Ekaterina Tomilov
COLICONE
3RD YEAR GROUP PROJECT | 1 MONTH PROJECT
Construction set for children ages 2-4
by Amy Mungham & Ekaterina Tomilov
Construction Toy Design | Sustainable Design | Life-Cycle Considerations
Design Brief​
Design a construction toy for the preschool demographic with a focus on child capabilities and market appeal.
Personal challenge of making the toy from sustainable materials and gender neutral.
Through research we discovered children ages 2-4 undergo rapid growth:
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Development of fine motor skills
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Engaging in exploration through play​
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Research: Market
Industry Solutions
Existing solutions to preschool toys include:
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Simple interactive toys
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Generous sized toys to prevent chocking; don't break into small pieces
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Toys incorporate round edges and corners
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Focusing on one material in the sustainable toys section
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Opportunity:
There is a growing market for sustainable, gender neutral toys for this group age
Initial Ideation
As a team of 2 we split to develop different sustainable and gender neutral concepts:
Mine was Animal Construction and my group member's was Creative Construction Set (COLICONE)
My role was to do the renderings for all concepts
Animal Construction Concept
Creative Construction Set
The creative construction set was chosen to be developed further as there was more play pattern variability
Our main problem from the 1st concept was limited play patterns
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Design a creative construction set which allow to engage in multiple paly patterns with the incorporation of multiple materials with different characteristics - leading to exploration play
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My role was to do clay prototypes to test initial concept and further develop it with the team
Concept Development
Initial triangular door frame shape limited play patterns, decided to change it into a semi circle to allow balancing play
Added wheels to allow vehicle making with rods and other stockers
Having the holes on the side of the stockers created imbalance, we changed the alignment to the center as well as added more holes to allow explorative play
Decided to stay with the small sized rods to allow more holes per piece, as well as giving better differentiation between the materials
Final Concept
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