What to know
Toronto artist Alina Sloan is creating a 52-card deck inspired by the city’s most iconic buildings, with 27 designs completed so far.
Her background in architectural engineering from the University of Waterloo informs the detailed illustrations and storytelling behind each structure.
The project has gained traction online, with Sloan taking community suggestions and aiming to launch the full deck for sale this fall.
From the Rogers Centre to OCAD’s Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design, Toronto’s iconic skyline is filled with remarkable architecture wonders, and one artist is transforming some of the city’s most well-known sites into a creative deck of cards.
Before deciding to turn her lifelong interest in art into her work, Toronto resident Alina Sloan graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in architectural engineering in 2024. After a few months working in the field, she realized the industry was not for her, but she still found a way to incorporate her degree into her artistic endeavors.
Last fall, Sloan decided to develop a deck of cards based on Toronto’s architecture, with each card on the deck featuring one of the city’s most iconic buildings.
“I was sort of brainstorming what the cards would be, and I was like, ‘This would be really cool,’ because I love architecture. And then I could learn more about the city that I moved to…and really connect with people about what they like about the city, and learn more about the history,” she explained.
For each new card, the artist looks for online images of the buildings from different angles and makes a first sketch of how she wants them to look before drawing and colouring the final product. She also shares her process of making them online, while diving into the history of each building.
@artbyalena.co toronto playing card #20 – Roy Thomson Hall🎻 I can’t believe we’re already at 20 cards!! I am hoping to have the cards on sale by Fall 2026 🙂↕️ Let me know what building you want to see next! #toronto #torontoartist #torontoarchitecture ♬ original sound – Alena 🃏 Toronto Artist🇨🇦
Since she started the project last October, Sloan has completed 27 out of 52 cards on the deck, and says she is planning to finish them all by sometime this fall.
“’I’ll be designing the back of the cards as well, which has been sort of just brewing in my mind for the past three, four months, because I don’t have a clear vision of what I’m going to do yet,” she added.
From all of the buildings she has featured so far, the artist reveals her favourites are the Rogers Centre, formerly known as SkyDome, the Cube House in Don Valley Parkway, The Royal Conservatory of Music, and OCAD’s Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design.
While most of the buildings were chosen at her own discretion, since she started sharing the project online, she has also taken requests from a few viewers and historians who reached out to share more about what’s behind each structure.
“I’m gonna have to get a little bit more picky going forward, just to make sure I sort of round out the deck to what I want it to be. But for now, I have a good list going. But trying to balance what is commercially Toronto and what is what the locals love about Toronto has been [tricky]. I’m gonna have to learn how to balance that,” she said.
Sloan says she hopes to put the complete deck up for sale in the fall, which will be available at her website and possibly in some Toronto local stores, as some have reached out to her with an interest to sell them.
Besides the cards, the artist also works by creating commission pieces, some of which are also Toronto inspired, including prints and stickers.
Moving forward, she also plans on creating vintage-style art and postcards featuring the city, which she says could be a great addition during events like the upcoming World Cup.
“I just went to the Olympics with my family in Milan, and there was so much art, and I love the graphic style of old, vintage-style art and postcards that I got from there. And I want to do that for Toronto, especially with the World Cup coming up,” she added.
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Sloan will keep sharing her progress with the Toronto-inspired deck and other art pieces on social media.