Theology In Play

What exactly is Theology In Play? 

The short answer:  Family, Faith and Friendship.

The longer answer from the Creator: Throughout my life I have had many opportunities to spend time with friends and family and we would gather around to talk and play cards for hours having a wonderful time. These moments are precious memories and reflecting on these moments since I have moved across the country, quarantines and other shifts in our society these opportunities are not as available or frequent now. 

With this first project I wanted to recapture the opportunity to create special in person moments with family and friends to not only have fun, but also to have a significant experience and meaningful conversation with each other concerning things of value and importance. 

Over the course of my life I have developed a very diverse interest and knowledge base and I am always looking to connect and educate from all the information I have gathered. There are stories everywhere and using creative projects is a great way to create interest, engagement, and education.

With this first card deck project I wanted to explore my interest in Biblical characters and stories to challenge myself to see if I could generate interest in the concept. I started my research in church asking individuals who they thought the top three most important Biblical figures are and why. I got a lot of answers, some expected and some not expected. I talked to people that I see on a regular basis and even to people where I shop and as I saw the feedback of interest in the concept of this project I knew I was on to something. 

I started with the knowledge I had acquired when participating in creating cards for two rounds of card deck creations with the AIGA of Dallas: The Deck Series. 

I started building a general card deck with the plan to swap out the face cards with key Biblical characters based on the feedback I had gotten. I began to see that there were many interesting characters that were being left out and I then decided to move to create a custom card deck series using face cards on all the cards of the deck. 

I kept the style and colors the same, and I incorporated something else inside the deck. I didn't want to just design images on the cards. I wanted to tell more about the images themselves: who were these people and what did they do? What story did they have to tell? I made some adjustments to the original deck adding clues in each image of who the person was and where they may be located inside the Bible. 

The deck is a regular deck of cards that most are familiar with - with the exception that each face card has at minimum one clue to reveal who that character is, or a story that is being referred to. Clues can be based on colors, items within the image, facial expressions, animals and other objects, similarities with other face cards, placement of items etc. Some are based off of a story and others stand alone independently. Some are easy and others are more complex. Often the characters and images are linked to each other so if you uncover and solve one clue, you can use that information to solve another!

Think of it as a scavenger hunt where you find clues as you play card games and reference your knowledge, or go to the Bible, to figure out what the clue is linked to. A game within a game!

As a creative, a teacher at heart, and a designer; I always aim to tell stories that educate. I like to dismantle ideas and translate concepts and information into design projects that not only appeal to the eye but also teach and build relationships through conversation. This process allows me to be creative, produce a product, and educate while also encouraging people to engage with one another. 

It is my hope that people who pick up this project will ask questions, explore, discover, and understand more about the diverse stories that are sometimes hidden within a well-known text… and have fun while doing so!