Creating visual images for the facial deck-cards

I choose to design images that are inspired by the traditional custums of the ethnic minorities living in Vietnam. The characters on this deck ar stylized in a cute, funny and abstract way like cartoon characters.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic monorities. Each of the group has unique traditional costumes imbued with regional cultural identities. The costumes are made from brocade materials with many eye-catching colors and patterns. Thus, I use these visual materials for my design ideas.

out of these 54 ethnic minorities, I selected 4 ethnis groups to represent the 4 pieces in the deck of cards: spades, clubs, dimonds and hearts. Each ethnic group has its set of colors to make a difference and as an identication, in point of each piece. In addition, in order to distinguish the pieces in the same sequence, such as: King, Queen & Jack, I used the patterns on the brocade costumes of each ethnic group to serve as the background for identication. And just like the original version of th deck, each of my cards has a reversal, butit' a reversal of the male & female characters.

I designed this deck ofcards for two reason. Firstly, the deck of cards currently on the market is mainly aimed at adults, so the shape on the cards are very "mature". Therefore, to design a deck that can be closer to childer, I chose eye-catiching colors and funny cartoon characters because I think "Playing deck cards aren't bad. It's a relaxing way of entertainment. It's a way of connecting people. So why can't the kids play cards?"

The second reason is that I want to spread the beauty of Vietnamese culture to everyone. Vietnamese cuture i a harmonious and diverse combination of many different cultures.Altough it is a small country, Vietname has rich, diverse and colorful culture.