Overview

A private commission for a Venture Brothers-themed deck of playing cards. This was one of my favorite shows from the old Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network. All custom illustrated characters, pips, typography, and a few other surprises. Go Team Venture!

Planning and Sketching

Since there’s a huge cast of characters in the Venture Brothers and every single card could have been illustrated, the list had to be narrowed down to about 20 favorites for budget and time. Illustrations are used on the court cards, aces, jokers, and a bonus gaff card. The rest of the number cards have custom pips and typography to match the theme.

Spades—Office of Secret Intelligence:

• Ace—Brock Samson

• Jack—Shoreleave

• Queen—Hunter S. Gathers

• King—General Treister

Hearts—Monarch & Henchmen

• Ace—Monarch Blue Morpho

• Jack—Henchman 21

• Queen—Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

• King—The Monarch

Diamonds—Team Venture

• Ace—Jonas Venture Sr.

• Jack—Sergeant Hatred (later Hank and Dean)

• Queen—Jonas Venture Jr.

• King—Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty“ Venture

Clubs—The Guild of Calamitous Intent

• Ace—Dr. Henry Killinger

• Jack—Red Death and Daisy

• Queen—Red Mantle and Dragoon

• King—Phantom Limb

The jokers are Brick Frog, Dr. Byron Orpheus, and Sovereign. The box also has a minor character or two.

Some cards will show a full character (aces and jokers), while the court cards will (usually) have the same character twice in a rotated symmetrical arrangement—as seen in my doodle below with science-Rusty and casual-Rusty. The pips incorporate faction logos and other motifs, and the card back combines several other show elements.

I hadn’t seen the show in something like 20 years, so I picked a few characters I knew well enough to establish an initial style, and got busy rewatching all 7+ seasons of the Venture Brothers on the Adult Swim website.

Aces

Each ace features a full illustration of the most prominent character from their faction centered over the pip. Patterned backgrounds are used to fill out the composition.

Court Cards

The characters all have alternate looks and costumes so the face cards use two different outfits for the top and bottom symmetry.

The original Team Venture jack of diamonds, Sgt. Hatred, was eventually changed to Rusty’s kids, Hank and Dean, after an initial round of feedback. Because there are so many characters, I have some ideas for future booster packs or replacement cards to swap in for those special poker nights on Gargantua-1 😉🃏.

Numbered Cards

Pips were created using the iconography and logos of the various factions. Odd-numbered cards with a central pip have a slightly more detailed mark. Gold lines and strokes were used on nearly everything for future plans to print with foil.

Jokers

Characters that didn’t make one of the main cards got an honorary joker spot.

Card back

The card back incorporates many of the logos and other elements from the show: Brock’s knife, Gargantua-1, the problem indicator, and more. There was no shortage of color options either…

Tuck box

The tuck box design beckons you to IGNORE ME, and everyone’s favorite personal assistant H.E.L.P.E.R. has a minor cameo. The interior is an on-brand blue lab coat pattern print featuring rivals Rusty and The Monarch.

Wrapping up (and Gaff Card)

Be sure to check out my Cryptids of North America deck design tips for a breakdown of how I approach and design playing card projects. Thanks for reading!

And one other thing…

Spanakopita!