Incunabula Tarot
For the challenge of creating a custom typeface, I thought it would be fun to combine the alphabet with the major arcana in tarot decks. Before they were popularized as tools for divination, tarot was nothing more than a deck of simple playing cards. So I thought that in order to create this design, I would go all the way back to the beginning of playing cards. Though their exact origin is unknown, the widespread use of cards in Europe was documented in the mid to late 14th century. And I decided that to create the perfect design, I would take inspiration from the books, pamphlets, and broadsheets of the early printed incunabula.
The Early Stages
The three original cards I decided to design for were The Fool, The Hermit, and The Lovers, and later in the process I added two more, Strength and The Hanged Man. Early on in development, the card designs featured much more detail. I decided to scale back on that detail to keep the simplistic look of some of the art in those incunabula. As for the letters themselves, I decided on a simple black letter design, which was appropriate for the time, and provided a nice contrast to the fun and almost modern look of the characters.
Card Creation
In creating these cards... I decided to actually create the cards. It only felt natural, given the subject matter I was pulling inspiration from. And as they say, when in Rome. I started by creating a template from which the designs came from and used that template to recreate that same design over and over again, to keep them as near perfect as possible. I had no access to a true printing press, so tracing was the only way to go. After that, they were painted, outlined in pen, and crushed between my hands to give them a truly distressed look. The final step in this process was to age the paper by soaking them in earl grey tea. To get the lovely dark spots, I placed the tea bags directly onto the paper. I wanted these to look as old and rough and lined as if the cards had been unearthed from Gutenberg's own studio.
Some close ups of the aged paper texture. I really like the way the paint cracks and bleeds in some places.
The final lettering template.
A Modern Printing
When it came time to begin printing the cards themselves, I had to step back into the 21st century. As I stated before, I did not have a true printing press, but I did have access to a lovely Canon industrial printer. So I scanned the card designs, touched them up a little in photoshop to give them more contrast, and sent the files off to the printer. I was truly impressed with what came out. This was the first time I had seen a printer replicate art of mine in such a clear and crisp way. It was as if the original drawings themselves jumped out of the paper.
This project gave me a new appreciation and respect for the art of printing. And not just for the traditional ways of printing with mostly handmade material, but for modern ink printers as well. The ability to take a piece of art and replicate it to near perfection as many times as possible, and to spread it out to as many people as possible is a true gift.
