Strongmen Building Blocks

Strongmen Building Blocks

A wooden toy building block concept.

Role

Industrial Design

Client

Areaware

Year

2013

Recognition

Meta Project 03 Runner-Up

Stack of wooden Strongmen blocks with mustached faces and colored overalls in yellow, green, red, blue and black

The project

Strongmen Building Blocks uses character-based forms to make building intuitive and imaginative — turning abstract construction into something with personality. Designed for client Areaware as a senior year entry for The Metaproject, an undergraduate design competition at Rochester Institute of Technology under the Professor Josh Owen.

Wooden toys

The project

Wooden toys

Strongmen Building Blocks uses character-based forms to make building intuitive and imaginative — turning abstract construction into something with personality. Designed for client Areaware as a senior year entry for The Metaproject, an undergraduate design competition at Rochester Institute of Technology under the Professor Josh Owen.

Photo of pencil concept sketches of the toy on sheets of paper laid on a table
Photo of pencil concept sketches of the toy on sheets of paper laid on a table
Six photos of competitor wooden toys: blocks, stacking shapes, a ring, painted figures and interlocking stars
Six photos of early plain wooden figures with drawn faces, standing and stacked in a workshop
Black and white vintage photos of strongmen lifting barbells and weights, used as graphic inspiration
Color exploration sheet with a Pantone swatch chart and rows of figure graphics in different color sets
Ten figure graphics in the final Pantone colors, each labeled with its color number
Photos testing block dimensions: wooden pieces with measurements, and stacked figures with painted overalls
Three photos of refined prototypes: stacked painted figures, a colorful tower and a plain wooden interlocking cube
Arch of many colorful wooden Strongmen figures on a workshop table with yellow cups and tools nearby
Final prototype: colorful Strongmen figures stacked, and a hand holding one figure with dark overalls
Final prototype: a crowd of colorful Strongmen figures in stacks, with a dark-overalled figure in front
Photo of pencil concept sketches of the toy on sheets of paper laid on a table
Photo of pencil concept sketches of the toy on sheets of paper laid on a table
Six photos of competitor wooden toys: blocks, stacking shapes, a ring, painted figures and interlocking stars
Six photos of early plain wooden figures with drawn faces, standing and stacked in a workshop
Black and white vintage photos of strongmen lifting barbells and weights, used as graphic inspiration
Color exploration sheet with a Pantone swatch chart and rows of figure graphics in different color sets
Ten figure graphics in the final Pantone colors, each labeled with its color number
Photos testing block dimensions: wooden pieces with measurements, and stacked figures with painted overalls
Three photos of refined prototypes: stacked painted figures, a colorful tower and a plain wooden interlocking cube
Arch of many colorful wooden Strongmen figures on a workshop table with yellow cups and tools nearby
Final prototype: colorful Strongmen figures stacked, and a hand holding one figure with dark overalls
Final prototype: a crowd of colorful Strongmen figures in stacks, with a dark-overalled figure in front