Plastic Fantastic: Introduction

The aim of this project is to design and develop a plastic toy that is educational, engaging and innovative. Whilst the word “toy” usually creates ideas of children playing, adults can also benefit from their use, especially if they are designed to educate. The target market is therefore left open for me to decide.

 After reading the design brief that I was given, I began researching plastics and the way their properties can benefit products and the ways they are manufactured. I also looked at existing educational toys and created a mood board, made up of images of them, in order to gain inspiration. After arranging the various images, I soon recognised some reoccurring styles that were common across the market. These products usually came in the form of a construction toy, a competitive game, a puzzle or something with moving parts that allowed a process to occur during use. The ones aimed at children made use of bright colours and fairly simple yet interesting looking shapes.

I then created a mind map to organise my ideas regarding the theme and style of the product I was to design, using my mood board as a guideline. This allowed me to think about each aspect of the themes and then evaluate them, deciding which would be good ideas. I made another mind map to organise all my research regarding plastics and their benefits.

As toys are most commonly aimed at children, the market is saturated and thinking of a fresh, innovative idea that would be educational and engaging at the same time was incredibly difficult. After a quick Google search of any ideas I had, I soon realised that there were many similar products already out there. It became apparent that if I was to develop an idea similar to an existing product, I would have to work out its weaknesses and improve on the idea effectively or take the idea in a new direction. The market for educational toys aimed at adults is much sparser and so I decided that this is the route I would take as I would have a much better chance of creating something that hadn’t been done before. It would therefore be easier to create a concept that was educational, engaging and innovative.

Using my own experience as inspiration, I thought about things I would like to gain a better understanding of and skills I would like to develop. As an amateur music producer and keyboard player, I immediately thought of music theory. Learning an instrument and the theory behind the music can appear overwhelming and complicated to someone with no past experience of the subject, especially if they decide to take up the hobby later in life. For this reason, many individuals may be put off from starting, despite often wishing they could play along to their favourite songs. For this reason, I have decided to develop a toy that will help adults to independently learn how to play a musical instrument as well as understanding music theory.