Jacks, queens and kings - these are the familiar images in card games.

And that's exactly what bothered Jana Fischer, Samantha Schwickert and Carolin Bach.

The students from Kiel founded the Spielköpfe - Schwickert, Bach and Fischer GbR.

"The normal game doesn't depict our society at all," explains Jana Fischer.

The playing heads produce playing cards with gender-appropriate and variedly revised representations of boys, queens and kings.

The number cards have been preserved, which is why you can play with a deck as normal.

The specialty of the cards is that there are also queens.

The figures look very different, including people with disabilities and non-binary people.

For an appreciative approach

The play heads stand for a non-discriminatory visual language, an appreciative approach and an open society.

"Spielköpfe is the first diverse and gender-sensitive deck of cards," says Jana Fischer.

They supported four artists in realizing the images.

Workshops are also offered on topics from the areas of discrimination in everyday life, sexism, racism and privilege, for example "Women in founding" and "The female cycle".

The three founders also designed a free app for the card game Solitaire.

"We really want to address everyone, regardless of gender, age or external appearance," says Fischer.

The company emerged from a project management course at the University of Kiel in October 2018. The three students studied social structures in their master’s degree in “Sustainability, Society and the Environment”.

Why are all white?

Samantha Schwickert got the idea while playing cards.

She wondered why everyone in the game looks the same, why everyone is white, and why the king, the highest position, is male.

The students want to contribute something positive to society with their playful heads.

They opted for playing cards because, according to Fischer, they are "an easy tool to reach many people in different situations in a playful way".

In this way, attention is drawn to discrimination, racism and sexism not only in an academic context, but also in an easily accessible, playful way. The customers mainly come from the socio-ecological milieu, says Fischer.

More than a university project

“It's now much more than just a university project,” she says.

The first card games could be bought in autumn 2019.

The complete deck and the double-headed deck each cost 12 euros, the rummy deck 22 euros.

Initially, they financed the first print runs of the cards through small competitions and two crowdfunding campaigns, but now the revenues are sufficient.

One draws attention to the game heads especially in the social media as well as through the sale in unpackaged shops and in bookstores in Kiel, Berlin, Hanover and Stuttgart.

So far, around 8,000 games have been sold and more than 100 people have been reached with the workshops.

The three women currently sell 320 to 350 games per month.

They would like to position themselves internationally.

Because the outdated deck of cards is played all over the world.

The article comes from the school project “Youth and Economy”, which the FAZ organizes together with the Association of German Banks.