Jack of Altona Meadows

Jack of Altona Meadows is a graphic design piece I created for my friend, musician, and jack of all trades Captain Brando!.

I had a number of goals for this project that, put together, made it quite challenging to create: First, I wanted to mimic the detail found in standard face cards. Second, I wanted to incorporate as many details relevant to my friend's life and interests. Finally, I wanted the design to be radially symmetric (symmetric around the center) like most other playing card designs.

The design was largely influenced by my friend's musical talent. I incorporated instruments he could play including guitar, drums, and piano/keyboard. There red and black triangular pattern is divided by tiny drumsticks. A short-lived record label known as the Reading Room inspired the coffee cup and series of opening books.

Altona Meadows refers to my friend's former alias, as well as the town in Australia where he grew up. A landmark of the town is a large sculpture of a flower by artist Jonathan Leahey. You can see my representation of this sculpture in the jack's hand.

This project was created entirely using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and Inkscape, both of which are free, open source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator respectively.