Haring Ibon Playing Cards

Philippine Playing cards featuring 54 Philippine birds paired with native Philippine plants, adorned with Philippine textile motifs throughout the packaging, and colorfully illustrated by yours truly.

The brief that we set was to design a set of playing cards that showcases Philippine endemic birds through Filipino design. With many Philippine endemic birds under threat, the project aims to raise awareness of the Philippines’ endemic and endangered bird species, to encourage birdwatching, and to promote native wildlife protection in a familiar form factor that Filipinos can use every day.

No other Philippine-themed Playing Cards have brought a distinctly Filipino approach and look as directly as the Haring Ibon Playing Cards. Philippine birds are embedded in Philippine culture, and they are always meant to be a part of our everyday lives.

In an item as simple as Playing Cards, Filipinos from all educational backgrounds can get to know all these threatened endemic birds in an aesthetically appealing manner. Especially for the emerging city-centered Filipino market, we need to empower them to recognize that we have so much to be proud of as Filipinos and that we must protect our country’s national and natural heritage. By making Philippine Wildlife visible to Filipinos through art and design in everyday life, we help build public appreciation for our very own Philippine Wildlife and even foster a new generation of artists, conservationists, and environmentalists.