Recently I worked on a project involving the design of thirteen symbols rooted in Tarot iconography. The commission was a particular one, and my job was very straight forward - trying to meet the specifications of product requirements in a simple, styled way - but I found the material intriguing.
For the client's needs, nine court symbols and four more abstracted associations were necessary. (Cups, Wands, Swords, Pentacles, World, Page, Knight, Queen, King, and Angel, Eagle, Lion, and Bull).
I was given them, their information, and started on the rough sketches to figure out their basic structure. A little bit of research went into the historic inspirations of these symbols, yielding some curious design solutions thought up in the medieval era. I worked from their economy of line, hoping the new designs might allude back, for those familiar with Tarot art history. It was also a pleasure to base my interpretations on such 'old ground'.
All in all it was quite a different thing for me.
Rough Sketches follow first, then the selected ones which were brought to finish:
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| Multiple Roughs One, Graphite, 2012 |
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| Multiple Roughs Two, Graphite, 2012 |
Once the favored designs were chosen, I tidied the graphite drawings and turned them into clear, smooth finished files, as the client required.
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| Cups |
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| Wands |
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| Swords |
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| Pentacles |
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| Major Arcana - World |
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| Page |
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| Knight |
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| Queen |
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| King |
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| Angel |
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| Eagle |
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| Lion |
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| Bull |
My job is done, but I'll be interested to see where the rest of the project goes and if it is a success.
