Design For Children

A comprehensive, genre-defining survey of children's product and furniture design from Bauhaus to today Design for Children, a must-have book for all style-conscious and design-savvy readers, documents the evolution of design for babies, toddlers, and beyond. The book spotlights more than 450 beautiful, creative, stylish, and clever examples of designs created exclusively for kids - from toys, furniture, and tableware, to textiles, lights, and vehicles. Contemporary superstars and twentieth-century masters, including Philippe Starck, Nendo, Marc Newson, Piero Lissoni, Kengo Kuma, and Marcel Wanders, are showcased.

When making games for kids, it’s tempting to simply wing-it on the design. We were all children once, right? The reality is that adults are far removed from the cognitive changes and the motor skill challenges that are the hallmark of the developing child. Designing Games for Children, helps you understand these developmental needs of children and how to effectively apply them to games. Whether you’re a seasoned game designer, a children's media professional, or an instructor teaching the next generation of game designers, Designing Games for Children is the first book dedicated to service the specific needs of children's game designers. This is a hands-on manual of child psychology as it relates to game design and the common challenges designers face. Designing Games for Children is the definitive, comprehensive guide to making great games for kids, featuring: Guidelines and recommendations divided by the most common target audiences – babies and toddlers (0-2), preschoolers (3-5), early elementary students (6-8), and tweens (9-12). Approachable and actionable breakdown of child developmental psychology, including cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, as it applies to game design Game design insights and guidelines for all aspects of game production, from ideation to marketing

Interaction Design and Children surveys the research on children's cognitive and motor development, safety issues related to technologies and design methodologies and principles. It also provides an overview of current research trends in the field of interaction design and children and identifies challenges for future research.

"Children's culture has become a boom industry, generating tons of accoutrements from toys to school supplies to interactive computer programs. To be successful, such materials must be designed in a way that speaks directly to a young audience yet pleases - and doesn't alienate - adults. That said, what is good design for children? What criteria does a designer follow in creating products that will appeal to kids without compromising on quality or aesthetics? Steven Heller and Steven Guarnaccia address these and many other related questions in Designing for Children, the first and only book devoted to an increasingly important subject." "Heller and Guarnaccia analyze and celebrate recent advances in child-oriented design and show examples of new work that represent the growing sophistication in this arena. The authors look at hundreds of case studies in which graphics play a major role, specifically in the realms of television, video, and radio; museums and environments; novelties and gifts; toys and games; newspapers and magazines; computers and electronics; theater and performances; and books and posters. Packaging and promotional materials for the various products and activities are also discussed." "In response to the burgeoning children's market, clients like Sony, Nickelodeon, Esprit/Kids, Hasbro, Stride Rite, Levi Strauss, Hallmark, Pentech, The Nature Company, Mattel, Milton Bradley, Broderbund, and numerous publishers are increasingly employing the talents of innovative designers with an eye toward reaching a young audience. Today among their ranks are such well-known and highly respected graphic artists as Seymour Chwast, Maira Kalman, April Greiman, Paula Scher, and Richard McGuire, many of whose designs for children are featured here." "Designing for Children is an important book for designers of all kinds, but it's also of interest to parents seeking well-made, thoughtfully designed alternatives to standard mass-market toys, books, and other childhood fare for their kids."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The postwar American stereotypes of suburban sameness, traditional gender roles, and educational conservatism have masked an alternate self-image tailor-made for the Cold War. The creative child, an idealized future citizen, was the darling of baby boom parents, psychologists, marketers, and designers who saw in the next generation promise that appeared to answer the most pressing worries of the age. Designing the Creative Child reveals how a postwar cult of childhood creativity developed and continues to this day. Exploring how the idea of children as imaginative and naturally creative was constructed, disseminated, and consumed in the United States after World War II, Amy F. Ogata argues that educational toys, playgrounds, small middle-class houses, new schools, and children’s museums were designed to cultivate imagination in a growing cohort of baby boom children. Enthusiasm for encouraging creativity in children countered Cold War fears of failing competitiveness and the postwar critique of social conformity, making creativity an emblem of national revitalization. Ogata describes how a historically rooted belief in children’s capacity for independent thinking was transformed from an elite concern of the interwar years to a fully consumable and aspirational ideal that persists today. From building blocks to Gumby, playhouses to Playskool trains, Creative Playthings to the Eames House of Cards, Crayola fingerpaint to children’s museums, material goods and spaces shaped a popular understanding of creativity, and Designing the Creative Child demonstrates how this notion has been woven into the fabric of American culture.

Compiled by a leading authority in the field of children's technology, this book brings together current discussions of how and why new technologies are being designed. It presents innovative methods, techniques, and ideas, making this a unique resource for developers of children's software, hardware, and multimedia products; graphic/human interface designers; and university faculty doing research in the area of children and technology. * Case studies, commercial products, and academic research projects * Overview of present and future trends in computer technologies for children * Design practices from university and industry researchers that can aid readers in developing their own approaches to creating and using computer technologies for children

From building blocks to city blocks, an eye-opening exploration of how children's playthings and physical surroundings affect their development. Parents obsess over their children's playdates, kindergarten curriculum, and every bump and bruise, but the toys, classrooms, playgrounds, and neighborhoods little ones engage with are just as important. These objects and spaces encode decades, even centuries of changing ideas about what makes for good child-rearing--and what does not. Do you choose wooden toys, or plastic, or, increasingly, digital? What do youngsters lose when seesaws are deemed too dangerous and slides are designed primarily for safety? How can the built environment help children cultivate self-reliance? In these debates, parents, educators, and kids themselves are often caught in the middle. Now, prominent design critic Alexandra Lange reveals the surprising histories behind the human-made elements of our children's pint-size landscape. Her fascinating investigation shows how the seemingly innocuous universe of stuff affects kids' behavior, values, and health, often in subtle ways. And she reveals how years of decisions by toymakers, architects, and urban planners have helped--and hindered--American youngsters' journeys toward independence. Seen through Lange's eyes, everything from the sandbox to the street becomes vibrant with buried meaning. The Design of Childhood will change the way you view your children's world--and your own.