Andrea Austoni's blog

Parks and Recreation Playing Cards

I’m happy to present a personal project I just completed: a custom deck of playing cards featuring the characters of one of my all-time favorite TV comedy series, Parks and Recreation. Just in time for Season 5!

I wanted to pay tribute to the show and to practice my portrait skills, doing something fun in the process. When I realized that the cast featured 8 male and four female characters the idea of the playing cards was born.

In order to echo traditional card designs I chose a two-tone muted color palette and a simplified portrait style. The contrast between the elegant colors and the funny characters is definitely my favorite element of this project.

The back of the cards features an official Parks and Recreation Dept. banner and a logo made of three corncobs, a nod to the Harvest Festival [Note: the show takes place in the fictional city of Pawnee, famous for its corn crops]. The corn leaves also appear as a background pattern, included to add depth to the design.

The typeface is Phaeton, whose antique look matches the style of the banner.

The four Kings: Duke Silver, Ron Swanson, Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt.

The four Queens: Leslie Knope, Ann Perkins, April Ludgate and Donna Meagle.

The four Jacks: Jean-Ralphio, Tom Haverford, Andy Dwyer and Jerry Gergich.

The Joker is Li’l Sebastian. Miss you buddy!

Traditionally the Ace of Spades includes ornaments and information about the manufacturer so I’ve repeated the corncob logo and added juicy copyright info. I’ve also designed an index card in case my portrait skills prove worse than expected ;-)