Two of Hearts Illustration by Stefano Rosselli is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Bronze A' Design Award in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Competition Category.
BronzeGraphic· 2020
Two of Hearts Illustration
Client: Stefano Rosselli
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Graphic Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #93637The Design
About Two of Hearts Illustration
"Two of Hearts" is a vector illustration specially created for the collaborative project called "Luck of the Draw" which regrouped artists from around the world to create a unique deck of playing cards. The illustration concept is inspired by the fox from "The Little Prince" fable written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is a hint to the lesson that the fox teaches about relationships.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Two of Hearts Illustration is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Two of Hearts Illustration is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Two of Hearts Illustration splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main principle behind “Two of Hearts” illustration was to create something meaningful and strongly related to the specific playing card I had to create an illustration for. The first thing I did before starting conceptualizing anything was to learn about the meaning(s) commonly attributed to the “Two of Hearts” card, so it could help me to build my illustration. Since the “Two of Hearts” card is related with the concept of relationship/love between living beings, it immediately reminded me of “The Little Prince” fable written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and more precisely the part with the fox (which, by the way, is one of my favorite animals). So I decided to use this as inspiration to create my vector illustration.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
While conceiving this illustration, my main focus was to find the right balance so I could keep the design appropriate (it had to be PG-13), cohesive (stick to the card’s color palette), playable (readability) and at same time to vehicle a meaningful, playful concept visually characterized by my illustrative style.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Since I plan to entirely design a deck of playing cards featuring my own illustrations, I would like to make use of my “Two of Hearts” illustration for this specific project. At this point the project is still an idea that needs to be further developed.
Grand Interview
Your innovative interpretation of "The Little Prince's" fox in Two of Hearts Illustration beautifully bridges literature and visual art - could you elaborate on how this literary inspiration shaped your creative decisions throughout the design process?
The literary inspiration served as my primary reference point throughout the design process. While the color palette and the symmetrical structure were more design-led choices, the fox’s meaning in The Little Prince guided the rest of my decisions from concept to final composition.I identified what I considered the most iconic emotional lessons behind the fox’s message (connection, patience, and commitment), then selected the elements that could carry those themes in a somehow universally legible way. Because this well-known story is rooted in many childhood memories, I aimed to evoke an immediate sense of recognition while preserving depth and emotional impact for a broader audience.The remaining challenge was translation, i.e. assembling these extracted ideas into a coherent, harmonious, balanced, and comprehensible visual language.
The vector-based approach in Two of Hearts Illustration creates a striking balance between simplicity and sophistication - what led you to choose this particular technique for translating the complex themes of relationships into clean, geometric forms?
I chose a vector-based approach because it defines my visual signature. For this project, each illustrator was selected specifically for a distinctive style, so the priority was to translate the theme through a method that already felt natural and recognizable to me.
How did the unique constraints of designing Two of Hearts Illustration for a standard playing card format influence your artistic choices while maintaining the profound message about relationships from Saint-Exupéry's work?
Because the space was limited and the design should, ideally, remain functional for “two-way” playability, I deliberately prioritized simplicity and immediate readability. I kept the symmetrical structure that naturally characterizes playing cards, using it as more than a functional constraint. It became a visual tool to reinforce the concept of duality, mirroring, completion, and connection.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- "Two of Hearts" is a vector illustration created for the collaborative project called "Luck of the Draw". The project was initiated and coordinated by Victoria Spady to bring together artists from around the world to create a unique deck of fifty-two playing cards.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- "Two of Hearts" illustration was created in RGB colour mode, ".ai" format and inserted into a template with 63,5x88,9mm dimensions (standard poker playing card size). The template was created and provided by the project's initiator/coordinator.
- Tags
- digital illustration, playing card, Two of Hearts, artwork, special edition
- Production Technology
- The final illustration, which is mainly based on a pencil sketch, was digitally created (without the use of drawing tablet) thanks to a vector graphics editing program. All visual elements present on the image were created in vectors. Once the artwork completed, the entire image was rasterised before being provided to the project's coordinator.
- Design Challenge
- For this project, the creative challenge was to find an appropriate, coherent and visually appealing solution to convey a concept related to the type of card which was attributed by the project's coordinator. All that without affecting the playability and by keeping the design clearly legible at a relatively small size (it had to fit into standard poker playing card dimensions).
- Inspiration
- "Two of Hearts" illustration concept is inspired by the fox from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's fable, "The Little Prince". It is a hint to the lesson that the fox teaches about relationships. This idea was used to illustrate one of the meanings commonly attributed to the "Two of Hearts" playing card.
- Project Duration
- The illustration was created in February 2018 and final printing on the playing card occurred in April 2018.
- Operation Flow
- Playing cards games.
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Stefano Rosselli, 2018.
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