Design for Kids & Toys

Course

Now available in Specializing Master Design for Kids & Toys

POLI.design, Politecnico di Milano, sponsored by Assogiocattoli, which represents Italian manufacturers and distributors working in this industry, is organizing the International course on Design for Kids & Toys. Italy excels in design general (understood as culture, method and practice of project and production) field in, excels in fashion, food and creativity applied to multiple activities, but in the toy and childcare productions Italian design has yet to play a key role in building a recognizable identity.

Didactics

Training objectives

The International High Training Course about Kids & Toys is aimed to train, in terms of content and method, a new generation of designers able to manage complex design processes in the world of products and services for kids.

The didactic objective is to provide methods and tools to coordinate very different skills from each other and move safely between concrete constraints, such as security, and abstract goals such as cultural, cognitive, educational, recreational and ethical.

At the end of the course the student will design and process skills, such as to manage highly complex product systems, typical of all the sectors that have the child as a reference user.

Didactic Plan

Basic Course
The course has a 120 hours of theoretical learning duration, provided with the support of an e-learning platform and a project-work with 4 hours of distance coaching. The project-work, to be managed independently, will be based on a brief proposed by scientific committee of the course or on a topic chosen by the candidate (it could be also connected to a professional activity in progress) and will have as its purpose the development of a Product Service System for Kids. The project-work will be presented to the scientific committee of the course in presence or remotely (using Skype).

Workshop
Students who complete the Basic Course described above may enroll to the Workshops (40 hours each) proposed during the year and developed in collaboration with companies, institutions, professionals and partners.
The two Basic Courses and the two Workshops, are scheduled as following:
P.S. The participants of the Basic Course 1^ can choose to attend either the Workshop 1^ and Workshop 2^. Instead those who decide to enroll in the Basic Course 2^ will necessarily choose to attend the Workshop 2^.

Didactic Modules

The theoretical training modules cover the following areas:

• Strategic design for Kids & Toys: user centered design; ethnography as an approach to meta-project research; strategic approach to innovation in the toy industry; strategic design and project process; sustainable approach to toy innovation strategies; from the product to the product system in the toy frame;
• Toy Design History: evolutionary steps of the relation between design and toy; experiences and cases (from Munari to Giovannoni);
• Companies, sectors and markets: international and national system of the companies working in the industry of toys and products for childhood; transversal industries (materials and technology); indoor and outdoor toys; national, European and international markets; Assogiocattoli and its system of associated enterprises; trends and market niches;
• Technologies & Materials: traditional technologies; innovative technologies; traditional materials (wood, plastics, etc.); innovative materials and new innovation scenarios;
• Security and Regulations: toy safety and the new Directive 2009/48/CE; essential safety requirements and harmonized technical standards; marking and warning;
• Pediatrics, Pedagogy, Psychology, Cognitive ergonomics: kids and colours perception; toy and kid: mental and emotional development; physical ergonomics and cognitive ergonomics;
• Ethics and Child rights: the project of the Children’s Rights Park; ethics of the project and innovation for the toy; from 16 values at the International Poster of Kids and Toy Design;
• Selling and communication of toy: communicating the project; tools and strategies to communicate the project; distribution channels; scenarios for a new distribution; communication and service as components of the toy product system.
• Project work: students can take advantage of up to 4 hours of coaching (4 design reviews) remotely by teachers of the faculty of the course through this discussion forum on e-learning platform.

Title Released

At the End of the course the participants will receive a certificate of attendance and Open Badge at the course in Design for Kids&Toys.

Admission

Requirements

The High Training Course is addressed to designers, graphic designers, graduates in marketing and economics, interior designers, architects, artists, teachers, educators, parents, particularly interested in the aspects of product system toy, game, and in general of products, services and events for children.