British based illustrator Sophy Hollington released her Autonomic Tarot card deck in 2018. Clearly, it caught the eye of Stockholm-based eyewear brand Chimi for its new Arcana line which features Hollington’s arduous and detailed lino-cut process of her relief design and chubby yet minimalist type.
The campaign encompasses three sunglasses based on figures from the Major Arcana deck: “The High Priestess”, “The Fool”, and “The Magician” and each frame is accompanied with a tarot card designed by Hollington which see the reimagined Chimi logo engraved upon the arms of the frames. Each character has their own characteristics; whilst The Fool represents “blissful naivety”, The High Priestess “is powerful and sensual”, whereas The Magician is the “artist alchemist” using only their “skills and intellect” to conjure.
Furthermore, each frame represents the aura of its namesake. The Magician takes on a cunning angular form, whilst The High Priestess gives a fittingly alluring impression. The Fool takes the form of a bubbly, more jovial frame.
Hollington cites Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck as a main source of creative inspiration and there was “something about the tension in Thoth and the alchemical symbolism” that she fed into her own designs. She also states that for the Chimi collaboration she had to move “away from the aggressive darkness that [Autonomic] has”.
The frames come in three colours; earthy tones of black, red and green seem to evoke the natural elements which typically define alchemy and folklore. Hollington used these colours to inform the newly adapted Tarot card illustrations for Chimi.
Sophy Hollington: Tarot Pack (Copyright © Chimi, 2021)
