The Hermit Tarot Merch
Duration
1 Month & 1.5 weeks
Roles
Art Director
Product Designer
Visual Designer
Tools
Overview
This piece of work was created for Tarot Card Reading YouTuber 'The Hermit Tarot's' latest merch drop. The client was a huge collaborating factor throughout the design process. Initially, the client made a Pinterest board outlining their vision, clearly communicating the illustrative style of continuous linework. The design parameters were the following; must include all seven chakra colours, the number seven must be present, and for something to represent the slogan “Oh My Days” which the client described with the emotions of “shock, confusion & humour”. The client granted me complete creative control for this project and trusted me with their vision.
Iteration 1 - Mid Fidelity Client Review
Concept Low-Fi Sketches
Before the first meeting, I presented the client with three main concepts to choose from (Fig. 1 -3) and we proceeded with the one tarot card concept (Fig. 2) to complement their existing brand identity. Next, I compiled a mood board (Fig.4) consisting of works of art they had liked, different typography, a colour palette and the 5 mid fidelity sketches to choose from (Fig. 5-9). In our pre- design meeting the client reviewed the mood board and loved the linework of two different designs, so I combined both “Fig. 1” & “Fig. 8” into one design (Fig.9).
Fig. 5-9
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Mood Board
Fig. 4
Iteration 2 - High Fidelity Client Review
This design (Fig.10) expresses shock and disbelief encompassing the phrase "Oh My Days". The third eye and 7 chakra colours coming from within all four open points on the face, communicate a deep, inner knowing which is often what tarot is. Under the third eye is what looks like to be a forehead, this is actually an outline of where the client's ancestors are from; a small mudflat in the Torres Strait off of the North Coast of Australia. This personal aspect I chose to incorporate into the piece was extremely important and touching to the client. It represents the origin of this ancient
knowledge and higher wisdom conveyed to them when channeling spirit. The next
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
few images (Fig. 11-14) show the change in placements and sizing of the three main characters, the change in colour to the face, and the change in busyness to the design with the subtraction of the bigger stars.
Iteration 3 - Final Product
When the client was asked to describe the catchphrase with three tarot cards they chose ‘The High Priestess II’ to be the main component, represented by the face as well as the ‘The Sun XIX’, & ‘The Moon XVIII’. ‘The High Priestess II’ card is known to represent a higher knowledge, intuition, mystery, spiritual insight & things yet to be revealed. While the Sun & Moon together represent a balance of energies; that rush and excitement you feel when light is cast upon a shadow revealing something new, while simultaneously receiving that feeling of worry with how deep these secrets run. The Moon was placed on the left as the number associated with the card XVIII (18) comes before the Sun card XIX (19). The target audience being in North America, prompted this positioning as most North Americans read and visually take in information from left to right.
During this last iteration the client’s input and feedback from the mid-design meeting proved to be very helpful and was applied to create the final design (Fig.14). These changes included moving the positioning of the sun and the moon in the background to highlight the main character and create more of a balanced look. Furthermore, the stars were placed more logically by focussing on clustering them in all four corners, and dispersing inwards, which also helped to achieve a much less chaotic and more balanced look. Additionally, I changed the edges of the card from being square to rounded, to further emphasize the tarot card structure. Lastly, for the final design we decided on adding a paper texture on the non-textured products being sold, to provide that old card stock effect. This made the design appear to be more like a physical tarot card rather than a flat graphic.
Fig. 14