Arcana Elixirs
Arcana Elixirs: Turning Tarot into a Collectible Drinking Experience
Project Overview
Arcana Elixirs is a premium mocktail brand inspired by tarot cards. Each drink corresponds to a tarot archetype (e.g., Magician, The Fool, The Sun) and is packaged in collectible cans or bottles that reveal tarot imagery as the liquid is consumed.
Project Goals:
Create a unique, memorable non-alcoholic beverage line.
Build an experience that’s collectible, shareable, and story-driven.
Connect design, packaging, and product storytelling to mysticism and ritual.
Target Audience:
Millennials and Gen Z consumers who are:
Health-conscious and sober-curious.
Interested in aesthetics, rituals, and mysticism (tarot, astrology, symbolism).
Drawn to collectible or “mystery” products that create shareable experiences.
My Role:
Concept packaging development (tarot theme + mocktail storytelling).
Visual illustrator for Tarot cards for the label design (3 of 5).
I also did personal research into audience preferences and collectible design trends.
Creation of concept mockups (bottles, cans, and mystery packs).
Foundational Research
Initial Problem / Challenge: How to make a mocktail brand stand out in a competitive, alcohol-dominated beverage market. Create concepts for how a tarot-inspired bottle label would look.
Research Conducted: Explored beverage branding trends (functional drinks, premium mocktails). Looked at different tarot card sets, astrology, and mysticism. looked into how Gen Z engages with collectibles and mystery packs.
Research Goals: Identify what makes mocktails appealing beyond “no alcohol.”
Understand how to tie product to a cult/tarot lifestyle, ritual, and shareability.
Insights Uncovered: Consumers want more than flavor—they want an experience. Collectibility and personalization increase engagement, with the mystery/unveiling is a powerful tool that adds to the experience (like trading cards, blind boxes).
Target Audience Learnings: They value aesthetic packaging and storytelling. They’re drawn to mystery, ritual, gamification, and what's trending on the internet. They want products they can photograph, share, and display to share with goonies.
Audience Attitudes / Sentiments: They don’t just buy drinks for refreshment; they invest in trending identities and storytelling. A beverage can become a social movement if the packaging and story are strong.
Reframing the Problem
Instead of just branding another mocktail, we reframed the challenge:
“How do we make a mocktail that feels like pulling a tarot card?”
This turned the project into a design problem about ritual, discovery, and storytelling.
Concept and Solution
We designed a packaging system where:
Front label = tarot frame border with the center left transparent.
Back label = tarot card illustration, revealed as the drink empties.
Cans = tarot card illustrations wrapped in gothic frames.
Mystery 6-pack case = randomized mix of tarot cards, encouraging collectibility.
This created a two-part experience: drinking + discovering.
Process and Prototyping
- Created hand-drawn tarot illustrations (Sun, Fool,Oracle, Tower, etc.).
- Built bottle and can mockups to visualize the reveal mechanic.
- Designed a mystery case to highlight collectibility.
- Tested concepts informally with peers → strong positive feedback, especially about the hidden reveal mechanic.
Outcomes and Impact
A mocktail brand that’s shareable, collectible, and ritual-driven. This creates repeat engagement through the purchases of mystery packs or single bottles. Strengthening the brand and helping the monktail stand out as—
“more than a beverage” —” it’s a storytelling experience”.
