New Nerf Toys in Mcdonld's UK

A range of wearable/active play  inspired Nerf toys out now. It was an interesting program to work on and avoid many pitfalls of  'perceived gun' , safety hazards and achieve a gender neutral appeal... phew.

I was told, colleague's little girl hid her toy from her sibling to keep it all to herself   > . <  That really made me smile

Orienteering Sports Top Design

I've been asked kindly by guys at the orienteering sports club, Klaipeda, to design their sports wear top. It was an interesting challenge as it's not the usual design project.

I tried to bring some edgy aesthetics and 'sculpt' the look of the shirt so it accentuates athletic aesthetics. It had to be conservative enough to be appreciate by the young and old alike :]

Brand Inspired Wash Bag Design

An exercise for fun.

Modern Retro Trend Inspired Product Designs

Pantone Colour of the Year 2016 Inspired Product Designs

Mcdonalds Happy Creativity Toys

I'd like to share about another set of toys that got out today in French McDonald Restaurants. I was fortunate to lead this project, working together with lovely Molly.

The Theme of the set is creativity and individual customization, using Happy as the main character. In the set you have Happy Canvas that can be drawn on with a pencil; A pencil holder cannon; A Secret Keepsakes that can be customized with sticker decoration and Happy Frame with changeable expressions.

My favorite is the vinyl toy-like Happy Canvas :]

Many thanks for stopping by!

Transformers Figurines for Nestle

  

I'd like to share another  range of toys that I had worked on. Transformers: Robots in Disguise,  for Nestle Cereals.  This particular one was really fun to work on because we were allowed to stylize the looks of original characters: SuperD (super-deformed) transformers that light up once held in front of the light!

And here is the visual from the animation itself, that Hasbro released earlier this year:

How To Train Your Dragon 2 Toys

How to Train your Dragon 2 is an exciting film ! The winning designs were the gliders that offered that similar exciting experience. I mean , who didn't get in trouble in their childhood for having too much fun throwing paper planes in the classroom? :D
Working on these toys, about 2 years ago I was learning the ropes of toy design pipeline with this project:  visualizing concepts as well as representing them professionally, creating production artwork (sticker sheets and pictograms for how to use the toy); revising prototypes with redline drawings etc. etc.
I remember the engineering team doing their absolute best to find the perfect balance between the weight of the plastic and shape of paper wings to make it fly with confidence. Very rewarding when it all worked out well in the end.

Rio 2 Toys

Just realized that these birdeys have been released to the markets and I can finally share with you the designs ! (:] They have a very special place in my heart, these toys. 2 and a half years ago it was my first program I worked on for Nestle CPW at The Marketing Store.

At the time all we had was a couple of lines of script on what's gonna happen in the film and a small (very pixelated) drawn designs of the little frog character. I personally love these little whistle figurines..

Smartphone Sound Booster

Carlsberg asked to come up with some cool products for their 'Born to be Chilled' campaign. Out of the range, I've worked on the sound amplifier design . We nick-named it The Slipper :D . There were other designs suggested, such as some cool faceted amplifiers, which I thought looked more cool... But oh well, I guess :]

Generally the product is compatible with most smart devices and does actually boost the sound :D I saw some colleagues around the building doing some little work , their phones playing loud music with the help of this little fella :]

The benefit of silicone material is that the sound bounces around a little bit softer  in the chamber. With hard plastic chamber the sound would have a really tight and sharp quality to it.

It was distributed in ASDA stores at the beginning of summer (sorry, I'm a bit late to share this  design here :/ ) .

Guinness World Record Toys for Mcdonalds' Happy Meal

Something I've worked on that I can finally share with the world (only after 2 years of when it was originally worked on  :D). This should be quite a fun range, cause one's supposed to break Guinness World records playing with each item :] 

Take on record breaking challenges here!

Bicycle Boards

Cycling to work everyday made me  appreciate bicycles. I  find myself wondering about cycling in general. I suppose that's where the inspiration for this product comes from (and from here).

A though of a new type of ad boards, suited particularly to bicycle frames.  It could serve for advertisement carried out by individuals (cyclists) and not by fat agencies. And you would probably want to promote something meaningful and relevant to you, like social ads or self-promotion...

Pushing and Pulling

The image shows one door in two sides of entering and exiting. If the job is done well, it should be easy to tell which one to push and which one to pull

Push the left one and pull the right one :]

 I wanted to give it a go designing 'user-friendly' yet aesthetic doors.

The rectangles are positioned in a triangular shape to helps direct the user towards the side they need to use (towards the handles) . Also, on the side one is supposed to pull, the rectangle protrudes slightly.

A rather great book helping me to get my head around it is The Design of Everyday Things  (author worked as an adviser for early Apple) .  It analyses  both poor and great designs of everyday objects focusing on user experience .

 It has been a mind-opener for me, with a kind of key message: when having trouble using a product/object (be it phone,  DVD player, doors etc.) users tend to blame their clumsiness when in fact it's the fault of design.  On the other hand if the use is effortless and intuitive, doesn't require explanation it is yet again because of the design!