It’s not that playing cards haven’t always had sophisticated illustrations, but I don’t think they’ve always been respected as such by the masses. Magician and designer Destino‘s two decks for Bicycle are two fabulous examples of what the space is capable of.
Nocturnal is built around an owl emerging from an impossibly dense Victorian naturalist illustration. On the other hand, Serenity takes the opposite emotional stance but with the same design discipline, placing four white doves in symmetry at the center of a churning cosmic field of navy, hot magenta, and electric blue. It’s all about the contrast between absolute stillness and surrounding chaos. What makes both decks exceptional as design objects is that the visual language doesn’t stop at the box. There are botanicals, reillustrated court cards, and hidden starfields inside the flap that all carry the world of each deck into every single card in the hand. Destino builds complete systems where the box is just the intro to the beautiful world within.
