Trailblazer Heroes is the first AAPI card game celebrating Asian American leaders, culture, diversity, food, and achievements. Developed by Columbia University’s Jogo game lab, this game is a collaborative pattern matching strategy card game.

Juxtaposed against the concept of the elements (fire, earth, wood, water, and metal) I was asked to design 3 “quest” cards and 1 “hero” card highlighting the concepts of microaggressions, the model minority myth, asian monolith, and activist Larry Itliong.

Using a whimsical approach we worked on illustrating stereotypes that are difficult to understand by associating these challenges with visual symbolism.

The model minority myth was represented by the physical challenge of climbing an impossible mountain, microaggressions represented by the annoying buzz of mosquitos, and the monolith concept represented by pieces of a shattered glass creating the illusion of something whole.