"BRuT" A Modern Tarot by Uusi

Uusi

Hello! I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Linnea Gits and I am a designer and artist with the Chicago-based design studio, Uusi. For the past three years, one of the projects our company has focused on was creating a six-deck, Limited Edition series of playing cards that all shared an emphasis on using Fine Art mediums to create the deck's imagery. With the close of that series this past December we were finally able to turn our energy to one of the original playing card formats – the Tarot!

We love the Tarot not only because it has carried some of the most beautiful, meaningful imagery in the history of cards, but also because it is such a little workhorse of a deck! When not in use as a guide through the secret passageways of the eternal future it can just as happily be used to keep you entertained with hundreds of games of strategy, imagination and luck. In short, we feel it is the perfect deck –*not like we have to tell you that :D

"BRuT" is our take on a traditional, French, game-playing Tarot and we are excited to share a first look at the deck with the Aeclectic Tarot community and are looking forward to your feedback! So much fun to be here!!
 

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Aeric

Very attractive! The earth tones and choices of mixed fonts remind me of abstract Art Deco.
 

Uusi

Very attractive! The earth tones and choices of mixed fonts remind me of abstract Art Deco.

Love that! Our style inspiration for this deck was a mix of Brutalism, Art Brut (or naive art) and Early 20th Century Modernism, of which Art Deco would be right at the front :)
 

Aeric

I also found what I believe to be your Strength card.

It's quite a subversion of the traditional Strength, of a woman gently subduing the lion. This one is much more raw, forceful, Herculean. It reminds me of statues in New York City.
 

Uusi

I also found what I believe to be your Strength card.

It's quite a subversion of the traditional Strength, of a woman gently subduing the lion. This one is much more raw, forceful, Herculean. It reminds me of statues in New York City.

Wow! You're good. And yes, that is the sketch (not the finished artwork quite yet) for our Strength card. We wanted to go for exactly what you described, "raw, forceful & Herculean."
 

Elven

Very classy - simple yet complex. Love the collusion of styles and the colours are awesome, they work so well.
Congrats!!
 

Uusi

Very classy - simple yet complex. Love the collusion of styles and the colours are awesome, they work so well.
Congrats!!

Thank you, Elven! Such a great compliment :D
 

karen0205

"BRuT" is our take on a traditional, French, game-playing Tarot and we are excited to share a first look at the deck with the Aeclectic Tarot community and are looking forward to your feedback! So much fun to be here!!

Your artwork is really lovely! Thank you for sharing it here. Any chance you will be including a deck that follows the RWS theme? The deck you are creating is the playing card game Tarot or jeu du tarot, which is not the same kind of tarot deck that you usually find here on Aeclectic. Most of the decks here on Aeclectic are either Marseille or Rider Waite Smith (RWS) themed decks. There are members who collect playing cards and use them but I think the most prevalent is the RWS/Marseille style. Again, the artwork is really nice.
 

Uusi

Your artwork is really lovely! Thank you for sharing it here. Any chance you will be including a deck that follows the RWS theme? The deck you are creating is the playing card game Tarot or jeu du tarot, which is not the same kind of tarot deck that you usually find here on Aeclectic. Most of the decks here on Aeclectic are either Marseille or Rider Waite Smith (RWS) themed decks. There are members who collect playing cards and use them but I think the most prevalent is the RWS/Marseille style. Again, the artwork is really nice.

Hi Karen – good to hear from you! And yes, we would love to do a strictly divination Tarot someday, but we wanted to start with the game-playing Tarot, as we are big history buffs and the game-playing deck preceded the divination Tarot for centuries. This did not stop it from also being used as a fortune telling deck –*numerology and symbolic imagery have been an irresistible combination for thousands of years – but not until the early 1900's did Tarot really move more into the occult formats and beautiful decks like the RWS helped take it into mainstream popular culture. With "BRuT" we wanted to reunite the world of games and mysticism (our trumps all follow the RWS & Marseille divination themes) and give a modern twist to an awesome tradition.
 

kalliope

I really love the colors and art style of these cards! This will definitely be going on my wishlist to add to my collection. (The color palette reminds me of my favorite court cards of the Tarocchi di Alan, but I may love the bold style of your drawings even more.)

I have a few of your playing card decks (Bohemia & Royal Optik), and think they're a very high quality production and are beautifully done. I look forward to more decks from Uusi, especially if you're delving into the tarot arena. Thanks for giving us a sneak peek, and I hope you'll stop by to show us more cards as work on the deck progresses.