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, such as Qees. 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 (merchandise). 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.
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Section
2: Project concept
Now
that I know I’m going to make a series of products based on designer toys I
have to find out what they will look like, feel like, be made of and what
packaging it will have. 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 looked at a book called ‘I am plastic too’ and ‘Toys, new
designs from the art toy revolution’, which showed me many different types of
designer toys. This allowed me to find out the toys’ size, material and
companies who make them. ‘Character Design’ was a book that showed me how
artists think when creating a new character for an animation. It taught me
how the shape of characters’ heads can depend on the characters’ personality.
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 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. However, I also need to consider the
realism within the toy. Since I am thinking of basing it on a type of animal
I need to think about giving it human qualities and the ability to stand on
two feet. I will even look into Greek myths and how they told stories of
animals with more than one type of body part, as I will want to experiment in
making my own creature as well as looking at existing creatures.
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Section
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. To constantly get peoples’ opinions of my work
I will also have peer group assessments which will allow people to tell me
what they think I should improve on each week. So far this has been very
helpful because my peers have taught me about how I have to consider my
target audience and base the design of the toy on the type of people that
actually go to shops and purchase designer toys.
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APPENDIX 1: Bibliography (Harvard Format):
Provides an opportunity to formally record the
research sources that you have used. You should record your initial research
sources for the project proposal.
Books
Einenkel, Walter (2005) Toys: new designs from the art toy revolution. Universe ,Universe
Pub
Budnitz, Paul (2010) I am plastic too. Harry N. Abrams inc
Hedbpeth, Kevin & Missal, Stephen (2005) Exploring Character Design. Thomas
Delmar learning
Readers Digest Association (1989) Field Guide To The Animals Of Britain. Readers
Digest.
Alderton, David (1993) Nature Facts, Mammals. Grange books (1992)
Hart, Christopher (1995) How to draw cartoon animals. Pages 91,107,130,137. Watson-Guptill
Publications Inc.,US.
Hook, Patrick (2004) Natural World, Encyclopedia of animal life
Lane, Andy (2003) Creating Creature Comfort. Boxtree Ltd
Verbinski, G et al (2011) The Ballad of Rango, the art and making of an outlaw film. Titan
Books
Websites
(Accessed
on 21.02.12)
Voyager Entertainment (2012) Liberty and the history of designer toys. At: http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=2 (Accessed on 21.02.12)
Jpmm (2012) Photographs of animals. At:
http://animals-love-photos.blogspot.com/2011/04/wild-animals.html (Accessed on 01.03.12)
Fun with pictures (2002) Looking at the outline of animal shapes.
At:
http://www.fun-with-pictures.com/animal-outlines-coloring-pages.html#axzz1nrpN1VCk (Accessed on 01.03.12)
Wikipedia (2012) Looking at information on monotreme animals. At:
Stodar, Eleanor. The Austalian Echidna.
Houghton Mifflin: Boston, (1991) Short, Joan, Green, Jack, and Bird Bettina (1996).
Information on monotreme animals. At:
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=4280 (Accessed on
07.03.12)
DVD
Creature
Comforts Series 1 Part 1 (2003) Directed by Richard ‘Golly’
Goleszowski (DVD) Aardman
Rango
(2011) Directed by Gore Verbinski (DVD) Blindwink,
Nickelodeon movies
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APPENDIX 2: Project action plan and timetable
Provides an
opportunity to outline the sequence of actions necessary to progress the
project over a period of weeks so that it may be brought to a successful
conclusion within the agreed timeframe. It is important that you consider how
you will balance ambition, time and realism in the organisation and realisation
of the project.
Week
1
13.02.12
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Review
what I liked the most in my previous projects and see how I can develop that
idea further in the next 10 weeks. Start researching into the history of
designer toys and how they are made so that I have a rough idea in my head of
what I will achieve in the 10 weeks.
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Week
2
20.02.12
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Research
into designer toys. Scale, materials used and DIY aspect by looking at multiple
sources such as books, dvd’s and the internet . Trip to London to visit
galleries relating to my project (Kidrobot shop). Research into packaging and
merchandise that links to designer toys.
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Week
3
27.02.12
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Start
thinking of character designs. Relating my character to an animal ( research
into animals ). Near the end of the week order the materials for making my
toys.
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Week
4
05.02.12
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Create
A1 character design sheets like the ones I saw in the Film Museum in London.
This will allow me to show experimentation and will look good if I hang them
up in the presentation at the end of the project. Create an A1 sheet for each
character that
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Week
5
12.03.12
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Start
experimenting in making my toys and different materials until I find what
suits my characters best (fabric, fimo, modelling clay). Experiment and
practice with my painting strategies so that my product will look as good as
possible.
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Week
6
19.03.12
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Continue
experimenting until I get the right shape of my toys. Once I know what
material I will be using start making all my characters at the same time
instead of making one at a time. This way I won’t spend too much time on one
and forget to make all the others.
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Week 7
26.03.12
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Try
and speak to model makers downstairs to see if I can make a mould for the
toys so that I would be able to produce more than one of each of the designs.
This could then turn them into DIY toys and people could paint them how they
want.
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Easter
Break
02.04.12
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Continue
with character development. Decide on what has been the best so far and make
all of my characters, either detailed or simplistic like my successful toys
from my ‘multiple as identity’ project.
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Easter
Break
09.02.12
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When
I have decided on the best material to make my products out of I will start
looking at websites on packaging to make it suitable for the toy. Depending
on whether I made the toys detailed or simplistic will determine on the
simplicity of my packaging.
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Week
8
16.04.12
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Start
photoshop designs for packaging / take photographs of finished toys. Compare
my own designs and logos from books such as, ‘Toys: new designs from the art toy revolution’. Then start putting all the
final products together.
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Week
9
23.04.12
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Once
my designs for packaging are complete I will find ways of putting them onto
card or cardboard. I know that on my packaging I want to try putting an
acetate window on the front so that the audience can see the toy, unlike the
‘lucky dip’ ones that are sold in the Kidrobot shops. I will also catch up
with any work that needs to be done in my journal so that it shows my
processes and research to people that are viewing my work.
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Week
10
30.04.12
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I will use my final week to make sure all of my
products look professional and finished to the best they can be. I will then
think about the layout that I will use on our final show at the dockyards,
relating the drawings I thought up on the first week of the project. I will
also finish my blog so that the people that have been following me online
will know that I have finished the project.
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