A graphic update on the traditional Tarot deck by designer Isabel Lucena
When it comes to Tarot cards we’ve pretty much seen it all. Since the arrival of the Rider Waite deck in the early 20th Century nobody in the western world has really changed the game and made The Fool, The Ace of Wands or The Hierophant look all that different from Pamela Colman Smith’s incredible drawings. But recently designer Isabel Lucena has had a crack at it, and the results are surprisingly refreshing.
Isabel’s Debaratarot II were produced to accompany a theatrical performance in which speculative fates of the city of Lisbon were predicted by an on-stage mystic. “Each card refers to a new mysterious urbanistic happening in the city,” she says, “from river cruise traffic to tuk tuk wars.”
The cards display logos and colour palettes that feature heavily on Lisbon’s street signs and store fronts, and while their meaning may be ambiguous to philistines like me, the graphic language is an interesting update to this ancient medium.
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James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.