2017 / Toy Design / Educational Toy / Professional

PLAYING WITH SENSES Perceptible chess game

• Company
  Shinoda Studio, Netherlands
• Lead Designer
  Makiko Shinoda
• Design Team
• Project Link
  view
• Other credit
  1st, 2nd, 3rd Photograph By Kristof Vrancken4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Photograph By Makiko Shinodamovie By Mickael Boulay

What makes a toy a good toy? Room for sensory
discovery, imagination and creativity.
Research that Makiko Shinoda has done on the
relationship between children and their toys
shows that these elements are not found as
often in plastic toys or computer games in
which form and function are standardized. But
there is a different way.

A universal toy set that evolves over time
and with a child’s age. While toddlers can
use the set as building blocks, older
children can play chess with it. A game of
chess as a metaphor in which generations,
cultures, ethnicities can meet. The pieces in
the game do not look like chess pieces; they
vary in weight, smell, material, form and
texture and this allows the players to mould
the game in whichever way they choose. A toy
for a lifetime.

Materials: Bee wax, Ceramic, Cedar Wood, Camphor Wood, Bronze, Aluminum

Other prizes
Nominations for Conceptual Design Award for Innovation for Health, 2014 Toegepast 17 : Young talent (Design Platform Limburg), 2012-2013 The Face of Design Awards winner and special mention, 2012