It was during the pandemic of 2020 that I had the pleasure of creating outdoor toys, meant for children to play with at a time when playing with other children was considered a health risk. The idea was to design toys that would allow a child to play skipping rope alone. However, the challenge was to make the toy flexible such that the child will have a variety of play modes to make the toy more interesting.

My initial sketches focused on integrating nursery rhyme animals into the structure to give character to the toys. Nevertheless, I still explored the possibility of using simple geometric shapes, which was eventually chosen in favor of low-budget manufacturing.

I modified the geometric design to have stackable blocks to allow height adjustment, and also to add another mode of physical play for the young user. I also designed the base to store sand or pebbles as weight, which can also be used as a play medium.

Having built the initial 3D model, I realized that it was too simple and almost boring. So I decided to explore redesigning the base into an animal, somewhat similar to my initial designs, yet much simpler for manufacturing. The client loved the final look and opted to propose the toys for production.