| D O O R S O F P E R C E P T I O N 5 | |
 |
|
| Diversity, Creativity and Serendipity |  |
| PDF link for printable transcription | David Vogler |
Introduction I'm the vice-president of Creative for Nickelodeon Online and over the years I've had the privilege to work with a number of brands and a number of companies producing kids content. But the brand that's most near and dear to my heart is Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon is the number one brand for kids and the largest cable network in the United States. In the past fifteen years, Nickelodeon has expanded globally and has become synonymous with creativity and play. But is more than just television, it's a state of mind. At Nickelodeon I've had the oppertunity to work in a variety of mediums. I started out as a graphic designer and worked in print. I worked in consumer products, television and now, in the digital medium with Nickelodeon online. But in every case my mission has allways been to translate the humour and the spirit and the attitude of what's happening. This has taken a variety of forms. My most notorious work is in consumer products. And that's what I'd like to share with you today, some of the toy work I've done for Nickelodeon. Before I can talk about the toy work, I think it's important that you see some of the on-air work. In ever case, the work that I will show you today attempts to celebrate diversity, creativity, serendipity and most important freeform play. All of which is synonymous with the Nickelodeon brand. So to put this in the proper context. I brought along a very short tape that's got some promo's and on-air ideas that will give you a flavour of the Nickelodeon brand. And this is relevant because it's a good example of the diversity and the individual variety that you'll see on-air. Now, a good example of some of the toy work that I've done that translates the insanity and play of on-air to off-air was a line of activity toys that we produced with Mattel. And what made this unique is that these were not toys that were based on a pre-existing cartoon or pre-existing tv-show (which is how most toy products are made in the US). This was done very differently. These were toys that were based on a feeling, on an attitude. These were toys that were based on the brand. And they were all tools to empower kids to explore their own creativity and to give them opportunities for discovery and play. Probably the best example is something that we called Gag. gag is simply a morpheus blob of fluorescent goo. And like the Nickelodeon brand there is no right or wrong way to play with it, it's unisex, it works equally well for boys or girls, it's great for kids of all ages and backgrounds, doesn't require any preconceptions. And in this hyper wired crazy kind of world we live in today how pleasing it is to have a toy that requires no manuals, no batteries, no plug-ins, no internet connection, no mechanisms, it's completely organic. It empowered kids and best of all, gak is universally loved by kids and hated by adults. When it was time to package gak I had an opportunity to extend the play. now I suppose most companies would have taken the cheap way out and package the gak in a little round, thumb ware container. But what we chose to do is, we placed this toy, this gag into amorphous shape we called a splat. And that splat, that unusual sort of splatshape was a reflection of its contents And if you've ever played with gak you know that when you try to force gak into a small crevice it makes these wonderfully foul fart sounds. So what happened was the package became an extension of the play. The packaging was in fact part of the toy experience It began to blur the lines between toy and play and utility. Gak got so darn popular that in its first year we sold over 8 million splats. So I had the challenge to extend the line and the second version I came out with was something like smell my gak. And this was gak that was impregnated with a variety of outrageous smells. but they were all odours from a kid's world. Ones that an adult may not think of but a kid would and of course be very familiar with. Smell my gak came in a variety of flavours one was wet puppy dog, baby brother's diaper, bubble gum pizza popcorn, everything that a kid would expect. And then the last one was something called solar gak. And this was really cool it was gak that was photosensitive and whenever you brought your blob of gak near the sunshine it would change its colour So the compound itself like the play was always changing and amorphous. You never quite knew what to expect. All the toy work and all the kids entertainment that I've done has been informed by what kids tell me. the audience helps to build these products as much as I do. And after talking to kids I found out that they like to take their gak with them. They wanted to travel with it, they wanted to bring their gak to school, on the school bus, to the playground, bring it with them. So I created a new packaging solution that we called a gakoid. And the gakoid is a comical head that was a container, that further blurred the line between packaging and product and play. And it had a string around it so that you could wear the gakoid around your neck. And it also had a little clip on it so that you could wear it kind of like a beeper on your belt. And because of its geometrics and its comical shape, when you pushed the gak into the head it made even more outrageous sounds. But the best part was, we kind of worked with the eyes and mouth when you pushed it into the head they would pop of and ooze out of the eye sockets. Now this next toy is something we called the gak blabber pump. It was essentially a bellhose with a clear tube that allowed you to force air through the tube. And I wanted to create an experience that exploited the movement and the sound and the physical qualities of gak. And this was an example of a toy solution that came from accident and through play rather than through comity. Then I found that some of the best toy solutions have been the result of playing around and having fun ourselves rather than focus groups and grownup studies. This kind of all started when I was in the cafeteria and I had a drinking straw and kind of put it into gak and started to play with forcing air through it and it produced lots of bubbling effect and from that it inspired this sort of toy. Now this static slide doesn't do it justice but I do have a tape that I do want to play now if I may that is a demonstration of this toy and I'll warn you that it's kind of low quality. Nickelodeon is based in New York city ,our game and toy design is based in California so it's traditional for the two teams to videotape solutions and works in progress and send them back and forth, so what you're about to see is just a kind of home movie of sorts, it's a demo of this toy in use. I know we've got just a minute or two left. But with your permission I'll show a quick example of a digital toy, of a whole line of digital toys I've done. I'd like to fire up the Mac here and show you an example of something that we call a clickamagic. keeping that same sort of notion of freeform play at Nickelodeon we have a whole line of digital toys of clickamagics that are intentionally made to be small, little nuggets of entertainment. And like Gag, they have no right or wrong way to play with them, they're completely wordless, all they require is one click and they're a little bit like a prize in a crackerjackbox. A small, little experience that's not meant to compete with Nintendo or big video games but rather be true to the medium and work for all ages, all genders. I'd like to show you one now that I've made with an artist by the name of Rodney Alan Greenblat. And this is a little clickamagic toy called "two dogs meet" In this toy we have two dogs and all you have to do is click on them. The whole point is there's dozens and dozens of various joke smells that the dogs have. I've seen adults as well as two year olds play with this and have a lot of fun. The whole point is just discovery and surprise. And if you click on their head, you can get them to talk to each other. I'll do one more if I may and this one's a lot of fun. This one is called "mister whatever." Zillions of shapes that he could potentially turn into. And the best part is that the little button on the sleeve is a stop sign, that's how you get out of the toy, like this. The next one is one of my favourites it's based on a real experience, a friend of mine recently had, a little baby. and any of you who have children know what it's like to have a screaming baby. Well now, here's a digital version of a little child and your mission is to keep the little bugger quiet. the catch is that if you just let him be and don't interact with him, like a real baby, he'll keep crying louder and louder until it's unbearable. And just like the real thing, never satisfied. |
|
|
url: DOORS OF PERCEPTION |
|