Hanna Vaishevich
Belarussian tarot cards
Brief
Develop a cohesive visual concept for a Belarusian Tarot card series. Create original illustrations in the client's style for each card, reflecting Belarusian history, culture, and symbolism. Design the cards’ layout, integrating imagery and meaning to create a visually engaging and unified set.
Year
2024
Category
Digital illustration
Link
About
Zabiziapu is modern Belarusian media. It talks about fun, domestic, and research topics in the Belarusian language. One of the authors from zabiziapu created new meanings for Tarot cards with links to Belarussian memes and history.
The post about the Belarusian Tarot re-imagines traditional Tarot archetypes through a Belarusian lens. Each card draws from real historical figures, local legends, and cultural symbols to give the cards unique meanings and visual impact.
Timeframe
4 days
Programs
Adobe Illustrator
Card “The Temperance”
The caption under the card
The path to balance is sometimes difficult.
The meaning
The picture displays two main popular companies that produce kvass. People in Belarus always argue which kvass is better: "lidski" vs "alivary'a".
Kvass is a traditional fermented Slavic and Baltic beverage commonly made from rye bread.
Card “The Magician”
The caption under the card
Inner light can only be ignited from within.
The meaning
The picture displays Victor Petrovich Kirisyuk - lamplighter. Since 2009, the full-time lamplighter has been lighting and extinguishing antique lanterns on the main pedestrian street of Brest every day. To perform his ritual, he climbs the stairs and manually lights and extinguishes a kerosene lamp in each lantern.
Card “The Tower”
The caption under the card
A way out will be found, even if everything around is collapsing.
The meaning
The picture displays the White Tower in the city of Kamenets, Brest region. There is a monument of architecture and defensive architecture of the second half of the 13th century – the White Tower. The Vezha in Kamianets was defensive. In the XIV-XVII centuries, the tower withstood the raids of the Crusaders; the storming of the troops of the Polish and Lithuanian princes; and the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and the Moscow state fought against its walls.
Card “The Empress”
The caption under the card
Caution! Beauty can also be poisonous.
The meaning
The picture displays Bona Sforza. Bona Sforza ruled as Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1518 until 1548. Bona's name is associated with a dark legend about Italian poisons and the poisoning of Barbara Radziwill, the beloved wife of King Sigismund II, Bona's son. Allegedly according to the Borgia recipe, they poisoned half an apple. Bona ate one half, and gave the poisoned half to her daughter-in-law.
Card “The Court”
The caption under the card
Behind difficult paths lie incredible results.
The meaning
The picture illustrates the difficulty in obtaining an Italian visa in Belarus.
Card “The Sun”
The caption under the card
The main thing is to start, and then everything will work out.
The meaning
The picture displays Francysk Skaryna. Because he is known as one of the first printers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and all of Eastern Europe, who laid the foundations for the development of the Belarusian version of the Church Slavonic language.
© 2035 by Hanna Vaishevich. Built on Wix Studio