Cute Design: Creative Children Product Design

By Jie Zhou

This book establishes a dialogue with excellent designers and leaders in children's product design. It gives readers an insight of children's product development and the selected design works are equipped with sketches and technical charts to provide the readers with an exquisite journey of creativity and design. This title presents:
the trend of children's product design knowledge sharing by senior designers from the industry designs from a range of international brands including Goodbaby, Chicco, Cybex, Peter Opsvik AS, and Roxi-kid 115 collected cases with sketches, technical charts and final product presentation as great reference purchase link or promotional website provided in each case to provide the readers with easy access for more information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Design Media Publishing (UK) Limited
• Release date: Apr 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838650995

Book preview

PREFACE

More than people-oriented

The design of a product should not only be human-centered itself, but also be a thinking ability that is people-oriented, while the product is a materialized expression of this ability. For many enterprises, design is the starting point to achieve commercial success. An excellent brand strategy and product design can help enterprises make a lot of money and even turn a mediocre company into a great one. The designs make our life diversified and comfortable today. They bring the technologies developing at high speed into our life, and as we are involved in one trend after another, the modern lifestyle is formed.

In the face of a business world of explosive expansion, how do designers help people find their real needs, and how do they find the connection between consumers and enterprises,or a balance point of harmony with nature... As far as I see, life can show us the way.

The idea for the world's first foldable buggy was generated in a life scene. I n 1965, Owen Maclaren, a British aeronautical mechanic, heard her daughter complain about travelling to the United States with her baby, as she had to carry several luggage bags and a heavy pushchair. The mechanic father realized his daughter needed a portable stroller that she could take on a long flight in an aeroplane. The idea led him to build the world's first 3D foldable stroller. It was a small step for Owen Maclaren, but a giant leap in the history of baby buggy, which marked the beginning of a foldable age. Since then, 'Maclaren' has become the name of a successful company, and also a synonymous for foldable stroller.

Interestingly, the invention of the world's first baby jogger also originated from an everyday scene.An American named Baechler was fond of sports in the 1980s. He thought about how to enjoy the sunshine and nature outdoor together with his baby when he was jogging. The problem is that the existing strollers could not handle the rough road conditions or the depth of his feet when he jogs.So he dismantled his bicycle and the stroller and built a 'Baby Jogger' of his own, which was highly praised by other people. The company named after 'Baby Jogger' was founded in 1984 and has become a leader in this category.

Such designs created in a casual way in fact changed our lives, because they show concern for people and eliminate inequalities. Companies have also gone through development because of these excellent designs and brand strategies,which also inject even more energy into the entire industry -- 'thanks to industrial design, the world becomes a better place and the industry is more dynamic.'

Last year, a total of 17.23 million people were born in China. And after 40 years of reform and opening up, people's disposable income is growing rapidly and consumption upgrade is taking place. China is also a major producer of infant products in the world with more than 80% of the world's infant products made in China. There are nearly 20,000 enterprises engaged in related manufacturing,OEM, ODM and OBM. Consumers also keep paying for certain brands in the hope to obtain their own identity of 'brand'. The question is: what is a'brand'?

As far as I am concerned, the core value of a brand is not determined by the enterprise itself,but comes from consumers' recognition of its products. The more a brand's products can meet consumers' inner needs, the more it can touch their hearts, so as to obtain their loyalty.

Take Pockit as an example. Goodbaby's Pockit design was a Guinness world record holder, and at the same time the winner of the Red Dot Award,iF Design Award, Chinese Patent Excellence Award and CEID. How could it be so successful? Pockit has redefined baby stroller, truly achieving the principle of 'useful, user-friendly, and something the consumers want to use'. 'Useful' is the discovery of other lifestyles. The smaller the product, the larger the activity radius, the lighter the product, the more available it can be. Keeping children's company may be the pain of parents from the last generation, because they were kept busy at work; because there is no more portable product, there are fewer chances for better 'company'. 'User-friendly' design stands for better experience, even a hint of words, a subtle reference, even the naming of a product can make a good impression – it is the pocket of Doraemon's.

Such pursuit of excellence has won the favour of global consumers for Goodbaby and a large number of loyal fans.

If we think of the parent as the active user of stroller and the baby as the passive user, then the active users of toy development are definitely the children. In the 1970s, we played with hoodle and sandbags; it was video games and toy guns in the 1980s, and online games, dodging ball in the 1990s; in the new era after 2000, children grow up with digital tablets and a new generation of toys by Disney, Barbie, Lego, kidswant and cabbage patch kids as such toy brands continue to bring fresh thinking and new driving force into the market.

Cabbage patch kids is a toy doll that needs to be adopted, which was very popular all over the U nited States in the 1980s. U nlike other dolls displayed on the shelf, they are placed in small cribs with a birth certificate. Children have to go through the adoption procedures first before taking them home. The company behind Cabbage patch kids was said to have received strong support from child psychologists, child medical experts and psychologists. These experts generally believed that the playing mode can help develop children's love for others and a sense of responsibility!

Another brand was Lego, which by far has become a highly successful adult toy, something its inventor, Ole Kirk Christiansen, could not have expected. Today, the Lego family includes more than 1,300 shapes, each available in 12 colours,and can build into an infinity of shapes. Since the 1980s, the extension product of Lego education was also created.

'Building blocks are small but they come with great power.' They help develop not only children's observation and operational skills, but curiosity, imagination, and creativity. Perhaps'playability, participation, enlighten ment,responsibility' are the common points shared by these toys. We thank these designers and entrepreneurs for their remarkable creation.

I ndeed, a good design can change people's behaviour and reflect the best state of harmonious people, things and environment. The aesthetic quality and pleasant user experience are an inseparable part of practicality, which affects our perception of happiness every day. Design changes life, and life changes design today. Time is changing, and the content is changing too. What remains the same is always a design that puts people at heart.

We are more than happy to present our own book of children's product design. We hope this book could bring more thinking to the design industry and the industry operators of maternal and child consumer products. We also expect this book can present an outlook for related enterprises.

Fu Yueming