Bumbershoot

The Project

Bumbershoot is a contemporary parlor game based around Victorian slang. Inspired by the use of today’s meme and slang culture, Bumbershoot went back in time and found the strangest, zaniest, most obscure slang, pulled straight out of the Victorian era, and made a card game out of it.

To play the game, every player is dealt 5 cards, each bearing a Victorian slang word on the back, by the Duke or Duchess (the dealer) starting with the person who last read a Jane Austen novel. The Duke/Duchess does not participate. Each player writes down on their accompanying “literary toolkit” (paper pad and pencil) what they think the slang word means, and then uses it in a sentence. The weirder and more outlandish the sentence, the better. The players submit their answers to the Duke/Duchess, who then reveals the true meaning of the word using the included pocket dictionary before moving on to read the players’ answers. The Duke/Duchess decides whose answer was the funniest, best, or weirdest to them and that player wins the round. 

The Mood Board

The Brand

The system for Bumbershoot uses a combination of modern patterns juxtaposed with Victorian-inspired typography. Bold, geometric shapes make up the series of patterns used across the game assets, and playful type sits on a rise to evoke the same lighthearted feeling as the word Bumbershoot. 

The Augmented Reality

An augmented reality function is included in Bumbershoot. Using the Artivive mobile app, the user can reveal whether a card has a bonus point they can win. Every 24 hours, a refreshed list of bonus point cards is released, which makes sure players can’t memorize which cards are winners.