Minimalism in recent and upcoming Tarot decks

Le Fanu said:

I think there's a connection between the trend for eliminating lots of card details and the "oracle-isation" of tarot. It's like people are tired of the RWS and just want cards to mean anything whatsoever. Minimalism enables you to do this. I think the two phenomena are connected.

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Now that makes sense. Some of the minimalist decks can be very specific about the emotion or idea (but usually emotion) they are trying to express on a single card. That can work for one card but makes for a challenge with spreads where they can be a bit disjointed.

I don't have much of a hankering for minimalism in any area in my life (some days my apartment looks like the Vatican was having a fire sale) but I'm intrigued by the Linestrider and the Pagan Otherworlds. I couldn't get into the "enter the card" meditative aspect of the Arthurian but the Uusi Pagan Otherworlds seems much more interesting with its empty windy moores.

I think the uusi Pagan Otherworld's Tarot is exquisite. But it's odd, I didn't think of it as minimalist. It's minimalist in the same way as the Gumppenberg Lombardi (i.e the LoS "Ancient Tarot of Lombardy") is. It owes more to the historic style of deck I think.

But I see that's just an imposition of mine, perhaps.

There's no reason why a minimalist deck - at its logical extreme, a card with blank cards - wouldn't be good for the scrying style of reading. I wonder if that's the point? But none of them are quite that minimalist.

So often with these things - the original - The Wild Unknown - was inspired and it's creators, as far as I can see, have an illustrative background. The huge success was bound to lead to copies and suddenly you have a style developing. I do think it's interesting as a move away from slavishly RWS decks though.

You can't really say the Wild Unknown is the ''original'' since there's been minimalist decks for years, LF (Tarot Nova, Lisa Chow's Tarot, Darkana... to name a few). If you're referring to the art style I'd say that Lisa Chow's was the ''original'' one even.

I have two decks I consider rather minimalistic: David's Tarot and I-Ching Holitzka
And they are REALLY good for readings. I never had problems running out of insights but then again, I don't read so much every day that could prove that they are too restrictive... What bothers me are not the style of decks. Variety should always be encouraged,imo. What bothers me more is the word TREND...

And Shade, THANK YOU for the link !!

Minimalism does not have to be = those black sketches of decks either. It can be something a lot more cheerful.
My fave deck is rather minimalist in a way. Sheridan-Douglas

I recently got a really cool black and white deck though, the Icelandic tarot, that is as minimalistic you can get i think :-D (and still have art)

jema said:

Minimalism does not have to be = those black sketches of decks either. It can be something a lot more cheerful.
My fave deck is rather minimalist in a way. Sheridan-Douglas

I recently got a really cool black and white deck though, the Icelandic tarot, that is as minimalistic you can get i think :-D (and still have art)

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Absolutely ! I tend to pick b&w decks but there are quite colorful ones around like the International Icon, for instance:

http://glowinthedarkpictures.com/tarot/international-icon-tarot-2/international-icon-tarot-arcana/

Nina* said:

You can't really say the Wild Unknown is the ''original'' since there's been minimalist decks for years, LF (Tarot Nova, Lisa Chow's Tarot, Darkana... to name a few). If you're referring to the art style I'd say that Lisa Chow's was the ''original'' one even.

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I suppose I meant the first of this current onslaught of similar styled nature-based decks. True there have been minimal decks for years. That Didier one, for example. But the Wild Unknown is definitely the start of something, style-wise, I think.

I think it's so popular because it photographs well... For Facebook.. Instagram...

I'm so glad someone mentioned David's. Along with the colored Lars Christian Holmsen and Tarot Nova, among the best of this style, I think.

Le Fanu said:

\There's no reason why a minimalist deck - at its logical extreme, a card with blank cards - wouldn't be good for the scrying style of reading. I wonder if that's the point? But none of them are quite that minimalist.

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This comment immediately made me think of the Type Tarot, which is largely imageless and instead composed of word associations on the meaning of the card arranged in a word cloud style. Definitely pretty minimalist, though not quite what the rest of the thread is thinking of, I think.

MissChiff said:

I think it's so popular because it photographs well... For Facebook.. Instagram...

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...This is also a good possibility.