Mako Creative Sharkbites: Tolo Play Table

We were asked by our client DACTA to see if we could improve on the existing in-store play table for the internationally recognized award winning Tolo toys company. Using our experience of working within the toy industry enabled us to produce a design and concept taking it through to prototyping within 8 weeks, and I think you will agree, what we came up with looks visually stunning.

Alan one of our director’s, was given special dispensation to visit children’s nurseries to monitor and take measurements on a wide variety of day to day things that little ones use. From that he was able to make sure all ergonomics and anthropometrics factors were taken into account. Quite often little ones in this world struggle to use adult sized things, so it was especially important that this was made specifically for their needs. It had to be the right height, it had to be the right seat size, the right level of stretch to get to whatever they wanted to play with and above all it had to be fun!

The play table was designed with a play train track on the outer perimeter and a play house feature in the centre that can be easily removed with a handle on the roof, revealing a mesh basket that contains more happy little Tolo figures and vehicles that add to their play experience.

The table top graphic has a generic playhouse garden feel to it with a garden path, flowers, bushes and a lake. To make it more fun the seats had large blow ups of some friendly Tolo characters and of course an ideal opportunity to increase the branding and awareness of the products.

The beauty of this design is that we can change the graphic and seats to tie in to all of the range or new products. The next two play tables going out will have interactive seats that squeak when the children sit on them!

Here you can see the progression from the outline line specification drawing to the visual and then to the finished article, all designed, prototyped and completed for an installation into Hamleys in Oxford Street within just 8 weeks!