Class has started! Design Cards for Tabletop Games on SkillShare!



Want to learn how to design a whole deck of cards really efficiently in InDesign using DataMerge? Awesome, 'cause I just wrapped production on my SkillShare class! The goal of the class is to get you comfortable enough with InDesign that you can bang out a deck of readable prototype cards for playtesting. You don't need to be an experienced graphic designer!

ENROLL HERE for over two hours of detailed video tutorial.


First, we start with an overview of the context for any card design. Is it held in hand? How many are held in hand at once? Can the card be oriented in either direction? Can it be seen from a distance? How big should my icons or text be?


Then there's a close-up instruction on the best practices for cutting your card prototypes with an x-acto or with a paper cutter. If you love close-ups of my hands, you'll love this segment.


But for the vast majority of the class, we focus on InDesign's DataMerge functionality and how you can use it to design dozens of cards at once. The heart of it all is the spreadsheet, which if you're like me was very intimidating at first, but hopefully I make it a little less scary for you.







The remaining lessons go over how to use DataMerge to set up a deck of euro-style resource cards, a deck of fancy playing cards with dual-suits, and a deck of CCG cards with in-line icons.

This is very much a technical class. The cards I make in the tutorial are kept very minimal (and pretty ugly) so you can follow along with the process without worrying about your design skills. Come, join us!

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