We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer id.real about their original and creative Sand construction set design work. id.real is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original sand construction set works.
id.real ("Id.real") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Kebrick Sand construction set. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
Id.real : Making something so simple that, at the same time, could enable the user to do great things. The aim is to spark creativity and imagination with a timeless, straightforward design.
Id.real : id.real wanted to go beyond what has been on the beach toys market for the past 50 years; designing something different, that would be both a toy with which kids could have fun and “tools” to use their imagination and creativity while learning. All these, making parents’ life easier with toys easy to transport and storage.
Id.real : Going into Kickstarter, starting the production the last trimester of 2018 and going to Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nüremberg 2019. Basically, our aim is to make Kebrick available for children worldwide to enjoy and learn at the beach!
Id.real : In this particular project, id.real needed seven months to design and test Kebrick.
Id.real : It was the result of our personal experiences with this particular kind of product. This leads us in a quest to find new solutions to products that have been the same for a long time.
Id.real : The idea is to get resources using crowdfunding platforms and/ or find investors in order to produce and sell Kebrick ourselves and create enough revenue to keep revolutionizing the field.
Id.real : Our CEO and Chief of Innovation, Anouk de Lesparda, was at the beach in Cambodia when she realized all the children have the same kind of toys, and those toys are really difficult to keep and transport for the parents. She identified a need and began to think of ways to solve it. Afterward, the whole team was immersed in the creative process contributing and giving their insights.
Id.real : The main influence has been the daily experience as parents and the memories of our days as kids in the beach.
Id.real : Children from five years old onwards and their parents. However, it can also be a tool for creative people older than five but with a young spirit!
Id.real : These “shapes” are unique because you can assemble and disassemble them and create as many forms as you want to. The regular molds in the market have fixed shapes.
Id.real : We did a co-design session with all the people involved in the project. During the session, we mixed two significant words for the toy: Kep (the beach at Cambodia, where the original idea was born) and Brick (the first name the project received because it reminds us to a construction brick).
Id.real : We worked following the Design Thinking philosophy; using tools such as co-design sessions, user testing sessions, interviews with experts and users, prototyping-testing-improving process. Also, we used more common design tools, like physical prototypes, digital prototypes, renders.
Id.real : It is simple and yet it is a powerful tool for kids to be creative.
Id.real : We tested with users and experts (teachers, psychologists, parents, children…) during all the design process.
Id.real : There is no technology in this design, though we are working on adding it in the following phases. After all, we are in the great pursuit of the integration of physical and digital: phygital.
Id.real : Yes, we did a wide research at the beginning and during the project about children, their learning process, cognitive development, materials, market research.
Id.real : It was really hard to design the joints because we needed them to be easy to assemble and disassemble for kids but resistant enough to keep the sand inside, avoiding the sand to get stuck inside the joints. All while making possible matching them in different ways to create all kinds of shapes. We also had some problems during the production part when we had to find a balance between design, production methods and users needs.
Id.real : We think that innovative design should be shared with the greater audience. One of the good things about design contests is that they give designers and studios the opportunity to present their proposals to the world and make people aware of the new trends in our society.
Id.real : id.real put in practice the Design Thinking and user-centric design philosophy in a project for the first time. We learned a lot about our users (both children and parents) while paying attention to their needs, desires, and expectations. At the same time, we understood the importance of following all the steps of developing products: research, concept development, technical development and production methods -always keeping in sight the purpose of the project.
Id.real : id.real is willing to engage with users, fans, professionals, and anyone interested in design… we are eager to create new adventures hand in hand with you. So, anytime you are in Madrid, don’t be shy, come and say ‘hi’, share a cup of Joe and let’s design the next best thing together!
