BIGGFISH / Archived creative work / Ada Love

The Cardano SeriesPortraits / Playing cards

Two illustrated portrait series, a physical playing-card deck and a separate AI reimagining, connected by one visual world.

Romy Randev led research, art direction and production under the Ada Love name. Artwork by Dotstruction Studios. The portrait collections were originally created through NFT technology; the cards brought selected images into a printed deck.

See the 2023 Midjourney Redux

Cardano Series 1 poster with a composition of illustrated portraits — Cardano Series 1 · collection poster

The thread

From names to portraits. From portraits to a deck.

The design challenge was to turn names from different periods and disciplines into one recognizable portrait series while keeping each connection specific. The first two series draw on people, symbols and names around Cardano: poets and mathematicians, software and myth, founders and researchers. Not every subject names a software era.

Romy led the research and art direction and served as producer. Artwork by Dotstruction Studios. The NFT format is part of this project’s history; this archive focuses on the artwork and the stories behind it.

The playing cards translate some of that artwork into a familiar physical format. Court cards, number cards, illustrated backs and a printed box make the work tangible beyond the original collection.

01 / Illustrated collection

Cardano Series 1

Ten finished portraits establish the collection’s visual language, pairing each subject with the name or story that led to the illustration.

Explore Series 1 ↗

Ada Lovelace portrait from Cardano Series 1

02 / Illustrated collection

Cardano Series 2

Eleven more portraits extend the system to poets, scientists, researchers and community figures, each with a researched connection.

Explore Series 2 ↗

Alonzo Church portrait from Cardano Series 2

03 / Printed collection

The playing cards

Artwork from the series became a printed deck. See photographs of the finished cards and box, then browse every supplied suit-and-rank design.

Explore the playing cards ↗

Four illustrated playing cards fanned on a pale surface.

04 / Midjourney visual exploration · 2023

Cardano Series Redux

A reinterpreted Cardano Series imagined with AI, moving its subjects into cinematic, mechanical and etched worlds.

In 2023, Romy Randev created these images in Midjourney as a separate visual exploration of Ada Lovelace, Gerolamo Cardano and Daedalus. The image-cycling videos collect more of the imagery. Redux is an exploratory reinterpretation, not a claim that a new Cardano collection launched.

The original Cardano Series portraits and printed cards above are distinct: Romy directed and produced those projects, with illustration by Dotstruction Studios. The Midjourney imagery in this chapter was made by Romy.