Toys as Texts: A Multimodal Experience on Toys: Dr. Danielle Almeida presented an overview of her concepts for the 2021 Playful Creative Summit in conversation with Alyea Sandovar. WOW. Dr. Almeida defines toys as a language, with implications for how children interact with toys and how parents can choose toys. The language is complex, involving touch, sounds, smell, words, the advertising, the packaging. At its most evolved, it deliberately evokes a person's affection towards a toy. Her talk reminded me of my reactions to J. Gordon Lippincott's 1947 book Design for Business. So I'll add my opinion that Dr. Almeida's insights aren't appropriate just for or about children: many adults are drawn to toys as well. And I believe her observations can be far more broadly applied, to any consumer product at all. Buyer beware.
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