Before Fantastique — a card game from Brett J. Gilbert, Trevor Benjamin, and AMIGO that released in select German retailers on June 1, 2026 — even had its name, we knew we wanted the cards to be a burst of color and texture, like peeking through a doorway into a new corner of the world.
As an artist who usually creates patterned fabrics and wallpapers, it was a really exciting challenge, creating illustrations for cards that would be put out on the table into different combinations or collections.
Before I drew any concept sketches, I wanted to create a unique color identity for each region; they all needed to look good together on a table, all mixed up during game play, while also making sure each card’s color palette helped immerse the player in its unique scene.
To create these color palettes, I used my own travel photos from around the world:
"Silk Road": Architecture (Tbilisi, Georgia 2018)
"Amazonia": Street Art (Sao Paulo, Brazil 2012)
"Jade Rim": Historical ink paintings (National Museum in Taipei, Taiwan 2019)
While the color palettes did experience a few changes from the original plans, this initial color plan helped organize the artwork and the game experience, right from the beginning.
After colors, my next focus was on textures and materials: I wanted the artistic processes I used and the materials for the card frames to help immerse the player in the "world" of each card. Some of the regions had clear correlations for me; others gave me a good excuse to get into research mode and look into historical artforms and natural materials from these regions. I took a lot of notes and kept a running list on my phone:
Then I started a scavenger hunt, searching for these textures and materials in my daily life and stopping to photograph them whenever I found something that might be useful.
This interesting woodgrain texture was from an elevator in Barcelona — and while I originally planned to use it for the carved frame on the Savannah card (#4), it actually ended up as a swirled enamel effect for the Sierra card (#8).
A clean and relatively unscratched corner of my refrigerator became the metal texture for the Medal scoring cards:
My photo scavenger hunt continued for months, and in the meantime, we started on the design drafts. Developer Alessandro Montingelli and his team at AMIGO brought so many interesting ideas to each card design, while giving me valuable feedback about how these designs might be understood across a wide range of player ages, locations, and experiences.
There were also a lot of practical "gameplay" elements to consider in the design process: the size of numbers, the repeating elements of frames, and how those frames would look when matched...but also how they would look when mis-matched! After many months of drafts, we finalized this collection of eight unique card designs with frames.
While creating the drafts and final versions of the cards, I experimented with lots of different materials and artistic processes:
Getting messy with acrylic paints and pens for Card 1, Oceania
Painting and embroidery for Card 4, Savannah Rise:
Ceramic tile decorations for Card 6, Silk Road:
I wanted to make sure I worked with real materials and researched traditional artistic processes when creating each illustration for Fantastique; I even took a class on Chinese ink painting to help me understand the techniques for the painting style I wanted to use in the Jade Rim scene.
These card designs began with my personal travel photos, sketchbooks, and artwork. I've always enjoyed sharing my passion for world travel, and creating finished scenes inspired by those experiences, then bringing them to life for others to enjoy through Fantastique, has been a truly unique opportunity.
I learned so much from Alessandro and the team at AMIGO; their product vision, enthusiasm, and technical expertise converged with my artistic background and explorations from around the globe to create a game experience that we are truly proud of.
Since finishing the artwork for Fantastique, I've been buzzing with new project energy: I'm currently designing a fan-themed coloring book that features patterns from around the world, which will be published later in 2026.
I've also been revisiting more of my travel sketchbooks and photos, creating new collections for fabrics, stationery, and home decor.
I would love to hear what you thought about the game: Do you have a favorite card design, or a special connection to one of the regions we used in the game? Any parts of the world that you would like to see me illustrate next?
Learn more: https://www.wanderingmoda.com/about
New artwork + behind the scenes: https://www.instagram.com/wanderingmoda/
Email: miriam@wanderingmoda.com
