Mattel turns a graphic designer’s minimalist UNO concept into a game you can buy

If you need any encouragement to share your work online, then the turn of events experienced by a young Brazilian designer might inspire you.

Last month, Warleson Oliveira shared a minimalist redesign of the card game UNO on Adobe’s Behance platform. The concept, which he calls Versão Minimalista, has a stripped-down logo, simplified symbols, and a tasteful dark background on the reverse of the cards as well as on the packaging.

The personal project proved very popular on social media, with designers around the world expressing their interest in buying the deck. One passionate fan even started a Change.org petition to garner support for the project and bring it to the attention of Mattel, which manufactures the game.

And it worked. “You asked for it, you got it,” announced a tweet from the official UNO account on Saturday, while Mattel’s own account tweeted an image of the produced cards on display at the New York Toy Fair (below).

Many different themes and versions of UNO have been released over the years, including a version in 2017 called UNO ColorADD, which is the first card game designed specifically for those suffering from colour blindness. More recently, Mattel has revealed a deck celebrating the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which features the Games’ mascot, “Miraitowa”.

So it almost comes as no surprise that the company was willing to release yet another variation of its much-loved card game. I would argue, though, that this deck has a touch more class than the majority of those in Mattel’s range, which are mostly tie-ins for films and television series.

See? Sharing your work can lead to great things, and I hope that Oliveira was properly remunerated for his work. Details are still scarce on exactly when and where UNO Minimalista will be available, with the UNO Twitter account simply replying to eager tweets with “stay tuned this summer”.