Personal Project to a Product Part 3 -Indulgence or a key ingredient of success?

If you have the time and mental capacity to engage in self-initiated acts of creative frivolity, you should consider yourself very lucky. Client work tends to take priority these days, and finding a scrap of paper and a spare moment to indulge in a few semi-mindless doodles almost feels like a luxury. And yet, those humble drawings can be the start of something entirely new and inspired.

For me, personal projects have so far been nothing more than training grounds. I say "so far" because what I am about to present below evolved into a major project and business shift, and it all started on the pages of an old, worn sketchbook. That sketchbook now sits on my shelf as a reminder that big things indeed have humble beginnings. Below you will find a few snapshots and mockups of the Manus Magia Tarot deck, which I’ve decided to launch via Kickstarter to test the concept. If all goes well, I will have successfully dipped my toe into the product creation pond before the end of the year.

Once I delved into the world of tarot, I found it fascinating, especially the lore and history. It’s one of those things I knew a little about but never realised had such a rich history and massive following to this day. For me, it became the perfect outlet for underutilised skills and an opportunity to design for my favourite medium – print.

The illustrations are minimalist interpretations of the more elaborate depictions found in both mentioned sets of cards. I think this is where my logo design background took over, as I found myself distilling the images down to their core meanings. Another deliberate choice I made was to avoid defining the deck’s purpose. Like poker cards, you can play them or do a bit of cartomancy to poke at the invisible realm for answers -the choice is yours.

If you would like to know more about the deck please visit the campaign page here