Marcello Morandini

What are the essential elements required in a pack of 52 cards? Four suits of 13 cards, each readily identifiable? Yes. Suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades? Not necessarily. Two red suits and two black suits? Not necessarily. Indices? Not necessarily. Strip away the non-essential elements and what are you left with? Four suits, each in a different colour (red, blue, green and yellow), with an appropriate number of lines or bars representing each numeral card, and no indices in the corners. For the King, Queen and Jack, a square, two large rectangles, and three slightly smaller rectangles, respectively. For the Joker(s), a simple circle.

That it is exactly what you will find in this pack designed by Italian artist Marcello Morandini (b. 1940). Morandini’s visual style involves assembling repetitive simple forms, as here. For him, form is more important than superficial aesthetics. Morandini began working as a graphic artist, later becoming an architect and sculptor.

Above: plastic cards with modern abstract designs by Marcello Morandini. Published by Peter Pfeiffer, Milan, Italy. Printed by Plastic Cards, Milan, Italy, 1973. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in tuck box. Size: 60 x 100 mm.

The cards themselves are all plastic. The first edition appeared in 1973 in a numbered edition of 1,000 packs. See the box►

Note: I have two of these packs in my collection. In one, the Jokers are red and blue; in the other, they are green and yellow. The capital ‘M’s on Morandini's signature (on the box) have also been simplified into straight lines.