Red Dot: Brands & Communication Design Award 2022 Winner.
IDA Design Awards Honorable Mention 2022 (Print Categories: Packaging and Other Print Design).

To start off my graduate program, I designed typographical playing cards based on one of my favorite book series of all time:“Shadow and Bone” by author Leigh Bardugo. The typeface I chose to analyze is Bely, created by designer Roxane Gataud. This font is part of the TypeTogether foundry since 2014, and has won multiple awards and honors. I chose it because it has so much character and variations though the different weights, and it gives so much more to showcase in a project like this. Throughout the deck, I used elements of Shadow and Bone to visually represent how Bely is constructed and how its anatomy makes it such an outstanding typeface. See the research below.

The suits are divided by topics inside what is called the “Grishaverse” (the S&B universe).
1. Clubs: The Dregs/Crows. Based on the duology “Six of Crows”, mainly focused on characters Inej and Kaz.
2. Hearts: The Corporalki: Order of the Living and the Dead, specifically focused on the characters Matthias and Nina from the “Shadow & Bone” trilogy.
3. Diamonds: The Etherealki: Order of the Summoners. This suit is more tailored to the duology “King of Scars”, which is part of the Grishaverse. Focused on Nikolai and Zoya.
4. Spades: The Materialki: Order of the Fabrikators. This is the deck that is the most centered in the main characters of the “Shadow & Bone” trilogy, The Darkling and Alina.

Mockups from Freepik, MockupWorld and Behance.