In the summer and winter of 2019 and summer of 2020, I had the pleasure of interning at Cas Holman's company Heroes Will Rise. During this time, I collaborated with other interns on various projects including the Rigamajig Junior Spinning Tops, an upcoming interactive exhibition in the Liberty Science Center, a digital illustration library, 3D and scale models of the Rigamajig Workshops, 3 promotional stop motion animations, and preparations for her Netflix show.
Launched in 2021, Wobbly World is a permanent exhibit at the Liberty Science Center, a 300,000-square-foot learning center on the banks of the Hudson River. I worked under Observatory and Cas Holman in the research, ideation, and design development phase of this project.
To understand what balance, motion, and cause and effect is fascinating to children under 5, I looked into toddler and early learning developmental research. This helped inform the concepts I would sketch and explore with the group.
Ideation sketches
I explored block shapes that could incite wonder and playfulness, both sketching and building scale models to understand how it might be approached by a child.
Ideation sketches
Sketching via models
I also created concept sketches that showed how the exhibit would look as a whole from different angles. These were used during meetings between designers and the people at the science center.
Concept sketches
I led this project of creating stop motion animations to demonstrate and promote the Chutes and Locomotion Rigamajig Add-On kits on the shop website.
This was my first experience making stop-motion, so I prepared as much as I could beforehand by planning the creations and the set to make shooting as predictable as possible. During shooting of the stop motion, I enlisted the help of a fellow intern, Mollie, to speed up the process and move pieces with me, which saved a lot of time especially in the case where many objects were being moved per frame.
Because filming went relatively smoothly, editing and post-production wasn't difficult until my laptop couldn't handle processing 500 DSLR photos at a time.
The stop motion animations are now live on the website for each of the kits!
Preparing the creations before the shoot and taking photos for later reference
The final animations for the Chutes Add-On Kit and Locomotion Add-On Kit
One of the first projects I worked on was the Rigamajig Junior Spinning Tops kits. Unlike the Rigamajig Basic Builder series, these kits are made for younger kids and to be played without the need for collaboration since the pieces are smaller and lighter.
The unique aspect of the spinning tops compared to previous launches is that it starts to explore screen-printing and how prints may be experienced when in motion. Trent, another intern, and I prototyped designs for the tops and printed them on paper to test the graphics in motion. To expedite prototyping, the patterns designed would be printed out on paper then attached to a wooden circle to simulate the spinning top. How colours would "blend" and how shapes amalgamated were all things that I took into consideration when designing.
The focus of the kit isn't simply to create the fastest spinning toy, though. The process of experimentation, failure, curiosity, and serendipitous success is key to the ethos of Rigamajig. Thus, we also prototyped pieces with strange and asymmetrical shapes, cutting squiggles on bandsaws, checking dimensions, and play-testing. When designs were finalised, I created some of the orthographic drawings and documentation for manufacturing.
Paper on wood prototypes
Rigamajig Junior Spinning Tops, final set
Special thanks to:
Cas Holman for the amazing opportunity, wealth of knowledge, and inspiration during a time where I was confused