Theoretical Basis and Design Principles

Sustainable Design

First principles
Before beginning a new project I ask: What is the play scenario?

Where are the possibilities in it for story-building, planning, making things and interacting with others?

What can it convey in terms of exciting all the senses?

How does it involve them in intercommunication?

Fundimental to my approach is to analyse a problem or situation to get back to the root of the matter. Then I assemble all relevant information about the subject before beginning to conjecture on possible solutions. As far as toy designing goes I try to pack in the maximum number of play opportunities but at the same time try not to dictate exactly how a child should play with a toy. I try to offer freedom to create.

Floor Games
H G Wells coined the phrase to describe the absorbing games he and his nephews used to play, which occupied the whole of the drawing room floor and even commandeered certain pieces of furniture. Wells wrote a book under the same title which was a definitive manual in the art and craft of building whole other worlds in your living room. He and his nephews made islands, cities, rail networks, ships, jungles all interlinked - a land and seascape spanning from skirting board to skirting board. They used simple materials - blocks of wood, bits of shrubbery picked from the garden and all the toys they had, regardless of scale. Wells book was about how you play, particularly the important role of an adult as occasional facilitator and it has become formative in the way I look at toy design.

Down on that primal dwelling place, the floor game creates a world that children can occupy; they possess it, it surrounds them and anything is possible. Within its bounds, they plan, they invent, they make the necessary extra props, they conduct the story and they negotiate with each other.

Sustainable Design is the designer's commitment to walk lightly on the Earth. A number of designers around the world have become concerned about the impact they make as main agents of the mass produced products which are overwhelming our natural world and us. The amount of waste has been increasing alarmingly over the last 50 years and we are now running out of landfill sites

Pollution from waste, from energy production, chemical contamination and extracting resources has reached a critical level. The increasing rate of extinction of plant and animal species has been described as the third great mass extinction in the Earth's history, mostly due to mankind's actions and which is well under way.

Some designers, and I include myself among them, are trying to do what they believe every designer should. In every project they undertake they assess the life cycle of the product from sourcing materials to how it will be recycled or returned to the Earth at the end of its useful life. Their constant aim is to reduce impact on our environment, protect and preserve our natural resources and eke out our precious finite resources. You can find out more about this movement at Biothinking, O2UK,and the Centre for Sustainable Design

I have been committed to this urgent need to redirect the development of our technology for all of my life. When I ran Honeychurch Toys Ltd with my wife we made every endeavour to reduce the impact of our manufacturing on the environment. Our environment policy can be seen in the next column

The Honeychurch Ecological Policy
"It is anathema to us to make throw away toys or use second rate materials, we make our products to last - for the next generation at least if not further. Every craftsperson in our workshop sees the whole production of each dolls house and kit through from beginning to end and takes a pride in maintaining the highest quality of workmanship.

"We hesitate to wave the 'green banner' which in many ways is overused at the moment. Nevertheless, in common with many small companies, we have been careful of our impact on the environment all along and have a continuing policy to do so. Making products which will last is an environmental move which most companies still seem to ignore. They prefer to pursue a policy of 'Planned Obsolescence' ie. make it so it has to be thrown away sooner, so that 'consumers' have to buy another one.

"No scraps of wood are thrown away - there is a use for every piece. What we cannot use is taken by Scrapstore in Swindon who supply playgroups and local schools. Packaging is carefully thought out and is all recyclable. We separate paper, card, glass and metal, watch power consumption, source our materials carefully and return warm air to the workshop after dust has been filtered out of it. In the past the sawdust has been used by pet shops, fishing tackle shops and made into fuel briquets. We are pursuing the idea of pelletising it to make cat litter and for soaking up liquid spills."

Planning for children with special needs
I am very interested in designing toys to assist children with specific developmental needs. Two years ago I took part in a two week workshop at Dorton House, the school for the sight impaired. We looked at a number of specific needs but particularly sight problems. During that intensive fortnight I got to know a number of different therapists and to grapple with some of the problems they face. I think there is an important role for designers, working alongside the therapists to develop toys to inspire and encourage challenged young people. This calls for a new dialogue between two very different sorts of expert and I am interested in starting that dialogue. (Left: the Whale Game - scale and form perception)

The other thing which occurred to me is that even when designing toys for the wider market, it is important to consider special needs. It seems divisive to have one kind of toy for children with special needs and another kind for all other children. All children of all abilities need to develop their senses and if we design toys which use texture, colour, form, sound, smell even, and which deal with particular needs, then we must design them so children of mixed abilities can play together.

For this reason I always try to make the toys sculptural in quality, use distinctive graphics and put in textural features as much as is practical.

Subtlety
I would like to work more with children with special needs. But as well as using distinctive tones, colours and forms for the benefit of seriously challenged children, we must offer subtlety in form, space, line and colour because children are capable of appreciating much more than we give them credit for. I think they should be exposed to greater refinement in their playthings.