conscious cards is a deck designed for emotional intelligence, and the first product we made under we reflect. 96 questions, organised across six emotions: love, anger, fear, gratitude, happiness, sadness. it began as a fun design project between aleena (partner) and i, and grew into something we now use ourselves more than we ever expected to.
the brief came from something we kept noticing. people are well connected digitally, but something is missing. we wanted to find that something. we held on to the idea for a year before building it. learning, unlearning, letting our experiences change us. once the brand was clear, the first product was obvious: a tool to help people reflect.
emotions felt like the only honest place to start. emotions are the universal language. no matter who we are or where we come from, we all carry love, anger, fear, gratitude, happiness, sadness. the deck doesn't pick the comfortable parts. it sits with the full spectrum.
the approach
first principles. a conversation card is a small bridge between inner worlds. it works when three things hold: the question is open, the construction is honest, and the form adapts to who's holding it. everything we made had to clear those three.
structure underneath, not on top. six emotions, drawn as symbols, organised into sets. an opening reflection card to ground the group. a dice roll, the soul cube, so the chosen emotion comes through chance, not preference. affirmation cards for the moments someone doesn't want to share. nothing visible to the player feels like rules. underneath, it's all scaffolding.
we use it ourselves. before any retreat, gathering, or sale, the deck had to survive our own use of it. that was the only test that mattered.
outcome
conscious cards is now in circulation. used in homes, retreats, conversations between strangers, conversations between people who thought they already knew each other. it became the anchor product for we reflect, and the language the brand speaks is still mostly the language of these cards.
what surprised us: the dice. once randomness chose the emotion, the difficult ones felt less personal, and people sat with them. the cards are simply the beginning. the real magic happens in the conversations that follow.
