Jazz up your card games with this lovely deck designed by Ryan Hewlett. Art & Machine takes a closer look at four moments in the history of art and design: the new typography of the Bauhaus era, mid-century book cover design, the late 20th century silk-screened poster aesthetic, and contemporary art & design in the age of mobile. We spoke with Hewlett about creating the foundational narrative for this project, happy accidents, the challenge of creating something new from something old, and more.
Ryan Hewlett: While the aim for the project was a promotion for my freelance design and illustration work, I wanted the playing cards themselves to take precedence, and my name to be secondary. I wanted to make something that others would find meaningful—something that would be more likely to be put on the shelf than tossed in the trash.
Initially, my plan for the card deck was to create something centered around ephemera or art in general. But due to some recent study of the Modern era, the idea eventually evolved into a focus on art and design and its relationship with modern technology.
