Introduction
So, I have three dream projects (so far) that for a very long time I have considered personal holy-grails to try and accomplish through my work. I won't tell you what the other two are, but I can finally share one of them with you. For years, I have wanted to design a pack of playing cards. To be able to whip out a deck when a friend says, "hey, let's play a card game," and go, "yeah, here's one."
I think that it's one thing to design a single stand-alone artwork, and another thing entirely to design and create something that is both beautiful and functional at the same time. Cards, I believe, are one of those things. I've always looked at beautiful hand designed and illustrated playing cards and thought to myself (often out loud), "man, I'd love to do something like that."
And then VSSL came along.
How it started
Toward the end of 2020 I had hand-illustrated VSSL's core business values as part of a soft rebrand and internal spruce-up of sorts. This time around they gave me a go at another epic project. A dream project, in fact.
They didn't know it at the time, but there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to turn it down. No way. I put my dissertation writing on hold, and smashed it out in a tight deadline with even tighter room for error.
Who doesn't like free stuff?
I wasn't originally briefed with designing number cards as part of this pack, but I was so amped by the time it came to presenting the face cards that I thought, "what the hell, I'm having way too much fun with this to stop here" and threw them in as a bonus. As a way of saying thank you for the opportunity, I thought it was the least I could do!
How it went
This project needed to be done with upmost speed and taught me a helluva lot about leaving your own creative doubts in the dust and trusting your creative process.
We nailed the brief, got it all ready to go, and the clients of theirs who got to receive them as part of larger Christmas gifts to celebrate the tumultuous year of 2020 were reminded of why they chose to work with the VSSL crew in the first place. Because they are dope people, who make epic shit.
Still gets me every time
Honestly, it's one of the most surreal feelings in the world seeing your work in tangible form! Knowing that it all started with a sketch and finally materialised into something you can feel, watch the light bounce off of, and even lose an ungodly amount of money (or clothes) in the name of entertainment.
A peek at one of the WIP presentations I developed during those late nights, filled with a solid work playlist of tracks and enough sugar and caffeine to keep an elephant drawing through the night.
Always a WIP
Some of the sketches I developed during the course of this project. Some didn't make it, and some became the stars of the show. Either way, it can be humbling to know it all starts with a sketch.
