With the second highest number of children in the world, India is a lucrative market for the toy industry. But will the Lego kill the Indian lagori? Not if we can stop it, says toy design students
With the second highest number of children in the world, India is a lucrative market for the toy industry. But will the Lego kill the Indian lagori? Not if we can stop it, says toy design students
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GI Joe and Barbie will play Gilli Danda with a cuddly teddy bear, or at least, that's what we imagine this year's Toy Biz International will look like, when Pragati Maidan in New Delhi plays host to India's largest toy trade fair organised by the Toy Association of India (TAI), in the first week of July. 
Delhi-based author, designer and educationist Professor Sudarshan
Khanna taught at Ahmedabad's National Institute of Design for 30 years,
and it was his efforts that led to the introduction of their toy design PG
diploma course. He is now a consultant with Gammat, a Gujarat-based toy
company that will come out with his designs in the next six months. Khanna
uses concepts like centrifugal force to create mobile toys. Pic/ Imtiyaz Khan
Raj Kumar, president, TAI says a design clinic will be conducted at the two-day event, for the first time in the expo's five-year history. The clinic hopes to attract designers with innovative works under their belt.
Twenty per cent of the country's population is aged one to 12 years. A thousand five hundred toy manufacturing units function in the organised sector, making it an industry with an annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore. Business grows at 20 per cent each year.
So what's the hitch?
While international toy giants like Mattel, and Indian players like Funskool seem to be shaking the rattle before a critical customer base and doing well, toys made by small scale entrepreneurs like folk artisans and craftsmen rarely seem to be enjoying this boom. Many former students from industrial and product design schools are trying to add the Indian sensibility of small scale entrepreneurs' toys to the designs of toys from the organised sector, but are reportedly facing resistance from the conservative industry.
But, according to professionals in the industry, that too is beginning to change. Thirty year-old Suhasini Paul sits in her New Delhi apartment, designing a dollhouse out of thermocol. The professional toy design consultant and founder of Pink Elephant, a creative design firm, Paul is a 2005 student of Ahmedabad's National Institute of Design.u00a0 Paul's clients include Disney, Ferrero Rocher, Essel Corporation and Hape International, a German company. Paul is eagerly awaiting the trade fair. "Last year I bagged 10 clients. This year as well, we are expecting some big names."
Paul explains how it works. Ferrero Rocher, for instance, will provide her with a brief of what they are looking to develop; in this case a surprise toy inside a chocolate egg. She will be expected to research what competitors are offering in the market, and then create a design that will stand out. Executives will drop by every two months to oversee and test her creation in a focus group, following which, it will be handed over to manufacturers. That's about nine months of work to create a single toy design.
Paul claims she is one of the first in her batch to dive into the toy design industry. NID's two-year course is one of the first in Asia to deal specifically with toy design, and was the brainchild of designer-educator and author of three books including Toys and Tales with Everyday Materials, Sudarshan Khanna. Launched 10 years ago, it was a segment that drew some opposition, admits Khanna. "The organised industry was growing but educational and design institutions weren't sure if there was enough opportunity. The point is, you need trained professionals for toy design. It can't be ad-hoc."
The PG diploma course at NID incorporates the study of engineering, sociology and psychology and accepts students from all backgrounds. Four rounds of project submissions require students to work with the digital medium, folk artisans, and prepare a final prototype with sponsorship from a corporate firm. Students are quick to find jobs via campus placements and start off with a monthly salary of Rs 60,000, while consultants earn more and rise quickly, says Khanna.
"Indian toy manufacturers (organised sector) fulfill about 50 per cent of domestic demand, while the remaining is filled up by international brands. The organised sector includes the big names while the informal sector's sales aren't recorded," explains Khanna.
While both sectors continue to grow, the latter requires government support to make a significant notch in the scale of toy sales, he says. "The industry is conservative," says Khanna, "it tends to stick to what has worked in the past. They don't invest adequately in design and marketing. That is why China is doing better than us."
Paul doesn't agree with Khanna. She says, she too held a similar opinion, but changed her mind when she saw toy manufacturers' interest evolve. "They want their designs to be different from competitors'. The trends have changed; online shopping is big now, so, the 'me too' products are out of their league."
Gayatri Menon, faculty member at Toy and Game Design, NID, conducts close to 30 interviews in the second phase of admissions for 10 seats. "The course is still generic, we don't restrict students based on materials.
Wood, plastic, soft toys ufffd all feature in our syllabus. Unfortunately, educational institutions lack the human resource to teach toy design, which is why it is still limited to a handful of schools."
Vaishali and Manisha Gadekar, founders of Kids Edutainment Center (KEC), deal in traditional Indian toys made by artisans from Kutch, Rajasthan and Kashmir. Their range is retailed at toy stores across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru. "What makers of handicrafts often forget is that urban consumers aren't familiar with the traditional. So the packaging needs to be professional, and instructions, creative and accurate," says Vaishali, a former teacher.
KEC runs a learning centre in Juhu for children aged six to 16 years, using games to help the kids learn, coordinate and build motor skills. The Dhyan Ramayan, a card game from KEC, helps kids make Indian mythological characters a part of their memory. Tangram is inspired by a seven-piece Chinese puzzle, and their version of Snakes and Ladders is etched on a cloth scroll. The Gilli Danda is made using natural colours and eco-friendly materials.
"It is often cheaper for toy companies to import than manufacture locally. That's why we have to be careful with toys we sell under the eco-friendly items," says Vaishali, who has many NRI clients as well.
Adittee Nargolkar, a Pune-based educational toy designer and founder of Smartkids Inc started out as a school teacher. "The final project for my teacher's training course was putting together an entire kit of games and activities through which children could learn while having fun. I got far too involved, and ended up submitting almost 55 games designed in wood paper and cardboard," says Nargolkar, who says, being a mother helped.
"When my daughter was little, I saw her struggle because she is left-handed. There was nothing available in the market to help her improve her motor skills. That's when I designed a few tracing cards and activity boards which suited her."
Other than the fact that toys created by women who are mothers, come with a sensitive design sensibility, Indian toy designers bring with them a vast sea of indigenous cultural references that are reflected in their toys.
Aditi Babel, ex-student of Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Powai, works as a freelancer, and is the brain behind KEC's Dhyan Ramayan card game, which requires players to match characters with cards. Her final year design project saw her come up with a board game called Parikrama, based on the design of Indian temples. The eight-player family game offers a player seven lives. If you come across a laddoo, you bag a bonus point. Land a pair of slippers, and you have to forfeit a turn. At IDC, she was taught what it takes to make a 'good' board game. Running time and varying outcomes rated high.
Why isn't Parikrama already in the market? "The college co-owns the design. I made it while I was a student," she says.
Santacruz-based Ritika Karnani was shortlisted in the Fulcrum Toy Design Contest, when her project, reflexor toy puzzle that explained the five principles of light via an interactive game set, made it to the final selection, along with au00a0 few other ideas. Using lasers, mirrors and acrylic, Karnani took two months to create the game aimed at children aged four and above. She was approached by various NGOs who were keen that she design the same working prototype for kids with learning disabilities. "I was in my second year of graduation and lacked the confidence to carry on with the project. A toy like that needs testing and marketing, so that a buzz can be created in the market," says Karnani, who believes that 'physical' games are losing out to video games.
Working with local artisans Khanna disagrees ufffd video didn't kill Barbie, he says. Ahmedabad-based toy designer and entrepreneur Abhijit Paul seconds Khanna. Paul applied for a government grant of Rs 4.5 lakh to set up Khidkii, a company that adds the final touches to the traditional process of manufacturing toys, working closely with craftsmen from deep within rural India. Paul has plans to launch his range in the mass market, and is keen to target the urban consumer.
The 30 year-old, who completed a PG diploma from NID in 2008, started operations the following year, and has been co-ordinating with craftsmen ever since. "We start selling in the next six months," he says, excitedly. Dabbling in traditional wares takes smart marketing. "You can't sell traditional items for what they are... that reduces them to a heritage product, a mere collectible. It must be packaged smartly. The market is ready for it."
Toys for dyslexia
Swati Srivastava still has a month to finish her interaction design course at IDC. She sits in a leafy foyer at the IIT campus, fidgeting with her fully-functioning model of TiBlo, an interactive learning aid for dyslexic children. The idea took two months of conceptualising, followed by a two-week test run with children from Prerna, an Ahmedabad-based NGO that works with children with learning disabilities.
TiBlo comprises a set of brightly-coloured blocks that can be organised in multiple patterns to create shapes, allowing open-ended playing and learning options.
Another prototype that is under production works with shapes that can be assembled to represent letters, helping kids learn English.
"Children with dyslexia learn through shape rather than the conventional method of phonetics," says Srivastava about Spell Bound, the name of the game. Once the child has fitted forms to create a letter, the board fitted with electric sensors identifies if the letter has been formed accurately, and lights up to display results.
Srivastava says designers like her must be careful about patents and testing. Collaborative conferences held by institutes and industry professionals are just one slow moving route the likes of her can take. She has uploaded her innovation on Core77, an online platform for aspiring designers and international big guns who provide feedback and funding. This, Srivastava says, is the new route to playing with the big guys.
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