinge box. Having that magnetic closure flap is so satisfying to open to me and was my only choice! I also wanted the flexibility of using a bag to protect the box from wear and tear.

Honoring the divine feminine and inviting the power of big Empress energy to flow through me gave me the ability to see my tarot card deck to completion. As an independent self published artist I have created a tool to use in your practice. You supply the energy and I hope you enjoy the result of our synergy.