Wistaria Playing Cards
The Wistaria is a fully custom 52-card deck I designed in Adobe Illustrator as a self-initiated challenge. I had wanted to design playing cards for a long time, but I waited until I had a strong grasp on my visual language and design sensibilities. After spending a year consistently working in Illustrator, I finally felt confident enough to take on a project that would push both my creativity and discipline.
I gave myself two months to complete the deck, from designing each individual card to preparing the packaging, with the goal of producing a high-quality physical prototype. I ended up printing 16 decks in total — 8 in a purple edition, and 8 in a grey — all on casino-grade M31 linen stock.
Challenge
My primary creative constraint was designing with empty space in mind. Rather than overwhelming the cards with detail, I focused on the structure of each number card — laying out the pips for each suit and then designing the surrounding space with intentional rhythm and geometry. This restriction helped me stay focused and refine my thinking around balance, proportion, and composition.
Another challenge was working with a strict color limit. I created two separate five-color gradient palettes — one for the hearts and diamonds, and another for the spades and clubs — to create visual cohesion across the deck while still allowing room for depth and complexity. By committing to just ten total colors, I avoided overdesigning and forced myself to find subtle ways to create contrast and movement within each card.
Designing the packaging was a separate challenge altogether. I had never created print-ready packaging before, so I learned how to use dielines and prepare layouts for folded forms. The tuck box includes structural details that line up when two boxes are placed side-by-side, repeating ace designs on the sides, and using the Wistaria flower emblem as a central motif. Typography choices were made to stay consistent with my design language while slightly evolving the feel of the Howaubi brand.
Results
The final result is a cohesive deck of playing cards that functions both as a practical object and a design piece. Every card reflects an individual decision — from layout to color to spacing — but still belongs to a unified whole. The purple and grey editions are visually distinct but structurally identical, allowing the form of the design to take center stage regardless of color.
The name Wistaria came from the visual structure of the logo, which resembles both a star and a flower. Each of the four suits — hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs — was derived from that same geometric emblem, cut and recolored to create the ace cards. The star also appears in the Jokers, reinforcing the visual thread that runs throughout the deck. While the plant “wisteria” isn’t directly referenced in the cards themselves, the name felt like a fitting title for a deck rooted in form, nature, and visual cohesion.
150+
Hours of design
55
Unique cards created
16
Prototype decks printed
Process
Every card was created in Adobe Illustrator, using vector tools like the shape builder and pathfinder to construct overlapping forms, subtract shapes, and build new compositions. I didn’t go into each card with a specific shape in mind — instead, I let my intuition and experience guide each layout. That kind of trust in my process only came after spending hundreds of hours over the past year working in Illustrator and developing a visual rhythm that feels natural to me.
While each card is abstract in nature, there’s a quiet consistency in their execution. The number cards use the darkest tone in the palette for the suits and values, and the remaining shades for supporting structure and visual accents. The face cards take things further, using all five tones in more complex arrangements to build layered, dynamic compositions that still feel balanced and intentional.
Designing The Wistaria was the first time I applied my digital design skills to a fully physical object. It taught me how to work within constraints without sacrificing creativity, how to build structure through repetition, and how to refine without overcomplicating. The result isn’t just a deck of cards — it’s a design system expressed through form, color, and space.
Conclusion
The Wistaria represents the point where my design instincts, technical skills, and personal style came together. It challenged me to think structurally, work within constraints, and design with intention. More than just a deck of cards, it’s a reflection of how far I’ve come as a visual designer — and the kind of work I want to keep building.