Urban Cats Tarot

Urban Cats Tarot was designed by Chompoonoot Chompoorath, an illustrator and architectural designer based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in collaboration with Pitchawut Virutamawongse. The deck was developed through Research Playground, an initiative that explores ways of transforming research projects into playful and accessible public media. Chompoorath describes herself as a freelance illustrator and full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture, Chiang Mai University. The cards were printed locally by Pigment Monday Print Studio.

Above: Three cards from Urban Cats Tarot: The Hierophant, The Tower, and Wheel of Fortune. The illustrations place familiar tarot archetypes within everyday Thai urban settings, incorporating elements such as spirit houses and motorbike taxis.

Both designers are trained in architecture and work as lecturers and researchers in Chiang Mai. Their collaboration grew from research exploring the relationship between stray cats, architecture and the urban environment. Rather than presenting this material in conventional academic form, the project experiments with ways of translating research into visual and interactive formats that can be shared with a wider public.

Above: The Khuan Khama Cats project receiving the Design Excellence Award 2025 in Thailand, often described as “the Oscars of the Thai design industry”. The exhibition provided the context from which Urban Cats Tarot later emerged.

The tarot deck emerged from the Khuan Khama Cats project, first presented as part of an exhibition during Chiang Mai Design Week 2024. The exhibition combined architectural drawings, mapping exercises, illustrations and small design objects exploring the presence of cats within everyday neighbourhood spaces, with the tarot deck forming one element of the installation. The project later received the Design Excellence Award 2025 in Thailand, described as “the Oscars of the Thai design industry”, as well as the 2025 Good Design Award in Japan, where the award entry describes the exhibition as transforming research on stray cats and the city into an engaging and interactive public experience using architectural tools and graphic design.

The deck itself reflects this research-driven background. Rather than approaching tarot through occult tradition, the designers use the structure of the 22 Major Arcana as a visual framework for observing everyday urban life. Instead of a conventional booklet, the deck includes a fold-out poster guide presenting the card meanings in Thai and English. The interpretations are written as short reflections centred on the perspective of the cats themselves, encouraging readers to interpret situations through what the box describes as “the emotions, thoughts, and instincts of cats.” (see the box )

The illustrations are drawn in a minimal line-based style with flat colours, giving the images a light and approachable graphic character. Each card presents a small scene in which cats move through streets, courtyards and architectural spaces, interacting with elements of the urban environment in ways familiar to anyone who has spent time in Thai neighbourhoods.

Several cards incorporate recognisable aspects of Thai culture and daily life. The Tower, for example, features a traditional spirit house, the miniature shrine commonly placed outside homes and businesses in Thailand. The Wheel of Fortune includes a cat wearing the distinctive orange vest associated with motorbike taxi drivers, a familiar sight on busy streets. The Hierophant appears as a Buddhist monk cat, while The Emperor includes Thai script on a gate behind the figure. The Devil card makes a playful reference to moo ping, the grilled pork skewers sold by street vendors. Through such details the familiar symbols of the Major Arcana are placed within a recognisably Thai urban setting.

Small independent decks such as Urban Cats Tarot show how tarot formats are increasingly used as compact design projects. In this case the tarot deck becomes one element within a larger exploration of urban life in Chiang Mai.