Kids have a special set of eyes to watch the world. Their creations are naive and full of dreams. There is something extremely positive in childhood: children have this surprising freshness and honesty that we can only aspire to comprehend. They have no experience; they are virgin of competition and promotion. They build crudely and dirtily and do not focus on the look of their design: it is too long and superficial. During our workshops, we try to show the children some new ways to connect their fantastic imagination with functionality. Our students hold a certain imagination that designers can only envy. Their creations are surprising, probably thanks to their spontaneity and their naivety facing judgment.

Hina and Olivia

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Third Marveland Workshop

Monday, the 8th of November.
This Monday there were two kids attending: Jon and Lewis.
This time, we wanted them to concentrate on ‘function’. The rules were to write at least one sentence each time they created a model, explaining to the user how to use the new object.
We bought some polystyrene cups and asked them make a list of all the things they could do and create with them.

Then we put a porcelain mug and a polystyrene cup next to each other on the table and proposed that the two kids compare them.
-one has a ‘holder’, the other one has not, Jon said.
-the mug is heavier and frailer than the cup, the mug is more precious! Lewis said.
I asked him to guess the weight of the cup. ‘25g, I guess’.

Then, we suggested he make them equal in term of weight and value. He had an idea: he ordered us to break some china and to put the broken pieces into the cup for him. ‘Yes Sir! At your beck and call!’. We obeyed and took some precious dishes out of our kitchen cupboard, smashed it and filled the cup with the pieces of China.

After that, we gave them the task to develop and improve the functionality of the cup.

"Triple Decker Tea cup"

Jon added to the cup another bottom to create a tea cup. The tea powder is enclosed in the removable part and acts as a filter/strainer. It seems to be a double decker more than a triple decker.

"Thirsty Cup"

Lewis wanted to extend the volume of the object and increase the quantity of beverage to drink. He created a large excrescence with a cup that he truncated and attached to the other same polystyrene cup.

Social Cup
Lewis was interested in combining the cup and the Tea pot. The Cup-pot enables the user to serve the tea he is drinking from his own cup to his friends.

Another exercise was to transform the cup into something else.


Jon made a donjon attached by a catapult and shot by a plasticin ball.


Lewis did a pair of binoculars with a rubber lace, to observe some little things that you can only see through his magic tool.

Jon created a magic light switch. You can take it with you anywhere and it will give you the power to switch on and off all the lamps, the street lights, headlights, etc...

They discovered the magic potential of the material when they put one of the cups in the oven and observed the transformation of the polystyrene: melting, distorting and shrinking.
They were interested in using the techniques for their designs: Lewis drew some patterns on a cup and put it into the oven.

It gave birth to a tiny "world cup".

Jon put a rubber band around the cup:

The result became ‘the cup of Mystery and Wish’ that keeps the wishes enclosed until they come true.

Hina et Olivia

My Photo
London, East London, United Kingdom
Olivia and Hina met in France in 2005, during their Art and Design Bachelors at ESAD de Reims. They both studied together for their Masters in London, at the renowned Royal College of Art, in Platform 10, where they graduated from Design Products in 2009. Since Then, designer and Illustrator Olivia Decaris has spent her time working from her own studio, running workshops and participating in design groups throughout Europe while negotiating her first projects going into production. In the meantime, Hina Thibaud has been working on the design of a hat collection in collaboration with knitters and stylists and has started developing children products such as My Theatre Suitcase. A common interest in the theme of ‘childhood’ has united the two designers on collaborative projects such as the instauration of Children’s design workshops and the curation of exhibitions.