Cabinet of Curiosities – Playing Cards

Designer / Illustrator: Nam Tibon
Project Type: Kickstarter Project
Location: New York
Packaging Contents: Playing Cards
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper

A most curious collection of playing cards inside a pocket sized cabinet launched on Kickstarter.

Ever wonder where museums came from? Appearing in Renaissance Europe, the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ is an early ancestor of the modern museum. A Cabinet of Curiosities or – wunderkammer – stored and exhibited a wide variety of objects, with a particular leaning towards the rare, eclectic and esoteric. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked with objects like dragon’s blood or unicorn horns), geology, ethnography, archaeology or historical relics and antiquities.

Working around this cool subject matter, creating/collecting pieces for a personal version of a wunderkammer became exciting! It took months of work but wanting to create a unique art deck it was well worth the time spent. Inside the Cabinet of Curiosities art deck is a complete series of 54 fully illustrated and imagined objects inspired by the works and personal collections of naturalists and explorers.