Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Slava Shestopalov of Hipsteria Playing Cards

Hipsteria Playing Cards are created by designer Slava Shestopalov from Ukraine. This playful deck represents the most remarkable elements of the hipster subculture, designed in a minimalistic manner. The artwork has been hand-drawn and finalized on the computer.

The deck is fully custom, with unique artwork on all 54 cards in a line-art style. Every character and elements are a combination of lines, arches, curves and dots. A lot of thought has gone into the design of the deck. For example, each suit represents a different item: Spades - Food, Clubs - Interior, Diamonds - Accessories and Hearts - Clothes. The Aces are inspired by hipster logos and emblems. Exemplify the uniqueness of this deck.

We reached out to Slava and had a chance to talk about the design background and the idea behind the Hipsteria.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I have been working in the graphic design direction for over 5 years. Currently. I'm the visual designer at Epam Systems and my daily activity is connected with creating interfaces for web and mobile. I live in Lviv, Ukraine, a magnificent old-fashioned city that is often called the "cultural capital" of the country. I am keen on mountain hikes, bicycles and metal music.

Can you describe the Hipsteria Playing Cards and why you’re passionate about it?
Hipsteria is an attempt to make a snapshot of hipster culture, trends and stereotypes and show them in a funny way. These cards represent things that are associated with hipsters and are designed in a trendy line-art style.

How much time did you spend working on the deck?
It's a hard question because I don't track time when working on my personal projects. I guess the first card was created in May. Then I tried to spend at least a couple hours every week to create more Hipsteria stuff or review the existing designs. A sufficient part of work time was spent for googling “true hipster” accessories and for sketching.

Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How did you get to this finished product?
The most interesting and challengeable thing was to convert the real objects to minimalistic illustrations. The manner, in which all the cards are designed, is based on geometry and I had only lines to show volumes, shadows, and textures. Sometimes I faced the issues when things that look nice on paper are dull and not recognizable in the line style, so I had to change details or try another layout. The last 15 cards were drawn directly on a computer without sketching, because by that moment I had known the target style and proportions inside out.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
The first intermediate success was when I tried an idea to make numeric cards individual and created the first set of numeric cards for one suit. I drew two cabinets for two of clubs, three chairs for three of clubs, four pallets for four of clubs and so on. It looked perfect and fresh; I haven’t seen such an approach before. The second important stage of the project was to choose colors for boxes and card backs, since color impacts the overall impression greatly. I tried over 50 different combinations and the current ones seem to be bright and stylish.

What are your favorite playing cards in the deck?
If we talk about Hipsteria, I like the jokers most of all because they are a bit sarcastic and very straightforward. But generally, I like an ace of spades card. It's powerful and often decorated with an emblem of the deck manufacturer.

What’s next? Are you planning to design more playing card decks in the future?
I'm not sure but it might happen. I am considering creating a board game on the adventures topic.

Thank you Slava and all the best! At the time of writing, the project is only 25% funded with 26 days to go. If want to support Hipsteria Playing Cards, you can find it on Kickstarter here. 


Hipsteria will be printed by NPCC and pledge starts from $11. There are also multiple rewards that are waiting to be unlocked once the project hits its stretched goals. Notably, the Hipsteria Milky (White) Edition at $7.5k.