The project began in 2012 when Digital Abstracts, a Barcelona-based design platform active since 2000, gathered 54 international artists to create a collaborative deck of playing cards. The first Kickstarter campaign launched in 2013 and was funded in under an hour, raising over 6x its goal with 1,000+ backers. Since then, Playing Arts has grown into eight editions, four successful Kickstarter campaigns, and a community of over 1,000 artists from 90 countries.