Network
of Mycelium

The Project

A Deck of Fungi

The Brief

Self Initiated Major Project

The Client

Personal Project

The self-initiated project Network of Mycelium was born from a desire to highlight interpersonal connections and interlinking network systems, utilising the theme of mushrooms.

The topic highlighted mushrooms through illustration and watercolour as the development medium. Mushrooms present a unique theme in nature, displayed through intricate anatomy, structure, colour, and texture details. The project branched into different groups of mushrooms with diverse traits, colour palettes and anatomic themes. The deck of cards idea came about from research into different project concepts that could explore a wide range of ideas and illustration mediums, being the focus area of design for this project. Watercolours, acrylic and gouache paint were all considered, with watercolours being the selected choice due to my skill level.

The process is derived from a pencil sketch, followed by consistent layering of watercolours paint to achieve the best colour result. On top, a fine-line pen outline in detail follows, which is also utilises on the details of the mushroom cap, gills, stem, and spore prints.

The symbiosis of this project follows with a consistent visual identity in theme or colour, texture, layout and meaning. The passion for taking a unique topic point and cohesively adding to an industry product, usually representative of a traditional look, created a harmonious reach reflecting a conventional product, such as a deck of cards with hand-drawn painting.

Visual Process

Process Documentation - Mushroom back design creation utilising of the tools of fine-line pen, marker,, pencil and watercolours.

Service

Illustration, Hand-drawn, Watercolour, Fine-line Pen, Packaging

Project Insight

Card Design

The design layout features the common and scientific name for the mushroom specified in the watercolour drawing. The suit icons for the Spade and Diamond suits take the gold ochre colour from the back design, whilst the Hearts and Clubs cohesively take the red.
Suit Icons / Joker - Arbotek Light
Name descriptions - American Scribe
HB & Graphite Pencil, Watercolour Paints, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign & Photoshop.

Mushrooms

The idea behind the mushroom identity is that each can be identified in a way that is reflective of its real-life counterparts. The mushrooms' designs feature replicated anatomical structures on the cap, gills, and body.
The colours take inspiration from the natural look with a tweak on the colours to pop in different ways with colour. The mushrooms that appear harmless in colour and texture reflect the opposite nature. Each mushroom design is detailed to reflect elegance and intricacy.
Watercolour Paint, MICRON SAKURA Fine-Line Pens, EPSON Scanner, Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop)

Box Packaging

The packaging box concept originally stemmed from the desire to adopt a root system pattern to reflect the interwoven network that mushrooms symbolise. The idea was refined to reflect a honeycomb mushroom, which brings out the intricacy of the mushroom cap design in a detailed pattern.
This reflects the honeycomb mushroom colour palette but adds a deeper tone through burnt orange shades and lighter tones to pop the colour and intricate fine-line strokes to the viewer.
COPIC Markers, Watercolour Paint, MICRON SAKURA Fine-Line Pens, Graphite Pencil.