ykh: you hit the nail on the head–“shoddy goods manufactured cheaply.”
It doesn’t matter if the toys are paper or plastic or what; the waste of material and energy is not the only thing that grosses me out, but the way kids become accustomed through these kinds of products to the cycle of manufactured goods through their life: desire and disposal.
Here’s bigshot:
the only real way to create meaningful objects for children is to be involved in their development the way none of us really have time to…
do none of us really have time to take with children?
I don’t think this is actually true–maybe we choose to use our time that doesn’t leave time for the right kind of involvement in the lives of children, but It’s also possible that this could (maybe should) change.
I’m still a student, so feel free to call me idealistic, but I’m trying to imagine something that positively affects consumer behavior. I’m interested designing to effect soceity–honestly, it seems impossible to make anythying that doesn’t have an effect. Aren’t we all kind of interested in changing consumer behavior (even if that only means making them stop at nothing to get ahold of our product?)
So what I’m thinking about doing here is to come up with something that targets parrents’ behavior more than the behavior of children. It’s probably going to be some kind of early childhood product, something that attempts to create an awareness of the things that we give to children, the materials and the lifecycle of those things.
I’ve come up with some ideas, but all of them have their flaws:
a bigwheel made from a more durable plastic (I’m thinking the kind of material used in car bodies these days) with a white matte washable finish that accepts crayon or other media–something that could be originally attractive to parrents because of it’s sleek white profile, and to children for it’s expressive potential, and a solution to the disposablity issue by being something that younger sisters and eventually the kids next door will want to color on and ride. It would be more exprensive to make than the bigwheels on the market, so you’d have to style it for that higher-priced market, but that might work out as a incentive to reuse rather than disposabliity.
another idea is a set of clayworking tools scaled for kids. I could focus on the sculpting tools and the rolling machine (not sure what its called but it re-claims clay, makes it workable again…) although it’s meant to relcaim waste, this isn’t so much a replacement for a disposable, except in the sense that kids who are hooked on playing with toys that allow them to be creative aren’t going to be hooked on toy fads, at least in theory.
the best idea so far though is probably something like a crib–or it would replace a crib (which is definately something that is disposable; I’ve seen them construced out of that same tubing as lawn chairs) that either becomes a play structure/fort for the kid as it grows up, or a piece of furniture, or both.
I’d obviously love any feedback on the ideas here, but I’d also like to hear what you think about the culture of childrearing, and to know if I’m making any sense with all this buisness about design and the effects on parrents’ behavior.
…
LTLR