Official Instructions for the CoT Deck Project

[Fabalah]

Hi everyone! I would love to do the King of Pentacles!

[Joan Marie]

Hi everyone! I would love to do the King of Pentacles!

Hi Fabalah! Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining the deck project!
The King of Pentacles is yours.

[HRU's Muse]

I came too late to the party...came this morning hoping to get a crack at the Page of Pents, or any Pages left. Should have signed up yesterday when I thought of it! Procrastinators unite, tomorrow LOL
All the cards look so great so far. What are you doing for the backs?

[Joan Marie]

I came too late to the party...came this morning hoping to get a crack at the Page of Pents, or any Pages left. Should have signed up yesterday when I thought of it! Procrastinators unite, tomorrow LOL
All the cards look so great so far. What are you doing for the backs?

Got no plan for the backs. Would you like to take a crack at that?

[HRU's Muse]

So my guess is people prefer reversible backs. What's the deadline, and are there any other preferences to consider?

[Joan Marie]

So my guess is people prefer reversible backs. What's the deadline, and are there any other preferences to consider?

Yes I think reversible backs are generally preferred. The "goal" (I'm avoiding the word "deadline") is Nov. 1 for all the work to be in.

As far as any other preferences go, I really can't think of any, this whole deck has been entirely left up to each artist to do what they wilt, so I don't see why the backs should be any different.

If you would do this Mel, it would be just awesome, and I rarely use that word.

[HRU's Muse]

Yes I think reversible backs are generally preferred. The "goal" (I'm avoiding the word "deadline") is Nov. 1 for all the work to be in.

As far as any other preferences go, I really can't think of any, this whole deck has been entirely left up to each artist to do what they wilt, so I don't see why the backs should be any different.

If you would do this Mel, it would be just awesome, and I rarely use that word.

Ok let me see if I can think of a good look for these backs. I had an idea already for the earth Page for this deck but this is more of a challenge! It's a little tricky since the deck isn't really themed or named yet and is in so many styles and palettes, to figure out what thing would tie them together. I guess as long as they look good anything goes right? The designer in me wants to perfectly match the design to the deck though, but perhaps it isn't possible or necessary in this case. i could match the colors of the frames, though I work analog not digitally so it would involve gold leaf. Well anyway just thinking out loud. Let me see what comes out of some art experiments

[Joan Marie]

The designer in me wants to perfectly match the design to the deck though, but perhaps it isn't possible or necessary in this case. i could match the colors of the frames, though I work analog not digitally so it would involve gold leaf. Well anyway just thinking out loud. Let me see what comes out of some art experiments

If it helps any, the fronts of the cards will be framed in this mottled grey with gold letters and with gold-foil trim inside as well edged with gold-foil. Of all the things we tried that seemed to suit the wide variety of cards best.

That said though, the backs obvi don't have to be matchy-matchy to the fronts. I'm sure anything you come up with will be wonderful. Thanks!

[AstralPasta]

Yes I think reversible backs are generally preferred. The "goal" (I'm avoiding the word "deadline") is Nov. 1 for all the work to be in.

As far as any other preferences go, I really can't think of any, this whole deck has been entirely left up to each artist to do what they wilt, so I don't see why the backs should be any different.

If you would do this Mel, it would be just awesome, and I rarely use that word.

Ok let me see if I can think of a good look for these backs. I had an idea already for the earth Page for this deck but this is more of a challenge! It's a little tricky since the deck isn't really themed or named yet and is in so many styles and palettes, to figure out what thing would tie them together. I guess as long as they look good anything goes right? The designer in me wants to perfectly match the design to the deck though, but perhaps it isn't possible or necessary in this case. i could match the colors of the frames, though I work analog not digitally so it would involve gold leaf. Well anyway just thinking out loud. Let me see what comes out of some art experiments

Ahh!!! If you haven’t started, I had an idea for a name and also thought a backing that related to it would be cool. Though we haven’t confirmed the name of course. /blush

I was thinking Pandemos tarot, like Aphrodite Pandemos, Pandemos meaning “of the people” or “common to all people.” Her specific symbol is a white goat, or ram, or female goat. According to Wikipedia And if you google just “Pandemos,” she comes up first.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite_Pandemos

If the name was somehow woven into the deck via backing in that way, it could be through a white goat somehow......as an offering, but I don’t really get how that would work. It was just an idea.

Also, the fourth day of each month was the sacred day of Aphrodite, and this week that is Friday (venus!) so combining that with Venus hour would be nuts! Even if it’s just a sort of naming thing.

Also she’s associated with community or bringing people together. Idk, it seems so perfect to me. Haha. But I wanted to throw that out there in case people ended up liking the idea but mostly because we had a similar thought about a name + back thing as a potential guiding theme.

And who better to have on your side in kickstarting a community created tarot deck?!

[Diana]

AstralPasta, that is a wonderful wonderful idea. I'm sold on the name.

Although the goat, maybe not. I don't know if I would want a picture of an animal on the back of my deck. I think it would bother me, sort of like it's imposing something on me. What if someone doesn't like goats very much, or even animals in general. There are enough pictures already on the other side of the cards.

[AstralPasta]

AstralPasta, that is a wonderful wonderful idea. I'm sold on the name.

Although the goat, maybe not. I don't know if I would want a picture of an animal on the back of my deck. I think it would bother me, sort of like it's imposing something on me. What if someone doesn't like goats very much, or even animals in general.

YUSSSSSSS
That’s a good point. I suppose I wasn’t thinking so starkly a goat.

Something classical looking like this wouldn’t be too offensive to such a person I think

Or something abstract like the backing of the Divine Masculine tarot

(From Benebell’s blog)

Just some examples for potential acceptable goat-yness.

[Diana]

If other people like this, I'll go with it of course. But I like my tarot cards to have pictures only on the other side. Otherwise I feel I'm being imposed a theme. It's sort of rigid. imo. I like my backs to have just patterns.

[AstralPasta]

Fair enough. I suppose the goat isn't really so relevant to the deck outside of the Pandemos association. I wonder how else Pandemos can be represented. I suppose with naming the deck this epithet, and perhaps some other sort of Aphrodite representation, there is enough of a link, however literally or abstractly Aphrodite is represented. I tend towards the literal, so it's a bit of a stretch for my imagination at the moment. Designers and artists are so talented.

Anyhoo, it's all in Hru's Muse's boat, bwahaha!

[Joan Marie]

I appreciate the excitement but can we let the artist try her hand?

I kind of think she knows what she's doing.

Also we are not even close to naming this deck yet, so let's take a breath!