The Mechanical Toy – the Tandem between Engineering and Art

In industrial design we constantly operate with forms, functions, technologies and materials. The balance between these means is difficult to perceive and even more difficult to achieve, and for this reason many products lose their aesthetic, functional or material qualities. The present study refers to a branch of design where this balance is essential, because the formation and education of the child depends on it. Toys are not just a scaled-down repetition of objects from everyday life, but rather an essentialization of everything that surrounds us – synthesizing, stylizing and reducing these objects to concise forms. This process is a complex design exercise that tandems art and engineering making them generate together solutions that, beyond aesthetics and functionality, express the playful and educational character of the toy.