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Tell Me What You See
Because is a 188-card deck. The cards are housed in a deluxe magnetic box. The deck's companion book is a special full-colour, 196-page hardcover book.
Ask Me Why
Each of the deck's cards represents a song written, recorded, and released by The Beatles. The artwork was created by Welkin in its house style of collage and image manipulation using Photoshop. The deck is divided into groupings of songs, colour-coded to delineate various phases in the band's development. Each card/song is assigned a number based on when the recording of that song began, while the colour allocation of each song reflects the final mixing and release of the song and so the family of songs it is naturally aligned with. The visual style of each colour-coded phase is unique and consistent within itself, reflecting in graphic terms the musical phase it represents. The psychedelic style of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for instance, is represented in florid scenes and fluorescent hues, while images for The White Album are more raw, tactile, and concrete.
Tell Me Why
Quite unlike traditional Little White Books that accompany Tarot decks, the companion guide for the Beatles Oracle is an almost 200 page hardcover book. Each page of the book displays the card in question and an assiduously researched exegesis concerning the song's origin and creation, its greater context and meaning, and its significance in the Beatles canon and culture at large.
What Goes On
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Cards - Size: 2.48"×3.46" [63×88mm]. Card stock: (S30) Standard Smooth. Card count: 190.
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Book - Hardcover; image wrap. Size: approx. 6"x9" [15x230mm]; 204 colour pages.
The Word
For Because, Welkin has invented an ingenious and concise way of transmitting the various meanings associated with each card/song. Throughout each card's write-up - and written with it in mind - each word or phrase which touches on the card/song's meaning appears in the colour of the card's respective suit. Combining card meanings in brief with the song's exegesis not only centralizes and fully synthesizes the two but it simultaneously facilitates a close reading of the text and rewards a casual scan of the page, allowing the reader's eye to land on whichever random words they happen upon.
