The children's story of the Dream Bunny and best friend, Twink, is the work of the creative mind of artist CJ Garrett. Her vision to create a children's story around the characters has culminated into the creation of a stuffed animal toy for kids to enjoy. But a cute story is not all that this bunny brings - it's also very functional! Built into the body of the bunny is a pocket, intended to hold a Tesla coil-like device, called an Ampcoil, that transmits PEMFs, or Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields. These PEMFs are said to improve circulation, cell metabolism, and ATP production for the user. This pocket may also be used for storage of overnight items, like pajamas.
I was the Technical Designer for this project with the talented CJ Garrett and Vaughn Fulkerson since late June of 2018. I did my best to interpret CJ's mind and illustrate her ideas into a technical design package for third party manufacturers using Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.
This project was ended before a final product could be mass produced due to budget restrictions. Below is a recap of our process to develop two bunny prototypes.
My main takeaways from the project were:
Working with a designer to communicate her ideas into a tangible item on an accelerated timeline
Deciding how to incorporate the body components, like the arms and legs, into as few fabric patterns as possible in order to simplify the number of parts used
Discussing design decisions that affect how children interact with the toy
The images below show the paintings and stuffed animal prototype that I used for reference in assisting with the design of the new stuffed toy bunny, with my own sketches and design ideations to follow. A public version of the tech package may be found below:
2018.09.22 // Prototype 2 has been delivered after initial comments. It seems the factory has overestimated the size, as Dream Bunny is MUCH chubbier this round. But hey, the AmpCoil fits! From here we’ll want to get the body proportion correct and make some adjustments to the way the cord feeds from the internal pocket
2018.09.06 // Prototype 1 is in! Increasing the nap length on all fabric is a must to hide those folds and give the bunny more poof! I love how professional the supplier made that side pocket look. Everything is looking very close to our expectations. Ah, I'm so excited!!
