vibrant card deck by julia schimautz hides an animation in its sequence of colors and shapes

color, printmaking, and movement converge in color index

Austrian graphic designer and printmaker Julia Schimautz collaborates with Copenhagen-based Small Wonder CPH on Color Index, a deck of playing cards that turns a familiar object into a small kinetic image. Across the cards, saturated fields of color gradually shift and accumulate into oversized suit symbols; when the deck is riffled, the individual frames combine into a moving image that exists only through the user’s interaction with the cards.

At first glance, the deck follows the basic visual grammar of a conventional pack. Letters and numbers identify the cards while hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades remain recognizable as suits. But instead of relying on the familiar red-and-black palette, Schimautz distributes each suit across a distinct field of saturated color. Subtle changes from one card to the next become more apparent when the pack is viewed as a whole, with gradients and blurred forms accumulating across the individual surfaces. The King card, for example, carries an enlarged suit symbol that appears to emerge from the surrounding color field.

all images courtesy of Small Wonder CPH

the playing card becomes a sequence of color

Schimautz, who runs the Berlin-based DTAN Studio, approaches graphic design through an interest in experimentation, imperfection, and the physical behavior of printed matter. Her practice is particularly informed by printmaking and Riso printing, where shifts in registration and color can become part of the visual language.

The graphic designer’s interest in the imperfections of printing is important to the character of the deck. Her work embraces the small discrepancies that can occur when colors and layers are translated from digital designs into physical prints, allowing the process itself to influence the finished image.

That approach is particularly suited to a deck whose visual identity depends on repetition and incremental change. Each card is recognizable as part of the same system, but the progression between cards creates the larger image. Color, therefore, functions as a structural device, organizing the sequence and controlling how the animation is perceived.

The deck is printed on FSC-certified black-core paper using vegetable-based inks and finished with a linen texture. Its construction keeps the object close to the conventions of a traditional poker deck while giving the surface and edges a more pronounced graphic presence.

the stacked cards reveal the range of colors used throughout the deck