Play in Pink
Monochrome inclusive playing cards
Team: Solo project
Timeline: Four weeks
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
Problem
Playing cards are timeless but their designs aren't. Every single deck of cards I have picked up in my life has showcased white skin with Eurocentric features on the face cards. This Play in Pink deck offers more gender and race inclusivity with representation of different hair textures, facial features, and gender expression.
Design Process
Ideation
The color pink has history and power through association with gender norms as well as breaking them. In an article by the Guardian, pink got named "the color of activism" and having pink be the focus for these cards aligned well with the design objectives and message. I decided that I wanted the jack card to be the one that was visually the most genderless as it doesn't have the same connections to implicit gendering as do the titles of king and queen. I chose waves to be the graphic on the back of the card to symbolize fluidity.
Graphics
I started in Adobe Illustrator where I created the suite icons as well as the face card avatars. Each avatar and icon has perfect symmetry achieved through vertical reflection and using shape builder to join and create singular elements. The card box was designed on a box dieline with post-press considerations, like where the substrate would be cut, creased, and glued, for a quality print outcome.
Assembly
The cards themselves were formatted and assembled in Adobe InDesign using parent pages to create all 52 cards.