The Psyche Flight Deck
Brianna Young
Major: Graphic Design
Genre/Medium: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, art deco style
About the work: For my final project with Psyche Inspired, I decided to design a deck of cards that summarized everything I have learned about the mission throughout my internship. This deck of cards is designed to emulate the theorized texture and color of the asteroid, as well as teach the players about the mission by including fun facts about the mission timeline, the asteroid, the Greek goddess Psyche, the spacecraft, and the discoverer of the asteroid, Annibale de Gasparis, on every card. The facts about the mission were derived from the mission timeline on the Psyche Inspired website.
These facts go in order from conception to completion of the mission by suit and number. For example, the ace of clubs starts the timeline, and the 10 of spades ends the timeline. The facts about (16) Psyche, the spacecraft, the Greek goddess Psyche, and Annibale de Gasparis are found on the specialty cards: Ace of Spades represents the asteroid, Jacks represent the spacecraft, Queens represent the goddess, and Kings represent the discoverer.
When approaching the design of this deck, I wanted to choose a minimalistic style that felt strong and mechanical, but was also streamlined and delicate. Thus, using a nostalgic art deco style provided the perfect structure to tell the story of (16) Psyche and the mission. Characterized by bold, geometric forms, the art deco style allowed the deck of cards to have rotational symmetry, meaning it will look the same when you rotate it 180 degrees. Aside from card structure, I have chosen gold and silver as the main colors to incorporate the rich colors of the art deco style, as well as emphasize that (16) Psyche is an asteroid made out of metal. When printed, I imagine these elements to be printed with gold and silver leaf. This would let the design to pop off the card as it becomes metallic and shiny.
In addition to the design of the cards, I wanted to dive deep into the story of (16) Psyche and the mission through the specialty cards. I did this by calling out defining characteristics about each of these key players in the mission through design. As stated earlier, the Ace of Spades represents the asteroid. In this design, there are three main circles overlapping to represent the hit-and-run collision that may have formed (16) Psyche. Next, the Jacks represent the spacecraft. In the design, the spacecraft is illustrated on top of three overlapping circles to represent the different oribs the spacecraft will undergo. Following this, the Queens represent the goddess. Goddess Psyche has numerous symbols, but she is most often represented as a blue butterfly emerging into the light. Thus, her design includes blue wings under her head as her body. Lastly, the Kings represent the discoverer of (16) Psyche: Annibale de Gasparis. To highlight his scholarly studies and discoveries, his arm and body come together to form an observatory icon.
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