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Cheetos® Cajun is in the Cards

2024

Project Overview

We created a Chester Cheetah tarot deck and recipe booklet inspired by New Orleans fortune telling to promote the new summer flavor, Cheetos® Flamin’ Hot Cajun Cheddar Snacks.

Scope

Create a 22-card Major Arcana tarot deck featuring illustrations of Chester Cheetah and Frito-Lay Cheetos® snacks. Create a box, instructions card and booklet that function as both a tarot guide and a Cheetos® Mac ‘n Cheese recipe book.

My Role

I was lead artist and lead tarot consultant. From sketch to finished product, I was responsible for designing and illustrating 22 cards, the back of card design, box packaging, instructions card, booklet art, and TikTok filter assets. I designed the custom font featured on the tarot cards and the instructions card. I also designed Chester Cheetah’s outfit, which the team adapted into a 3D model for commercials.

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Branding

Being a staple snack from my childhood, I approached this project as a love-letter to Cheetos® and its history. Throughout the deck I make homages to past and modern Cheetos® flavors, branding, commercials and packaging. Chester’s face on the Mischievous Moon card (which is inspired by the “Man in the Moon” myth and the myth that the moon is made of cheese) was selected to represent this project’s logo.

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Process

I knew I wanted this to not only be a historical Cheetos® collectible, but a practical tarot deck as well. The deck contains visuals that signal the meaning of any given card, with motifs adopted from the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Through playful compositions and clever replacements, every card was successfully adapted to match Cheetos’® identity while retaining the core visual motifs of recognizable tarot.

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To pay tribute to the Louisiana and Mardi Gras influence, I leaned into a festive green/purple/black color palette for the box art and for Chester’s outfit; fleur-de-lis symbols also make appearances throughout the deck. To further immerse Cheetos®-enjoyers into the world of tarot, the front and back of the box is designed to look like Chester is revealing your fortune. The sides of the box feature curtains to give the illusion of a private tarot reading.

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Social Engagement

We announced the new Cheetos® flavor and tarot cards on TikTok and released a fun fortune-telling filter which would randomly assign you one of the 22 cards and a cheesy prediction for the future.

Creative Director: Tammy Booth
Associate Creative Director: Katie Renfroe
Copywriter: Rachel Koren

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