March 25 2025
This project is a toy I designed for my friend, called "Jelly Head." My friend loves dogs but is even more passionate about money! She dreams of having enough savings to buy the largest Jellycat plush and hopes to retire early to travel the world. With these interests in mind, I designed a companion dog toy that can join her travels and help collect money.
The final design features a portable dog head with two magnetic components: a back piece that can attach to various "bodies" of different sizes, making it versatile and easy to carry, and a detachable magnetic nose that can "hold" different types of currency. In essence, it's a modular Jellycat dog that consists of just the head.
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Toy
noun,
a physical object or collection of objects that simulates or represents something real, providing amusement for a person.
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Play
verb,
a self-directed creative activity focused on enjoyment rather than survival or financial gain.
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Peter Gray's article "What Exactly Is Play, and Why Is It Such a Powerful Vehicle for Learning?" resonates most with my project. In my earlier definition, I emphasized enjoyment over survival or gains, noting that play is intrinsically motivated rather than driven by external rewards. As Gray states, "Play is activity that, from the conscious perspective of the player, is done for its own sake more than for some reward outside of the activity itself" (Gray 6). This concept particularly guided my toy design: while my friend tends toward materialism and focuses on profit and money, this toy offers her a playful escape from such utilitarian thinking. It transforms the act of collecting money into a joyful experience through interaction with a stuffed dog. Gray reinforces this idea when he writes, "Players who are motivated primarily by trophies, praise, or increased status outside of the game are not fully playing" (7). Thus, by emphasizing pure joy and humor, the toy helps counter an overly utilitarian mindset.
Upon reflection, there are several areas where this project could have been improved. Conceptually, using magnets as the core functionality for a "portable toy" was an unconventional choice that I struggled to justify—a keychain or strap might have been more practical and intuitive. Additionally, the implementation suffered from insufficient planning. The initial design had flaws that became apparent after assembly, as the sewn product barely resembled a dog's head. I had to make subsequent modifications, including re-sewing and disassembling parts of the toy, to achieve a recognizable form.
Draft Sketches
Materials
Fixing
Magnets
Final Assembly and Poster