Edifying Toy Concepts from Class

Friends and colleagues often tell me how they'd love to peek into the Toy Concept and Development class I teach at Parsons. Well, some students OK'ed me sharing their work here. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are a couple of stellar concepts and designs from last semester's class.

Kaitlyn Zhang?created a beautiful puzzle from a webpage and the actual CSS and HTML backend code blocks. It is a very satisfying way to engage with CSS and HTML.

And, of course, the?Puzzle solution?is here!

Josie O'Neal-Odom?is a very talented illustrator and maker. Her character, Lunchbox Lenny, is living his best life. I also love the detailed embroidery, from the dashes of salt on the crackers to the cucumber seeds in the cucumber slice. Be sure to see Josie's illustration work too! I can't believe the same person can illustrate and build physical toys so well!

Sameen Hashemian, a social anthropologist and designer, explored her interest in a particular New York building. The once celebrated Singer Building was built in 1908, during New York's "gilded age," and was unceremoniously demolished some 60 years later in 1968.

Using historical records, Sameen remade this lost building into a stacking toy, with architectural facades, a street view, and even interior layouts from the period.??

These are just some of the one-of-a-kind prototypes and concepts from last semester. I hope you find these as fun and innovative as I do!