The World In My Eyes
Knowing precisely what your baby needs to satisfy it's daily developmental needs is no easy task, especially when considering the multitude of things they need to learn and moreover the overwhelming choice of products that are available . In simple terms, a parent's role is to deliver the right type and amount of stimulus that baby can pick and choose from. The toy designer's role is to not only wrap up this stimulus in a toy, but moreover to facilitate the selection process for Mum through designs that efficiently communicate their developmental content.
There are many theories such as The Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner, Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development and The Development Stages of Erik Ericson that group developmental psychology into easily manageable chunks. Many toy brands have attempted to reinterpret these theories into digestable marketing guides that Mum can use to select the right product for her baby. Despite being based on sound scientific research, these guides often don't take into consideration more down to earth factors that have more influence on Mum's choices:
When working with Chicco we placed great importance in product semiotics, or in other terms a product's ability to induce specific positive associations through the use of iconic symbols in it's styling. Classic toys are extremely efficacious mediums for communicating developmental content because they are 'iconic hooks' that consumers automatically recognize and associate with positive experiences (hence the redesign of the Mini and the Fiat 500) . So when Chicco asked us to create a line of toys we suggested redesigning some of their historical best sellers whilst significantly improving the quantity and quality of the play features.
There are many theories such as The Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner, Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development and The Development Stages of Erik Ericson that group developmental psychology into easily manageable chunks. Many toy brands have attempted to reinterpret these theories into digestable marketing guides that Mum can use to select the right product for her baby. Despite being based on sound scientific research, these guides often don't take into consideration more down to earth factors that have more influence on Mum's choices:
When working with Chicco we placed great importance in product semiotics, or in other terms a product's ability to induce specific positive associations through the use of iconic symbols in it's styling. Classic toys are extremely efficacious mediums for communicating developmental content because they are 'iconic hooks' that consumers automatically recognize and associate with positive experiences (hence the redesign of the Mini and the Fiat 500) . So when Chicco asked us to create a line of toys we suggested redesigning some of their historical best sellers whilst significantly improving the quantity and quality of the play features.