Cult of Tarot Forum

I cannot make up my mind.

I am really close to sending my Lenormand deck "The Friar's Delight" off for a test printing and I'm doing some last minute tweaks.

This is more than a tweak though.

The artwork for the deck uses medieval illuminations, those manuscripts illustrated by monks. Finding an image to represent card 27, "Letter" has proved tricky.

The first card I made was this one:

I like it, but It was pointed out to me that it might get confused with "The Lady" (or Woman) card.

Then I came across another, very different image and thought it could serve for the Letter.

if I go with the 2nd one, I may make some changes to the frame (every card in this deck has a different frame) to make it fit better to the image. BTW- the outer black edge will not appear on the finished cards.

I know the one with the girl is the "prettier" card. But I want to consider the usability of the deck also.

The word "LETTER" is dominant enough, but I just wonder of any of you have any opinions on these. Especially you Lenormand users.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Joan, you are creating a new lenormand deck ! Interesting !

Personally i prefer the 1st deaign with the lady, and the 2nd design card just didn't connect to me. I may not know how to interprete based on the design :lol:

I agree that the first design will be confused with the lady. That will impact the usability of the deck tremendously.

Could you perhaps post your lady card? I doubt it will change the calculus, but...

Can you somehow change the focus of the first card - put the woman in the shadow or emphasize the letter in some other way? Cutting the lady off wouldn't be nice or medieval

They didn't have envelopes like we have now which makes the iconography of the letter a bit tricky if you want to use medieval art...

Myperception wrote: ↑13 Jun 2019, 16:36 Personally i prefer the 1st deaign with the lady, and the 2nd design card just didn't connect to me.

Yeah, I kind of had the same feeling. Something just didn't pop for me about the 2nd one like I thought it would. I thought about making the letter bigger as a possible fix.

Charlie Brown wrote: ↑13 Jun 2019, 16:58 Could you perhaps post your lady card? I doubt it will change the calculus, but...

Unfortunately, the other 2 cards getting an overhaul are the lady and lord. But they will be fully shown. But I know what you mean, if she looks really different it may be okay.

Nemia wrote: ↑13 Jun 2019, 17:37 Can you somehow change the focus of the first card - put the woman in the shadow or emphasize the letter in some other way?

That's an interesting idea. I think I may play with that.

I'd say it depends very much on what The Lady (Woman) looks like.

If there's no possible confusion, I don't see why the beautiful first picture wouldn't be suitable. (She's so lovely).

Gorgeous deck this one will be. I bow before you.

The emphasis should be on the letter itself. Anything else should be background details, if included (and there is no compelling reason to include anything else), ideally faded or shadowed, not prominent at all.
The old decks generally show a calling card on a tray or table, emphasizing the aspect of superficiality. Can you find an image like that? Or just a letter?

katrinka wrote: ↑13 Jun 2019, 22:35 The old decks generally show a calling card on a tray or table, emphasizing the aspect of superficiality. Can you find an image like that? Or just a letter?

I have been through hundreds (at least) of images and as Nemia pointed out, the typical idea of "a letter" as we think of it now just did not exist in those times. I fooled around with some images of scrolls, but I just didn't think they came across right.

Joan Marie wrote: ↑14 Jun 2019, 19:06

katrinka wrote: ↑13 Jun 2019, 22:35 The old decks generally show a calling card on a tray or table, emphasizing the aspect of superficiality. Can you find an image like that? Or just a letter?

I have been through hundreds (at least) of images and as Nemia pointed out, the typical idea of "a letter" as we think of it now just did not exist in those times. I fooled around with some images of scrolls, but I just didn't think they came across right.

That's a problem one runs into when trying to transplant things to a different era.

If the second image is high-res enough, you could zoom in on the letter itself. Include that and the hands, but not the full figures or the weapons. That would be perfect. The idea with Lenormand is to have minimal-to-no extraneous detail.

katrinka wrote: ↑14 Jun 2019, 20:44
If the second image is high-res enough, you could zoom in on the letter itself. Include that and the hands, but not the full figures or the weapons. That would be perfect. The idea with Lenormand is to have minimal-to-no extraneous detail.

What do you all think of this version? In addition to the cropping, I dimmed all but the letter and hands.

Yes! That one. Bravo!
You've retained the theme, but the card is easy to locate quickly in a GT.

Oh yes, I love this. It's immediately clear - and it's very beautiful. Wow, this is going to be a very special deck.

I really like it too.

I'm so glad I asked you all.

It was a real 3 of Pentacles moment!