Playing cards

This project called for designing playing cards, including the King, Queen, Ace, Jack, Joker and a pattern to go on the back of the cards. The theme chosen was Ancient Egyptian Mythology as it is very popular and has a majestic and visually appealing feel, with their golds, browns and yellows that are usually found on their tapestries. Originally the color palette was going to reflect these colors, however it was simplified to two colors by using a gradient m to merge the yellow and browns to give it a golden effect, and black for contrast to stand out against the colors. The characters to go on the cards were Egyptian Gods, Royalty as well as symbols. The first and most obvious character chosen was Anubis the God of the Afterlife who is depicted as a jackal (an animal that looks like a dog or fox), hence this worked well for the Jack card. The next character chosen was Ra the God of the Sun, Order and Kingship, which was perfect for the King card. The next card is of Nefertiti who was a well known Queen as she moved the people to monotheism and worship Ra, which liked it nicely for the Queen card. The next card was the ace, for which the Ankh was used. It is the symbol of life and immortality, so it fit well for an ace. The final card was the joker, also arguably the hardest character to determine when it comes to ancient Egypt. Initially the mask of King Tut was used for the joker, however it didn’t have any real correlation to the joker card as it symbolizes chaos and disorder. After extensive research Apophis the God of chaos and disorder was found, which fit perfectly for the joker. The pattern chosen for the back of the cards was done with the repeated silhouette of Anubis with his hands interlocking, mimicking the people on tapestries. The cards are done on a yellow to reddish gradient background with the characters centered in black tied together with slight highlights with the gradient color for a shiny appearance. The top left and bottom right have the corresponding letters that go with the characters, underneath them is the same letter in hieroglyphics as a symbol to go with them.