Jelly Dropper

This project, sponsored by Hasbro, was incredibly fun because every part of the process involved letting kids play. I started by visiting a local daycare and taking observational notes. During those sessions, I learned that young children often play with whatever item they had nearby and didn’t really care whether or not it was designed for something specific. They used their play to explore, often trying to learn if their toys bounced, rolled, made noise, lit up, or could be ridden. For this reason, I wanted to design something that could help them explore how their world worked, so it needed to be interesting, multifunctional, and surprising. After several rounds of prototypes, I landed on an object that was able to roll up, expand or collapse, light up, and encouraged matching exercises. From here, I decided to shape it into whimsical jellyfish, and shape the objects that could be matched through the holes as other sea creatures. I then chose to 3D model and prototype the design, ensuring everything could be engineered and manufactured realistically.