Pied Piper Playing Cards
This was a very fun and exciting project commissioned in 2022 by Chris Hage, owner of Wondercraft Cards. Being of German heritage, folklore such as the Pied Piper have special meaning to him. He wanted a deck that would capture the essence of the original telling of the story, based in the town of Hamelin, Germany.
I had not been all that familiar with the story, though of course I knew the basics. After a fair amount of research into the various versions, I learned that the story itself is actually quite tragic. We tried to capture some of the emotion of the townsfolk in this deck. The art was inspired by antique story books and illuminated manuscripts.
There are a good number of other pieces to this project, but some of them may have to wait to be released.
Client: Chris Hage / Wondercraft Cards
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Design and Illustration: Russ Gray
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Boschiero & Newton
— Initial Sketches —
There are various versions of the story of the Pied Piper, each with their own tone and details. The story is in fact based on some seemingly true events, and the facts are far from light-hearted. We wanted the tone of this deck to be similar to the more verifiable aspects of the story — which we felt necessitated a somber tone, portrayed in a medieval style, reminiscent of an illuminated manuscript. Heavy ornamentation and careful, hand-drawn linework would be a part of the visual story. Gold would embellish everything. Faces were to be drawn with features similar to antique profiles and portraits (though, modernized slightly; the original card sketch, below right, shows the more antique version of a character profile).
— The Cards, and a Process Video—
See brief process video below, showing the "Joker"
The Priest
The Deacon, the Lector, the Demanding Nobleman bystander
In the traditional telling of the story, three children survive the lure of the pied piper and remain behind, because they could not follow — one who is lame, one who is deaf, and one blind (two of the three are shown above). All the other children of the town were lost; various explanations as to their disappearance are presented in the different tellings, but the actual historical loss of the town's children seems to be based in fact.
The forlorn father / the Teary-Eyed Mother
