A child is excited over the display of a toy that makes plaster impressions of their findings.

cjeudy

My Finds Diorama; A Spinmaster Project

For one of my courses, my class was given a project brief from Spinmaster, the toy company, to design them an activity toy. I created My Finds Diarama, an activity toy that creates plaster plates with relief dioramas shaped by the impressions of objects that a kid would collect.

The advertisement I created to pitch to Spinmaster

Initial Research

Starting off. I wanted to explore what kind of activity might be fun for a kid. I thought back to my own childhood, and did research on parenting blogs for what parents want their kids to be playing with.

A child has various craft materials splayed out on a table.
https://www.todaysparent.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/lockdown-or-not-im-never-doing-crafts-with-my-kids-again-1280×720-766×431.jpg
A child is holding up dried starfishes to the camera.
https://www.babycenter.com/ims/2015/05/iStock_24366986_wide.jpg.pagespeed.ce.OJgp-8BL1w.jpg
http://dwblog.melissaanddoug.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/offset_comp_701482-1024×683.jpg

I learned that collecting various objects was a common thing to do when exploring outside. Playing outside is also something I saw many parent blogs encourage.
I wondered then how could these random collections of objects be remembered without filling up junk drawers or going into the trash without a trace

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/plaster-cast-flower-fossils-rachel-dein-1.jpg

I figured plaster casting impressions would be a good method. It encourages arts and crafts, as well as provides a way to preserve collected objects in case they cannot be kept for long.

Plaster has the added benefit in that it can be painted very easily with watercolours, adding another layer of arts to the activity toy.

Development

I now needed to design this activity toy.
I started by learning ways to streamline the activity for kids.
This led into a few key points:

  • A reusable putty should be used to make the impressions for the casts
  • A way to cleanly reset the putty needs to be implemented
  • Cups with the ideal ratio of plaster : water
A showcase of putty and its casting capabilities
https://thebluebottletree.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1-putty-1024×682.jpg
A series of measuring cups
https://thebluebottletree.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1-putty-1024×682.jpg

After various sketches, I landed on this design:

A sketch of a toy that makes plaster impressions, and a plaster impression next to it.
First shown design
A showing of the early designed toy would be used. An arm is pressing down on a lever, and another arm is making impressions into putty.
The shown process of how the toy would be used in the early design

Further Development

I showed this design and my rough pitch to designers at Spinmaster. I took their feedback to heart and came with some takeaways:

  • Show how the toy is used
  • Provide all the initial materials for the activity (e.g paints)
  • The design of the toy should be simple & straightforward
  • Show the toy’s precedence & competition

With this I continued to develop my toy. I realized the mechanical advantage should not be needed with the right type of putty. A stamp would do the job. I also made the wall removable as to allow for more dynamic dioramas and larger objects.
I double checked my research on precedence of plaster cast toys, and did find more than I had initially found. But none that were quite like my design.

A smithsonian toy about excavating toy fossils and gems from a rock.
A fossil excavation toy
A collection of plaster casted figurines of Peppa the Pig with a collection of paints in front.
A Peppa Pig figurine painting toy
A toy for pressing flowers.
A toy to press flowers
Toy plaster figurines of unicorns. A collection of paints next to them.
A unicorn figurine painting toy
A box set of various "plaster experiments"
A collection of plaster experiments
A collection of shovels and buckets to play in the sand with.
Toys for playing in the sand

I had to redesign my toy to fit the takeaways and new ideas I had in mind. As such I made this design:

A toy with a wall, stamp, and base in a stack. A clear cup, and a measuring cup.
The revised design of the toy.
A list of parts and a showcase of them in orthographic view.
The list of parts of my toy.

I also reworked the way that I presented my toy. Showing the process of how it would be used.

Final Reaction

I presented my new toy design to the designers at Spinmaster once again. They gave me some more feedback about what they would have hoped to see in my diagrams as well as the toy itself. Though it was an improvement and they were happy to see my design. They left me with these takeaways:

  • More diagrams explaining the toy further
  • Show more in-situ shots

I had my own reaction and wishes with this project.
If I had more time to work on this project these are some of the things I wish I could have done and improved upon:

  • Improve the rendering of the toy to make in-situ shots possible
  • Test the toy with an actual kid
  • Get feedback of the toy from kids and their parents
  • Redo the advertisement to be cleaner and more professional.
  • Specify the materials of the toy; what kind of putty, plastic, plaster, etc.
  • Show possible places to source off-the-shelf parts to the toy

Overall though, I am fairly proud of what I had managed to make and design, it is a stepping stone in my learning experience.

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by

Cedjy
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