Italian designer Matteo Ragni was tired of giving his kids toys only to watch them lose interest after a couple of hours of play. His solution? Try to design a toy that kids could form an emotional bond with—something they would actually love. After watching countless cheap toys break, he also wanted to make a toy sturdy enough to last.
The result was a simple, strong toy car made from sweet-smelling cedar wood. His kids loved the cars, and Ragni ultimately opened up the project to a full range of Italian designers, with some straightforward guidelines: the designers should start with a wooden stump, and two cuts of equal size. 100 of the car designs were recently exhibited at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.
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Creating products that people want to keep is a central part of sustainable design, whether the users are children or adults. What makes someone bond with a product, and feel less likely to quickly throw it away? It's interesting to wonder whether letting kids design their own cars would have made them love them even more.
