By Ulrich Texter

Bauhaus revolutionised design in the 1920s. From the 1960s onwards, Italy set the world alight with iconic brands. Many of the designers and manufacturers of that age are legendary; many objects are now classics. In the 20^th century, it was probably only ‘Scandinavian style’ that had a similar impact as ‘Made in Italy’. And the influence of Italian design continues right up to today: the Salone del Mobile trade fair in Milan is a global must-attend event. If only there weren’t this blank area. Unlike interior design, toy design has not played an identity-forming role in Italy. Luca Fois, Professor of Design for Kids & Design at the Politecnico di Milano, who is also one of the founders of the Milano Kids Design Week, is determined to change this.

Mr Fois, the 20th century brought us the Bauhaus, Scandinavian style and the triumph of Italian design. What made an impact on you, as well as on Italy?

Luca Fois: In Europe, we’re all sons and daughters of the Bauhaus revolution, which represents one design pillar in the world. For me, it’s about culture as well as how to transform visions into real and feasible projects.

Bauhaus was very innovative both in terms of creativity and rationalism; it brought about genuine and profound innovation in aesthetic and functional languages, accompanied by a democratic point of view and an international approach. The birth of the Bauhaus movement was linked to the German industrial system. ‘Scandi style’ came later, offering an innovative balance between materials, especially wood, traditional artisans and technological creativity as well as basic forms that are based on a sophisticated aesthetic and functional solutions: the dawn of sustainable design. As you can see, design culture is always linked to the production system. In Italy, the birthplace of design was the Brianza area (near Milan). The master craftsmen working there made “classic furniture”, which they started to export to France and Russia as early as 1700. After the war, Italian design took two main directions: in Brianza many artisans decided to switch from customised to industrial production, while other, more far-sighted craftsmen worked alongside renowned designers and architects and started to design and make mass-produced furniture that eventually became iconic. Over time, the Italian automobile industry also developed into a true global ambassador of Italian design and lifestyle, with the Fiat 500 and the Vespa.

Why was Italian toy design, or design for kids and toys, not a pioneering design player? 

Luca Fois: In the past, only the major international companies invested in design for kids and toys; this means that, in Europe, we now have a French style, a German style and a North-European style when it comes to products for children.

In Italy, we didn’t have any big companies at that time, which is why design for kids and toys didn’t really attract any interest and the importance of play as part of a child’s education and on the development of the human brain was underestimated. This is also why, during Milan Design week in 2005, I started thinking about uniting the two words “toys” and “design”. In the meantime, the experimental workshops held at the start have now turned into the 7^th edition of the Specializing Masters in Design for Kids & Toys powered by POLI.design, which will start in the middle of February 2025.

Mr Fois, Italian design can look back on a long tradition, enjoys a global reputation and has produced iconic brands, especially with regard to furniture, lighting, fashion and lifestyle products. Can you explain to us what typifies Italian style in a world that has become increasingly close-knit, also and especially with regard to design? Can we still say that Italians have design built into their DNA?

Luca Fois: Design, with a capital D, is closely connected with manufacturing companies, and, as a country, Italy doesn’t typically have many large companies but a wide range of small and medium-sized ones, firms that have grown thanks to age-old artisanal culture and great skill.

Most of these companies started off as suppliers for other international brands or companies, and then, gradually, some of them reorganised their production by creating independent brands and working together with designers. The role played by designers changed: they became product designers, as well as brand or strategic designers and art directors.

In Italy, thanks to the typical size of the company, it’s common to see a designer talking, at the same time, to the boss and the workers, the managers and the craftsmen, and what you get from this working together is a decisive edge, one that ensures innovation as well as excellence. In big companies that’s not so usual (and sometimes even impossible) and I think that it is this that really sets Italian design apart.

Naturally, we mustn’t forget our ancient cultural heritage, the natural Mediterranean landscape as source of inspiration, a sort of hybrid DNA that’s geared towards beauty as well as to creativity, as well as the incredible diversity of tangible and intangible content scattered across the country. 

In this respect, you could describe Leonardo Da Vinci as the first Italian designer, one who knew how to unite vision and feasibility.

Toy design also seems very much to be a niche segment in Italy, as it tends to slip under the radar, whereas classic product design has made a contribution to the formation of Italy’s identity that can hardly be underestimated. Why is that? Is the toy industry simply too small and the honours for designers too few, or is it because it’s hard to get into the Hall of Fame with toys?

Luca Fois: We can see a paradox here: in our culture we have Pinocchio, Maria Montessori, Bruno Munari, Reggio Children and a lot of other qualified expertise and traditions regarding the care and education of children, but, nevertheless, the toy industry has focused more on international leadership than on local heritage or Italian design culture and innovative capacity. In terms of buying power, the Italian market wasn’t so rich in the past, which is why exporting goods was a priority.

Manufacturers weren’t big enough and, year by year, after 1980, many of them started to outsource their production to China and India, which means there are now only a few producers left in Italy.

Another reason is that even though all the “kid’s products” might be used by children, they’re chosen and bought by adults, which is why the arguments made by the marketing or sales departments always win out over design. A matter of “business versus contents”.

You teach Design for Kids & Toys at POLI.design, an offshoot of the Polytechnic in Milan founded in early 2010 with some experimental workshops. Why is it necessary to introduce children to design if they prefer to re-enact the world of adults with miniaturised reproductions?

Luca Fois: Our goal was – and still is – to help designers learn a specific “culture and method”, so they can design good toys and create a positive image of play. And not only that, but also so they can design good furniture and services that are geared towards children’s needs and abilities.

We start with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and emphasise how important it is for children to be seen and heard and how they should be regarded as people with their own personality, identity and rights.

We named this “cultural movement” Kidnascimento (“kid renaissance”); it puts children at the heart of the design process (from research to solutions) – for every category of products and services. This is why we talk about a product-service system. At the same time, we endorse a “learning and doing” system in which lab activities, prototyping and testing are meant to go hand in hand with a child-centred perspective: visionary creativity and problem solving that give positive meaning to any activity or object.

Neuroscience plays a crucial role in the design process: the way our brain works, especially children’s brains, is a key component of our degree programme. Students are meant to learn how they can balance emotions and rationality; this is an important principle when you want to design a toy that not only looks good but also makes a child actually want to play with it.

I’m sure very few people would dispute that a person’s aesthetic education begins with the toys and furniture they come across in the nursery. However, children often seem to have completely different needs when we look at the shrunken furniture classics for nurseries. They get ignored, while everything else is used as a toy or a piece of furniture. How can you get out of this quandary?

Luca Fois: It’s true that, across the world, furniture for children is very traditional and not designed for children at all but for the needs of adults. In the last few years, especially in public spaces, kindergartens or outdoor spaces, we’ve seen some interesting innovations, more contemporary forms and colours, different materials and functionalities, and more attention being paid to children’s perceptions and emotions.

But it’s true that there is a “black hole” and, as of 2025, we’re going to start to expand our research, courses and workshops to embrace furniture and spaces for children. The starting point for this approach will be observing real children’s experiences and needs.

What are the challenges for toy design in general? The boundaries seem to us to be very narrow. Designers often have different ideas than manufacturers.

Luca Fois: In our Master course, we teach students how to balance functionality and playability, perceptions and user experiences, how to play with language and educational ideas, how to respect the profound differences between children and how they can push forward collaborative competition and not just individual competition. Design is always focused on culture and know-how and has to harmonise opposing values: immaterial and material values, limits and goals, opportunities and constraints, costs and safety, sustainability and technology, the aesthetic and functionality, costs and quality, industrialisation and customisation, marketing and contents…and so on and so forth. Design must always work towards finding a balance. 

Toy design is a cross-sectional task. Products often thrive on innovations from other sectors. Take, for example, micro-electronics and the choice of new materials. What approach do you take at POLI.design?

Luca Fois: One pillar of our design approach is Product-Service System Design, which means we have to consider the entire complex life cycle of a product and its services, starting from the materials to second life and waste.

Innovation is a pillar: material innovation, technological innovation, process innovation, innovative uses and innovative services relating to the product or service. Each product is, at the same time, a genuine product and a system of services, and innovation can be present in every step of the process: the production process, the retail process, the utilisation process and the final disposal process.

You’re one of the founders of Milan Kids Design Week. The trade fair aims to be a festival of creativity for adults and children. It offers a wealth of events. What exactly do you aim to achieve with Kids Design Week?

Luca Fois: I’ve gained a lot of experience within the Milan Design Week, which was the first Design Week in the world, and it’s also the most important one globally. That’s why it was easy for me – a professor for event design at Milan Polytechnic – to design an international platform dedicated to design for children. It was inspired by the Milan Design Week, but it also strives to unite business, entertainment and culture for children, parents, families, care givers, teachers, companies and designers, professionals and customers.

We’re now working on the second edition scheduled for April 2025. You’re all invited to come to Milan and follow us on social media. You’d be very welcome!

China is often associated with mass-produced goods. For decades, the country has flooded the children’s bedrooms all over the world with inexpensive toys. That seems to be changing. Design is becoming increasingly important in China. Is the world’s workshop now becoming a design driver?

Luca Fois: In China, children play a very important role for parents and society. China, together with India, was and still is the world’s biggest producer of toys and I’m seeing an evolution there, one that is primarily driven by the young generations. Mass production was and remains a big problem, but the evolution of the local and global market is creating new standards and improving quality. There’s still a long way to go but I’m optimistic, because the trend towards less quantity and more quality is global, and good design can help us achieve this. 

Once the war-mongering that is prevalent in many places around the world comes to an end, we might have a wealth of options to create a better world – starting with playful activities for people aged zero to 120. Children are the future – the only future we have.

POLI.design is promoting a Chinese but still international design competition that is also open to the toy and games industry. Do you notice any differences between Asia and Europe in terms of their approach to design or their willingness to experiments?

Luca Fois: Yes, the DIA competition is very interesting, because we have many different categories, concepts and products, digital and physical services. From my privileged point of view, I saw so many beautiful solutions with ever-improving quality. I regard this contest, and other international contests, as an important environment where you can learn from others and be inspired, too.

Companies thus have a very valuable platform where they can understand trends and identify innovations, while designers can play a part and compete against each other.

At the Beijing International Children’s Design Week in September last year, you emphasised in your welcome address that design for kids and toys is a universal theme and has a unifying function. Could you explain that to us? Toys often can’t be understood outside their original environment.

Luca Fois: Yes, I’m sure that children are “universal”. They represent the future that we can already experience today, the future we can see, touch and grow up with. Children are already a part of our lives today. 

Play is not just some “secondary option” in our life; it’s a pillar of our brain development, which is why the human brain is universal. The contents of our brain may change, but the mechanism is the same for everyone.

The “brain’s system language” is the same for all humans (and not only for them) and the respective language changes when we come into contact with different cultures and social models. This is a key “message” for everyone. When product and services for children are better designed, they will create better kids and then better adults who will be able to create a better society. We all know how much we need that! 

These days, design is no longer just a matter of creating beauty; it also has a social context. Terms such as sustainability, reparability and the use of recyclable materials are increasingly characterising the work of designers. Is “context” now just as relevant in China as it is here in Europe?

Luca Fois: Nowadays, quality, excellence and sustainability are not some “decorative or optional” values, but basic values that have to be well designed, and thanks to our Specializing Master course in Design for Kids & Toys, our students can acquire many different skills to become better designers. They gain all-round knowledge that allows them to handle the complexity of contemporary production and distribution of products and services aimed at children. I know very well how China has been evolving in the last few decades: I teach many young Chinese designers; I sit on the jury of several design contests; and I work with many experts and companies. So I can honestly say that the design level in China is very high, from creativity to technology using contemporary solutions. All over the world, we need to work – and fast – on the issue of sustainability, which plays a particularly important role in the kids and toys industry when products and services are selected. 

About the author:

Ulrich Texter made writing his profession after studying psychology and philosophy at the FU Berlin. He has a preference for literature, jazz music and design. For more than 20 years, he has accompanied the toy industry as editor-in-chief of the trade magazine planet toys. You can sense his penchant for design when he looks at small gems of the toy industry. True to the motto "We can also do things differently", he creates small cultural oases in Bad Iburg as an honorary cultural impresario with the Ostenfelder Leseherbst and the children's literature prize "Schlossgeschichten".