Insecta is a transformations deck that imagines a vibrant symbiotic relationship between card players and pip-carrying insects. Every single card has a unique and highly detailed design, hand-drawn by me (I’m Immy Smith, hi) featuring colourful imaginary insects. There are 2 colour variants with different tucks and card back designs. Well over 1500 hours have gone into drawing the card face designs, and more are going into editing the deck & book artwork for print. This deck is a labour of love; about 2000 hours of creative work, all in! It features more than 240 individual insects (no copy-pasting, every single insect has been drawn separately – you can see a timelapse of the 10 of hearts below.)

I’m always curious about how nature responds to change, & how life adapts to new environments. In my Cryptic Cards deck, I imagined what would happen if moths evolved new wing patterns to hide on human-made materials like playing cards. The idea behind Insecta, rather than cryptic camouflage, is a colourful symbiosis. I’m asking ‘what would happen if insects evolved a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with card players or collectors, and adapted to new habitats in our spaces?’

The Insecta deck is my imagined answer to that question; a story where new species from different taxonomic orders of insects have evolved to carry suit symbols for players, in exchange for a safe home on card tables. The 2 colour variants, Opal and Ruby, are inspired by the jewel-like appearance of many insects, and reflect the colours in the court cards of the different suits.

The Insecta Deck:

KickStarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/immysmith/insecta-a-transformations-deck-of-intricate-insect