Toy Design Books
Childhood by Design: Toys and the Material Culture of Childhood, 1700-present
Informed by the analytical practices of the interdisciplinary 'material turn' and social-historical studies of childhood, Childhood By Design: Toys and the Material Culture of Childhood offers new approaches to the material world of childhood and design culture for children. This volume situates toys and design culture for children within broader narratives on history, art, design and the decorative arts, where toy design has traditionally been viewed as an aberration from more serious pursuits.
Toys and Communication
Toys and Communication is an innovative collection that effectively showcases work by specialists who have sought to examine toys throughout history and in many cultures, including 1930's Europe, Morocco, India, Spanish art of the 16th-19th centuries. Psychologists stress the importance of the role of toys and play in children's language development and intellectual skills, and this book demonstrates the recurrent theme of the transmission of cultural norms through the portrayal, presentation and use of toys.
Swedish Wooden Toys
This superbly illustrated book, including specially commissioned photography, looks at over 200 years of Swedish toys, from historic dollhouses to the latest designs for children. Featuring rattles, full-size rocking horses, dollhouses, and building blocks to skis, sleds, and tabletop games with intricate moving parts, Swedish Wooden Toys also addresses images of Swedish childhood, the role of the beloved red Dala horse in the creation of national identity, the vibrant tradition of educational toys, and the challenges of maintaining craft manufacturing in an era of global mass-production.
Renate Muller: Toys and Design
Made of beige open-weave jute with colored leather accents, Renate Müller's toy animals and shapes are some of the sweetest, most endearing and simply artistic toys that have ever been made. They were conceived in the early 1960s, as part of an endeavor launched by Helene Haeusler at the Sonneberg Technical College for Toy Design in Germany, and were designed to fulfill the need for large, brightly colored stuffed animals to enhance orthopedic exercises and balance coordination for mentally and physically handicapped children.
We Are Paper Toys
We Are Paper Toys presents thirty-two of the finest paper toy designers in the world. Each artist gives us a glimpse of their world and explains their passion for paper toys through a personal interview.
Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot
The Japanese have long been infatuated with the three-dimensional characters used to represent products, companies, civic organizations, towns and just about anything else you can imagine. Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot examines this fascinating cultural history, documenting the evolution of the character statues that are ubiquitous throughout the country today.
Toy Instruments
Toy Instruments comprises an eye-popping collection of musical toys made between the 1950s and today. In theory, all of these toys are meant to excite children about learning how to play an instrument. What becomes clear, however, though the photographs and text, however, is that these products could be as much fun for adults as children, especially for adults with their own musical interests.
Sustainable Product Design in the Global Doll-Making Industry
Sustainable product design is more than eco design: it goes beyond 'green' to consider the work environment, community impacts, consumer health, and economic viability, as well as environmental attributes. "Beyond Child's Play" explores the concept of sustainable product design in the context of the global doll-making industry.
Toy Design
Toys, fulfilling as they do one of mankind's most basic needs, have existed for as long as we have. Renowned designers, artists and architects have always tried their hand at creating toys: from Frank Lloyd Wright's work with Frbel'S building blocks to Josef Hartwig's Bauhaus chess set that is still produced today. Gerrit Rietveld, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Breuer and Andy Warhol also designed toys.
Pictoplasma: The Character Encyclopaedia
From the worlds of drawing, graphic design and painting, Pictoplasma examines the latest tendencies in character design. Having closely coincided with the character design movement since 1999, Pictoplasma presents a new, incomparable collection of what has become the world's most popular visual language.
Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World
Lavish full-color photographs of cult, limited-edition, and "designer" toys take us through the postwar period and right up into the present, with a fascinating look at the current vogue for "urban vinyl" and "art" toys. Extensively researched, the book includes interviews with the leading players in today's toy world, including long-established Japanese toymaking giants Kaiyodo and Sanrio, world-famous fine artists and producers of "art" toys Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, and cult Hong Kong designers of "urban vinyl" toys Michael Lau and Eric So.
I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion
I Am Plastic provides a colorful visual history of the phenomenon, which has energized not only the toy world but the global art community as well. Fashion designers, comic book artists, underground illustrators, graffiti and fine artists now lend their creativity to the task of coming up with innovative and striking new toy designs. Artists and toys featured in this stunning overview include Frank Kozik, Dalek, Gary Baseman, Bounty Hunter, Junko Mizuno, Jason Siu, Devilrobots, and Pete Fowler.
Dot Dot Dash!
Dot Dot Dash ! is brought to you by the editors of Pictoplasma and Pictoplasma 2. Expanding on the widely popular subject of contemporary character design, this definitive volume showcases an up-to-date survey of the personalities and characters that have entered the third dimension.