Women in Sports : Trading Cards
Women’s achievements in sports are frequently underrepresented or overlooked in mainstream history and popular media, while men are often positioned as the dominant figures in athletic culture. At the same time, sports memorabilia, especially trading cards, have traditionally celebrated male athletes, leaving limited space for women’s stories to be told in accessible, collectible formats.
As someone who grew up immersed in sports, athletics have always been deeply personal to me. Some of my earliest memories include watching the World Series on family vacations, attending Orioles games on warm summer days, and practicing at the ballfield until sunset. Sports became both a creative inspiration and an emotional outlet during stressful periods of my life, and they remain a source of comfort and connection for me today. This project was driven by my desire to combine that lifelong passion with a commitment to highlighting women whose contributions to sports deserve greater visibility and recognition.
I designed a series of collectible trading cards featuring American women who have made extraordinary contributions across a range of sports. Drawing inspiration from the baseball cards I collected as a child, I created stylized vector illustrations of each athlete using Adobe Illustrator for the front of the cards. For the reverse side, I conducted historical research on each athlete and wrote concise biographies that include career highlights, major accomplishments, and a memorable quote that reflects each individual’s personality and legacy. Visually, I contrasted the organic, graphic illustration style on the front with bold typography and a structured grid system on the back to create balance and clarity between expression and information design. The cards were intentionally designed to be shareable, encouraging collecting, trading, displaying, and discussion among users.
The final outcome is an educational trading card series that functions as both a visual design project and a social commentary on gender representation in sports history. The cards provide an engaging way to learn about influential women athletes while promoting interaction among sports fans, students, and collectors. The project successfully translates historical research into an approachable physical format that blends illustration, typography, and editorial design.
This project strengthened my ability to combine storytelling, research, and visual communication within a cohesive design system. It also reinforced the power of design as a tool for representation and cultural critique. Women in Sports demonstrates how familiar formats can be reimagined to challenge dominant narratives and elevate voices that are too often excluded from the historical record.