card clutter -- or not?

[Aerin]

To Sweetisthetruth and anyone else avoiding LS decks because they assume multilingual titles:

Many of the latest decks are extremely minimalist.

An example:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/vampire-eternal-night/

See? No language at all. Just symbols.

(Personally I enjoy the languages anyway.)

 

[SweetIsTheTruth]

Good for LS for waking up on this issue. I hope this becomes the norm for LS.

 

[nisaba]

(Personally I enjoy the languages anyway.)

<bemused> I stand by my claim that I just don't see them, despite the research. I *know* LoS decks have multilingual titles because people say so, and I know enough about most European languages to be able to recognise a language even when I can't understand it properly, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you even one of hte la nguages that LS use, or ev en if it's the same selection of languages on every deck or not. Honestly, the images are great - what happens in peripheral vision is exactly that - peripheral, and I'll only look at it if I need it. With the Haindl which I mentioned earlier, the only reason the symbols bother me is because they're encroaching well into the images.

 

[SweetIsTheTruth]

I have the kind of brain that goes directly to the words, which means the words end up distracting me. Apparently I am a textbook case of what this poster mentioned earlier:

As a professional designer & copyrighter, I learned that readability studies proved that people will read a caption under a photo before looking at said photo or any other copy on the page.

 

[Debra]

<bemused> I stand by my claim that I just don't see them, despite the research.

<irritated> What you said, Nisaba, is that "you," meaning people in general, don't see keywords on cards unless we look for them, and so you can stand by your own experience, sure, but don't speak for others or tell us that we must be looking for the keywords to see them, because, Nisaba, it's not true. Why look, here's your very own words.

You honestly don't even see keywords on cards unless you look for them - I just read the pictures.

I read the pictures despite the keywords, and it's easier to do so without them. I am conscious of being one of the many who read captions before looking at the pictures.

 

[Le Fanu]

I am conscious of being one of the many who read captions before looking at the pictures.

I know that feeling. I must be the same. Here, when I go to the cinema and see a film in English, I just cannot stop reading the subtitles. It drives me mad. This must be part of the same compulsion. The film is in English and there is really no need to have to read them, but my eyes are constantly drawn to text at the bottom of the screen, just as they are drawn to text at the bottom of a card!

 

[Chiriku]

I know that feeling. I must be the same. Here, when I go to the cinema and see a film in English, I just cannot stop reading the subtitles. It drives me mad. This must be part of the same compulsion. The film is in English and there is really no need to have to read them, but my eyes are constantly drawn to text at the bottom of the screen, just as they are drawn to text at the bottom of a card!

Moi aussi.

I have a crippling adherence to the written word. When I watch a movie in ANY language I speak fluently, my eyes make a beeline to the subtitles, which is self-flagellation of the worst kind because then I spend the whole duration of the movie grumbling about the invariably inferior translation.

I really want to get deeper into the Haindl and I am considering doing an intensive study on it next year after I finish my current deck study. But the keywords (or "titles" beyond the traditional suit and number) punish me.

The thing is, even if *I* could get past keywords, which I certainly might be able to do with images as dense and complex as those in the Haindl, I simply will not read for a querent with a deck that has keywords. I would only do this if they themselves read tarot. Anyone else, I've found it's highly counterproductive to my interpretations of the cards, because the querent wants to know why what I've gleaned from the card in the spread doesn't match "the card's meaning" (to them, as to most people raised on flashcards and subtitles and other written captions, a title or keyword = "The Meaning").

And I do want the option of using the Haindly for certain querents whom I think would respond well to the imagery and multi-cultural symbolism.

I can't trim the Haindl because, perversely, I don't want to get rid of some of the basic titles; for instance, I like my court cards to be identified as "Queen of " or "Son of." This has little to do with card identification (it's not hard to differentiate the diverse court cards in the Haindl, for instance) and more about the ritualistic aspect of card-reading that I savor.

 

[Zephyros]

I suppose it depends on the intention. Like others have said, the words on the Thoth aren't keywords relating to the meanings exactly, but titles referring to the decans, which are different and come from a specific formula. I get how they can be distracting, in any case, I think they add to the deck, and they have a specific intention. Other decks give a certain interpretation in the keyword, which I don't like.

I don't really care for LS decks because of the multiple language thing, though. In the long run it doesn't impair my use of the deck, but it can be a little off-putting.

 

[Morwenna]

I only recall one of my decks having keywords (besides titles) but it hasn't bothered me so far. But I do agree that I'd think twice and three times before trying to read for someone else using that deck, for the same reason (they'd be likely to second-guess me using the keywords). Still, for the most part I'd avoid keyword decks, and especially key-phrase decks or decks with whole sentences on them (they do exist! ). Titles don't bother me in the least however.

 

[Bhavana]

To Sweetisthetruth and anyone else avoiding LS decks because they assume multilingual titles:

Many of the latest decks are extremely minimalist.

An example:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/vampire-eternal-night/

See? No language at all. Just symbols.

(Personally I enjoy the languages anyway.)

this deck may not have keywords, but it has something that annoys me even more - color coding. I think the Gilded and the other deck by the Gilded artist have color coding as well...while I may buy a deck with keywords, I will not buy one that has to cue me in on the suites by putting little colored blurbs around the borders.

I have few decks with keywords, but they just don't seem to be on most of the decks I go for - the one's I use the most would be the Thoth, the Haindl, and Navigator...the ones I don't would be those like the Sacred Circle or Wildwood - decks that I probably wouldn't use anyway. Mostly I ignore the keywords, but occasionally I'll use them in combo with the meanings or other feelings about the cards/reading.