Loteria Cards

Mexican Playing Card Design

Concept Mexican Bingo playing cards designed as a personal project to celebrate the culmination of my journey towards earning my diploma.

PROMPT

Graduation caps are traditionally decorated by students who are getting ready to take part in a culmination ceremony at the end of their school years. For my undergraduate graduation, I opted to decorate my cap with things that got me through my years of hard work at the California State University of Northridge. Because of my Mexican cultural background, I found it fitting to create my own loteria cards: Mexican bingo playing cards.

IDEATION

I started by sketching out some of the things that were the most important to me during my time at school. I earned a BA of art with a specialty in Graphic Design, so my essential tools included my iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, glasses, and iPhone. Late nights and early mornings sometimes urged me to take a few sips of my favorite cocktail drink (margarita) and many Iced Vanilla Lattes from Starbucks. I could not have kept up with my bills if it had not been for working long weekends at the Santa Monica Pier, where I had my own stand of customized jewelry of the art of the name on the grain of rice. My senior year at CSUN was the most memorable for me, as I was able to form a part of IntersectLA, a creative agency for students on campus to work with real-world clients. Nothing that I did would have been possible without the most important people in my life cheering me on: my parents and boyfriend. Their unending support allowed me to stay focused and keep in mind my goal of earning my diploma. Each of these things formed a part of my story at CSUN, and I illustrated them all on my iPad.

RESULT

I could not put into words what I wanted to capture on my grad cap, so I drew it instead. I individually cut and laminated a smaller version of my loteria cards in order to place them on my graduation cap.