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★ Outstanding Graduation Design Award · 2025
Chasing the Stars 逐宿
The 28 Lunar Mansions of ancient Chinese astronomy, reimagined as a collectible, playable card set.
The 28 Lunar Mansions of ancient Chinese astronomy, reimagined as a collectible, playable card set.
The Twenty-Eight Mansions are one of the oldest star systems in the world — rich in symbolism, but almost impenetrable today.
I pulled visual elements from ancient texts and rebuilt each mansion as a character with its own totem, colour and layout — so the system could be held, played and collected.
Make a 2,000-year-old star map feel like something you'd want to collect.
The source material is dense and scholarly. The design had to keep the cultural meaning intact while giving each card enough personality to stand alone — and enough consistency to work as a set of 28.
Symbols, creatures and colours for each mansion, drawn from classical texts and grouped under the Four Symbols: Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger and Black Tortoise.
One card frame, four colour families, 28 characters. Every card is unique, yet instantly readable as part of its quadrant.
A companion guidebook explains the history behind every card; posters, postcards, packaging and an exhibition extend the world.
Each mansion became a figure you can recognise — not a cluster of dots on a chart.
The four quadrants each own a colour family, so the set sorts itself.
Cards stay clean and collectible; the scholarship moves to the guidebook.
Constraint helped. A strict frame is what let 28 very different characters feel like one family.
