Keys to the Kingdom by Tony Meeuwissen

I was first made aware of this by a blurb about in a Sept/Oct. 1993 Communication Arts. 

Floored by it then and I’m as impressed by it now.

It has always been on a list of things I should track down and buy for near on twenty years. The page was in a folder I went through last night and realized I had to share it. 

Originally commissioned by the Victoria and Albert in 1984 to create a set of playing cards based on nursery rhymes. The project was (as you’ll see) very complex and took Tony Meeuwissen more than a year. The Museum stopped sponsoring the project. Too far into it to stop, his agent Nicholas Dawe took over the funding and five year later they found a publisher, Running Press of Philadelphia in the US, and Pavillion Books in Europe, Australia and Japan. In 1993 the Design & Art Direction Club awarded Meeuwissen a Gold Award for Illustration - the first time they had ever given out that award in their up to that point 31 year history.

I think you’ll understand why. I’m not even going to address style or technique, which is very fine. Conceptually each one of these will leave you agog.

Enjoy.

Keys to the Kingdom