ArtCamp 2015 in Pilsen

One more time I’ll have been in Pilsen at Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of art and design for the ArtCamp 2015. One more time I loved the experience in that inspiring city and school with a great class of students coming from all around the world.

As it happened last year, after a first approach made by lecturing a class about some theoretical topics, students started developing their own proposals with great results.

It is always quite interesting to see how each cultural background can influence the toy design processes. Indeed 11 students from different countries, since Czech Republic to Slovakia, Poland, USA, Japan and China, developed toys that, in different ways, represent their own countries, traditions and personal skills.  

Honorata, from Lodz University of Technology in Poland, developed a toy based on stamps technology. An A4 format box contains paper sheets with trees images that can be completed with leaves, birds, fruits, etc... The final result are images with a high artistic quality also because the gradual ink attenuation during the process.  

Rachel, from USA, is a jewelery designer created a kind of mountable doll house that has a simple and abstract language based on simply volumes and colors. The player can change the configuration and create easily several different building for different scenarios.

Moe, from Japan, was interested in infant toys so she worked on two toys for early ages. One is a rattle with smooth forms and nice colors. The other is a small construction kit based on dragons and stars images that can be easily build. Moe worked also on packaging and marketing design improving a bag for both toys and a catalog that help to understand how they works.

Also Sylwia and Monika came from Lodz in Poland. Sylwia and she worked on a changeable figure based on a wooden sliced cylinder. Rotating the different slices you can change the body configuration between several variations. The technology is quite interesting because it can be used with other subjects as animals or even graphic combinations.

Monika, created a toy based on the kaleidoscope technology. A truncated pyramid with, inside, mirrors that reflect each other creating great optical effects. Besides it is possible to put inside the volume other accessories as other mirrors or panels in order to improve the reflection effects.

Muyi came from the Tokyo Art School and was fascinated by birds, their colors and shapes. So she designed a series of three bird with vivid colors and movements. She used steel springs in order to joint the body parts made by styrofoam and allow the head shake in a very funny neck moving.

Sarah, a student from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, started very soon with two toys: one based on balance and the other on patterns. The first toy that ca be used as a game by several peoples because exist a stick where each one should put one of the many colored pieced that are delivered with toy. Each piece has a different weight (with a color code) and a different size so players have to carefully choose the piece and its position. The other toy can be a solitaire or a game and it is a kind of puzzle made by cubes painted with four different patterns that you can joint together following the same color configuration.

Magdalena, also from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, worked on the hat idea. Indeed her toy is a changeable magic hat that can be wear by the children creating a new character. Beside the hat is always an important accessory for kids because is something quite unusual in the normal dress code and can be used as a very meaningful object symbolizing a profession or a special social condition.

Andrea, from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, love to sew and this passion is visible in her toy. The main idea is a series of animals that are oviparous (animals that lay eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother). So she created four animals - a snake, a snail, a fish and a tortoise - that you can reverse and turn into an egg.

Petr, the unique man in a a women's class, was interested in an object that could change the space around the kid. He invented a seat that can be used as projector in a dark room creating shadows and other light effects. In this way the player can not only understand some basic knowledge about shadows but also play with his own environment.

Finally Jana, one more student from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, designed a kind of puppets that can be mounted in a large number of ways. Eyes, ears, arms, legs, horns, etc.. are all connectable with a main body in order to create funny monsters or strange creatures. All is painted with vivid colors and dots and fit in a colored box. At the end of the workshop a child appeared in the school and start enjoying with Jana's toy, the best test each toy designer could deserve!

See you at ArtCamp 2016!