The Handbag

Project Overview

Inspired by Michael Augustin's short story, The Handbag, I created a set of ten hand illustrated tarot cards. In the story a professional thief, Blunk, encounters 82 year old Elisabeth Schroder with a surprising outcome. Both characters are forced to decide how to respond to their new circumstances. Elisabeth adjusts to her new circumstances and ends up having a grand time! Blunk initially refuses to change how he approaches his new circumstances. The story is playful and has a surprisingly lovely ending. Each tarot card represents a different way of responding to change. The set is intended to be used and comes in a box that includes a booklet with the story and directions on how to read the tarot cards.

My role

Visual Designer
Maryland Institute College of Art
I created all visual elements of this project including hand illustration, hand lettering, vector illustration, design and layout of booklet, and construction of all final materials.

Process

Each card was drawn with ink and colored pencil on paper. Illustrations were scanned into the computer and digitized in Illustrator. The final product is a mixture of vector illustration, original colored pencil, and hand drawn lettering.