A deck of playing cards is one of those design challenges that looks deceptively simple. The mix of a handful of familiar shapes, symbols and rules would appear easy to work with, but once you start digging into the details, every decision matters. A card has to work upside down, across a table, in someone’s hand, and still tell a story in a space barely bigger than your palm.
For illustrator Pope Phoenix, and even before he considered using the best design software, in this case Affinity Designer, that challenge became the perfect way to explore the history, energy and visual language of hip-hop. Created from an open brief by Affinity to design a playing card deck that could eventually become a physical product, King of Spades takes the idea of a royal flush and rebuilds it around the four pillars of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, Breaking and Graffiti.
The result is a colourful collision of traditional card design, Afrofuturist influences, expressive character work and gritty hand-crafted detail. Each face card represents a different pillar, while the deck’s number card and back design complete the visual system.
Here, Pope breaks down how the project evolved from early sketches and research into a finished deck, revealing the design decisions, happy accidents and technical challenges behind bringing hip-hop culture to the card table.
01. Research and ideation
After exploring a few different directions, I narrowed the themes down to Afrofuturism, hip-hop culture, and a Wakanda-inspired royal family. We decided early on that focusing on the face cards would give me the best opportunity to showcase my illustration work, which then led to a royal flush concept inspired by the four pillars of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, Breaking/B-boying, and Graffiti.
Each face card would represent one pillar, with the 10 serving as the only number card. In total, the project would include four face cards, one number card, and a custom back design. From there, I began gathering references to better understand the structure and visual language of traditional playing card decks and the frameworks I needed to work within.
02. Creating thumbnails and rough sketches
King of Spades seemed a fitting name for the project, and with the core visual concept established – translating the four pillars of hip-hop into the structure of a royal flush - I started sketching a range of ideas while questioning what defines a successful playing card design.
I found one of the biggest challenges was incorporating symbolism and cultural references. Leaning into a traditional playing card format for this project allowed the illustrations to work practically, while still giving me room to develop the visual identity of each character.
The mirrored face card structure also ensured the cards remained readable no matter how they were held or thrown. Choosing a traditional flipped-card layout over more experimental compositions ultimately strengthened the deck.
03. Refining the sketches and vectorising in Affinity
The main illustrations began as rough sketches in my sketchbook before being transferred into Affinity for further refinement using raster pencil brushes.
I use these refined sketches as a foundation rather than a final drawing, knowing the illustrations will continue evolving throughout the process.
Getting the illustrations to work once flipped was one of the biggest challenges. While building each card, I constantly had to think about how shapes, poses, and details would interlock once mirrored. Concept and execution rarely align exactly as imagined, so every illustration required adjustments as the system developed.
Once that system was in place, it became much easier to find cleaner and more concise ways to present the artwork while still preserving the story being told on each card.
04. Colouring
I wanted the colours to feel bold, vibrant, and energetic, reflecting how I see hip-hop. The colour palette began to take shape while working on the King card and became more refined as I progressed through the rest of the deck.
At the centre of the palette is a rich red with a mid-range luminosity. Viewed on its own, it appears muted, but becomes much more vibrant when paired against its counterpart: a deep, moody purple.
They are accompanied by two secondary colours – a dull yellow and a vibrant blue - with a light electric blue used for highlights, alongside an off-white for typography and graphic details. Together, the palette creates a visual contrast. I approach colour the same way I would with traditional illustration, using it to create balance, depth and emphasis.
05. Building the front of the Ace, King, Queen and Jack cards
Once the main illustrations for the face cards were done, I focused on making sure everything aligned consistently as a system, adjusting layouts and details where necessary.
The next time I do a project like this, I’ll build a dynamic template system from the start by converting the final layout into a Symbol. That way, any adjustments made to the layout would automatically update across every iteration throughout the entire project.
06. Adding some gritty, hand-drawn details
Having access to both vector and raster tools allowed me to build the Jack title directly from sketches rather than relying on an existing typeface.
To push the lettering further, I modified one of my Tombow markers by using a razor to roughen the nib, giving it a more expressive and imperfect quality inspired by the work of James Victore. I then developed the lettering through a series of sketches in my sketchbook.
Once the design was complete, I felt it needed a final touch to lock it into place visually. Spray paint is naturally chaotic, and it took a session of trial and error before I found the right collection of brushes from True Grit Texture Supply and the base sets to get the look needed.
07. Creating the number 10 and back of the cards
The final stage was finding a way to visually connect the entire deck, including the number card and the back design. The number card went through several iterations throughout the project. At one point, it featured simple dot systems, then bass line-inspired graphics.
Designing the card backs took quite a bit of trial and error because I wanted them to have as much visual impact as the face cards. The solution came from turning the MPC graphic into a repeating pattern, rotating and flipping elements at different angles while allowing portions of the design to show outside the clipping mask on the back.
I finished by incorporating the number graphic into the back design without its shape dominating the composition.
