King of Spades
These designs are inspired from Chhau masks from the state of West Bengal in India. Chhau is form of martial dance performed in the state of Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.
I travelled to the district of Puruliya in West Bengal to conduct my primary research from the artisans who make these these magnificent masks.
Direct interaction with the artisans enriched me with the idea of how these masks are made and how they are styled to differentiate entities.
These masks are unique as they are made in a single village all over the world. They have a very specific form of style which becomes a recognition factor.
The various masks inspired the style of these playing cards. The cards are designed keeping in mind the basic recognizable images of the masks.
The face styles were used to come up with the sketches for the face cards
These sketches and photographs were put on illustrator to take the facial structure for the cards.
Then the cards were designed individually differentiating the four suits of cards.
Queen of Hearts
King of Clubs
King of Diamonds
Queen of Diamonds