My Target Audience

Today I focused on my target audience. My target audience is the sort of people that would actually go to a shop or websiote and decide to purchase my designer toy. I have clearly stated before that I don't want it to be children as designer toys aren't suitable for children.

When I visited the Kibrobot shop in London I asked the shopkeeper about the sorts of customers he gets in his shop. He said that, "Most of the people that come into the shop are aged between 5-30, but the only people that actually buy the toys are aged 20+." This showed me that my target audience would be people of the same age; maybe collectors or comic book fans.

The classic characters that came to mind when thinking of my audience is the gang from the Big Bang Theory.

Cast of Big Bang Theory in their
local comic book shop

Sick Day/Character Design research

Today I had to spend most of the day in bed as I was very ill. However, I didn't let this stop me from my research! To learn more about the shape of the characters that already exist within designer toys I studied a book called 'Exploring Character Design'.

Hedbpeth, Kevin & Missal, Stephen

 (2006) Exploring Character Design

This book is originally for students that are studying animation and character design. It had many interesting pages about  how the shapes of characters' heads depend of how people feel about the character.

Page 143 - The shapes of characters' heads can change people's
views of the characters' personality

Page 148 - Length, Width and Angle of characters face

My Favourite Designer Toys

So far throughout my research I have looked at many different types of designer toys. My favourite ones so far have been the Munny series. The reason I like them so much is because of their simplistic design. Their body shape is smooth and an easy shape to create. If I was to make my own designer toy it would have a similar body shape, but I would not want it to be too similar otherwise people may mistake it for a Munny.

Plain white Munny

Another genious idea from the Munny series is the DIY idea. If every person that buys a DIY Munny then paints their own design on it then that means that nearly every single Munny that is sold then becomes unique as nobody else in the world will have one just like you. I like this as it meant that Kidrobot, the company that makes Munnys, only had to create the shape of the body and the people that bought them had to do all the hard work of designing them. GENIUS!

Project Proposal Form - Draft 2

Today I worked on editing the second draft of my project proposal form. I have learnt a lot about designer toys since the last time I wrote it. Here is my new version:

STAGE 2 - 

Throughout my FMP I have decided that within my 10 weeks I am going to create a series of designer toys, packaging for them and, if I have time, some merchandise such as cards to go with them. So far in my research I have looked into many qualities that make a good designer toy including the materials used, the scale of the toys and the character designs. To help with this research I used websites such as http://www.designertoystore.co.uk/ and http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=201. These websites were great as they showed me the history of designer toys and how they are made. I have also taken some interesting books out of the library so I am gathering my information from more than one source. The books I have gathered are ‘I am plastic’ ‘Character Design’ and ‘Toys, new designs from the art toy revolution’. With all this information that I will have gathered in the first three weeks of research I plan to construct an even better set of designer toys than last time and also create some packaging to go with them that is accurately designed. As a result of my research so far I plan to carry on with finding out which material I would like to use, what size I want them to be and what shape they will be. I will carry this out by making A1 sheets of character designs to show progression of my characters, much like the ones I saw in the London Film museum. When I have figured out about the mediums I will use I then have to figure out what I want my toys to look like. I have a rough idea that I want my toys to be based on animals much like the Dunny series. However, I will need to undertake some research into different types of animals so that I know which animals or animal I want my toy to be based on. To do this I will take out animals encyclopaedias to study animal shapes, but I will also try and find some time to visit a zoo so that I can get some first hand research into animal characteristics.

STAGE 3 - Evaluation

Throughout the FMP I plan to document my work in many ways so that I always have somewhere to write down notes and reflect on my thoughts for the day. I plan to keep many sketchbooks recording all the processes that I take throughout the 10 weeks with imagery, sketches and annotation. This will be a good way of people seeing all the steps I have taken in a visual way when I show my work at the dockyards. I am also looking into the possibility of making a blog that I can update each day so that anybody can see my work from all over the world without having to look in my book. Obviously because of copyright threats online I will not put all my valuable pieces of work online. It will mainly be used for thought processes and photographs taken if I have a day out for research.   

More Book Work!

Today I decided to document some more work in my journal, including all my photographs and thoughts about my trip to London. That way I can constantly write down more ideas and even draw some character designs if I have any at this point.

People's opinions

To make sure that I was getting the best result possible for this project I asked other people's opinions to see if there were any ways to develop my project that I had not already thought of myself.

Earlier in the brief I said that I was not sure whether to carry on with the development of Rolf or I should start anew; so I asked some people in my class to see their opinions:

AMY
 'I think you should move onto something new because you could limit yourself if you stick with the same model. However, i think you should stick with the idea of making toys based on animals because they looked really good last time.' (22.02.12)

CHRISSIE 
'I think that you should move on from your character Rolf because you finished the character last time. As a result of this you cannot push him any further. If you want to progress in this project then you should start from the beginning.' (22.02.12)

My Toys

Whilst in London I bought myself some designer toys so that I could actually hold one and feel their texture instead of just looking at photographs.

I bought myself a Dunny and a Smorkin' Labbit toy. I felt these would be good toys to have because they are some of the most well known of all designer toys.

Dunny - Aztecca 2 series

Dunny Minigod

This was the Dunny toy that I recieved from the Kidrobot shop. I liked this particular toy because of the funky looking design on it. I was quite lucky to get this one because when you buy a designer toy it is a lucky dip and you don't know which one you will get until you open it.

The feel of the designer toy was very smooth and the colouring on it didn't feel anything like the paint that I used on my last designer toy. This toy had been mass produced and coloured with a machine. I would love to be able to have colour printed onto my designer toy because last time the paint made them very sticky to touch, even after they had dried.

London Trip

Today me and some of my friends took a trip up to London to help with our research. I found this day very helpful and I actually found more information than I was hoping to.

Firstly, one of my friends needed to visit the London Film Museum at London Southbank. I wasn't sure about this as I initially felt it would have nothing to do with my idea of Designer Toys. However, I found some very interesting models, toys and information that could all link into my work.

Figurine of the 'Turds'

A1 Character Design Sheet

There was an animation room in the film museum which had a lot of models and figurines of characters in cartoons. Some of the models were also collectibles like the 'Turds'. I also found some very interesting character design sheets that would be a great way for me to show my own character designs when making my own toy.

 Many of the superhero figurines that I saw in the museum were counted as toys when they first came out in the 1940's, but they are now counted as designer toys because of their age and value if they aren't damaged.

Character Figurines (collectible)

Later that day I visited some proffesional Designer Toy shops called Orbital and Kidrobot. I found these shops very interesting as it proved the point that not all toys are for children.

Orbital

Japanese Designer Toy

Kidrobot

Merchandise related to the toys

Big statues of the toys in the window

The kidrobot shop was the most helpful place that I visited while up London. It sells proffesional, mass-produced designer toys and was amazing to look around! I noticed that it wasn't only Designer toys they sold; they also sold merchandise related to the toys such as hats, hoodies, t-shirts and shoes. 

Since I was there I bought myself 2 designer toys. One was called a Dunny and the other was called a Smorkin' Labbit. However, before you buy them they are all sealed in their unique packaging and you don't get to see what toy you get until you buy it.. Sort of like a Lucky Dip! 

Research - Materials

Today was another fun day of research...
I started the day by looking at all the different types of designer toys available (the I am Plastic book really helped) The amount of information that i gathered about designer toys was brilliant! I didn't realise how many different properties there are to making a successful designer toy.

Materials
The first bit of research I did was looking into the different materials that designer toys are made of:

Vinyl 

 House of Liu

Fabric

Cactus friends plush

Plastic

Broken heart Robot

Mixed Mediums

Dunny with vinyl, wood, fabric and fake fur

Research - DIY toys

Whilst researching into some famous designer toys i noticed that a lot of them are known as 'DIY toys'. These are a set of designer toys that are sold with no colour of pattern on them. This allows the person who bought it to paint it however they want. These designer toys are particularly popular with artists (like me) as the toy then becomes unique unlike the others that are all mass produced.

Munnys and Dunnys

Sold in Black, White and Glow in the dark

Teddy Troops

Come with a removable hat

Qees

Come in different animals shapes unlike the previous designer toys

Research - Scale

The next form of research I did into designer toys was the scale that they are built. From my previous project I created 3 designer toys at the scale of 4". After looking into some professionally made toys I noticed that most of them are between 3" and 5".

Munnys - 7"

Superman Munny

Mini Mayhem Bears - 4"

Jason the Mini Mayhem bear

Yoka World Cup Bears - 4"

Designs based on countries' flags

Cactus friends - 3"/5"

Cactus friends in both sizes

As my last set of designer toys were so successful I wish to carry on with the size I used last time. My final set of designer toys will be 4"/5" tall.

Research

Day one of my research went very well. After finding out that I am interested in designing my own designer toy I started searching on the internet for all sorts of toys that interested me.

Author - Paul Budnitz

To help me with my research I borrowed a book from the library called 'I am plastic'. This book was brilliant because of the colourful pictures and the artist that created all of the toys. This will thoroughly help me throughout the next 6/7 weeks.

Week 2

Ugly Doll Designer Toy

Today is the second week of my final major project and I am going to be using the next 3 weeks for research into designer toys and what I want to produce throughout the next 6/7 weeks.

To begin my project I looked into previous projects that I really enjoyed. My favourite piece of work that I previously made in Vis Com was a set of designer toys based on the title 'Multiple As Identity'. I liked the processes I had to take and the amount of research I did to make them look really successful. As a result of this I want to develop this further and make an even better designer toy than last time! I am going to strart my FMP by researching into brands of designer toys and see what I like and how I could interpret this information into my own work.

Rolf

Rolf was the designer toy that i created in the 'Multiple as Identity' project.

I felt that he was very successful and it took a long time for me to create the right shape of his body. A lot of my friends liked the toy and they all said that they would like one if they were sold in shops. I was very happy with this!

First version of Rolf 

Reindeer Rolf

Tiger Rolf

Toucan Rolf

However, I do not know at the moment whether I should carry on with the development of Rolf or to create a whole new set of designer toys. Decisions decisions...

Starting my FMP - The Dockyards

To start off our FMP we were all set the task of travelling to Chatham Dockyards, as this is where we will all display our work at the end of the 10 weeks.

Whilst I was there I took many pictures of the empty display room. From this I could later analyse the photos and imagine how I would set up my work in the space I will be provided with.

Judgement Day

I had to go back into uni today for feedback on my stage 2 work and previous projects. I was very pleased as I passed everything and am now able to start working on my project proposal form for my FMP. The project proposal form will list my possible ideas for my FMP and the processes that I will take to achieve my final piece.

Project Proposal Form: 


STAGE 1 - For my final major project I am interested in carrying on with the research and development of my own designer toy. In section 2 of my foundation course I undertook a project called ‘Multiple as Identity’. I started the project by looking into some artists recommended by my tutors. An artist called Sebastian Millon and a company called Kidrobot really interested me because of their light humour and bright eye catching colours. I learnt that the making of a designer toy includes a lot more than the toy itself; there is advertisement, packaging and information about the toy that is important for buyers. By the end of the project I had created my own brand of designer toys based on the work of the artists I researched and made 4 models made from a mixture of different materials. However, as the project was only 3 weeks I was unable to create anything more than the toys. As a result of this in my FMP I would like to increase my understanding into the production of designer toys and hopefully create my own along with packaging and merchandise to go with it.


STAGE 2 -  Throughout my FMP I would like to produce my own brand of designer toys using my previous project as the base of my design. My designer toy, ROLF, will hopefully be the main character as I felt he was a very strong character design and shape. During the 9 weeks I would like to research into professional theories of characters designs to see if I can improve my ROLF in any way, such as the length of the arms, shape of the head and positioning of the eyes, as this can instantly change people’s opinions on what the character is like. I am also going to visit the Kidrobot shop up London to get some primary research and buy a number of the designer toys I would have researched into. One of the main inspirations of my previous designer toy was Qees. As a result of this I would like to somehow contact the manufacturer of this toy and see if they can give me any important information when making my own designer toy, such as packaging designs and merchandise to go with it. Towards the end of the project I would like to have created everything that you see with professional designer toys including merchandise, packaging, logos and the actual designer toy. I will use each week to work on these final pieces and bring them together at the end of the 9 weeks to create my own brand of designer toy.

Today I printed all the information and the brief for the FMP off of www.MyUCA.co.uk
This was very helpful as it gave me a step by step guide of what i should try to achieve over the next 10 weeks.

Tomorrow is judgement day.. I will find out whether I passed stage 2 of my foundation diploma. IF I DO NOT PASS I CANNOT START MY FMP!!!

Starting My FMP

Today I am starting my Final major project. I am very excited about this as I already have a rough idea of what I would like to do.
The idea behind the FMP is to have 10 weeks to produce a series of works or a single piece that sums up the entire thought process, along with research and evidence of practices kept within a sketchbook or blog. I am going to record my thought processes within this blog but also keep track in a sketchbook so that I can refer back to them if I struggle later in the project.