There’s something wonderfully nostalgic about opening a pack of trading cards.
You never quite know what you’re going to get.
Kento is taking that feeling and applying it to something a little different: digital art.
The new Kento Season 01 collection has just launched on Kickstarter, bringing together 117 physical art cards from 40 digital artists, all wrapped around a theme that feels particularly familiar to anyone who remembers the early web: Web Nostalgia.
Think old computer graphics, forums, chat rooms, loading screens, pixel graphics and that wonderfully chaotic period when the internet still felt like a place you were discovering rather than something that simply followed you everywhere.
And that’s a pretty great theme for a card collection.
These aren’t just digital images printed onto cards
Kento’s cards are physical collectibles, sized like traditional trading cards at 63 × 88mm.
Each booster contains five cards, with seven different rarity levels ranging from Common all the way up to Grail. Across the first season there are 111 cards available through booster packs, alongside six Kickstarter-exclusive promo cards.
The cards themselves have been designed to feel like proper collectibles, too, with matte finishes and, depending on the artwork and rarity, features such as foil stamping and holographic effects. (Kickstarter)
But there’s a clever twist on the back.
Every card has a QR code.
Scan it with your iPhone and you’re taken back to the original digital artwork — something that’s particularly important here because some of the pieces aren’t static images at all. Kento’s collection includes animation, generative art, 3D work and other digital formats that obviously can’t be reproduced on a piece of card.
You can also choose to claim the associated digital artwork, although Kento says that’s completely optional.
You can simply collect the cards.
And honestly, I like that.
I really want an iPhone app for this
This is where I think Bento could become something even more interesting.
There isn’t currently a dedicated Kento iOS app announced, but the team has said they’re considering creating a Pokédex-like experience where you can browse the artworks and artist profiles. (Kickstarter)
I’d love to see this become an actual iPhone app.
Imagine opening Kento on your iPhone and seeing your entire collection laid out like a digital card album.
Cards you’ve collected could be marked as owned.
Duplicates could be tracked.
Missing cards could show up as silhouettes.
Tap a card and you could see the physical artwork, its rarity, the artist and the original digital work.
Then scan the QR code on a new card and watch it instantly appear in your collection.
It could turn Kento from a box of beautiful cards into a genuinely satisfying collecting system.
And it would make so much sense on iPhone
Apple has spent years making the iPhone a brilliant little camera, scanner and window into the digital world. Kento’s physical-digital approach feels almost tailor-made for it.
It’s also a little bit App Store-era.
Perhaps that’s why this project caught my attention.
Kento’s Web Nostalgia theme taps into the same feeling I get from looking at the early App Store.
Back then, discovering something new felt exciting.
You’d browse screenshots, download an app you’d never heard of, and suddenly there was this little piece of someone else’s creativity sitting on your iPhone.
Kento is playing with a similar idea.
Instead of downloading something, you’re opening a booster pack.
Instead of an app icon appearing on your Home Screen, a physical card appears in your collection.
And instead of the story ending when you put the card back in its sleeve, the QR code takes you back into the digital artwork.
It’s a really nice bridge between the physical and digital worlds.
The artwork is the real reason to collect
Kento isn’t a trading card game — at least not currently.
The creators describe it as a collectible art project rather than a TCG, with the cards intended to be collected, traded and displayed.
The first season brings together artists working across illustration, digital painting, generative art, glitch art, GIFs, interactive art, AR, AI-assisted art and multimedia. (Kickstarter)
That gives the collection a very different character from something like Pokémon.
You’re not collecting characters because you want to play a game.
You’re collecting pieces of digital culture.
And that’s what makes the idea particularly interesting to me.
We’ve spent years moving more and more of our collections into the cloud. Kento feels like a small rebellion against that.
Something you can actually hold.
Something you can put in a binder.
Something you can trade with someone.
And then, when you want to see what that tiny piece of card represents, you can pick up your iPhone and scan it.
That’s a pretty compelling combination.
Now I just want the Kento app.
The bigger idea
Kento is interesting because it brings something physical back to digital art.
The iPhone app would complete that idea.
It would give every physical card a digital home, while giving the digital artwork a physical starting point.
You could open a booster pack, scan a card, discover an artist, view an animation, add a duplicate to your collection and slowly build a history that exists in both worlds.
That’s what makes the concept so appealing.
The Kento app, if we ever get one, shouldn’t feel like a database.
It should feel like opening a digital binder.
A little gallery.
A Pokédex for digital art.
And a nostalgic corner of the iPhone that makes collecting cards feel exciting — again.