Project Brief: In this personal project I combined my passion for sneakers with my favorite card game, Briscas. Briscas is played with a 40 card deck of Spanish-suited playing cards. I set out to design a custom deck of Spanish playing cards with sneaker inspired symbols and artwork.
Example of a traditional deck of Spanish playing cards.
The first step was to redesign the basic symbols for each suit. I started by assigning each suit a sneaker brand to represent. I considered which logo forms work best for each suit.
Jordan / Coins
Adidas / Cups
Kobe / Swords
Nike / Clubs
Final symbol redesign for each suit.
In the game of Briscas, the 1 is the card worth the most points. This card traditionally has more detailed artwork.
Cards 10, 11 and 12 traditionally have illustrations of a squire, a knight, and a king respectively. For my redesign I chose to illustrate famous figures heavily associated with their respective brands, either through brand deals or collaborations.
Colombian superstar J Balvin collaborated with Jordan Brand to release his colorful signature Air Jordan 1 in late 2020.
The late Virgil Abloh was a renowned fashion designer, with one of his most iconic creations being the Off-White x Air Jordan 1.
For the final Jordan brand suit, I decided to feature none other than Michael Jordan himself donning the iconic Air Jordan 11 sneakers. This silhouette is widely regarded as an absolute classic.
In 2019, Beyoncé joined forces with Adidas to relaunch her Ivy Park brand.
Kanye West wore matching red jacket and pants with his Yeezy 1020V boots at a listening party in Atlanta for his album Donda.
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny revealed his first signature shoe, the Adidas Forum Buckle Low, in his music video for the single "Yo Visto Así".
In 2013, the late great Kobe Bryant earned a record 15th consecutive All-Star selection. He played wearing the Nike Kobe 8 "Area 72", one of my personal favorites.
Kobe Bryant was part of the USA Basketball team that won gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, which are considered two of the greatest Olympic basketball teams ever.
Kobe spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. One of the most memorable sneakers he played in during his career are the Nike Kobe 6 "Grinch".
NBA superstar Kevin Durant has been a part of the Nike family since 2007 when he signed the second-largest rookie endorsement deal at the time, only behind LeBron James.
Paul Rodriguez has been a Nike signature athlete since 2005 and has over 10 signature shoes with the brand. Illustrated with the "What The P-Rod" Dunks, this colorway combines many elements from his previous sneakers to create this bold and mismatched look.
Following his most prolific sneaker year, Travis Scott followed up in 2020 with a Nike SB Dunk Low collaboration, a personal favorite of mine.
