Currently On Kickstarter: Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot

And in our next episode of ‘backing decks that in theory I don’t like’ we have: The Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot! I’m not a big fan of AI decks – not only do they de-value the bread and butter work of jobbing artists and designers, but I also just… don’t really like the hyper-realist style of image that AI produces. It’s a bit too uncanny valley for me. Having said that, I really like what this creator has done with the traditional RWS deck, and you can see they have a real talent for re-imagining and re-stylizing images. This is NOT just your bog standard AI produced deck, IMO, but instead offers a really interesting (and at times unsettling) take on an old favourite.

A physical deck in a custom ridged box is $50 (about £40).

There isn’t really much info about either the creator or the project on the Kickstarter page, which I always find a bit worrying, but it does also look like a pretty straightforward, low-risk project – so I went ahead and backed it! Also, I kinda like it when people drop Rider and Waite from references to the RWS, given how often Pamela Smith gets left out when she was the actual star of the show! How the hell the publishing company get more recognition than the artist is beyond me (well, it’s not really beyond me, hello sexism, but, y’know).