Designing a Surrealist Playing Card for AIGA Wichita’s Artist Deck

I recently had the chance to join Wichita’s AIGA Chapter in creating a collaborative deck of playing cards, and it caught me off guard how much fulfillment I found in the process. There’s a humbling factor in seeing your work stand shoulder to shoulder with other artists, and this project amplified that long-held appreciation for building alongside other creatives.

Fifty or so designers were given the same canvas and the same color palette. From there, we were free to work as simple or as complex as we wished. What emerged felt like a house of cards built by many hands, each piece holding its own weight while lifting the next. Alone, each card carried its own logic. Together, they shaped a quiet, whimsical harmony. Cohesion through contrast. A shared structure supporting wildly different interpretations. There’s something ethereal in that kind of alignment.

9 of Hearts by Alex Freund

My contribution, the 9 of Hearts, became a small arena to test how far I could stretch the overlap between graphic design and surrealism. I built it around a subtle homage to M.C. Escher’s impossible geometry—eight interlocking hearts that refuse to behave according to physics, circling a ninth heart torn straight through the canvas. That tear reveals the 10 of Hearts beneath it, a playful shift in depth meant to blur the line between surface and story. I added fold lines and soft creases to disguise the illusion as something that has already lived many lives.

Designing a card that needed to stand alone while living among fifty-three others pushed me more than I expected. It sharpened my instincts. It deepened my respect for constraint. It reminded me how much growth happens inside a small frame when you work with intention.

This project didn’t just give me a card in a deck. It gave me clarity about the kind of work that fulfills—collaborative, communal, and rooted in the quiet whimsy that makes art feel alive.

Check out the second edition print of the 2025 deck through the link.