Being hit on with something new with the concept of “toy”ing with design, I was lost and stuck onto one concept phrasing the words as it is, toy designing. Little did I understand that there is much more than that, a broader spectrum which involves greater thinking, amazement and creativity. Scattered through the virtual college atmosphere that looked so realistic, I walked through and found my place into the main auditorium where we would be mesmerized virtually.

It was a great blend; be it a talk about Ahmedabad, as a city with rich culture, heritage, food, history, fashion history, jewelry, design, traditional crafts, artisans, more about the historical toys that were famous in India, the puppet or Kathputhli, etc.

Designers brainstorming and creating board games, the use of toys in architectural spaces and nature with humans at the heart of this amazing exhibit as an extension of toys and to find creative ways to make it relevant to the millennials. The speakers spoke about many topics like the Channapatna toys, how India is working to be on a global platform while revamping their packaging, marketing, stories of the northeast, Kashmiri toys, collaborative creativity and design thinking. The event included paper & poster presentation of students and professionals.

Now the froth; Toys are not only small creative artefacts and crafts made for children to play with, but a product by itself, probably even more varied than other products. Toys can just trace back and tell us everything about its roots, history, culture and tradition and complete knowledge of a specific place, its people, the creativity factor at that time and its people who gave into this creative part of the design. The future of how toys will evolve into something so massive to astonish the complete industry on the whole.

Author:
Gauthami Suresh, Sem. IV, B. Des. Lifestyle Accessory Design, Unitedworld Institute of Design (UID)