New Creative Direction for Way of the Panda Oracle 🐼
Reposted from the latest Kickstarter update 💖
Hi all!
League of Pandas: Way of the Panda Oracle, as a project, has been evolving with me since the day of ideation. Unlike the other decks I've created - the progress of this deck has been non-linear, chaotic, challenging, joyful, deeply meaningful, transformational, inspiring...at different parts of the journey and sometimes all at once! It pushed me to unlock new skills, transcend what I previously thought was impossible, and evolve into the version of me that would be able to pull this off.
Long story short - I spent the past week UPGRADING CARD DESIGNS ✨🔥 Context: I did not anticipate this at all. This was not planned. Last weekend, I got struck by CREATIVE LIGHTNING and the new designs came to be within the hour! (The template, that is - it took time to revise & upgrade every single card lol)
Images are reloaded at 2x the resolution compared to the images I share don Kickstarter (p.s. Kickstarter automatically lowers the image res)
I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE DESIGN UPGRADES. There will be a final round of color corrections, further tweaking and proofing to make sure things are aligned and there are no design errors or weird derps before officially going to print but this reflects the final design direction 😎🐼
During weeks and months leading up to the Kickstarter campaign - I've been toying with the idea of adding a frame/border or a backsplash to the cards but I just could not figure out the right look.
If you follow me on Instagram or you're part of my Discord server, you would have seen the incessant iterations - with elements added or removed, back and forth and back and forth - with me being indecisive and having mega brain farts about what was to be done. I thought perhaps I was being too perfectionist, and that I wanted to upgrade the look or add visual elements that weren't necessary because I was struggling with my creative confidence and feelings of inadequacy...eventually, I decided to maintain the same look as the tarot deck. Why fix what's not broken? Perhaps I was overworking and overthinking this whole thing.
Turns out I was wrong! Or rather, I wasn't able to unlock this version of the pandas because there were additional score points I needed to rack up - in my mental health, in my understanding of what this deck could and will be, and also just where I'm going creatively and spiritually in general. League of Pandas is about power and movement in life...I guess I was leveling up to be an energetic match to the pandas of my dreams. It all just sort of happened last weekend - after I said some prayers to my guides and the Pandaverse - prayers of protection to ensure I would finish this project smoothly, without hiccups etc. The next day, BOOM BOOM BAM! I figured out the designs without any resistance or blocks!
One panda step after another, the League of Pandas is evolving and transforming as I evolve and transform ✨
Anyhoo - the cards now have:
a minimalistic whimsical border
soft watercolor back splash (bye bye white background!)
I changed the font (the old font was originally my artist's calligraphy turned into a font! League of Pandas has a lot of creative storytelling and whimsical inner work involved, and I really wanted a Serif to capture the energy)
The softer pastel font colors may look a little bright and hard to read on screen, but it'll be crisper and easily readable once printed!
I'm going to update the box cover designs too to reflect this change
Guidebook Progress
I spent the majority of last week on card designs - this week, I'm going back to mainly focusing on the completion of the guidebook
I'll be focusing on the Missions section of this guidebook this week, and streamlining the Guardian chapters. I designed + wrote the Guaridan chapters to be longer - since they are overarching archetypes that encapsulate the human experience - I wanted to include more explanations and resources for how each pandarchetype can show up and how you can integrate the archetypes + draw power from them the panda way!
I promise this guidebook will be PAWSOME and that's why it's taking so long 😂 okay, well, as pawesome as I can possibly make it according to my creative vision and skills. I'll leave it up to you to decide when you get it - personally, I am very proud of it and I think it's frigging awesome... I believe in it with all of my panda heart 💖🐼
Also, I changed the name of the Foodies Squad to Money Squad, which sounds more catchy and honestly better reflects what this squad is about - money/self-worth/abundance - it's less about physical money but about the energy of money and our relationship with money/resources/worth!
If you have any questions or comments - leave them in the comments section or DM me!
(Edit: I asked for feedback previously and excitedly typed "let me know what you think" because I was excited to share the changes I've made - I wasn't asking for input on if should go for the changes or not. I should mention that I will *not* be altering the new core designs of the cards like the border, the font, and the colored background - as mentioned above, this is what my creative vision is for League of Pandas. This new version reflects the authentic becoming of League of Pandas and is here to stay.)
(Edit: I understand that this may be disappointing for some of you because the older version with the black & white background is what you've pledged for and you may no longer resonate with the changes I'm making. If you truly do not wish to hold your pledge, shoot me a message, let me know and I'll cancel + refund your pledge for you xo)
Panda hugs,
Kim
P.S. Preorders will be up on my website soon. If you missed out on the campaign - you'll get a chance to preorder before it hits my shop after printing. For those of you who backed this campaign and got this deck via the campaign price - well, all I can say is y'all lucked out because it's NEVER gonna be this discounted again 😂💖
