Written by Logan Dulski, 2023 SHINE mentee & multi-disciplinary designer
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always loved D.C. My mother would drive me into the city for work, her night classes, or to spend a day at the museums or Kennedy Center. Washington, D.C., always felt like this magical place full of art and history. I still remember my mother holding my hand, walking me through different neighborhoods, and pointing out all the changes the neighborhood went through since she was a young girl. This love for D.C. is why once I hit adulthood, I decided to make our nation’s capital my home and build a community for myself here.
In 2023, after receiving my bachelor’s degree in visual communication design, I joined the AIGA DC 2023 SHINE mentorship program to find more direction in my creative career and connect with other young designers like myself. When tasked with creating a project to complete during the program with our mentors, the first thing I thought of was tarot.
At the time, I had been a tarot student for 3 years, taking online classes, learning tarot’s history, how to read the cards, and tapping into other divinatory practices. Tarot, like many divinatory practices, has always been a tool of community care, particularly for marginalized communities. It’s rooted in Black artistry, with the most well-known deck, the Smith-Rider Waite deck, being illustrated by Black British artist Pamela Coleman Smith. It’s made of 78 beautifully designed cards, each with its own imagery, symbolism, and story representing life’s lessons and challenges. Unlike what TikTok tarot readers might try to tell you, tarot doesn’t predict the future. Tarot helps people understand themselves, look inward, and learn how to listen to their intuition.
Which is why designing a tarot deck felt like the perfect project for SHINE. But simply making a deck wasn’t enough. I was still exploring Washington, D.C., as an adult, while the city slowly reopened and social activities reignited after the initial COVID-19 closures.
Logan doing crowdfunding tarot readings for DC Gay Girls+ New Queers Eve party
That’s when it hit me: I could theme a tarot deck around what makes D.C. an incredible city. But more than that, I could make it small enough to take with me while I explored. Something that highlighted D.C. not just through my eyes, but through the eyes of other artists and creatives who also wanted to share their love for the city. I wanted to create something in community with others that highlighted the contributions of marginalized communities and showcased how their efforts shaped this city. To spotlight historical figures such as Benjamin Banneker, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Frederick Douglas. To share local haunts like As You Are Bar, Little District Books, and Malcolm X Park. And to shed a light on the impact the Romani people have had on tarot and the prejudice they still face as a marginalized community.
Once I got the resounding go-ahead from my wonderful SHINE mentor and friend, Keith Pinkston II, I started researching and listing out my favorite places and D.C. historical facts. I gathered over 20 diverse artists from across the DMV who saw my vision and wanted to share their view of D.C. through their chosen medium and style. I provided each artist with a prompt for one to three cards, connecting the traditional card symbolism to Washington, D.C. Outside of highlighting the work of local design and artistic talent, the Community & Connection Pocket Tarot also features artwork contributed by Romani artists and co-author of the Secret of Romani Fortune Telling, Jezmina Von Thiele.
With the help of my mentor, I spent my SHINE project managing the volunteer artists, defining the deck’s overall brand and look, writing a tarot workbook, designing a tarot art book, and planning our first Kickstarter campaign, which launched in September 2024. For the first Kickstarter campaign, I shot for the moon, wanting to get not only the tarot deck printed, but a limited edition leather-bound art book to celebrate the contributing artists, stickers, posters, and a tarot journal, and use remaining funds to also host events and give back to the volunteer artists for all their hard work. Which is why, when my first campaign was only 1% funded, it was heartbreaking. Not meeting my first Kickstarter campaign’s funding goal felt like a huge failure and a weight on my chest because I wasn’t able to share the art contributed and my passion for tarot while uplifting my community as I had hoped.
Logan doing crowdfunding tarot readings for AlphabetSoup’s Scissor Inn party
Rather than giving up, I pivoted. I turned to crowdfunding by hosting pop-up tarot readings at local stores like Femme Fatale DC and working the LGBTQ+ event circuit, doing events like New Queers Eve, Scissor Inn, and Dykechella. I reached out to local small businesses to sponsor the deck, made a website, and started booking regular tarot clients to save towards my original funding goals. I spent 2025 working, saving, and investing in this project.
Then, in a move that surprised me, I decided to leave the city I loved to get my master’s degree at Trinity College Dublin. Leaving D.C. was one of the toughest and most terrifying decisions I ever made in my adult life. I was leaving behind the design friends, mentors, and creative community that had supported me through my early 20s to try and build a life in a new country while I learned new design skills. I had to put the Community & Connection Pocket Tarot on hold to put all my efforts into my education (I wasn’t going into more student debt for nothing, ya know).
In June 2026, my good friend and contributing artist to the Community & Connection Pocket Tarot, Ariana Rodriguez-Gitler, reached out and asked about trying to get more funding for the deck again. At first, I wasn’t sure I could do it. After all, I’m still in Dublin, working towards my master’s, and I had no clue how to balance crowdfunding and life in another country (timezone differences are a logistical nightmare). But in the spirit of the deck, my community stepped in and stepped up because they also wanted to see this magical deck come to life. Without the continued help of Ariana, Keith, and my design community back in D.C. I never would have thought launching our second Kickstarter campaign would be possible. That goes to show that no matter where you are, your D.C. design community has your back and will support you through all of life’s challenges.
And now, I’m delighted to announce that the Community & Connection Pocket Tarot has officially re-launched on Kickstarter! With our new funding goal of $11,000, we’re making the travel-sized tarot deck with an accompanying guidebook, stickers, 2 poster options, and a digital tarot workbook. Our stretch-funding goals include hosting educational and cultural events around the city to give back to our creative community and the artists of the deck. None of this would be possible without their support and belief in my vision. So, if you want to support local artists, please support our Kickstarter campaign. We want to bring Washington, D.C. to your fingertips!
A selection tarot cards from the Community & Connection Pocket Tarot deck
Logan Dulski is a multi-disciplinary designer specializing in graphic design and front-end development. With a B.A. in graphic design and audio technology and an MSc. in interactive digital media, Logan is a swiss-army knife designer with a passion for uplifting their community. When not listening to a podcast and working at their desk, you can find them reading in their local park, playing Dungeons & Dragons, or dancing in Laufey in their kitchen.
