The Kickstarter Tarot Deck That Reached Hay House

Chris-Anne Donnelly is a Canadian illustrator, graphic designer and practicing tarot reader who began her creative career as a designer for an energy healing company before building an independent illustration and tarot practice under the name Chris-Anne. She owns Pixelbrand, a branding and graphic design studio, and has studied acupuncture alongside her work in energy medicine. Her best known deck, the Light Seer's Tarot, first launched as a Kickstarter funded independent edition before Hay House picked it up for wide release in December 2019, where it became a bestseller. The deck reworks the seventy eight traditional tarot archetypes into a modern, boho influenced visual style built around expressive human figures set in atmospheric landscapes of turquoise oceans, purple sunsets and golden light, moving the cards away from the medieval and occult imagery of older decks toward a warmer, more contemporary look that reviewers have credited with bringing new readers into tarot. Chris-Anne's path from Kickstarter to a major publisher mirrors a broader pattern in current tarot publishing, in which independently funded decks with a strong social media following are picked up by established houses after proving demand directly with readers rather than through a traditional publishing pitch. She continues to teach and write about tarot and creative business practice through her own site.