Avia Verse Tarot Cards
Prompt: Design a set of 22 characters and cards for an original universe called the Avia Verse
Cards printed by Decatur Blue Print
PROCESS
I first started with the character design. These cards depict just some of the different deific figures from what I have been calling the Avia Verse, a world where knowledge of the Supernatural is as common as knowledge of gravity. I first made a folder on Pinterest to get inspiration for the designs of these characters, and went through all the cards in the major arcana to assign characters to them. While certain characters always existed or I had the idea of them, this allowed me to expand the universe and explore the full extent of this universes deities.
The design of the deities were all based on birds, hence Avia being one letter short of Avian. This was an intentional twisting of typical imagery, as originally these deities were all referred to as Demons, when typically birds are more associated with Angels with only a few exceptions. The bird motif allowed for interesting shapes and silhouettes for many of the characters, one of my favorites being The Aether and their long neck, which was based on a heron. Some also referenced real bird biology, The Protector who represents peace has their beak basically become a large helmet, and this was based on how some birds have a frontal shield, basically an extension of their beak covering the front of their head.
The designs were meant to reflect what each deity is an avatar of, either in subtle or more direct ways. Love gets a heart motif, Balance has a split black and white design, Law is made to resemble a scale, etc. One of my fun choices was making The First, who is basically the mother of all these characters, resemble a bird fetus laying within an egg, which within the creation myth, exploded and caused the Big Bang. While the cards themselves would only feature gold and blue, I still decided to give each character a color for their galaxy texture.
Given the tight time crunch, I sadly was not able to iterate on the designs like I would have liked and what would be expected in a professional environment, however that doesn't none of the designs changed. Going into the sketching of the cards and eventually polishing them in Illustrator, I had the opportunity to reconsider some design elements, most apparent in The Anguished. Their neck becoming shorter to adapt to the limited space on the card, and then I made the long flowing hair into a mane that resembles an eye. That was done do keep the detail concentrated and de-clutter the silhouette. Due to this, I went back to the character sheet and edited it to reflect the new design.
Once the designs were done, I went to the sketching out the cards.
The design of the cards is based on Art Deco, a style of graphic design popular in the 1920s based in geometric patterns and decadence. I made sure to keep to straight lines and minimal curves, and if there is a curve it's either subtle or made using a circle. Certain characters also have a "link", basically two parts of the same whole (life and death, balance and chaos, emotion and thought, etc.) and so their cards were designed to mirror each other or look similar, specifically in the character posing.
Some elements of the cards did change, primarily when I noticed an element in one card wasn’t seen in others, such as with The Chance and the golden hands at the bottom. No other card has something like that, so it was removed.
During this I decided on the color pallet, gold for the trim and character, a darker blue for the background elements, and a lighter blue for the text. The gold and lighter blue were made to contrast with the black background enough to be readable and pass Web Aims contrast check, making sure the designs are accessible.