Occasionally, sharing a piece of work you’re proud of on the internet can lead to good things (not just other people stealing your creation) as Brazilian graphic designer Warleson Oliveira discovered when Mattel reached out to turn his gorgeous, minimalist UNO deck design into an actual product.
Oliveira originally shared his UNO redesign, which he calls Versão Minimalista (Version Minimalista) on Adobe’s Behance platform in early January, where it quickly spread across the internet with many fans of the design expressing interest in buying a copy for themselves. Not wanting to incur the litigious wrath of one of the largest toy companies on earth Oliveira understandably had no plans to sell his creation as an unofficial UNO product, so Mattel stepped in and decided to officially put it into production.
Mattel has been expanding the UNO line in recent years, including a version supporting Braille allowing those with visual impairments to finally enjoy the game as well. The decision to put a fan’s design into production is reminiscent of a similar move Hasbro made years ago when it worked with a company called Winning Solutions to make Andrew Capener’s lovely typography-focused Scrabble game a real product, although sadly that version appears to be no longer available.
But UNO Minimalista will soon be for about $15, and it should be easy to spot on store shelves with its equally sleek packaging featuring a streamlined and cleaner version of the UNO logo.