Goro Motai pointed me to this collaboration between Muji and Lego to augment plastic building blocks with papercraft figures. Using a custom paper puncher, sheets of construction paper can be made to clip onto the plastic nubs on regular lego blocks. Although the construction paper is treated as a flat medium, this merging of 2D […]
Category Archives: children
animal alphabet
Last time I visited Japan I came upon a fascinating book by Shiho Ishikawa called Alphapet – an alphabet made of animals that you cut and fold from the pages of the book. The richly illustrated pages are scored to provide for elaborate folds. The web site is rich with videos and instructions for folding; […]
light pipes
The tangible representation of light as material makes it fun – and intuitive – to add it and to take it away. We saw an adult version of modular light blocks at this year’s Salone Satellite; now a children’s bedside lamp by beingblease that allows the child to configure colorful magnetic tubes that bend and […]
alter doodles
No Robots Please! is an elementary school workshop by bioengineer Alan Outten where he introduced children to alternate design concepts and prompted them to invent their own. He began by introducing images mind-altering works such as the Eames’ Powers of Ten, Auger + Loizeau’s Audio Tooth, Raby + Evans’ Meat-eating products and Vacanti’s Human ear […]
design for durability
The OLPC has driven important innovations in open software, hardware, universal design and environmental sustainability in order to be cheap and durable enough for widespread use in developing countries. At this week’s unveiling of new designs for second-generation laptops, I spotted this interesting exhibit on the design touches that make the OLPC stand out in […]
recording elegance
HARUO OBA presented “special moments” today at CHI 2008 – two brilliant tangible recording interfaces mapped to physical phenomena. The BOOK RECORDER consists of two clips – one in the shape of an owl and the other in the shape of the moon – placed on the front and back covers of a child’s book. […]
tragic toys
Healthy Toys keeps track of the deadliest children’s products on the market – in terms of lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, bromine, and antimony (in parts per million). You can check out the ratings of your children’s belongings, ask for toys to be evaluated, or use the site to shop for less-toxic options. Good luck!