homesick?click upon a star
RJ Ruano
Big Top Tarot
2023
Project Overview
I created an independent clown-themed tarot deck. This theme explores different ideas of what a clown can be, ranging from typical human clowns to clowns of animal or impish origins.
Scope
Create a 78-card tarot deck featuring all Major and Minor Arcana. Include the following clown types: jester, pierrot, auguste, mime, tramp and harlequin.
My Role
I was the sole creator throughout this project, functioning as the illustrator, package designer, editor, and production coordinator for overseas manufacturing.
Project Identity
To me, clownery isn’t just an aesthetic–it’s an interesting art form with a rich history. In a sense, I wanted to capture the fun and whimsy of a circus-run world completely separate from the world we know. To fully immerse this deck into that vision, I designed the clowns as their own all-inclusive species. Some clowns are more fantastical and animalistic, some are more unconventional and impish, and others are more grounded and human.
Process
For this deck, I heavily referenced the iconic motifs in the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Anchoring the visual symbols to traditional tarot gave me the freedom to embrace the more unconventional aspects of this deck without straying away from its intent as functional tarot.
A concept guidebook was made for the 2026 LA Festival of Tarot, pictured above.
"Ecosystems: Worlds Within Cards and the Ecology of Meaning" 2026 LA Festival of Tarot & Philosophical Research Society Exhibition
Big Top Tarot was selected to appear in the 2026 LA Festival of Tarot as an exhibition piece at the Philosophical Research Society throughout the month of June 2026. I attended as a discussion panelist at the "Ecosystems: Worlds Within Cards and the Ecology of Meaning" exhibition panel.
Images of the displays are pictured below.
Big Top Tarot in the circus tarot section of the exhibition.
Original paper sketches displayed from the deck.